A Redditor, ComplexSupermarket89, modified their old MSI RTX 3080 Ventus, which used to rank among the best graphics cards, after its maximum memory and hotspot temperatures started hitting 102 and 105 degrees Celsius, respectively. The DIYer repurposed a car amplifier as a heatsink for the RTX 3080.

According to the user, they initially repadded their graphics card to solve the overheating issue, but it happened again within a year. So, they decided to mod the GPU this time by adding Arctic MX-7 thermal paste between the memory chips, using better thermal pads, and replacing the MSI Ventus backplate with a heatsink.

When they rummaged through their stack of aluminum scrap, they found a 100-watt car amplifier with its massive heatsink. They cut this down to size to fit the GPU, covered potential short points with polyimide tape, and then mounted the aluminum block where the backplate used to go. They initially sanded the original black powder-coated heatsink to achieve a silver finish. Unfortunately, they can’t clean it up thoroughly, so they decided to paint it with white high-temperature engine enamel, giving the graphics card a white finish.

Aside from the massive new heatsink, they also built a custom fascia and a lower fan shroud from scrap aluminum, and replaced the stock fans with three 92mm Thermalright RGB fans. The front part of the fan shroud is mounted on the original mounts on the GPU’s stock heatsink, but they also added a couple of zip ties for support. As for the rear of the shroud, it’s held by two steel brackets mounted to the custom heatsink, practically sandwiching the GPU with aluminum.

My new "custom" RTX 3080, made entirely from scraps, with only hand tools from r/pcmasterrace

All this resulted in lower GPU temperatures, with the hotspots dropping by at least 20 degrees Celsius. The memory chips still reach 96 to 98 degrees Celsius, but the large chunk of aluminum means it takes much longer to get those temperatures. Still, ComplexSupermarket89 isn’t satisfied with this, and they’re considering carving out a circular section on the custom heatsink to mount a recessed fan for additional cooling.

The added aluminum is estimated to weigh over 3 pounds, so they also added a 90-degree steel bracket to support the GPU and prevent damage to the PCIe card slot or the motherboard. Thankfully, it seems to be effective, with the graphics card not sagging even after three days post-install.

ComplexSupermarket89 said the mod is a bit silly, especially since the RTX 30-series is pretty old by now. They even said they probably won’t keep the GPU much longer and will upgrade to the next AMD flagship when it becomes available. Still, they say it's a “passion project, a labor of love,” and we can see it in the results. If you're on the market for a new graphics card, our GPU 2026 pricing tracker can be useful.

An engineering sample of an RTX 3080 Ti has surfaced in the second-hand market, according to a post on the Nvidia subreddit. The Reddit user says that he unknowingly bought two GeForce RTX 3080 Ti cards that turned out to be unreleased engineering samples, showing that preproduction hardware from the Ampere era is still circulating years later.

The buyer, posting on Reddit under the handle Tommyjones91, said the cards were sold to him as standard RTX 3080 Ti units. After installing them, GPU-Z identified both boards as 20GB variants that was never officially released.

The cards would output video, but they would not work with standard GeForce drivers. To make them usable, the original poster relied on a third-party Nvidia driver patcher that bypasses device ID checks, which eventually allowed the GeForce driver 581.94 to work. Even then, functionality would be uncertain across driver updates, since Nvidia has never supported this configuration in public releases — but "Build quality is amazing..." remarked the OP.

The appearance of these boards follows earlier sightings of the Founders Edition model in June, when another engineering sample appeared on eBay with a green sticker explicitly stating it was not for sale and intended for development use only. That card reportedly sold for nearly $2,000 and required similar unofficial driver modifications to function in Windows.

Unlike the production 3080 Ti, which uses a 384-bit memory bus paired with 12GB of GDDR6X, the 20GB version is believed to use a narrower 320-bit interface. While doubling memory capacity would have benefited certain professional and compute-heavy workloads — indeed, one respondent to the Reddit post alludes to rumors that a 20GB model was going to be released to cater to crypto miners — the reduced bus width would have lowered memory bandwidth relative to the retail card. That trade-off placed the part awkwardly between existing products such as the RTX 3080, RTX 3090, and Nvidia’s workstation GPUs.

Normal industry practices typically require engineering samples to either be returned or destroyed once validation is complete, making their presence in resale channels unusual but not unprecedented. The fact that we’ve seen two cases in six months suggests that multiple samples are loose in the market and could easily be mistaken for ordinary used cards, particularly when sold without clear labeling.

An elated eBay shopper has taken to Reddit to celebrate after buying two RTX 3080 GPUs for the paltry sum of $650, only to receive two 3090 cards probably worth double the price instead.

u/EmuAreExtiinct shared how they had paid $650 for two RTX 3080 cards earlier in June. The haul is actually two separate eBay lots, each listed as 'Dell GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X Graphics Card.' Per the price and the image in the Reddit post, you can see that the cards were sold for $325 each sometime before June 26.

When they arrived, however, the user quickly realized they'd got a lot more than they'd bargained for, and had actually bought vastly more valuable RTX 3090 GPUs instead, as evidenced by the presence of Nvidia's fabled but now obsolete SLI tech. "You can tell it's a 3090 and not a 3080 because only the 3090 had SLI, and you can clearly see the gold pins for SLI," the user notes."

Bought 2 RTX 3080s on ebay, received 2 3090s instead from r/pcmasterrace

A recent investigation by a Quasarsone forum member revealed significant defects in the vapor chamber heatsinks of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition and RTX A6000 graphics cards (via @harukaze5719). Some heatsinks oxidize and leak. It is unclear how widespread the issue is and whether this only happens in specific conditions. 

The study identified unusual chemical reactions and physical deformities within the heatsinks, raising concerns about the cooling solution's efficiency and longevity. As it turns out, heatsinks develop copper oxide formations and holes in the vapor chambers over time, leading to failure and overheating of graphics cards. 

The exploration began with disassembling an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition, still among the best graphics cards after three years. During this process, peculiar red copper exposures surfaced in the vapor chamber heat sinks. Further examination revealed signs of a chemical reaction and copper appearing as if it had melted. 

The forum member then observed an Nvidia RTX A6000 graphics card for ProViz and engineering applications that cost about $4,000 despite being a product released in 2020. The board presented similar issues. This repetition of the unusual copper exposure and signs of chemical reaction suggested a more widespread problem, possibly inherent in the vapor chamber cooling solution employed in these graphics cards.

Detailed analysis, including cleaning and magnifying the affected areas, exposed blue substances on the surfaces, presumably copper oxides. This discovery pointed to the possibility of chemical reactions within the chambers, likely involving the copper components. The nature and extent of these reactions seem to suggest a susceptibility to damage and functional impairment due to internal pressures or similar adversities within the vapor chamber heat sinks.

Vapor chambers are functioning through a continuous cycle of evaporation and condensation. A liquid inside the chamber evaporates by absorbing heat from a hot component, like a CPU or GPU, turning into vapor. This vapor then moves to a cooler area, condenses back into a liquid, and releases the absorbed heat and dissipates. Vapor chambers effectively manage high heat loads, ensuring uniform heat distribution and maintaining optimal operating temperatures of chips. Meanwhile, coolants inside vapor chambers are rather tricky substances that can quickly evaporate and condense.

Coolants inside vapor chambers can potentially react with copper, but this is relatively uncommon and typically occurs under specific unfavorable conditions. If there is contamination or impurity in the coolant, or if the integrity of the vapor chamber is compromised (e.g., leaks, cracks, or manufacturing defects), it might facilitate reactions between the coolant and the copper. For instance, copper may oxidize in the presence of oxygen or other reactive substances, forming copper oxides or other compounds on the surface.

It is unclear whether this is a source of the issue and if it is widespread. After all, we have seen only one report on the matter and have no idea about the conditions leading to the development of copper oxide and holes. Yet, we can only recommend checking the cooling system when purchasing used graphics cards.

Blizzard recently released a playable beta of Diablo IV. However, it appears that not everything is sunshine and rainbows in the Sanctuary, though. An alarming amount of user reports have emerged on Reddit and the Blizzard forums, claiming that the beta is bricking the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, one of the best graphics cards.

One Reddit user reported that his Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC 12G had perished after playing the game for only 20 minutes. According to the Redditor's recount, the cutscene in the chapel was the exact moment his GeForce RTX 3080 Ti went haywire. It didn't take long before other affected users started to pitch in. Another user claims the cutscene also bricked his Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC 12G. However, users have also experienced crashes during normal gameplay too.

The reported symptoms are identical among the different cases. The system immediately throws a black screen at the user, and the cooling fans on the graphics cards go crazy. Subsequently, no image comes from the graphics card even after a system or several system restarts. However, it's important to note that the issue doesn't affect everyone, though. Some Diablo IV players have reported that while they have suffered crashes from the beta, the graphics cards miraculously survived.

The user feedback on the original Reddit thread shows that most of the bricked GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards are from Gigabyte. There was also a good number of cases from unspecified vendors. However, one GeForce RTX 3080 Ti from EVGA reportedly bit the dust too. Sadly, the issue isn't limited to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, either. One GeForce RTX 3080 owner and one Radeon RX 6900 XT also came forward, reporting their bricked graphics cards.

It's too soon to tell whether Gigabyte's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or Diablo IV is the culprit behind the bricked graphics cards. However, another GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC 12G owner reported that Valheim bricked their graphics card. Gigabyte sent the user a replacement but didn't provide any details on what was wrong with the graphics card. So there is seemingly a precedent that something may be wrong with Gigabyte's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards.

Neither Blizzard nor Gigabyte has spoken about the issue. As a stopgap solution, users are recommending their peers cap the frame rate for safe measures. Nvidia GeForce owners can limit the frame rates on their graphics cards through the Nvidia control panel. The "Max Frame Rate" option resides in the "Global Setting" tab right under the "Manage 3D settings" section.

This Diablo IV bricking graphics card issue certainly has that New World-killing GeForce RTX 3090 vibe. Initially, users blamed New World because the open beta didn't have a frame rate limiter, making the GeForce RTX 3090 render the game menu at unnecessary high frame rates until the graphics card ultimately died. However, EVGA later discovered that bad soldering around the graphics card's MOSFET circuits killed the GeForce RTX 3090s, not New World. So it's not impossible to think that a bad batch of GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards may have escaped the factory. 

There's always a certain amount of risk when playing a beta version of an upcoming game. However, it shouldn't kill your graphics card - unless a defect exists that we don't know about, and Diablo IV exposes it.

The GeForce RTX 4080 doesn't currently occupy a spot on our best graphics cards page, largely due to its price. But it has apparently become the best-selling graphics card on Newegg. Meanwhile, the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 currently sits in fourth place.

Despite reports claiming poor GeForce RTX 4080 sales, according to the U.S. retailer, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming OC, which usually sells for $1,269.99, has sold the most. However, a graphics card that costs over a grand isn't what everyone needs. The more budget-friendly GeForce SKUs, such as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3060, remain popular among consumers. Thoaw last-generation Ampere graphics cards sit comfortably in second and third place.

The GeForce RTX 4090 is perhaps the biggest surprise, though. Notwithstanding the eye-watering $1,599 MSRP, the Ada Lovelace graphics card finds itself in the top five, beating more affordable options like the $479 Radeon RX 6700 XT or $329 Radeon RX 6600. 

On the other hand, Amazon's top-selling graphics card list shows a different reality. According to Amazon, the GeForce RTX 3060 is the highest-selling graphics card. And the GeForce RTX 4080 and GeForce RTX 4090 are miles away from the GeForce RTX 3060 in terms of sales. The GeForce RTX 4090 sits in the 15th position, whereas the GeForce RTX 4080 is all the way at the bottom in 28th place.

The problem with best-selling lists is that retailers never share the number of units sold. Therefore, we should treat the lists with caution. For example, the GeForce RTX 4080 is reportedly selling well for Newegg. In contrast, Amazon's enjoying great sales from the GeForce RTX 3060. While some may argue that Amazon's data looks more credible, we'll leave that to you to decide. It could also be just down to Amazon being a place for more casual consumers, while Newegg has traditionally courted a more enthusiast PC component audience.

AMD recently launched the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT, starting at $999 and $899, respectively. But while the RDNA 3 graphics cards are in stock at Newegg, they're almost at the bottom of the barrel in terms of sales. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is 88th on Newegg's list, while the Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 16th on Amazon's list, with the Radeon RX 7900 XT trailing right behind.

AMD had reportedly prepared over 200,000 units of Radeon RX 7900-series graphics cards for sale, so stock shouldn't be a problem and many sold out on launch day. So, having just launched earlier this week, it will likely take some time before AMD's RDNA 3 offerings penetrate the list of most-sold graphics cards. The fact is that those cards are out there, and Nvidia has some stiff competition, which is good for consumers.

Schenker has introduced its new Vision 16 and Vision 16 Pro ultrabooks that bring together performance, portability, low weight, and upgradeability. The 16-inch machines are based on Intel's Core i7-12700H processor with 14 cores and can be equipped with up to Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop graphics subsystem, but their weight is still lower when compared to Apple's MacBook Pro 14. 

Schenker's Vision 16 and Vision 16 Pro machines are based on Intel's Core i7-12700H (six performance cores at up to 4.70 GHz, eight efficiency cores at up to 3.50 GHz, Intel Xe Graphics, 45W PBP, 115W MTP) that is paired with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4GB (vanilla Vision 16), GeForce RTX 3060 6GB, RTX 3070 Ti 8GB, or RTX 3080 with 16GB GDDR6 memory (Vision Pro 16). To ensure consistent performance of CPU and GPU, Schenker's 16-inch mobile PCs are equipped with a cooling system featuring three heat pipes and two blowers, according to an image published by VideoCardz. 

The laptops can be equipped with up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 (Vision 16) or DDR5-4800 (Vision Pro 16) memory as well as two M2-2280 SSDs with a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. Both devices are user upgradeable.

When it comes to displays, the Vision 16 is equipped with a non-glare 2560 x 1600 LCD, a 350 nits luminance, and a 90 Hz refresh rate, whereas the Vision 16 Pro comes with a non-glare 2560 x 1600 LCD, a 350 nits brightness, with a 240 Hz refresh rate. 

As for connectivity, the machines offer two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB Type-C connector, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 display output, an SD card reader and an audio jack for headsets. The laptops come with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 on board to connect to the internet and peripherals.

