A quick note, I’ve removed raytracing tests for this review because I’m changing the games used for the tests. This will be published in a separate article. Anyway, let’s get on with the review.
The most immediate question a lot of people will be asking is this card worth it and should I choose over the RTX 3090? And just to give you a quick answer: if you will be using this card for gaming, the RTX 3080 Ti is the better option. Going into this review, I was under the immediate assumption that this card would be an easy pass as projected costs will put it it closer in price to the RTX 3090 and we’ll talk about that a little bit later in this closing but just to close out that statement, the RTX 3080 Ti though is a compelling replacement over the RTX 3090… BUT… this is taking retail pricing into consideration.
The NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti easily ties the RTX 3090 and NVIDIA seems to be working some driver magic as majority of the popular games in our charts are getting a boost on the RTX 3080 Ti, this warrants a closer look which we’ll detail further in another article once we get a partner card on hand. By itself, the Founders Edition of the RTX 3080 Ti gives some strong numbers, which easily pins it at the top of the game right now.
NVIDIA probably wasn’t planning to release this card until AMD released the RX 6900 XT but given they have an annual generational last-hurrah for the xx80 cards, it was sort of expected. But going back to the presence of the RX 6900 XT, this is mostly a price point competition and AMD’s $1200 spot was just between the RTX 3080 and the RTX 3090 and NVIDIA left a BIIIIIIIGGGGG gap between the two SKUs. A 3080 Ti was already in the card when that moment when they made that announcement. As said, the RTX 3080 Ti “TIES” the RTX 3090 in plenty of instances. Internally, NVIDIA says expect a 5% difference but we’re seeing hairline difference. So we’ll just call it a TIE.\
Before that last paragraph I mentioned pricing and this is ultimately the biggest deciding factor for this card. For US customers, >$2000 is my expected price range for this Founders Edition of the RTX 3080 Ti and with this version of the card not present in this region, I can’t make comparison so I only have partner cards to go with. That being said, I can only have price estimates from partners and I’m seeing $2400-$2500 retail for the RTX 3080 Ti in my region. At the price range, one is only $400 away from an RTX 3090 which, basing on the pricing market of these cards, are very premium. So here’s my take: if you want the top card for gaming, either the RTX 3080 Ti or the RTX 3090 would do. For professionals that need the VRAM of the RTX 3090, I’m leaning more towards that card but for gamers, this card would probably be the better choice especially if you’re building a new rig where in bundle discounts would range around $350 or Php15,000 or more. So again, this will ultimately be up to the price. Given that argument, this will be very subjective on your current market pricing.
NVIDIA is promising LHR for this card which should help in availability should it not be circumvented, hopefully. Still, supply is up for discussion so if given the chance to decide between the cards I mentioned, if the price difference is around $200 or Php10,000 then by all means just jump to the RTX 3090 but if its $600 or more, the RTX 3080 Ti should deliver very if not even performance with the 3090 and if you’re using this for 1440p gaming, you definitely are not missing out.
