Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti tested: Raising 4K gaming to a new level

If you're persistent, patient and willing to shell out $1,199 when the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card ships on June 3, you may be able to pick one up before the well runs dry and before the eBay prices skyrocket. The company's latest gaming GPU for 4K speedsters comes in right behind the flagship RTX 3090 in the line and looks like a sensible alternative if you don't need the ton of extra memory or extra Tensor-core oomph for AI -- or if you don't have the space in your case for the extra-wide, extra-long RTX 3090. Nvidia revealed it at the same time as the new RTX 3070 Ti, which brackets it on the other side, and how well that card performs will make a big difference as to the perceived value of the RTX 3080.

Nvidia positions it as an upgrade for the RTX 2080 Ti and for the most part it's the best way to get a significant performance boost over that 2080 Ti. For some professional creative applications, though, an RTX 3080 may deliver enough of a step up and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 models are an alternative worth considering.

Read more: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti stock checker

In addition to the speed benefits conferred by the second-gen RT and third-gen Tensor cores introduced with the RTX 3000 series -- such as new algorithms and instruction sets that make them a lot more efficient and a switch to an 8nm process size from 12nm -- the 3080 Ti (and also the 3070 Ti and 3090) have another performance perk you won't find in the more mainstream RTX 3070 or any other lower-end cards Nvidia launches: GDDR6X memory.

Watch this: Nvidia's newest 3080 Ti GPU headlines Computex 2021

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Micron's GDDR6X incorporates new signaling technology that essentially doubles the data rate over GDDR6, the memory used by the RTX 3070 and 20-series cards. If that's more spec detail than you're used to, my guide to the best PC GPUs can offer a little background.   

The card design is the same as the plain RTX 3080, with the same power requirements and physical dimensions and the same bundled 12-pin adapter necessary for the Nvidia-branded card.

The RTX 3080 Ti goes beyond simply playable frame rates in 4K. Its AI-based upscaling feature, DLSS, can raise frame rates a ton: On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, for example, 4K frame rates at High quality jumped from 85 to 130 frames per second without visible degradation in quality. 

Enabling GPU scheduling in Windows 10 (in the display graphics settings) delivers a little extra lift of a few fps across the board, but that includes the minimum and maximum frame rates as well as the average.

Still, performance isn't unambiguously better than the RTX 3080; a lot depends on your system. A PC with great bus bandwidth and cooling can push the performance of the RTX 3080 beyond a RTX 3080 Ti choked by a pokey bus and basic cooling. That's not news to anyone who builds their own gaming PCs, but it needs to be said, because in the fantasy world where we can still get GPUs for their intended prices, that's an extra $400 which might be better spent elsewhere.

Our performance test results are below. 

Performance snapshot