The Vision 16 and Vision 16 Pro notebooks use the same magnesium alloy chassis that measure 354 x 245 x17.1 mm and weight starting at 1.45 kilograms for the version with Intel integrated graphics, 1.5 kilograms for model with GeForce RTX 3050 Ti discrete GPU, or 1.6 kilograms for SKUs with higher-performance graphics processors. To put the numbers into context, the laptops are slightly thicker than Apple's MacBook Pro 16 with M1 Pro or M1 Max SoCs (17.1 mm vs 16.8 mm) and yet their weight does not exceed that of Apple's MacBook Pro 14 (1.6 kilograms). 

The cheapest Schenker Vision 16 starts at €1,549 without shipping ($1,298 without VAT), whereas the most affordable Schenker Vision Pro 16 starts at €1,899 without shipping ($1,592 without VAT). Both machines will be available in November. 

Like many other suppliers of gaming notebooks, Schenker uses barebones built by Clevo. That said, expect other brands to offer their high-performance ultrabooks using the same barebones featuring similar configurations and offering a 17.1 mm thickness as well as an up to 1.6 kilograms weight.

There has been a lot of turmoil in the GPU sector recently, which has meant good things for gamers looking to upgrade their rigs. The Ethereum Merge has made GPU mining unprofitable, which has led to a steady decline in GPU pricing. In addition, the imminent Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 Series launch has manufacturers looking to clear inventory of existing cards. That brings us to Yeston, which is offering an RTX 3080 10GB card for $779 via Newegg. 

Taken at face value, that price isn’t anything to get too excited about. After all, you can get a PNY RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 for $717.99 at Best Buy. However, the Yeston card comes bundled with a $200 Newegg promotional gift card (effectively making the card $579).

We’ve previously talked about the perils of mail-in rebates here at Tom’s Hardware. But that isn’t the case with this particular promotion. According to Newegg, the $200 promotional gift card is automatically emailed to you four days after your order is invoiced. On the downside, you can only redeem the gift card at Newegg.com, and it must be used within 90 days. But if you already have another immediate purchase in mind at Newegg, perhaps those restrictions aren’t a real deterrent. And hopefully this card is an indication of further price cuts to come. 

As for the Yeston card itself, its aesthetic obviously won’t be for everyone with its mix of white, purple, and pastel blue. You’ll find a triple-fan design and the standard port layout for an RTX 3080 graphics card: one HDMI 2.0 and three DisplayPort connections. Also, remember that this is the Lite Hash Rate (LHR) version of the card -- although given the current Ethereum situation, we doubt this matters too much, especially to gamers. Expect performance to mirror that of Nvidia’s RTX 3080 10GB Founders Edition, as you’ll find a base clock of 1.44GHz and a boost clock of 1.71GHz. 

While this is a great deal on a current-generation RTX 30 Series card, which is among the best graphics cards for gaming, keep in mind that the next-generation RTX 40 Series is right around the corner. The lineup will initially consist of the $899 RTX 4080 12GB, $1,199 RTX 4080 16GB and $1,599 RTX 4090. The RTX 4090 launches on October 12, while the RTX 4080 12GB and RTX 4080 16GB will arrive in November, according to Nvidia.

A Twitter user named @hongxing2020 recently shared photos of a mysterious MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ventus 3X 20G OC, packing an impressive but unusual memory capacity of 20GB. The user claims that up to 100 units are available for between $432 to $576, insinuating that these could be leftover cards from mining operations. Core specifications are unknown, but the graphics card is likely the long-rumored 20GB variant of the vanilla RTX 3080, modified to support Micron memory chips with double the capacity.

It wouldn't be the first time Nvidia has reportedly messed around doubling VRAM capacities on its high-end GPUs. Almost every generation of Nvidia graphics cards has featured some rumor or suspicion pointing to a 2x higher capacity variant well after the GPU's initial release.

In the past, Nvidia has sold different memory capacity variants of the same GPU model, with one variant featuring 2x the memory capacity over the other. This strategy was prevalent during the Kepler generation and older models, where cards like the GTX 780 3GB and GTX 770 2GB had additional 6GB and 4GB models, respectively.

Making a new GPU with 2x the memory capacity isn't hard; it's one of the easiest ways to add additional VRAM capacity to a GPU. All Nvidia has to do is swap out memory ICs with ones featuring two times the capacity of the previous variant. Adding other levels of VRAM lower or higher than 2x on the other hand gets much more complicated. That would involve modifying the memory bus width and memory configuration, as memory manufacturers almost always make memory ICs based on 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB memory configs with no in between capacities.

More often than not, higher memory configurations come on higher tier products, like the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti with 24GB of VRAM. However, the RTX 3060 comes with 12GB of memory, even though the faster RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, and RTX 3070 Ti have 8GB. That's perhaps because Nvidia deemed 6GB too little for a modern RTX 3060, unlike the previous generation RTX 2060. But the 3060 has a narrower 192-bit bus, where the 3060 Ti, 3070, and 3070 Ti have a 256-bit bus.

If Nvidia was thinking about an RTX 3080 20GB, it likely didn't make sense. The RTX 3080 Ti has 12GB, and later we got the RTX 3080 12GB. Nvidia seems to have gone with more memory bandwidth rather than more memory capacity for the current RTX 3080 series.

The RTX 3080 12GB wasn't a straight upgrade in memory, either. Nvidia had to upgrade the RTX 3080 12GB with additional memory controllers, and it enabled a few more more CUDA cores (two SMs) to go along with the extra 2GB. While the core configuration is on paper only 3% faster than the RTX 3080 10GB, the additional 20% memory bandwidth proved very beneficial, potentially matching the RTX 3080 Ti (depending on core clocks).

An RTX 3080 20GB likely would have been a downgrade for gamers, as it would have remained with a 320-bit bus. Another issue with a 20GB model is memory utilization in games. Only a select few titles running at very high resolutions and maxed-out texture packs can break 12GB of VRAM. As a result, the RTX 3080 20GB's additional 8GB of VRAM would rarely be helpful for most gamers.

A 20GB SKU might be a good upgrade over a 10GB model, but with a 12GB variant already existing, a 20GB model for gamers makes no sense. The only place an RTX 3080 20GB would make sense is in the prosumer side of the market, where gobs of memory capacity are beneficial for non-gaming tasks such as 3D rendering and high-resolution video timelines with tons of different visual effects. But Nvidia already has the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti to bridge this gap, making the RTX 3080 20GB even more pointless.

XMG has announced its latest high-end gaming laptops, the Neo 17 and 15, with two high-performance models built around Ryzen 9 CPUs, a choice of Nvidia GeForce GPUs, and an attractive external liquid cooling system.

Looking good to trouble our roundup of the best gaming laptops, both 17-inch and 15-inch models come with AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HX (eight cores, 16 threads, boost up to 4.9 GHz with a default TDP of 45W, peaking at 85W), and the 17-inch model packs a 330W PSU to make the most of both that CPU and an Nvidia Geforce RTX 3080 Ti GPU. Keeping a lid on all that heat is a cooling system comprising a pair of 11mm fans, five heat pipes, and heat sinks on all air outlets.

An optional external liquid cooling system known as Oasis is also available, capable of dropping GPU temps in a stress test by 15 degrees Celsius, according to XMG’s figures. The Oasis looks somewhat like a PC itself, though how it connects to the laptop without spilling coolant all over your pants has yet to be seen.

Consumers can configure the RAM up to 64GB of DDR5, while two M.2 sockets can accommodate the best SSDs. GPUs on the 17-inch model are strictly the top end of Nvidia’s range, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080, and RTX 3080 Ti, while the 240 Hz display has a resolution of 2560x1600 for a 16:10 aspect ratio. Even the keyboard is designed with gamers in mind, featuring Cherry MX switches and RGB. The laptop is also fully compatible with VR headsets, thanks to a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port with an integrated DisplayPort 1.4 stream from the GPU. 

A slightly smaller 15-inch model comes with an RTX 3060 GPU for an entry-level choice. Its screen is a 16:9 WQXGA IPS display, but it retains the Ryzen 9 CPU and the potential for liquid cooling of its bigger brother. In addition, it can be specced with a GPU up to the RTX 3080 Ti if desired.

The 15-inch laptop with RTX 3060 costs 2,099 Euros ($2,156) and rises as you add optional extras. The 17-inch model starts at 2,949 Euros ($3029) with an RTX 3070 Ti and 16GB of RAM, while the Oasis cooler costs 199 Euros ($205). Both models are available for pre-order now, shipping in September.

Bitmain launched its long-awaited Antminer E9 system today. The firm claims that one Antminer E9 system has the crypto-computing power to match 25 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards. That is quite an achievement, which Bitmain measures in Ethereum mining performance terms. In brief, the Antminer E9 is capable of 2,400 MH/s of ETH mining performance, white eating up to 1,920W, and its efficiency is at 0.8 J/M.

Since it first teased the Antminer E9, the specs appear to have changed somewhat, with no real explanation from Bitmain. Last April, Bitmain teased that it was about to launch a specialized Ethereum miner capable of 3,000 MH/s, using 2,556W, with an efficiency of 0.85 J/M. At the time, it boasted that it could out-mine 32 GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards. Today, the finished shipping product is said to offer a mining performance equivalent to 25 GeForce RTX 3080. However, it seems to be a little more efficient. So Bitmain might have changed the Antminer E9 specs for pricing, efficiency, or another reason - but the company didn't provide any explanations.

Bitmain's Twitter account says that the Antminer E9 should be available today. We checked the site just a couple of hours after the touted hardware sales started, but it wasn't available. It may appear on the Bitmain retail site later; however, it isn't showing when the check box shows sold-out products.

The Antminer E9 has been through a prolonged gestation period since its teaser regarding the Ethereum targeting system in April 2021. At the time, Bitmain said it would launch "very soon," but the company seemingly encountered problems releasing the ASIC miner. Bitmain didn't share the pricing for the Antminer E9, either. Cryptocurrencies aren't such an attractive investment as they were in the pre-war, pre-double-digit inflation, pre-recession spring of 2021.

As well as the crypto crash, which has paused chiefly since mid-June, there is another significant negative to the prospect of investing in a specialized ETH miner today. The oft-delayed 'Merge' where ETH mining ends, due to the transition to a Proof of Stake (PoS) model, is firmly penciled in for August this year. Sadly, there have been multiple setbacks, so that it could suffer another delay again.

It seems like just yesterday that RTX 3080-powered desktops were going for well over $2000, but with GPU prices dropping, you can now get a fully decked-out gaming PC for a lot less. Today, as part of its July 4th sales, Dell is offering a Aurora R10 with RTX 3080 graphics, a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for just $1,699.

According to the results in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy,  you can play 4K games at Ultra settings and get more than 60 fps or get close to 100 fps in 1440p resolution.  If you prefer to run at 1080p resolution, you can easily eclipse 110 fps with special effects turned up.

This configuration of the Alienware Aurora R10 should be as good for productivity as it is for gaming. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU that has 8 cores and 16 threads, along with a 4.7-GHz boost clock. 

This Aurora R10 has has 16GB of DDR-3200 RAM, which should be more than adequate for opening a ton of browser tabs while performing a slew of other tasks. There are also two extra DIMM slots you can use to upgrade in the future. A 1TB NVMe SSD gives you plenty of room for installing games and other apps.

If your desktop isn't going to be anywhere near your router, you'll appreciate the Aurora R10's built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi. If you can used a wired connection, the Killer E2600 Ethernet NIC promises great connectivity.

Since this is an Alienware Aurora, it has an attractive, Alien-themed chassis that's in the dark gray "Dark Side of the Moon" colorway. The chassis has two, customizable RGB light zones you can use to light up your room. A 1,000-watt power supply provides plenty of juice for the RTX 3080 or any future GPU you choose to replace it with. 

Steam has published its latest monthly survey data, gathered from peeking at gamer PCs around the globe. This month we are seeing some of the most substantial increases in figures for the mid-to-high-end GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. Recent pricing action and improved availability appear to work some magic and inspire some upgrades. Elsewhere in the survey data, hexa-core processors have made a comeback in the CPU rankings, stealing the crown and knocking quad-core chips back into second place.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and 3070 were the fastest climbers in May, holding first and second place in this chart. In the third and fourth pace, jointly, are the RTX 3060 and the old GTX 1070. Before you choke over the GTX 1070's gains here, remember that such cards may be coming back into circulation as people sell their old GPUs to upgrade their PCs.

In previous months we lamented the sluggish growth of the RTX 30 series in the Steam Hardware Survey user data. It is straightforward to understand gamers holding off upgrading, though. Over H1 2022, we have seen some very encouraging new GPU pricing trends. PC gamers are buying again after holding their purses tight for many months.

With a potential glut of current gen GPUs forming, the Tom's Hardware GPU editor Jarred Walton has guessed that we might see AMD and Nvidia delay their RDNA 3 and Ada Lovelace consumer GPU releases until a more opportune time.

The CPU cores war took a new turn in May, as hexacore chips, which first grasped a taste of the top spot this March, were back in pole position. Plucky quad cores managed to regain the top spot in April, but we feel that hexa-core CPUs will be convincing leaders for many months, if not multiple years, before octa-core chips or better start to go mainstream in PCs.

Steam also plots CPU usage by the manufacturer. For Windows gamers, AMD adoption was good last month, up 1.24%, while Intel users fell by roughly the same amount (it's a two-horse race, with the barely noticeable presence of a Microsoft ARM CPU). While checking these charts, you can also see how fast Apple M1 adoption is climbing in macOS. In the latest survey, Apple Silicon has over 40% market share.

Last but not least, Linux gamers on Steam have been lapping up AMD CPUs. We may see Intel and AMD reach parity in popularity among Steam users gaming with this open-source OS installed.

Today at Amazon, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12G GPU is available at one of its best prices yet. It has a going rate of around $1,349 but is currently selling for just $884. It’s also worth noting that this price has changed rapidly throughout the day and is subject to change again, but it has been lingering around a considerable discount.

This discount is one of many we’re covering throughout the Memorial Day holiday sales and is one of the best graphics card deals we’ve seen in a while. We always double-check the price history of our deals using third-party tools like Google Shopping, PCPartPicker, and CamelCamelCamel for Amazon items and recommend our readers do the same as prices are subject to change. If you don’t have the time to investigate for yourself, check out our list of Memorial Day deals for a compilation of the best offers we can find.

According to Gigabyte, the GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12G GPU can reach speeds up to 1,755 MHz. It leverages Nvidia Ampere microarchitecture and has 2nd Gen RT cores and 3rd Gen Tensor cores. As the name suggests, the graphics card has 12GB of GDDR6X memory across a 384-bit memory interface.

