Gigabyte Drowns RTX 3080 Gaming GPU Under Beefy Waterblock

The RTX 3080 is a wonderful GPU to begin with in its 'stock' Nvidia Founder's Edition variant, but slap a waterblock on it and you've got something truly wonderful. But not everyone is comfortable with the procedure -- not always because of the danger, but also warranty concerns. With that in mind, Gigabyte is releasing the RTX 3080 Gaming Waterforce, as spotted by VideoCardz. The GPU hasn't been listed on Gigabyte's website yet.

This GPU comes in addition to the earlier announced Aorus RTX 3080 Xtreme Waterforce, which has a bigger PCB with elaborate VRM circuitry and a block with leak detection built-in. 

This new Gaming Waterforce RTX 3080 card is a little more modest, featuring what appears to be a 'reference' PCB design that doesn't stretch as far beyond the expansion slot and uses a little less acrylic in the block itself. 

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The block uses the industry-standard G1/4" threads for fittings and appears to have a typical nickel-plated copper block as cold plate. 

The RTX 3080 GPU packs a mighty 8704 CUDA cores, which in Nvidia's spec are clocked at up to 1710 MHz. But Gigabyte's card being watercooled, the company is upping the ante to 1800 MHz maximum boost clock, and there's likely more performance on tap for those willing to manually overclock the RTX 3080 Gaming Waterforce.Wired to the GPU is 10 GB of GDDR6X memory that runs at an effective clock of 19,000 MHz. 
No word on pricing or availability yet, but expect it to be difficult to obtain and expensive if you can.