The GeForce RTX 3090 is the most powerful GPU in Nvidia's latest graphics card lineup. While the RTX 3080 might not be as capable, it offers quite a lot and at a much cheaper price point. When taking together, Nvidia has certainly delivered on the game-changing implications teased by all the hype before the RTX 30 series announcement.
The GPU pioneer has been teasing its upcoming next-generation GPU series for months, as consumers await the successor of its Turing architecture, initially released back in 2018. Now that Nvidia has unveiled the capabilities of its Ampere architecture, consumers can finally see how much the second-generation GeForce GPUs have improved on the RTX 20 series. Of course, the last-generation RTX 2080 already costs more than next-gen consoles, and that hasn't changed with the all-new RTX 30 series.
In a press release, Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, explained that the monumental progress of Ampere GPUs over last-generation's Turing architecture as the greatest leap ever. The GeForce RTX 3090 definitely lives up to that claim, considering the company confirmed that it performs 50-percent faster than the already gargantuan spec'd Titan RTX GPU. That said, the RTX 3090 also comes with an equally ginormous $1,500 price tag. While the RTX 3080 might not be as powerful, it still costs as much as the 2080, starting at around $700.
The Nvidia RTX 3090 & 3080 Performance Difference
Considering the almost $1000 price differential, consumers can expect a huge discrepancy in performance between the RTX 3090 and 3080, given the former's superior specs. The 3090 comes with a 24GB VRAM capacity that's more than double the 3080's 10GB. In addition, the 3090's high-speed GDDR6X memory runs at 19.5GBPS, while the 3080 runs at 19GBPS. The RTX 3080 is capable of rendering games in 4K at 60 frames per second consistently, but the 3090 is the first-ever GPU that's capable of 8K at 60 frames per second. Not only is the 3090 a milestone for PC gaming, it also dethroned the Titan RTX by being 10x quieter and running at 30 degrees Celsius cooler, setting the bar high for modern gaming PCs. There's a good reason why Nvidia has dubbed the RTX 3090 as the “Big Ferocious GPU.”
However, the 3080 benefits from having an earlier release window, which starts on September 17, and still delivers ample performance for less than half the price of the 3090. Those hoping to get their hands on Nvidia's “Ferocious” 3090 GPU will have to wait a bit longer as its release is scheduled for September 24. While the two Nvidia graphics cards might not be equal in terms power, either of them should be more than sufficient when it comes to keeping gamers happy until the next-generation GPUs come through.
Source: Nvidia