This card features what Gigabyte calls Windforce 3X cooling—a system comprised of three fans, two 90mm and one 80mm, with alternate spinning functions. It has seven composite copper heat pipes and a large copper plate directly touching the GPU. It features RGB LEDs support and works with the RGB Fusion 2.0 application. The purchase includes a 4-year manufacturer’s warranty from Gigabyte that users must register for online to redeem.

Visit the GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12G GPU product page on Amazon for purchase options. Also, don’t forget to look through our list of Memorial Day deals and other tech deals for more hardware discounts that will easily complement a new graphics card.

Asus and Noctua are extending their partnership to Asustek's GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua Edition graphics card. This new offering combines the advantages of Asus' engineering, Nvidia's GA102 GPU coupled with 10GB of memory, and Noctua's expertise in cooling. 

When Asus and Noctua teamed up for a graphics card last year, it provoked a lot of enthusiasm in the community, given Asustek's expertise in high-end graphics boards and Noctua's knowledge of quiet fans. Yet the first collaborative product by the two companies was a rather conservative GeForce RTX 3070 card. While still being among the best graphics cards you can find these days, that board had its boundaries, such as 8GB of GDDR6 memory onboard. The new product addresses those limitations with a more powerful GPU and 10GB of GDDR6X memory.  

While the usage of a GA102 graphics processor with a different configuration (8704 CUDA cores vs. 5888 CUDA codes, 20.3 FP32 TFLOPS vs 29.8 FP32 TFLOPS) is a tangible upgrade by itself, power-hungry GDDR6X memory adds to total consumed and dissipated power (290W for RTX 3070 vs 340W for RTX 3080). This is why Noctua tailored its cooler for a new challenge. 

The new GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua Edition model continues to use a quad-slot cooling system equipped with NF-A12x25 120-mm fans. The Noctua Edition runs 4.5 dB(A) quieter at typical auto-speed fan settings while achieving 3°C lower GPU temperatures and 14°C lower VRAM temperatures than Asus's TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080, according to the mutual press release issued by the companies.   

Based on information from the PR, the fans of the GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua Edition at their maximum speed (something that happens in poorly ventilated cases) reduced noise levels by 8.6 dBA and the memory was still 12°C cooler than in case of the TUF card, according to official information. Given how meticulously Noctua develops its heatsinks and fans, the comparison should be even more impressive when the fans are not running at lower speeds. In addition, Noctua mentions a 2-5 dBA lower noise levels when compared to their TUF reference card, though we would like to test these things ourselves. 

"We have been thrilled to continue our cooperation with Asus," says Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "The GeForce RTX 3080 with its heat emission of up to 340W is an entirely different beast to tame than the GeForce RTX 3070, but leveraging our fan technology and a customised heatsink, we have once again managed to create a card that combines serious GPU power with excellent quietness of operation." 

One of the things that Asus and Noctua don't mention is the recommended price of the GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua Edition graphics card. One of the drawbacks of the GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition was its price, but that was amid shortages of graphics boards in general, so it was not surprising. Now that prices of video cards are getting to their MSRP levels, perhaps even a Noctua Edition product will be priced at levels accessible to average buyers. 

Noctua have collaborated with Asus to produce a custom cooled Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. VideoCardz has shared the first images of this second Asus x Noctua cooperative product, and from many angles it is practically indistinguishable from its predecessor. Thankfully the box art makes clear this is an RTX 3080 and the backplate features some significant changes. As ever with these unofficial leaks, please take this information with a pinch of salt.

The purported box art suggests that the partners have got together to launch a 10GB RTX 3080, and there is no evidence there will be a version built around the newer 12GB configuration. Immediately evident is that from the fan side the new model looks identical to the RTX 3070 version. The source reckons they are identical in this respect, both with an overall thickness of 4-slots. By our estimations the new RTX 3080 could be a little fatter.

Ports available include triple DisplayPort 1.4 and dual HDMI 2.1. This is the same configuration as provided with the previous Asus x Noctua card, but with a slightly different arrangement of ports on the backplate. The new model features twin 8-pin power connectors, just like its predecessor, too.

The biggest evidence of change under the cooling shroud comes from the backplate. The new backplate shows a modified and sturdier looking GPU mounting brace on the underside of the PCB. All the vents on the backplate look more substantial too.

VideoCardz found the new Asus x Noctua GeForce RTX 3080 listed in Europe at €1,150 ($1,215) – a €250 ($264) premium over the RTX 3070 version.

For further reading about Asus x Noctua graphics cards and some insight into what to expect, please have a read through our extensive Asus GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Review. At the time of the review we lamented that the first collaborative product hadn't been an RTX 3080, 3080 Ti, or 3090 GPU, as the cooling solution seemed like overkill for the RTX 3070. We can't wait to see how the new Asus x Noctua GeForce RTX 3080 fares in the labs. After all, the GeForce RTX 3080 is currently the leading graphics card in our Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2022 buying guide.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to outrageous GPU prices? If the downward-trending prices during Q1 2022 are any indication, things are slowly getting back to normal regarding the best graphics cards for gaming. While we've seen board makers like EVGA sell their branded graphics cards at MSRP for a few months now, retailers have been a bit slower to retain sufficient stock at MSRP. However, that no longer appears to be the case regarding the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti over at Newegg. 

Newegg is currently selling the Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC at $1,199. Unlike the Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, which uses a blower-style cooling setup, Gigabyte has opted for a more traditional triple-fan arrangement. As a result, the Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC boasts a slightly higher maximum GPU clock, coming in at 1,710 MHz versus 1,665 MHz. 

The card is still in stock at Newegg and is offered with free shipping (which is notable because EVGA typically hits customers with around $20 in shipping charges for its in-stock RTX 30 Series graphics cards). If you want a slightly loftier maximum GPU clock, 1,725 MHz boost to be exact, the RTX 3080 Ti XC3 Ultra Gaming is $80 higher at $1,279.

If $1,199 or more is too rich for your blood, the EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra Gaming is currently on backorder at Newegg (estimated arrival shipping date of today) with a price of $869. The RTX 3080 Founders Edition costs $699, but the chances of finding one of those at MSRP is near impossible these days. The $170 premium for the EVGA is somewhat expected given its higher GPU clock, iCX3 cooling technology, metal backplate and abundance of RGB lighting.

Moving further down the performance ladder, the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Eagle OC sells for $699. Again, this is a custom card with a higher GPU clock than its $599 Founders Edition counterpart, so the $100 premium is expected. Newegg says that the card is currently on backorder, but you can still place an order at $699 and lock in your pricing when they come back in stock.

Unfortunately, markups on RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3060 graphics cards, as a percentage of their actual MSRP, are unfavorable for Newegg customers. For example, the RTX 3060 Ti has an MSRP of $399 (Founders Edition), but the cheapest counterpart at Newegg is the MSI RTX 3060 Ti Ventus, priced at $579.

Jarrod from Jarrod's Tech (not to be confused with our own Jarred Walton) recently reviewed AMD's new RX 6850M XT mobile flagship GPU against Nvidia's RTX 3080 mobile graphics using Asus' external XG mobile enclosures. Unfortunately for AMD, performance was rather disappointing for the RX 6850M XT in most of the games tested. Nvidia's RTX 3080 mobile was 10 to 20% faster overall while drawing a whopping 37% less power. These results are unusual for AMD's RDNA2 architecture, which we'll get to in a moment.

Testing was done on an Asus Flow Z13 2-in-1 gaming device powered by Intel's latest Core i9-12900H processor and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. The two discrete GPUs tested come in the form of Asus' external GPU enclosures known as ROG XG Mobiles. These enclosures house either the RTX 3080 or the RX 6850M XT and are powered by their own power supplies. These devices are connected to the Flow Z13 via a custom PCIe interface running at up to Gen3 speeds with eight lanes available.

The RTX 3080 version of the XG mobile is known as the 2021 ROG XG Mobile and comes with a maximum power rating of up to 150W. The RX 6850M XT model is the newer 2022 model and comes with a greater power rating of up to 165W.

Benchmarks

Overall, performance was clearly in favor of the RTX 3080 XG mobile unit. It came out ahead in nearly all the games tested. The full set of games consisted of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Fortnite, Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, Forza Horizon 5, Control, Watch Dogs Legion, God of War, Dying Light 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, The Witcher 3, Call of Duty Warzone, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Out of those, Nvidia's GPU was faster in the first eleven (though it was close in three of those), while AMD's RX 6850M XT only took the lead in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, COD Warzone, and The Witcher 3. That was at 1080p, where Nvidia averaged 9% higher performance. It also came out 11% ahead at 1440p, with the same selection of games favoring AMD and Nvidia's solutions.

Moving up to testing at 4K, the average FPS difference between the RX 6850M XT and the RTX 3080 increased to 18%, and only two games (The Witcher 3 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider) were faster on AMD's GPU.

These results are reminiscent of our testing with AMD and Nvidia's desktop equivalents, where AMD performs better at lower resolutions, thanks to RDNA2's higher core frequencies and large Infinity Cache. Still, overall performance was in favor of the 3080 at all three resolutions. 

Strange Behavior

Jarrod notes the RX 6850M XT's behavior is very strange. In previous testing with the RX 6800M and RTX 3080 — in different laptops, not with Asus' XG mobile devices — he found performance to be nearly equivalent between the two GPUs in gaming workloads, with both discrete GPU options having 150W power limits.

This situation is compounded by system power draw for the Asus' Flow X13 and XG mobile, which was significantly higher when using the RX 6850M XT. Total System power peaked at 171W with the RTX 3080 XG mobile connected but jumped to 235W when the RX 6850M XT enclosure was used, a 37% increase in power consumption.

We've seen AMD's older RX 6800M go toe-to-toe with Nvidia's RTX 3080 mobile graphics while consuming roughly the same amount of power. It now remains a mystery as to why the RX 6850M XT is so inefficient.

Spec for spec, the RX 6850M XT only features minor upgrades from the 6800M (hence the reason it's not called a 6900M). Memory capacity and core count remain identical between the two SKUs, with the only difference being a 163MHz increase to GPU frequency for the RX 6850M XT, and a 2 Gbps uptick in memory speed for the GDDR6 modules which now run at 18Gbps. That could account for some of the power increase, but probably not all of it.

For now, it's best to take these results with a dose of salt, as the RX 6850M XT's poor performance could be the result of Asus' unusual configuration involving its external GPU enclosures. Hopefully, more laptops can be tested soon with the RX 6850M XT built into them to see how the GPU performs in a typical laptop form factor.

It's no secret that GDDR6X memory can run very hot on graphics cards equipped with it, most notably the GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3080 Ti, and RTX 3090, some of the best graphics cards on the market. If modding copper shims to your GPU isn't your cup of tea, there's an easier way to reduce memory temperatures. YouTuber DandyWorks released a video demonstrating the use of a copper plate for memory, made specifically for an Nvidia RTX 3080. The copper plate was able to reduce GDDR6X temperatures by up to 25C.

The copper plate used in the video was made by CoolMyGPU.com and is specifically designed for select RTX 3080 AIB partner cards. The company has an assortment of other copper memory cooling pates as well that are designed for a range of RTX 30-series GPU models, including the RTX 3080/Ti, RTX 3090, RTX 3060/Ti, and RTX 3070/Ti. It has plates for Nvidia's Founders Edition SKUs as well as some third party designs.

For RTX 3090 owners, CoolMyGPU.com also sells a rear memory copper plate to help cool the rear GDDR6X modules on the card. This plate could be even more useful than the front plate, since the RTX 3090's rear G6X modules are notorious for running extremely hot, with the backplate being the only source of heat dissipation for the rear modules.

In the video, DandyWorks showcases how to install the copper memory cooling plate onto an MSI Ventus RTX 3080 graphics card. First, the graphics card's original cooler needs to be removed. Next, all the thermal pads and thermal paste cooling the GDDR6X and main GPU core need to be removed, along with any additional residue left from the thermal pads.

After a test fit, the copper cooling plate can now be installed, sandwiched between a layer of thermal paste on the top and bottom, along with the installation of the GPU heatsink. No additional screws are required since the plate is held down by the GPU's cooling solution.

For Dandy's RTX 3080 Ventus graphics card, the copper plate dropped memory temperatures 20%, going from 94C to just 75C in mining applications, with even lower temperatures reported while gaming.

When Should This Mod Be Used?

In our experience testing Nvidia's flagship RTX 30-series cards — including AIB partner models — the ideal GDDR6X temperatures should peak at 100C or lower to ensure thermal throttling doesn't occur. You might be okay with 105C peak temps, but if your GPU's memory is operating at 110C or higher, the graphics card will throttle clock speeds and better cooling is required.

Gaming-specific workloads tend to be a bit less demanding than mining, but we've tested cards (like the RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition) where memory temperatures hit 104C on a regular basis. Fire up a mining utility and 110C happens on a lot of GDDR6X-equipped cards, including nearly all of Nvidia's Founders Edition models (with the exception of the RTX 3070 Ti, which only has 8GB VRAM). Only the 'good' AIB partner cards with improved memory cooling capabilities stay below that mark.

So if you find your GPU is running at 110C — while mining or gaming — this copper cooling plate mod would be a way to reduce GPU temperatures. It should allow the GDDR6X to run at its maximum clock rate, and thereby improve performance and card longevity. It might be an even better option if all you do with your GDDR6X card is mining, though with mining profits dropping, that might not be as necessary these days.

On sale today from Laptops Direct is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 (RTX3080) gaming laptop for only £1,689. This 15-inch portable powerhouse is ideal for playing the latest games on high settings for smooth frame rates and crisp graphics. 

This particular model of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 contains the powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU,  a Ryzen 9 5900HS CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The 15-inch screen has an FHD 1080p resolution and refresh rates of up to 144Hz.

This is an awful lot of power in such a small form factor, and so is ideal for either gaming or some serious content creation work that can make use of the powerful hardware inside the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. 

With stunning looks to match its gaming pedigree, the Asus ROG Zephyrus looks the part — and with its 144Hz display, this laptop will be able to supply stunning fluidity to games, making it great for playing FPS titles like Counter-Strike, Valorant, or Doom.

Want to take your gaming to a friend's house? Then having a powerful computer in a laptop form is the best way of transporting your gaming station. 

