Some of those with access to the recently released Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 have reported problems with games crashing. A few industrious individuals attempted to trace the source of the trouble to particular cards with a certain brand of capacitor. This has been disputed by both the manufacturers and Nvidia.
The RTX 3080 had its first problems before any customers received them, considering the product launch day ended with a lot of consumers unable to buy the graphics card. Nvidia's website was flooded with unprecedented activity, some of which included bots and scalpers, with ordering having become unavailable almost immediately. Orders resumed briefly and invitation emails were sent, but the product sold out so quickly that many fans found none available within seconds of receiving the notification email. Nvidia apologized and promised to resolve the problem. However, the RTX 3090 sold out nearly as fast. This time, Nvidia preemptively apologized, stating supplies would likely not meet demand, based on the record activity seen for the RTX 3080.
Nvidia is being responsible despite its recent troubles and quickly reacted to reports of crashes associated with the GeForce RTX 3080. The latest 456.55 Game Ready driver should improve stability, according to Nvidia. PCWorld was experiencing the problem, tested the fix, and claims the new driver solves the crashing, but slightly limits GPU boost clock speed. While the Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 is capable of 2025-megahertz, in testing the new driver allowed the GPU to reach a maximum of 2010-megahertz. It should be noted this is less than a 1-percent decrease in boost speed, which means it probably won't be noticeable during gameplay.
What Caused The RTX 3080 Crashes?
According to Gigabyte, one of Nvidia's partners, "It is false that POSCAP capacitors independently could cause a hardware crash. Whether a graphics card is stable or not requires a comprehensive evaluation of the overall circuit and power delivery design." The capacitors used in its cards are said to be within Nvidia specifications and of high-quality. Further, Gigabyte stated that its values product integrity and emphasized that it would not use less expensive materials in order to reduce costs. Gigabyte's RTX 3080 cards were not the only cards reported to have this issue, so it seems to point back to Nvidia at this time. Nvidia’s driver solution will hopefully restore stable gaming for those that managed to lay their hands on this highly sought-after GPU.
Meanwhile, AMD is still nearly a month away from launching its Radeon RX 6000, which is said to be a potential competitor for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. Some speculation indicates it may reach performance that outpaces the cheaper Nvidia RTX 3070, which is said to perform better than the previous generation's flagship GPU, the RTX 2080 Ti. For anyone suffering from buyer's remorse, with the AMD alternative still several weeks away, the updated Nvidia Game Ready driver will help users return to gaming in the meantime.