The long-awaited NVIDIA RTX 3080 reviews dropped just moments ago, and whilst we only got ours earlier today (you can check out our unboxing here), others have been able to put it through its paces over the last week or two. As expected, it’s a significant jump over the 2080 Super and below, and still a decent jump from the 2080 TI, and ultimately is great value for money.
The NVIDIA RTX 3080 launches tomorrow. The starting price is $1,139 AUD for the Founder’s Edition, although you might have a tough time getting that in Australia and New Zealand.
AusGamers gave it a 10/10 and said: But, there’s just something about the look of the GeForce RTX 3080 Founder’s Edition that feels next-gen. Getting to put it through its paces (using out-of-the-box settings with no tweaks) has not only been a treat, but somewhat cathartic. As we’ve been waiting months for next-gen console news, previews, and early looks at game demos – NVIDIA has announced its next-generation GeForce RTX line and released it in the space of a few weeks. And when it comes to that next-gen feel, the RTX 3080 sets the bar so high across look, feel, thermals, and in-game performance, that we’re inclined to call a victory before the battle has even begun.
Digital Foundry said: The RTX 3080 takes everything to the next level – you’re looking at an average range of 65 to 80 per cent more performance up against 2080, and around 24 to 37 per cent more grunt than 2080 Ti. With ray tracing factored into the equation, the boosts can be even more significant.
IGN gave it a 9/10 and said: The Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders Edition is an amazing graphics card. Compared to the RTX 2080 Super, it offers dramatically improved performance, especially at 4K, and even outperforms the much more expensive 2080 Ti. Simply put, for $699, the RTX 3080 is both a welcome breath of fresh air and the gust needed to blow the doors off of 4K gaming.
The Verge said: If you’re interested in making the jump to 1440p instead of 4K, then the RTX 3080 will give you so much headroom I don’t think you’ll need to upgrade your PC for years. On the 4K side, you’ll be upgrading to a card that provides solid frame rates with all of the settings maxed out without putting a hole in your wallet. 4K PC gaming is here, and it’s finally a lot more affordable.
Digital Trend said: The RTX 20-series was criticized for paying more attention to ray tracing and A.I. than raw performance. The RTX 3080 shows how serious Nvidia took that criticism. The performance levels open up new possibilities for gamers, no longer forcing them to choose between high resolutions and high frame rates. Nvidia achieved that raw performance bump without sacrificing its deep investments in features like ray tracing and DLSS, as it was determined to keep the PC at the forefront of the conversation in next-gen gaming.
Arstechnica said: If you’re itching to build a desktop PC in the $1,500-and-up range, you can finally expect proper bang for your $699 GPU buck. Buy.
VG247 said: “60fps, 4k, ray-traced gaming finally has a fair price” in their review and spoke about the fact that they saw a 50% increase in performance with 4K gaming.
So there you have it, if you’re building a PC in 2020, then it looks like those grabbing a RTX 3080 are in for an absolute treat. Now you just have to find one.