More Asus ROG Zephyrus Deals

Updated 3/17/2022 @ 10:04am EST. Unfortunately, all RTX 30 cards are now out of stock. The original story is presented below:

We reported yesterday that GPU prices continue to fall, dropping another 9 percent during the first half of March. That’s good news for gamers who have been forced to buy graphics cards at inflated prices due to chip shortages and Ethereum mining demand. However, even with the lower prices, the best graphics cards for gaming are still selling at well over MSRP.

That isn’t the case at EVGA, which sells its range of graphics cards directly to customers via its online store. While most of its GeForce RTX 30 line-up is out of stock, surprisingly, it has two RTX 3080 Ti SKUs available to purchase at MSRP. First up is the RTX 3080 Ti XC3 Ultra Gaming, priced at $1,329.99. You’ll find a triple-fan setup, iCX3 cooling tech with a copper base for the heatsink, a metal backplate, and of course, RGB lighting.

If you want even more performance, the RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming cranks even higher with a max GPU boost clock of 1,800 MHz but will set you back $1,429.99.

While the Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition has an MSRP of $1,199.99, EVGA’s cards are custom designs with added features and higher clocks, which explains their loftier MSRPs. But even at MSRP, EVGA’s cards are roughly $150 to $250 cheaper than the current going rate on third-party marketplaces like eBay. 

EVGA also has the RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 Ultra Gaming and the RTX 3080 12GB XC3 Ultra Gaming in stock for $1299.99 and $1,249.99, respectively. Of course, the availability of all these cards is subject to change, but they’ve been in stock since at least Tuesday evening, so perhaps EVGA has plenty of inventory to go around.

Unfortunately, none of the more mainstream offerings, like EVGA’s RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 or RTX 3070 Ti cards, are in stock at the moment. That’s the real “sweet spot” in the market, offering respectable performance to gamers at affordable prices – if you can grab them at MSRP.

The latest version of FinalWire's AIDA64 benchmarking and diagnostic software brings in support for Nvidia's unannounced GA102F graphics processor. The chip is cloaked in mystery as Nvidia seems to be rolling it out very late in Ampere's lifecycle, and it has never previously added letters to designations of its GPUs.

FinalWire's AIDA64 version 6.60.5933 beta can read GPU information for Nvidia's GA102F processor, according to release notes (discovered by @momomo_us). The release notes do not disclose what product will be powered by the GA102F or how the chip will be used, but it was important enough for Nvidia share its ID and specifications with FinalWire to include in AIDA64.

Being the world's largest supplier of graphics processing units with about 85% market share, Nvidia can afford the luxury of developing GPU silicon aimed at very specific market segments. Just recently Nvidia introduced its GA103 chip (featuring a 496 mm^2 die size) that was specifically for the laptop-bound GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, but which is also being used in the desktop GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The design costs for such a chip are in the hundreds of millions of dollars range, but as it can be used in a wide range of products from enthusiast-grade gaming laptops to performance graphics cards, its design is well justified.

But Nvidia's GA102 is a massive 628 mm^2 graphics processor containing 28.3 billion of transistors, so its design costs are in the hundreds of millions and its re-spin costs are extremely high as well. Making a new revision of this chip a couple of quarters ahead of the rumored Ada / RTX 40-series launch is an extremely odd move, given GA102 is only used for a relatively limited range of products. Nonetheless, just a couple of weeks before the company is expected to launch its flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GPU, AIDA64 has added GA102F support.

Perhaps GA102F is indeed a version of GA102 with some changes designed to improve yields of full-fat silicon and make the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti somewhat more practical from manufacturing point of view. Or maybe GA102F is a version of GA102 designed specifically for cloud datacenters and therefore prone to high temperatures and constant load. Another possibility is that this is a chip aimed at cryptocurrency mining that's been adjusted in some fashion — or potentially the opposite, a chip designed specifically not to do well at mining.

Assuming the GA102F ends up in cards for the PC gaming market, it will certainly compete with the best graphics cards. We expect more details will come to light in the coming weeks.

It's been a year and a half since the launch of the Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU, and they are still hard to get hold of, and even harder to find anywhere near close to an MSRP of some kind.  Well, today we are in luck as AO.com have knocked £250 off the asking price of the Omen GT13-1047na - bringing this RTX 3080 powered beast down to £1,750.

This Omen GT13-1047na Gaming Tower not only comes with an Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU but also an eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, with an additional 2TB HDD, this makes for a pretty high-performance gaming PC with plenty of power for other productive tasks. 

HP is a very well-known brand, and one thing they do very well includes using name-brand parts in their pre-built gaming PCs. You can expect the RAM to be Hyper X Fury and the SSD to be Western Digital Black.

The Omen GT13-1047na Gaming Tower comes in an attractive case with all the rainbow RGB you could wish for. There may be a little bit of bloat software pre-installed, but nothing that you can't remove or disable later.

Don't underestimate the rest of the components either - besides the RTX 3080 GPU, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is a fantastic CPU for gaming, and you can check out our review of the 5800X and how it fares in our CPU hierarchy.  

More HP Omen Deals

Right now, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 with RTX 3080 GPU has fallen to its lowest ever price — under $2,000 after a huge 16% discount.

Not only that, but the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition with RTX 3060 is still at an amazingly low price, you can get $120 off the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU and much more.

TL;DR — Today’s best deals

• Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 Gaming Laptop: was $2,399, now $1,999 at Newegg
• Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition: was $1,799, now $1,322 at Dell with code 50OFF699
• Ryzen 9 5950X: was $799, now $679 at Newegg with code SSBP223
• Rosewill PMG550 80 Plus Gold Certified 550W Fully Modular Power Supply: was $139, now $69 at Newegg
• Razer Huntsman Gaming Bundle – Keyboard + Mouse + Pad + Headset: was $249, now $149 at CostCo

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It turns out that Nvidia's recently introduced GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics processor for laptops (which we tested in MSI's GE76 Raider earlier this week) doesn't use severely cut-down GA102 silicon. Instead, it relies on a rather mysterious GA103 die. A Chinese video blogger snapped a pic of the new GPU this week, revealing that this is a brand-new piece of silicon with a 496 mm^2 die size designed with high-end gaming laptops in mind. But it could also make a lot of sense for desktops.

Following the launch of the mobile GeForce RTX 3080 Ti this week, Chinese video blogger Geekerwan (via VideoCardz) opened up a laptop featuring the GPU and revealed the GA103 graphics processor, labeled as GN20-E8-A1.

Geekerwan's measurements indicate that GA103's die size is 496 mm^2, putting it right between the lower-end GA104 (392 mm^2) and the higher-end GA102 (628 mm^2). Earlier rumors indicated that the GA103 GPU features as many as 7680 CUDA cores and a 320-bit memory interface. But in the case of the laptop GPU, Nvidia cut the GPU down to 7424 CUDA cores, 96 texture units, 58 render backends, and a 256-bit memory interface.  

Given the ongoing GPU supply and pricing issues, a natural question is whether the company intends to use GA103 for desktop PCs. If Nvidia decides to fill the gap between the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (6144 CUDA cores, 256-bit memory interface) and the GeForce RTX 3080 (8704 CUDA cores, 320-bit memory interface), the GA103 may be just what the doctor ordered, with its up to 7680 CUDA cores and a 320-bit memory bus. In fact, even cut-down variants of the GA103 make sense for desktops and could compete with the best graphics cards around. 

Nvidia GPU Comparisons

We have no idea which configurations of GA103 GPUs will be available and where they will land (desktop or laptop). But since Nvidia frequently disables about 20% of its GPU's functional units (and up to 40% semi-officially) when it needs to sell partially faulty processors, there is a very fertile field for speculation here.

When Nvidia introduced the high-end RTX 30-series 'Ampere' lineup in mid-2020, one thing that stuck out was the huge gap between the GA102 processor (up to 84 SMs and 384-bit interface) and the GA104 GPU (up to 48 SMs and a 256-bit interface). Given the supply shortages for GPUs, filling that gap with a smaller GPU that still meets the needs of cards like the desktop 3080 could mean more cards to go around.

While Nvidia has a lot of freedom with configurations of its GPUs, the GA102 was still too complex and seemingly too hot for a laptop, even when severely cut down. There were rumors about the GA103 GPU at the time, but since Nvidia never confirmed the chip, it was forgotten—until this week.

That gives Nvidia a lot of flexibility with Ampere GPUs. The 3090, 3080 Ti, 3080 12GB, and the upcoming 3090 Ti all need the largest GA102 chip, due to using its 384-bit interface. Currently, the mobile 3080 Ti is the only model using GA103, but it would make sense to also use that chip for the 3080 10GB and potentially the 3070 Ti as well. GA104 is the most ubiquitous of the chips right now, finding use in the 3070 Ti, 3070, 3060 Ti, and 3060 on the desktop size, as well as the 3080, 3070, and 3060 laptop models. Then there's the GA106 for the 3060 and 3050 desktop cards and mobile 3060, and finally the GA107 is currently only used in the mobile 3050 Ti and 3050.

That's five different GPUs spread out over fourteen GeForce products, never mind the various professional Nvidia cards and the GA100 data center chips. Of course, balancing wafer production across all those designs is something else Nvidia has to consider, but it's basically the only company using Samsung Foundry's 8N node. We can only hope that supply will catch up to demand, sooner than later.

Today, thanks to a massive $500 price cut, you can pick up the MSI GP66 Leopard with a powerful RTX 3080 GPU for just $1,799. The only other time we saw a price this low was for just a few hours on Black Friday!

Not only that, but you can get $40 off the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, use a discount code to save big on the Asus TUF Gaming Z590 motherboard and much more.

TL;DR — Today’s best deals

• MSI GP66 Leopard gaming laptop: was $2,299, now $1,799 at Newegg
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X: was $309, now $269 at Amazon
• Alienware m15 R4 Gaming Laptop: was $2,299, now $1,349 at Dell with code 50OFF699
• Samsung A800 4K Monitor: was $479, now $279 at Best Buy
• Asus TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WiFi: was $259, now $220 @ Newegg with code SSBN2523

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A stunning new, special-edition graphics card from Nvidia has appeared on its social media pages in China. An Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card wrapped with The Matrix Resurrections tribute design poses from all angles in a Weibo post. Even more excitingly, the limited-edition cards are up for grabs as a prize to Nvidia and The Matrix fans. Unfortunately, this particular competition looks like it is limited to China-only, but read below for some links to similar global contests.

Tom's Hardware has reviewed several Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti by AIB partners such as Zotac, Galax, with special mention for the Asus ROG Strix LC model combined with an AIO cooler. So, readers know pretty much what to expect in terms of hardware under the shroud. With this card, you are getting what appears to be a reference design cooler; however, the graphics for The Matrix fans will make it a real object of desire.

The reference GeForce RTX 3080 Ti features 10,240 CUDA cores, a GPU boost clock of 1.67 GHz, and 12GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus. While its boost clocks are a smidgeon lower than the standard GeForce RTX 3080 (at 1.71 GHz), the CUDA core count represents a significant uplift over the 8,704 / 8,960 offered by the 10GB / 12GB RTX 3080 models, respectively.

If you live in China, you can follow the Weibo link in the intro and enter the competition to grab an Nvidia The Matrix Resurrections GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Tribute Graphics Card by sharing the original post. You must also leave a comment about Nvidia and The Matrix. The competition, which went live on Friday, closes ahead of the January 21 prize draw.

Nvidia Global The Matrix Giveaways

Nvidia's global social media also has some prizes up for grabs, but please be quick. Nvidia shared a post featuring a complete custom GeForce Matrix PC build on its Twitter accounts, which looks exciting, though it is a singular product. Meanwhile, a post showcases three custom Matrix-themed backplates, which Nvidia gives away with GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards. Like the Weibo competition, you need to share and say something to enter. As the global competitions are on Twitter, Nvidia wants you to add a hashtag #TheMatrix, too.

Today's real deals kick off the long weekend in style with a massive $650 off the Gigabyte Aorus 17G with RTX 3080 graphics.

Other top deals include huge savings on the Intel Core i9-11900K CPU, a half-price Logitech gaming mouse and more.

TL;DR — Today’s best deals

• Gigabyte Aorus 17G: was $2,549.99, now $1,899.99 at Newegg with rebate
• Razer Huntsman TKL: was $129.99, now $79.99 at Amazon
• Acer Nitro XV270 27-inch gaming monitor: was $249.99, now $199.99 at Newegg
• Logitech G502 Hero: was $79, now $35 at Best Buy
• Intel Core i9-11900K: was $609, now $519 at Newegg

Today’s best deals in detail

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One of the worst-kept secrets in the gaming industry has now been made official. After months of leaks, NVIDIA today officially launched the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB, which slots in between the existing RTX 3080 10GB and RTX 3080 Ti and could be in the running for the best graphics cards for gaming. There wasn't any considerable fanfare about the new SKU, as NVIDIA simply updated the main RTX 3080 product page to reflect the changes.

As we previously reported, the RTX 3080 12GB differentiates itself by including 12GB of 19 Gbps GDDR6X memory instead of 10GB. The other big differentiator is that the GDDR6X runs on a wider 384-bit memory bus (versus 320 bits), giving it a roughly 20 percent boost in available bandwidth. There are also a few other changes meant to boost performance.

The number of CUDA cores increased from 8706 to 8960, RT cores ticked up from 68 to 70, and Tensor cores jumped from 272 to 280. Interestingly, the base clock is slightly lower at 1.26 GHz compared to 1.44 GHz, though the boost clock remains the same at 1.71 GHz. Finally, the TDP for the RTX 3080 12GB is 30 watts higher at 350 watts.

With these performance increases, the RTX 3080 12GB should be nipping at the heels of the more expensive RTX 3080 Ti. In fact, we're a bit surprised this product even got released, but it likely all goes back to pricing and availability. It's also apparently "driven by Nvidia's partners," and there won't be any Founders Edition available — the original RTX 3080 will continue to be sold, and this is simply a new variant.

The RTX 3080 10GB has an MSRP of $699, which in light of the shortages and price gouging occurring at retail appears to have been "too low." The RTX 3080 Ti comes in at $1,199, and while Nvidia didn't specify an MSRP on the new 3080 12GB, we expect it will land somewhere around the $999 price point.

Obviously, GPU prices are out of control in the GPU sphere. Due to chip shortages, higher-end Ampere GPUs are selling for nearly 2x their MSRP on third-party marketplaces. We can expect the same situation for the RTX 3080 12GB, as MSI's cards were briefly listed on German retailer Mindfactory's website for €1,699 (around $1,926).

