When Turing-based GeForce 20 Series GPUs launched last year, the tech press was just not impressed. While it did bring forward a revolutionary new technology for realistic lighting, the performance penalty and price to performance ratio were abysmal. While the gaming community saw some amazing halo products, all I saw were some overpriced cards which Nvidia released to beta-test their RTX technology, especially with the RTX 2080 Ti at a staggering $1,199.
And here we are, two years later, to see that those beta-testing claims were spot-on. The new RTX 30 Series GPUs bring impressive performance uplifts, at very reasonable prices. The new Samsung 8N based Ampere architecture promises 2.7x Shader Performance, 1.7X Ray-Tracing Performance, and 2.7x Tensor Core Performance, all while promising 1.9x Perf/Watt. Translating these numbers for the average Joe, it means that there are impressive performance gains in both normal and RTX-enabled titles, while being much more efficient than Turing.
While the headlines focus on the monstrous flagship RTX 3090, the card I’m most impressed with is the RTX 3070. Let’s look at the specs:
- 5888 CUDA Cores
- 1.73Ghz Boost clock (Reference Card)
- 8GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit memory bus
- 220W Max power draw (650W PSU Recommended)
- 1x PCIe 8-pin
This card promises RTX 2080-Ti level performance (or better), for just $499. What we’re seeing here is greater performance than a $1,199 card from the last generation. Older cards are going up for sale in the thousands on sites like eBay, as the 3070 has single-handedly killed the value of every card from the 2070 to the 2080 Ti.
Nvidia is touting the RTX 3080 as this year’s consumer flagship. Specs are as follows:
- 8704 CUDA Cores
- 1.71Ghz Boost clock (Reference Card)
- 10GB GDDR6X on a 320-bit memory bus
- 320W Max power draw (750W PSU Recommended)
- 2x PCIe 8-pin
This card promises twice the performance of the RTX 2080, at the same price of $699. Again, the value presented here is simple unbeatable, and will be the card many high-end builds feature in the coming months.
The halo card this year is the RTX 3090. Touted by Nvidia as the Titan replacement, it’s nothing short of a magnificent, and the reference card is a three-slot monster as well. Specs are as follows:
- 10496 CUDA Cores
- 1.7Ghz Boost clock (Reference Card)
- 24GB GDDR6X on a 384-bit memory bus
- 350W Max power draw (750W PSU Recommended)
- 2x PCIe 8-pin
The performance of this card wasn’t really compared to anything else by Nvidia. Featuring 24GB VRAM, it’s oriented towards editors, content creators, and data scientists. Weirdly, it’s presented under the GeForce “gaming” brand rather than the Titan branding, which might be a move to get gamers to consider this as the ultimate card to get. Coming in at $1,499, this is easily the worst value proposition in the stack, considering only gaming performance. You do get more CUDA cores, but for a much larger price jump compared to the 3070 v/s 3080. The large VRAM buffer might justify the pricing, but we can only know for sure after the card gets in the hands of reviewers and is thoroughly tested.
Overall, the Ampere GeForce launch takes me back to the Pascal days. The performance and Perf/Watt jump from the Maxwell 9 Series to the Pascal 10 Series was huge, which was largely missing when progressing to Turing. This launch has me excited for the future of gaming, and more gaming horsepower is available to the general public for less cost.
It just goes on to prove that Nvidia didn’t get favorable silicon yields from their older 12nm FinFet process, forcing them to charge higher prices. Yes, it could also have been Nvidia/RTX tax, but that’s something that we can only speculate on. The aggressive pricing is also influenced by the upcoming RDNA2-based consoles, which promises impressive performance for cheap prices, which may lure away PC gamers. It also might’ve given Nvidia a hint that RDNA2 is much more potent than anyone is expecting, so they decided to undercut.
The imminent question is whether RDNA2 will hold up. Initial leaks showed a 40-50% performance uplift over the 2080 Ti, but that card is obsolete now. It would be amazing if they could achieve 3080-level performance while undercutting Nvidia, but there’s always that lingering fear of Radeon disappointing us after much hype (remember Vega, anyone?). That launch is coming this month as well, so exciting times ahead.
But the real question facing the RTX 30 Series is this: Can it run Microsoft Flight Simulator?
geforce nvidia radeon rtx rtx 2080 rtx 2080 ti rtx 3070 rtx 3080 rtx 3090 rx 5700xt
Last modified: September 2, 2020