So far, EVGA, MSI and Inno3D have gone official with their RTX 3080 12GB cards, and we're sure that that the usual suspects like Asus and Gigabyte will chime in shortly with their offerings.

The latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB graphics cards, sporting an increased GDDR6X memory pool compared to the original RTX 3080 10 GB cards, appeared, somewhat briefly for sale in Europe. But "blink and you miss it" and the cards are now delisted. Hat tip to Videocardz.

German retailer Mindfactory listed two different MSI graphics cards - the MSI RTX 3080 Gaming Z Lite Hash Rate (LHR), and the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X LHR. The cards had starting prices set at a colossal €1,699 (~$1926). Another retailer, this time based in France, also listed the Gaming Z model from MSI at the same €1,699 price-point. The retailers have unfortunately brought down the links already - but that's where the magic of screenshots becomes relevant, as you can see in the listings below.

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB cards have had a somewhat unusual "launch", with no official word from Nvidia on its specifications or even an MSRP value. Considering recent pricing practices from AIB partners - and the absence of an Nvidia Founders Edition card - it seems that Nvidia's board partners were given free rein to price their graphics cards according to the already established "new normal" of pricing for the best graphics cards in the context of severe demand paired with supply constraints.

Unfortunately, none of the retailers actually listed the cards' specifications beyond the 12 GB of VRAM and the expected LHR cryptocurrency mining limitation. This means that there's still no information other than what has been made public through leaks and rumors on the new Nvidia graphics card, a process that began around two months ago. Naturally, that means that rumored specifications are all we have at the moment - and those must always be taken with a grain of salt.

Even so, the current expectation for Nvidia's latest RTX 3080 12 GB cards is that it should still retain the GA-102 GPU from the RTX 3080, albeit with an additional two Streaming Multiprocessor (SM) clusters, bringing the computing power of the card up to 8,960 CUDA cores, 280 Tensor cores, and 70 RT cores (compared to the RTX 3080 10 GB's 8,704 CUDA cores, 272 Tensor cores, and 68 RT cores) for an additional, on-paper 3% increase in computing resources. The increased VRAM capacity is a given at this time, although there are still questions surrounding the operating speed of the 12 GB GDDR6X VRAM banks - they likely still operate at the same 19 Gbps as in the original RTX 3080. An increase in the width of the memory interface (384-bit in the RTX 3080 12 GB compared to 320-bit in the RTX 3080 10 GB) is also rumored, which would unlock a 912.4 GBps memory bandwidth (20% higher than the RTX 3080's).

The GeForce RTX 2060 12GB isn't the only recent graphics card from Nvidia with upgraded memory. VideoCardz has shared two renders of a custom GeForce RTX 3080 12GB, a rumored Ampere graphics card that has been in the rumor mill for a couple of months now.

As far as the ingredients go, the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB will presumptively continue to use Nvidia's GA102 die, the same silicon that's inside the GeForce RTX 3080. However, the rumors point to a more generous amount of enabled Streaming Multiprocessors (SM). While the regular GeForce RTX 3080's silicon has 68 SMs (8,704 CUDA cores), the 12GB variant may arrive with two additional SMs. That would reportedly put the core counts to 8,960 CUDA cores, 280 Tensor cores, and 70 RT cores. It's not a massive upgrade, but a 3% higher amount of CUDA cores should give the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB a fairly noticeable advantage in benchmarks.

The GeForce RTX 3080 12GB, as its name denotes, will arrive with 12GB of GDDR6X memory, 2GB more than the standard GeForce RTX 3080. The memory modules likely won't change, and we'll probably see 19 Gbps chips on the GeForce RTX 3080 12G. However, the revamped Ampere graphics card presumably comes with a 384-bit memory interface. The wider bus would allow the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB to hit a memory bandwidth of 912.4 GBps, 20% higher than the regular GeForce RTX 3080 with its 320-bit memory interface.

Having more cores and memory means that GeForce RTX 3080 12GB should have a more demanding TDP. The GeForce RTX 3080 has a 320W TDP, so it wouldn't come as a surprise if the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB ends up debuting with a TDP rating between 340W to 350W. If there is any truth to the rumor, then the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB's TDP could be in the same league as the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (350W).

Regarding the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 Ultra Gaming, the graphics card appears to feature the same 2.75-slot design as the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 Ultra Gaming. The beefy iCX3 cooling system is still present, and the graphics card continues to depend on three 8-pin PCIe power connectors to get all the juice it requires. If it weren't for the "12GB GDDR6X" label on the packaging, you wouldn't be able to tell the two apart.

VideoCardz believes that Nvidia could launch the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB tomorrow while lifting the review embargo and giving retailers the green light to sell the new Ampere monster. Given the graphics card shortage, there will likely be limited stock. Whatever is available may not be at MSRP, either.

Today's Real Deals round-up is an important one, as this is the first time we've ever seen an RTX 3080 laptop on sale for less than $1,900. Prices have been coming down towards the two thousand-dollar mark, but this is a rare treat of a sale!

Other offers include $50 off an LG 32-inch 4K monitor, $50 off Samsung's 980 Pro SSD, a Thermaltake modular PSU for under $100 and more.

TL;DR — Today’s best deals

• MSI GP66 Leopard gaming laptop: was $2,599, now $1,849 at Newegg
• LG 32UN500-W: was $349, now $299 at Best Buy
• Samsung 980 Pro NVMe Gen 4 M.2 SSD (1TB): was $229.99, now $179.99 @ Best Buy
• Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850W: was $139, now $99 at Amazon
• Corsair LL Series LL120 RGB 120mm fans 3-pack: was $123, now $89 at Amazon

Today’s best deals in detail

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Eurocom has introduced its Nightsky RX315 laptop with a 15.6-inch 4K OLED panel that features desktop-grade performance yet weighs only around 4.4 pounds. The Nightsky RX315 will be one of the industry's first desktop replacement machines to get an OLED screen. Furthermore, it will also be one of a few machines on the market that offers both Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 and an OLED display. 

The Eurocom Nightsky RX315 laptop is indeed a pretty interesting PC that comes in a titanium black aluminum alloy chassis that is only 20 mm (0.8 inch) thick and packs Intel's eight-core Core i7-11800H 'Tiger Lake' processor. You also get a choice of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 (8GB GDDR6) or GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6) GPU with Max-Q configuration that are cooled down with individual blowers to ensure proper airflow.  

Despite its relatively compact dimensions, the system can be equipped with up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 memory using two SO-DIMMs, and up to 16TB of M.2 NVMe SSDs via a PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 x4 interface (when higher-capacity M.2 drives are available, the laptop will accommodate even more storage).

The key selling point of the Eurocom Nightsky RX315 laptop is, of course, its display. Introduced in early 2019, Samsung's 15.6-inch 4K OLED panels for laptops feature rather decent specifications (brightness ranging from 0.0005 to 600 nits, a dynamic contrast ratio of 120,000:1, 60Hz, 100% DCI-P3, VESA DisplayHDR True Black, etc.), so owners of the Nightsky RX315 notebook know what to expect. Furthermore, Eurocom can calibrate the display to provide maximum color accuracy for $74. 

"Our technicians can also calibrate this impressive display to offer perfect color reproduction right out of the box," said Mark Bialic, the head of Eurocom. "As many of our customers are leading designers, engineers, and digital content creators, having a perfectly calibrated display is essential." 

Meanwhile, if someone wants a 240 Hz LCD panel instead, the manufacturer also offers a Full-HD IGZO option. Meanwhile, since the GPUs have four display controllers, the Nightsky RX315 can also drive three external monitors.

Since the Eurocom Nightsky RX315 is essentially a workstation, it includes Wi-Fi, a GbE port, three display outputs (HDMI, mDP, TB4), a Thunderbolt 4 connector, three USB 3.2 ports, a 6-in-1 card reader, a 1MP webcam, a SoundBlasterX Pro Gaming 360 audio subsystem, and two 3.5-mm audio jacks (controlled by the Realtec ALC1220 codec and supporting S/P DIF over one of the jacks). To boost the machine's security, Eurocom equips it with a fingerprint scanner and a TPM 2.0 module. 

Pricing of the Eurocom Nightsky RX315 with a 15.6-inch OLED display starts at $2,799 without Windows. The beefiest configuration will retail for around $11,000.

It's only day 2 of our new daily Real Deals coverage and we're already seeing some must-have savings including the esports tier Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 with RTX 3080 GPU for less than $2,000 (its lowest ever price).

Today's special offers also include getting $70 off the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, a 30% saving on a modular PSU, cheap Crucial Ballistix DDR4 RAM and more!

TL;DR — Today’s best deals

• Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 Gaming Laptop: was $2,399, now $1,999 at Newegg
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X: was $423, now $368 at Newegg with code LGBSNZ442
• Crucial Ballistix 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM (16GB) memory kit: was $75, now $46 at Newegg
• Xbox Stereo Headset 20th Anniversary Edition: was $69, now $59 at Walmart
• Super Flower Leadex III 750W Modular Power Supply: was $129, now $89 at Newegg

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Mining expert CryptoDonkeyMiner on YouTube has discovered a new opportunity to boost the mining performance of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards. According to a community post on his YouTube channel, the trick involves flashing the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti BIOS to a specific GeForce RTX 3090 OEM model made from Dell. This change can potentially improve the RTX 3080 Ti's mining performance to over 110 MH/s.

So to do this, you'll need NVFlash utility to flash the BIOS from Dell's GeForce RTX 3090 BIOS. For now, the hack only works with Dell and Alienware GeForce RTX 3080 Ti products. We wouldn't suggest you try the workaround on your graphics card unless you genuinely want to take matters into your own hands.

Even if you have a Dell GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, this is by no means a very safe or official way to improve the mining performance of the Ampere graphics card. So do this at your own risk. It is a shame this hack does not work on any other brand at this time, but there is another hack that might suit you if you're looking for more performance anyway. 

About a month ago, we reported on another GeForce RTX 3080 Ti mining "hack" that improved performance by 21%. The process involved flashing the BIOS of any GeForce RTX 3080 Ti to an updated EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti XC3 BIOS, which can yield up to 91 MH/s in mining performance. 

The only exception to this hack is all EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti models, which should already have a new firmware update available that gives you this 21% performance boost.

You can find CryptoDonkeyMiner's original post below:

CONFIRMED! So far works for DELL and ALIENWARE GPUS! For those that have a DELL RTX 3080 TI or any other RTX 3080 TI with a device ID that contains 2204 (See GPU Z Device ID field), you should be able to flash your card with this (3090 BIOS) https://www.techpowerup.com /vgabios /236871/ dell-rtx3090-24576-210726 (remove spaces) and get ETH hashrate above 110 MH/s. 

I tried myself, however nvflash and HiveOS flash wont flash, as my ID is 2208. Thanks to Mohammad Fahham for informing me! Warning, as always, flashing your card may brick it, etc, house burn down and cat die. If you get it to work, please write which model you have! 

Commands nvflash64 -b backup.rom nvflash64 --list nvflash64 --index=5 --protectoff nvflash64 --index=5 Dell.RTX3090.24576.210726.rom 

Remove 64 if you dont have the 64 bit version of nvflash. Change 5 with the index number from --list that fits your GPU.

-- CryptoDonkeyMiner

After Black Friday, we didn’t expect to see gaming laptop deals that are this insanely good, but here we are with the true definition of the phrase “good surprise.” 

Right now at Newegg, the Gigabyte Aorus 15P with RTX 3080 graphics is now $600 off, which takes the price down to a mightily impressive $1,799.

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Of course, the impressive price-to-power ratio is a huge selling point here, but as you can read in our Gigabyte Aorus 15P review, there’s a lot more to love about this system. It all starts with the lightweight, sleek design that doesn’t look as over-the-top gamer-esque as many of its competitors. It’s actually a breath of fresh air to see a gaming laptop not look so angular and covered with RGB.

None of this compact styling compromises the performance, though, thanks to the patented WINDFORCE cooling technology — sporting dual 12V fans for strong airflow, 5 heat pipes and a lot of tactically-placed vents, to ensure your high-powered components are running at their best.

Pair that with plenty of I/O, including HDMI 2.1 and Thunderbolt 4, a snappy chiclet keyboard, up to 8-hours of battery life and that Pantone-certified display, and this becomes both a seriously fast machine for pro-level productivity and gaming alike.

LG expanded its UltraGear PC gaming products with an ambitious new laptop series today that might soon vie for a spot on our list of best gaming laptops. The new gaming portable is described as "a powerful performer with a seriously sleek design," and it doesn't solely rely on self-praise at this early stage: The new machine has collected a CES 2022 Innovation Award. However, the gaming market is a tough one to crack, so let us look closer and see if it has a fighting chance.

LG's first gaming laptop will be dubbed the LG UltraGear 17G90Q. Putting on a codename decoding hat, you might easily and correctly guess this is a 17-inch laptop (17), aimed at gaming (G), but the 90 appears to be a nomenclature dead end, and the Q suffix doesn't mean it has a QHD screen - according to the specs the 17-inch IPS screen is FHD 1920 x 1080.

While we are on the topic of the screen, LG certainly seems to have fast-paced gaming covered with a quoted 1ms GtG response time and 300Hz refresh rate. Also, color gamut reproduction is a decent 99% of sRGB, good enough for casual content creators. Unfortunately, LG's specs don't reveal any other details about the screen, so we will probably have to wait for CES for more.

Before pondering over the internal specs, another key attraction of the new LG UltraGear laptop designs is that they "share DNA with LG's lightweight Gram laptops." That means these aluminum-cased gaming laptops are sleek and attractive, and offer good levels of portability for their screen sizes. For example, the LG UltraGear 17G90Q, being a 17-incher, is a competitive 21.4mm thick, and weighs under 2.7kg, even though it packs in a sizeable 93Wh battery.

Under the hood, LG has plumped for a tried and trusted combination of an 11th-Gen Intel Tiger Lake-H CPU (so there may be a range of processor choices from the family to pick) and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q GPU.

Cooling Concerns

LG's current expertise lies in thin and light laptops, obviously represented by its Gram line. However, a gaming laptop is quite a different beast, and with LG trying to share Gram DNA here, some may worry about gaming performance parts throttling under duress.

According to the press release, LG has thermals taken care of, as a "vapor chamber keeps the laptop running cool, even when pushed to the limits." We have seen many laptops fall at this hurdle before, so it might be best to wait for third party reviews before feeling too assured about the cooling.

LG also uses the RTX 3080 Max-Q, which is usually configured towards the lower range of the 80 - 150W bracket. This contrasts to the likes of the Alienware x17, which addresses a similar market but has a significantly beefier cooling system to cope with the RTX 3080 GPU configured for 165W.

Other Features and Specs

Buyers will be able to configure LG UltraGear 17G90Q systems with 16 or 32GB of DDR4 using the dual slots and up to a 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD (2 slots provided).

Users will also appreciate the RGB backlit keyboard with per-key configuration options, 3D sound via 2-ways speakers, supporting DTS:X Ultra, fingerprint reader in the power button, FHD webcam with Dual Mic, IR Camera, plus Wi-Fi 6E & Intel Killer Wireless networking.

I/O ports include USB 4 Gen 3×2 Type C (x1, USB PD-out & TBT4), USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 Type C (x1, USB PD-out & DP), USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 (x2), Audio (4-Pole Headset, US type), HDMI, Ethernet RJ45, DC-In, and microSD/UFS reader.

LG provides its UltraGear Studio software to allow users to monitor and configure stats such as CPU clock, GPU TDP and clock, and memory performance – in real-time.

You can learn more about the Ultragear 17G90Q laptops at CES starting from Jan 4, 2022. The first machines will become available in the US and South Korea in early 2022, with other markets to follow. It will be particularly interesting to see pricing, and once it's revealed check out our list of LG promo codes. With expectations of next-gen laptop CPUs and GPUs being launched at CES 2022, hopefully LG can respond quickly and get this promising design updated.

Normally, the most powerful RTX 3080 laptops available today come with a massive price tag and zero chance of a discount — especially now we are clear of Black Friday.

But MSI seems to be on a different planet, as the company just dropped its top-of-the-line gaming system to a lower price than it ever was on the biggest sales day of the year.

Right now, you can get $600 off the MSI GE66 Raider with RTX 3080 and 11th Gen Intel Core i9 power. At Amazon and Newegg, the price is now down to $2,899, which is a seriously impressive discount for what you get!

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Of course, the big specs are the selling point here, but there is a lot more to love about this machine, which we cover in our MSI GE66 Raider review. This beast picked up our highly-coveted Editor’s Choice award for its “unapologetically extra” design and incredible performance.

Packed within the svelte and stylish design, atop a beautiful RGB bar, the 4K screen runs at an oh-so smooth 120Hz. That’s an impressive jump up from the usual 60Hz you get on laptop panels of this resolution and makes it great for high quality gaming — making the most of its RTX 3080 GPU with 16GB GDDR6 video memory.

Pair that with plenty of I/O for connecting this into your home setup or playing on-the-go, and the impressive thermal management consisting of larger fans and heatpipes than the last generation, and you have something pretty special for the price.

If you’ve been on the lookout for an awesome portable gaming experience this holiday season, the GE66 Raider is an impeccable --and now more affordable than ever-- choice.

Nvidia this week started two contests and plans to give away valuable prizes to the enthusiast community. Up for grabs in the first contest are three official Matrix Resurrections-themed PCs equipped with the latest AMD Ryzen processors and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards. A separate contest is offering up individual GeForce RTX 3080 Ti boards, gaming mice, and gaming monitors.

To win one of the three custom-built Matrix Resurrections-themed PCs or five Matrix-themed GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE backplates, contestants will need to follow Nvidia's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram channels to get key prompts and instructions from December 14 to December 22 (this is when the new Matrix film debuts in the USA and Europe). Then, they will need to like/comment/share posts and use the #MatrixResurrections hashtags when asked.  

The systems that Nvidia is raffling includes the following:  

• The Digital Storm Backup operator that is equipped with three small displays, is based on the Ryzen 9 5950X as well as GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and built by Stefan Ulrich aka RandomDesign; 
• The NXZT Nebuchadnezzar assembled by Dave Cathey aka Insolent Gnome featuring AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X as well as Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti inside and enhanced with Sentinel arms outside; 
• The Breaker created by Staszek 'Tips' Wiertelak using the Ryzen 9 3950X and the GeForce RTX 3090. Apparently, this one comes with a notebook and a retro graphics card from the early 2000s.

Professional modders built all the machines, which feature elements taken from the Matrix movies. They offer formidable performance and great cooling to ensure predictable framerates in modern games.

In addition to the Matrix Resurrection raffle, Nvidia is holding a System Latency Challenge from December 14 to December 21. To participate, one needs to download Kovaak’s, an aim trainer, and play it under Nvidia Experiments. Participants will then need to post a screenshot of their score from the leaderboard on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #FramesWinGames. Since this is still a lottery, winners will be chosen randomly, so professional gamers with high scores will not receive any benefits for their skills. 

The good news is that this competition will include many more prizes than the Matrix-themed contest. Items include nine Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti boards, nine Logitech Pro X Superlight mice, and nine MSI Oculux NXG253R 360 Hz gaming displays. Good luck to all that enter Nvidia's contests!

FinalWire just released the latest 6.60 version of AIDA64, its diagnostic and benchmarking software. The latest version brings in preliminary support for Intel's next-generation Raptor Lake processors as well as Nvidia's yet-to-be-announced top-of-the-range graphics processor for mobile PCs, essentially confirming the green company's plans to launch the rumored GeForce RTX 3080 Ti laptop GPU. We don't have detailed specifications for either of those yet, but assuming you manage to get your hands on an early sample, AIDA64 will apparently know what it is.

Enhanced CPU Support 

FinalWire's AIDA64 v6.60 update introduces multiple innovations, including AVX-512 and AVX2 accelerated benchmarks for Intel's Alder Lake (which do not officially support AVX-512). It also has support for Raptor Lake processors and preliminary support for the next generation Meteor Lake CPUs that are due to land about two years from now. In addition, the new version of the tool includes an AVX accelerated benchmark for various Zhaoxin and Hygon C86 Mukti/Dhyana processors.

But while it is nice to see enhanced support for Intel's Alder Lake and Raptor Lake CPUs as well as Chinese CPUs, the confirmation of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti for laptops looks particularly interesting. 

Nvidia's GA102 and RTX 3080 Ti Coming to Laptops

It's been rumored that Nvidia plans to introduce new Ti-branded GeForce RTX GPUs for desktops with more VRAM. Now it looks as though there will also be some new GeForce RTX 30-series Ti products for laptops in the near future. According to the press release, what's even more exciting is that a new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will be coming to laptops.

The notes state, "GPU details for nVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12GB and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop." What they don't say is whether that GPU will be based on Nvidia's GA104 GPU (with up to 6144 CUDA cores) or if it will use GA102 GPU (with up to 10752 CUDA cores). However, Nvidia already has the GA104-powered GeForce RTX 3080 for laptops with 6144 CUDA cores, so using the same GPU with higher clocks or more VRAM may not make a lot of sense. What seems more likely is that Nvidia will use the considerably larger and more power hungry GA102 in a configuration appropriate for high-end gaming notebooks.

At present, Nvidia's GA102 is used exclusively for desktop graphics cards: the GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and GeForce RTX 3080. While those all require 320W or more power, Nvidia could drop the clocks and maybe even switch to GDDR6 memory (instead of GDDR6X) to fit the chip into a mobile profile. The biggest notebooks top out at around 150W of power for the GPU, and such a configuration should be possible. It would also unlock performance levels previously not available for mobile PCs. Of course that would impact battery life, but for desktop replacement notebooks that shouldn't matter too much.

Nvidia yet has to confirm its plans to launch the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti for laptops, so take this information with a grain of salt. However, AIDA64 isn't normally prone to leaking false information, so we strongly suspect we'll see the GPU in notebooks in the coming months.

Black Friday is in the rearview mirror, but Dell apparently didn’t get the message, as we’ve just found one of the best top-of-the-line Alienware gaming PC deals of the year!

Right now at Dell, the Alienware Aurora R12 with RTX 3080 Ti graphics and 11th Gen Intel Core i9 processing is $619 off — taking the price down to $2,939.

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Of course, you’re buying this for the pure power under the hood, but looking beyond the spec sheet, there’s a whole lot to love about this machine. In some ways, this is similar to the Alienware Aurora R11, which as you can read about in our review, brought a lot of innovation to the table.

These include the modern, stylish chassis with subtle RGB lighting, which is purpose-built to maximise airflow and be easy to open. Plus, the massive range of I/O gives you versatility to fit this into any setup, and make the most of that monster RTX 3080 Ti GPU and liquid-cooled 11th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU.

The 32GB DDR4 RAM and 2TB of storage combines with the above to not only make this an ultimate gaming machine, but crush any and all kind of system-intensive work with the greatest of ease. None of us expected to see a pre-built beast of this caliber for under $3,000, and we’ve just been proven wrong! If you’re a pro-level gamer looking for the best, this is the best deal right now.

Nvidia is improving the GeForce Now RTX 3080 experience on Apple's M1 laptops, the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. Specifically, a new update to GeForce Now will allow for gaming at 1600p.

Both of those laptops have 2560 x 1600 displays, so Nvidia is supporting native resolutions. Previously, GeForce Now listed only 1080p on Macs at this tier. Nvidia told Tom's Hardware that users will still be able to stream up to 120 frames per second previously as you could at 1080p.

The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max, have higher resolution displays than the 13-inch Pro and the Air. Nvidia clarified that those machines, too, will be able to stream at up to 1600p and 120 fps.

In the same blog post, Nvidia announced a limited-time promotion for GeForce Now RTX 3080 memberships or six-month Priority subscriptions to get a free copy of Crysis Remastered on the Epic Games Store. Additionally, Nvidia is adding updates to PC and Mac users to link Nvidia and Ubisoft accounts to launch Ubisoft Connect games more quickly.

The Mac is a big part of Nvidia's push with GeForce Now. After all, those with Windows-based gaming PCs already have access to the most popular gaming titles. But while Apple's latest chips have some powerful GPUs, the biggest mainstream video game developers and publishers haven't paid a ton of attention to the Mac in recent years. (Indie devs have done better in this regard.) Nvidia hopes the Apple faithful will use its service to stream those titles.

Additionally, many of the games that did work on Mac didn't survive the macOS transition away from 32-bit apps. And with M1, programs that aren't reworked to run natively need to be emulated through Rosetta 2. Nvidia's argument here is that Mac users won't need to worry about software compatibility when they stream from the internet because the games run on its servers.

GeForce Now, Nvidia says, will give Mac users that experience without also needing a PC. The same goes for phones, tablets and weaker Windows PCs.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 subscription is available for pre-order for $99.99 for six months and also promises eight-hour gaming sessions. The Priority membership, with a "premium rig" with RTX graphics (up to 1080p at 60 fps), is $49.99 for six months, or $9.99 per month, and has a six-hour limit. The free tier on a "basic rig" has a one-hour limit. Any of these should work on an M1 Mac, but you will only get native resolution on the most expensive option.

New Games on GeForce Now

Beyond the Mac updates, Nvidia has announced six new games coming to GeForce Now.

A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism and White Shadows will be supported on December 7, the day those games launch on Steam. Monopoly Madness, a new launch on Ubisoft Connect, will be supported on December 9.

Anno 1404 History Edition and Prison Architect, which are both currently part of free promotions on Ubisoft Connect and the Epic Games Store, are also supported, as well as Super Magbot on Steam and the delightful Untitled Goose Game on the Epic Games Store.

Updated December 9, 2:22 p.m. ET with clarification that Macs can stream at up to 120 fps on 1600p displays and that the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros can also stream at 1600p on the Liquid Retina XDR displays.

As you can see from our list of RTX 3080 laptops you can buy right now, they all usually come with either sky high prices or severe compromises to the rest of the internals. 

This Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 doesn’t just give you this powerful GPU, plus a 5th Gen AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and 1TB SSD: it also comes with a huge $200 discount — taking the cost down to $2,199.

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Of course, all of this potent power needs effective cooling, which this laptop offers in its Red Dot Product Design award-winning design, utilizing liquid metal to cool the CPU, four fan outlets, four heatsinks and impressive arc flow fans. These elements work together to ensure all of those beastly components run at their absolute best.

Looking further at the design, Asus has gone out of its way to add some unique flair to the look and feel of the Scar 15 with a semi-translucent keyboard deck, the upgraded LED array on the top of the laptop itself and a tweaked form factor that makes it smaller than the last generation machine while maintaining an impressive 85% screen-to-body ratio.

For connectivity, there’s a ton of I/O, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth as well, and the opti-mechanical keyboard completes the package with a comfortable typing/gameplay experience. Looking for a pro-level laptop at a great price? This is the one to get.

A new Gigabyte submission (via momomo_us) to the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) indicates that Nvidia will be endowing the GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti with more memory. The usual word of caution applies since not everything submitted to the EEC makes it to the market, but we've seen many rumors of higher VRAM editions already, and it makes plenty of sense.

The GeForce RTX 2060 12GB, which was rumored for some time, officially debuted today. Gigabyte's latest filing hints at imminent memory upgrades for two of the best graphics cards on the market. While the GeForce RTX 2060 12GB seems to target cryptocurrency miners, the revamped GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti should be for gamers, assuming that miners don't get their hands on the fabled graphics card first.

The GeForce RTX 3080's 10GB of GDDR6X has often been the subject of discussion among enthusiasts and hardcore gamers. For a graphics card that retails for $699 and is aimed at 4K gaming, 10GB of onboard memory doesn't seem like a bargain these days. AMD's Radeon RX 6800 XT, which competes with the GeForce RTX 3080, has a lower MSRP ($649) and more memory (16GB). Having more memory is a plus since it allows you to step up to higher resolutions or access high-resolution textures.

Assuming Gigabyte isn't pulling our leg with this filing, the renovated GeForce RTX 3080 may get the bump to 12GB of VRAM. It's not a huge uplift, but it's an upgrade nevertheless. There's still a question of whether that's GDDR6 or GDDR6X memory, however. With a wider 384-bit interface, 16Gbps GDDR6 would provide 768GBps of bandwidth, just a touch more than the current 320-bit interface with 19Gbps GDDR6X yields, and the card would have 20% more capacity.

With the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, Nvidia opted for GDDR6X memory at 19 Gbps, which is a substantial upgrade over the GeForce RTX 3070's GDDR6 chips at 14 Gbps. While this helped boost the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti's overal memory bandwidth, Nvidia stayed with the 8GB capacity, which has been a concern for long-term usage. Many modern titles already push the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti's prowess at the higher resolutions, especially if you enable ray tracing.

Again, the Gigabyte submission indicates that a new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti will sport up to twice as much memory as the original. Here we would assume the card will stick with GDDR6X, but Nvidia is often willing to tweak specifications to get the needed supply of parts, so that may or may not hold true. Double the memory with slightly less bandwidth might still end up being a net win in some minds.

In other news, there was also mention of the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, the rumored upcoming Navi 24-based graphics card that could debut in January 2022. The chipmaker hasn't used the Navi 24 die in any product yet so the Radeon RX 6500 XT would be the first RDNA 2 graphics card to do so. It's reportedly an entry-level graphics card, so the specifications won't set any performance records. We're looking at maybe 1,024 stream processors and 4GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit interface. Gigabyte's part numbers confirm the latter.

Similar to what the GeForce RTX 2060 12GB represents, the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB will be premium versions of the GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, respectively. We expect higher pricing as well, though with current GPU prices already paying no heed to MSRPs, how high they'll go remains to be seen.

The Alienware m15 R4 with RTX 3080 graphics just got a massive $810 price cut, which takes its price down to $1,999. That is an impressive saving worthy of the Black Friday moniker.

In this model, Dell pairs the most powerful laptop GPU on the market with a 10th Gen Intel Core i9 processor for a seriously powerful portable gaming rig.

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Alienware’s Cryo-tech system keeps all of these high-power components cool with a dual-intake/exhaust airflow design and loads of heat pipes, alongside a massive high voltage fan and a vapor chamber.

Plus, as you can read in our Alienware m15 R4 review, there’s a lot more to love about this machine, from the vibrant display with a 300 Hz refresh rate to the premium glass touchpad and snappy keyboard.

And with 11 I/O ports (including Gigabit Ethernet and a microSD card reader) and a stylish chassis, this has the versatility for any home setup or use on the go.

Nvidia just upgraded its GeForce Now subscription game streaming service with the RTX 3080 tier, which promises gamers the performance of a GeForce RTX 3080 in the cloud. Well, sort of. You see, it's actually an Nvidia A10G GPU in the cloud, which is both better and worse than an RTX 3080 from a performance and features standpoint — more on that below. The RTX 3080 is still our top pick for the best graphics cards, contingent upon actually finding one for close to the recommended price. Also, it's in the cloud, which inherently limits what you can do with the GPU. This can be good and bad.

For example, there's no cryptocurrency mining using GeForce Now. Yay! Users are also allocated a GPU solely for their use, while the CPU gets shared between two users. Unfortunately, you're limited to games that are supported on the GeForce Now platform, and while there are many Steam, Epic, GoG, and Ubisoft games that will run on GeForce Now, there are plenty of missing titles as well: Borderlands 3 (and all the rest of the series), Dirt 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, and Red Dead Redemption 2 are just a few of the missing games. Also, anything that requires the Microsoft Store is out.

But it's not just about the games and hardware. One of the biggest barriers to PC gaming right now is the lack of graphics cards. Unless you want to pay eBay GPU prices, which still tend to be 50–100 percent higher than the official MSRPs, it's virtually impossible to buy a graphics card. That goes double for the RTX 3080. During the past couple of weeks, the average price on RTX 3080 cards purchased on eBay still sits at nearly $1,700, more than double the nominal price.

What if you could forget about the difficulty of buying a graphics card and simply rent the performance in the cloud? That's the theory behind the latest upgrades to GeForce Now. The RTX 3080 tier supports up to 2560x1440 resolution gaming, and even streams at 120 fps. Nvidia also claims improved latencies — supposedly better than playing locally on a latest generation Xbox Series X. The cost for this tier is $100 every six months.

That might seem steep, but considering an RTX 3080 might cost $1,500 or more, that's seven and a half years of GeForce Now streaming. Or, you know, however long it takes for GPU prices and availability to return to normal. Theoretically, you could pay for the service for six months, or even two years, and then when the current shortages and extreme retail pricing fades away, you can upgrade your home PC.

It's not the worst idea we've ever heard, but how does the new RTX 3080 tier of GeForce Now actually perform? And how does it compare to running games locally on an RTX 3080? We set out to do some testing to see for ourselves. Let's quickly start with the basics.

GeForce Now Superpod Hardware

The new GeForce Now Superpods come packed with a lot of hardware. Nvidia didn't want to get into all the specifics, unfortunately for us because we love that kind of detail, but we do know that each Superpod houses a bunch of rack mounted servers equipped with Threadripper 3955X CPUs and Nvidia A10G graphics cards.

The Nvidia A10G isn't the same as an RTX 3080, and we assume it's basically the same core hardware as the datacenter Nvidia A10. It comes equipped with 24GB of GDDR6 memory — the same amount you'd get with an RTX 3090! Except, the VRAM runs at 12.5Gbps (probably to save power), giving you 600GBps of bandwidth. However, it has 9,216 CUDA cores where an RTX 3080 has 8,704 CUDA cores, so in theory it should be comparable to an RTX 3080: more memory, more compute, less memory bandwidth.

The Threadripper 3955X is a Zen 2 processor with two 8-core compute chiplets. Nvidia allocates all of the cores and threads from one chiplet to a single user, which should improve overall performance since it keeps commonly accessed data local to the chiplet that way. Clock speeds are 3.9–4.3GHz on the 3955X, but because it's the older Zen 2 architecture it's probably a bit slower for gaming purposes than many of AMD's and Intel's latest chips. Still, it shouldn't be a serious bottleneck for gaming at 1440p, especially when doing so from the cloud.

Besides the CPU and GPU, each RTX 3080 GeForce Now instance gets 28GB of DDR4-3200 memory and access to around 30TB of fast PCIe Gen4 SSD storage. When you put everything together, the total cost per GeForce Now instance has to run at least $2,000. But Nvidia doesn't expect people to use these instances 24/7, so even though users only pay $16.67 per month for unlimited streaming (limited to eight hour sessions at a time), Nvidia presumably allocates dozens of users per installed set of hardware.

We asked a bunch of other questions about the GeForce Now Superpods, but unfortunately Nvidia didn't want to provide answers or photos. These look similar to the A100 Superpods, but the individual servers are obviously quite different. Our back of the napkin math (based on Nvidia's statement that each Superpod houses 8,960 CPU cores and 11,477,760 CUDA cores, plus the above photo), is that there are 20 racks per Superpod, with each rack housing 28 servers. Each server would come equipped with a single Threadripper Pro 3955X and two Nvidia A10G GPUs.

Except, that works out to 10,321,920 CUDA cores, so the A10G may actually look more like an RTX 3080 Ti with double the VRAM. 10,240 CUDA cores per A10G would give us 11,468,800 CUDA cores spread out over 1,120 GPUs, and the 'missing' 8,960 CUDA cores could be located in Nvidia Bluefield network devices. Or perhaps there's some other explanation, but that's all we've got for now. We do know that Nvidia says each Superpod supports "over 1,000 concurrent users," which jives with most of the other numbers.

GeForce Now Bandwidth Requirements

Before we get into the comparisons, let's get this out of the way: GeForce Now, like any game streaming service, requires a decent internet connection. It's not too onerous, though, with a 30Mbps download speed as the baseline, and 50Mbps as the maximum configurable stream quality. I did some testing and found that using the default Balanced connection settings (30Mbps), actual data usage was typically in the 20–30 Mbps range, averaging around 25Mbps. That works out to about 11GB of data per hour. Using the Custom option and selecting the maximum quality (50Mbps, 2560x1440, 120 fps, and no automatic network speed adjustments), data use wasn't actually that much higher: about 30Mbps, or 13.5 GB per hour.

How you feel about that amount of data usage will depend very much on your internet provider. I used to have Comcast Xfinity, which cost me around $110 per month for the X-Fi Complete package with unlimited data, or $100 a month with a 1.2TB data cap (technically 1228GB), and charged $10 for each additional 50GB up to a maximum of $100 per month. The data cap sucked, mostly because of multiple game downloads and updates every month that could easily consume hundreds of GB of data, and my household routinely came close to that limit. Paying an extra $10 for unlimited data was an easy fix, though you'd need to check whether your provider offers unlimited data and how much it charges.

With a data cap of 1TB, which unfortunately still seems relatively common these days, that's enough for about 75 hours of GeForce Now gaming each month — assuming no one does anything else with the internet. It's basically equivalent to the amount of data used by streaming 4K movies and television. But seriously, if you have a data cap and play games a lot, or stream TV and play games, forget about game streaming services or look into upgrading to an unlimited plan first. (For the record, I moved and now have faster Internet via TDS for about $97 a month, with no data cap. Hallelujah!)

If you think 30 or 50 Mbps seems like a lot, it's good to put things into perspective. The source data for 2560x1440 at 120 fps would require 14.16 Gbps without compression. Yeah, we're not getting that level of bandwidth into our homes any time soon. We're basically looking at about a 300:1 compression ratio, using lossy video compression algorithms because that's the only way to make this work.

Wired or Wireless Networking?

The next thing you need to consider is whether you'll be using wired or wireless networking — or possibly both. Nvidia recommends wired connections, which makes sense. Wireless connections are far less predictable. Despite having a strong signal (>400Mbps down and 20Mbps up), when I tried GeForce Now on a laptop I ended up with a lot of intermittent lag. Playing off a wired connection fixed the problem.

Your particular network setup and devices will play a role, however. Maybe my router isn't the best, or perhaps the wireless adapter in my laptop was to blame. Or maybe there was some other interference causing issues. If you can use a wired gigabit (or faster) Ethernet connection, that will undoubtedly work best. If not, try to stay close to your router and perhaps downgrade the resolution and framerate to 1080p at 60 fps.

GeForce Now works on Android smartphones and tablets, Chromebooks, MacBooks, and of course Windows. Some people claim to have gotten it to work on Linux as well, but that's not officially supported — and neither are iOS devices. Some of these options often lack wired connections, in which case you'd again be better off with the $50 per six month tier of GeForce Now.

GeForce Now RTX 3080 Availability

 The GeForce Now RTX 3080 tier has officially rolled out, but it's not available at all GeForce Now installations. Specifically, you'll want to check this page to see if you have a reasonably close node that will work. I'm in Colorado (US Mountain region), but the US Midwest region provided a good result while the US West region basically failed the latency test. The GeForce Now client software does check for optimal region selection automatically, and you can start with the free tier of service to see what it selects.

Nvidia will continue upgrading its GeForce Now data centers with the new Superpods, but there's no indication of how quickly that will happen. Note also that, like the original GeForce Now Founders Edition, the RTX 3080 tier has a limited number of slots available. Presumably, more slots will be added over time, but Nvidia doesn't want too many people signing up for something when it doesn't have the infrastructure in place to support those users. Nvidia wouldn't tell us the ratio of users to hardware that it's using.

Bottom line: If you want the benefits of the RTX 3080 tier, you'll probably want to jump on it quickly and subscribe.

GeForce Now Test Setup

For these tests, I've used a PC equipped with a Core i5-11400F CPU, 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory, with an RTX 3080 Founders Edition for the local GPU testing. It also has SSD storage for the games, and it's connected to an Acer Predator X27 monitor (for 144Hz support). I also tested on an Ice Lake i7-1065G7 laptop with a 4K display (set to 1440p) for wireless testing, but that wasn't a pleasant experience.

My main goal here was to compare actual performance using in-game benchmarks (you can't capture frametimes for games running on GeForce Now), and also to look at image quality. I also played some games running off the service, which you can read about in the experiential gaming section below.

Note that GeForce Now RTX 3080 tier also supports 4K and 60 fps streaming, but only if you have a Shield TV. I didn't test this, and in general I'd prefer 1440p and 120 fps just because that should improve both latency and performance — 4K gaming tends to be a bit too demanding in a lot of games, even with an RTX 3080 equivalent. Nvidia hasn't enabled 4K support on PCs due to the wide disparity in video decoding hardware, but don't be surprised if that shows up somewhere down the road (with a minimum requirement of a 6th Gen Intel CPU or better).

Due to the limited selection of games available on GeForce now (as I noted above, Borderlands 3, Dirt 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Red Dead Redemption 2 are all unavailable on GeForce Now, which is sad as they all have useful built-in benchmarks), I've tested with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Watch Dogs Legion. Three of those games come from Ubisoft and ran off Ubisoft Connect, while Shadow of the Tomb Raider used Steam.

Watch Dogs Legion and Shadow of the Tomb Raider both support ray tracing effects as well, so we tested that. Unfortunately, while Far Cry 6 supports ray tracing, it uses DirectX 12 Ultimate, and that's not currently supported on Windows Server 2016. Nvidia says it's working on upgrading to Windows Server 2022, which will allow DX12 Ultimate games to work with ray tracing enabled. We manually configured GeForce Now for 2560x1440 and 120 fps, set Windows to 2560x1440 and 144Hz with G-Sync enabled, and proceeded to run some tests.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

In terms of performance, Assassin's Creed Valhalla establishes a pattern we'll see repeated in the other games. Average performance at 1440p ultra was 66 fps, while running locally an RTX 3080 delivered performance of 91 fps — 38% faster. That's actually the worst result, relative to the RTX 3080, that we'll see in the games we tested. We suspect it might be a CPU bottleneck, as Valhalla can be pretty demanding in that area, but it may also be due to VRAM bandwidth or some other factors.

You'll want to look at the full resolution images (click the expand icon in the bottom-right, then click "View original") for the image quality comparisons, as the resized images are highly compressed and lose quite a bit of detail. Ignoring the slightly different colors and different camera position, there's clearly a loss of crispness with the GeForce Now screen captures. The text and line chart also show the loss of detail, and it basically looks like a decent upscaling filter was used on a 1080p source.

Perhaps a more apt comparison would be with something like FSR and DLSS. We recently did some in-depth comparisons of those two upscaling solutions, and at higher settings there's a lot of fuzziness that you start to notice when playing games. It's not terrible, and neither is GeForce Now, but don't expect to end up with sharp images like you'd get without compressing and streaming the frames over the internet.

Far Cry 6

Next up, Far Cry 6 just came out earlier this month, and we ran a bunch of Far Cry 6 benchmarks. The GeForce Now version doesn't allow the use of ray tracing or HD textures, for now, so we just used the ultra preset. Performance this time was quite a bit closer, with the RTX 3080 achieving 95 fps locally while the GeForce now ran at 78 fps. That's still 22% faster, and based on our GPU benchmarks hierarchy, we'd say the RTX 3080 tier in GeForce Now performs more like an RTX 3070 than a 3080 (or maybe RTX 3070 Ti in some cases). Except you have triple the VRAM amount.

The colors and saturation of the GeForce Now screenshot are again different from the locally captured frame, which is a bit interesting (see how to take screenshots in Windows). Most likely some of that comes from the video stream compression, though it could just be variations in the lighting for a particular benchmark run. We don't see these differences in the other two games, though.

As with Valhalla, the streamed version of Far Cry 6 looks a bit fuzzy around the edges. There's a loss of detail on the street, sidewalk, and walls, and you can really see the blurriness in the leaves on the trees as well as in the balcony railing (roughly in the center of the screenshot). This is all thanks to the heavy video stream compression that's required to send the data over the internet. The fact that all of this happens with relatively minimal latency (more on that below) is quite impressive, even if the image quality ultimately suffers.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has been around for about three years now. We've included both normal and ray traced results in our testing, though you can see how little the ray traced shadows actually matter. Basically, the shadows get a bit fuzzier for objects that are further away from the light source. Is it better? Sure, probably. Is it worth a 30% hit to performance? Nope.

Performance of the local RTX 3080 was closer here than in the first two games, as the 3080 was only 16% faster than the GFN A10G. That's without ray tracing enabled, and turning on RT closes the performance gap to just 10%. We're also getting close to the 120 fps limit of GeForce Now, though we disabled vsync so it should be able to go higher than that.

In terms of image quality, the fuzziness is still present, but it's not quite as visible as before. We also don't see any color shifts this time. Also note that while these still images tend to emphasize any loss in visual fidelity, when you're running around in a game the fuzziness is far less noticeable. It's still there, and some people will inevitably get irritated by it, but it's no worse than FSR balanced mode I'd say.

Watch Dogs Legion

Our final game comparison, Watch Dogs Legion tells a similar story to the above games. Performance of the local RTX 3080 was 12% faster without ray tracing, and 16% faster with ray tracing enabled (using DLSS Quality mode). We also tested at native resolution with ray tracing, without DLSS, and the RTX 3080 was only 8% faster (52 vs. 48 fps).

There's an interesting tangent here with DLSS. We tested with and without DLSS, as well as using both the quality and performance modes. With GeForce Now, changing DLSS from Quality to Performance didn't seem to affect performance at all, while on the RTX 3080 Performance mode tends to be about 15% faster. It's not clear if this is just a GeForce Now bug or if there's something else going on, but regardless, performance between the 3080 and the streaming service was pretty close.

We have two sets of image quality comparisons as well. The first (taken from the benchmark sequence) shows the same blurriness and loss of detail that we've noticed elsewhere. Perhaps that's because the game was in motion, meaning the video compression has to be more lossy to stay within its 50Mbps budget. The second set, by the lake, is taken while we're standing still, and since the video compression uses data from previous frames, it can achieve a better result in terms of details. The temporal aspect of video compression ends up being a bit like DLSS, allowing for better results when there's less stuff happening on screen.

Gaming via GeForce Now, Including the Free Tier

So far, all of the testing has been focused on performance and image quality, but what's it like to actually play games on GeForce Now? You'd think with the need to send data over the internet, collect that and use it to update the game world, and then send it all back over the wire to your home that the increase in lag would be very noticeable. The reality is that I personally found it totally playable. Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm older and wouldn't call myself a competitive gamer, but I can hold my own in most multiplayer games.

The type of game does matter, of course. Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs Legion, Control, and Cyberpunk 2077 all tend to be less twitch-focused and I had no complaints with any of them. In shooters like Far Cry 6, the ~40ms increase in latency felt a bit more noticeable. We didn't perform extensive latency testing, but Nvidia's claims of 40ms seemed to be accurate for our location.

Frankly, I was quite surprised at how good the experience of playing games via GeForce Now was. I've tried a few game streaming services in the past, including GeForce Now, and the latency was always far more noticeable before. Either I'm less tuned in to the latency, or things are simply better with the RTX 3080 tier — or probably a little of both. GeForce Now reported a ping latency of just 33ms on my connection, which is only two frames on a 60Hz display. That's totally fine for my needs, assuming I needed a game streaming service.

After testing the RTX 3080 GeForce Now service for the past few days, I figured I needed a second opinion on the matter, so I signed up for a free account. Wow. What a difference that made! The hardware was noticeably slower, framerates couldn't maintain a steady 60 fps, and even at 1080p, ultra quality in many games was no longer a viable option. Once I dropped to 1080p medium in Far Cry 6, though, it wasn't too bad and I found myself enjoying the game — right up until I got booted after the one hour time limit was reached.

The loss in image quality, specifically the overall fuzziness of the stream, was also much more noticeable. However, it wasn't something that I couldn't ignore, and particularly in the midst of fights — in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Control, Watch Dogs Legion, and Far Cry 6 — I stopped thinking about image fidelity and just got lost playing games. Playing with the RTX 3080 account was far better, but even that still had some fuzziness. But it was great to be able to basically max out the settings at 1440p in the games I tried, rather than trying to tune things to make the game work okay with the free tier.

GeForce Now RTX 3080 Closing Thoughts

Nvidia has been working on a game streaming service since the original Nvidia Shield handheld. I remember playing a few games via the Grid service back in the day, streamed to the device at 720p and 30 fps. That was eight years ago. Flash forward and the free Grid beta morphed into GeForce Now, with substantially upgraded streaming quality and support for a lot more platforms.

Of course, Nvidia isn't doing all of this out of kindness to gamers. Look at what Netflix did for video streaming, and that's potentially the prize for the first real success story in game streaming. Netflix has over 200 million subscribers, paying $10 per month. The profits are staggering. The hardware side of things is just as telling.

Assuming a 30-day month as the average, that's 720 hours in a month. Realistically, it's doubtful most people will stream games for more than a few hours a day, and a lot of people may only stream 5–10 hours per week. If Nvidia can average 20 hours per month of streaming time on its GeForce Now RTX 3080 hardware, that would potentially be 36 people sharing one A10G GPU. Nominally, that GPU costs Nvidia about $500 and could be sold for perhaps $1,500. Or Nvidia can charge 36 people $16.67 per month to access that GPU in the cloud. That's $600 per month, give or take, for the same GPU.

Assuming game streaming takes off, the potential upside (for Nvidia) is massive. The data center and infrastructure would all cost a lot of money as well, but long-term there's a potential revenue stream of hundreds of millions of dollars per month — if everything works out. And if it doesn't, Nvidia can convert the GeForce Now Superpods into some other form of cloud servers and lease time on them to someone other than gamers.

The biggest drawbacks right now are the missing games and the price. I don't think $100 for six months is necessarily too much to ask, and certainly $50 for six months is viable (for RTX 2080 level hardware), but do you really want yet another subscription? If you're more of a casual gamer, you can try the free plan, but the 60 minute sessions can be a bit irritating if you time out in the middle of a critical moment. Also, if you're using the free version, you get to play on a Tesla RTX T10-8, basically an RTX 2060 equivalent, except I believe it can be shared between two people. Whatever the hardware, it's much slower than the other solutions, and struggled to maintain 60 fps in Far Cry 6 even when set to medium quality 1080p. Playing the game was still okay, but you definitely want to keep settings lower.

As for the games you can play, that's the blessing and curse of GeForce Now. You have to own all the games you want to use, and they have to work with GeForce Now. Many don't, but more are added every Thursday, and at least you can take the games with you if you ever use your own PC without streaming. There are "thousands" of games available on GeForce Now, which is certainly more than you'll find on Stadia, and Google doesn't have a great reputation when it comes to keeping products around (RIP Google+, among others). GeForce Now also does periodic free trials of games, and since the games are all on cloud servers, you don't have to spend time downloading and installing them.

Fundamentally, GeForce Now is a way for Nvidia to use data center hardware to power a game streaming service. The free version gets you in the door, but at least in my testing, the latency and experience of the RTX 3080 tier was far better than the free tier. That's understandable, but it also means people might try the free version and get frustrated with it rather than upgrading to a paid tier. Either way, if you're in need of a graphics card and can't seem to find one, Nvidia has apparently put tens of thousands of them into GeForce Now for people to use. That's got to be better than having them in the hands of miners, right?

If you want to play games on an RTX 3080 card, but can't find one for sale or afford to build a PC worthy of one of the best graphics cards, Nvidia's GeForce Now has a solution. The cloud gaming service is adding a new plan that allows you to stream games from an RTX 3080-enabled server for up to eight hours a day. Available for pre-order today with the launch soon, the GeForce Now RTX 3080 plan will cost $99 for six months (around $16.67 per month) and run at up to 1440p resolution with 120 fps on computers or 4K HDR 60 fps on Shield TV.

Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service officially launched in early 2020 after a full five years in public beta. The service allows you to play any of hundreds of supported PC games on a remote server, provided that you bought the game separately or it's a free-to-play title. In addition, you can play on a wide variety of devices, from PCs and Macs to phones and Nvidia shield TVs. It can even run in a web browser, making it possible to use on a variety of platforms, including Chrome OS.

Up until now, there have been two tiers of GeForce Now membership: a free tier that provides basic gameplay for up to one hour at a time and a Premium tier that costs $49.99 for six months and gives you priority access. The latter also provides RTX ray tracing and game play of up to 60 fps at 1080p. For double the price, the new RTX 3080 tier increases session time to up to eight hours, along with the increased resolution and frame rate. 

Inside its data centers, Nvidia is adding its new GeForce Now Superpods, which are capable of 39,200 TFLOPS of processing apiece, along with their 11,477,760 CUDA cores and 8,960 CPU cores. Though these servers provide enough processing power to give each user on the new plan access to a dedicated RTX 3080, Nvidia is limiting the number of orders so that the number of users on the top tier won't exceed capacity.

If you're going to sign up for GeForce Now's RTX 3080 plan, expect to use more bandwidth than on the other plans. Nvidia requires at least 25 Mbps for 1080p 60 fps play and, using the RTX 3080 plan to move up to 1440p will require 35 Mbps. Nvidia requires that you connect over Ethernet or 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

The new plan promises sub-60ms latency, which Nvidia says is quicker than Xbox Series X and Project xCloud, both of which are over 90ms. The Premium tier's RTX 2080 card promises a solid latency of 81ms itself.

GeForce Now is also getting its own form of adaptive sync which adjusts the frame rate to match the client screen's fixed refresh rate. So your display will not need to support G-Sync or FreeSync, because it's the stream itself that changes.

We haven't had a chance to test out GeForce Now's RTX 3080 plan yet, but it sounds like a boon for users who don't have modern gaming PCs. According to Nvidia, most of its current GeForce Now users have laptops with integrated graphics and their average session is about an hour. So, if you've got a lightweight ultrabook or even a phone, you can play PC games that would normally require one of the best gaming laptops. 

However, if you already have a decent, last-gen gaming PC, the choice is not as clear. Depending on your bandwidth, any data caps you might have and the games you like to play, using local hardware could be easier. We'll have more to say on this once we get to try the new service in the near future.

Apple announced the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros on Monday, marking the debut of the company's new M1 Pro and M1 Max SoCs. While we've already seen a bit of the M1 Max's computing power, one Redditor has found a new benchmark of the M1 Max stretching its feet in a graphics benchmark.

The M1 Max wields a 32-core GPU with 16 execution units each. Each execution unit houses eight ALUs, bringing the total number of ALUs in the M1 Max to 4,096. According to Apple, the GPU delivers performance up to 10.4 TFLOPs. In theory, the M1 Max's GPU should perform somewhere in the area of the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, which offers 10.91 TFLOPs.

During its presentation, Apple claimed that the M1 Max's GPU (60W) rivals Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (160W). Apple's SoC reportedly offers equivalent performance at 100W less power. The company also provided a comparison to the 100W variant of the GeForce RTX 3080 where the M1 Max showed a 40% lower power consumption. For the time being, we should take Apple's numbers with a bit of salt since the company didn't provide any context, only having used "select industry-standard benchmarks."

GFXBench originated as a smartphone benchmark, therefore, the tests aren't suitable for modern graphics cards. Unlike 3DMark, we recommend you approach GFXBench results with lots of caution. Furthermore, the M1 Max submission was on Mac OS X with the Metal API, whereas the GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile and Radeon RX 6800M submissions were carried out on Windows and the OpenGL API. We've used the offscreen results for comparison.

Apple M1 Max Benchmarks

Apple touted that the M1 Max's graphics performance was up to four times faster than the original M1. The results showed that Apple's claims were mostly on point, although not in every workload.

The M1 Max looked pretty good beside the GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile or Radeon RX 6800M. Apple's chip outperformed Nvidia and AMD's GPUs in some workloads and stayed within a small margin in others. The M1 Max's power efficiency was the most impressive feat, considering that the GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile and Radeon RX 6800M conform to TDP ratings of 160W and 145W, respectively.

Logically, we'll have to watch for more benchmarks to see whether Apple's M1 Max is what the company claims. It's fine if it doesn't beat the latest and greatest GPUs from Nvidia or AMD since Apple didn't conceive the M1 Max for gaming. Instead, the 5nm SoC is tailored for professionals to deliver potent CPU and graphics performance on-the-go in the new MacBook Pros.

Last month, we wrote about the Aero 15 OLED with RTX 3080 and Intel Core i7 for under $2,000. It turns out that Gigabyte’s not done with the huge discounts, as you can now get even more power for the same price!

As part of Newegg’s Gametober sale, the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED with Intel Core i9 and RTX 3080 is now just $1,999 after a massive $1,450 discount (including a $700 rebate). It's like Black Friday came early.

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While it’s fair to say this isn’t meant to be one of the best gaming laptops out there, with a 4K OLED panel that looks gorgeous but has a screen refresh rate of 60Hz, the fact that this creator rig has so much power under the hood means even the most intensive games will look stunning on it.

Plus, any pro workload, such as the most GPU-heavy Adobe After Effects edits, are no problem for this pairing of 11th Gen Intel Core i9 and RTX 3080. Plus, all of this is packed into a slim, sleek design with a thin bezel display, impressive thermal management, a generously spaced keyboard and 9 I/O ports including Thunderbolt 4.

Whether you’re working (and playing) on the move or plugging into your home setup, the Gigabyte Aero 15 is right there with you and at this price, it’s one of the best laptop deals you can get today!

It's fair to say that, when looking for the best RTX 3080 laptops available right now, nobody expects to pay less than $2,000. That’s why today's Newegg and MSI deal caught us off guard!

At Newegg for today only, you can get $300 off the MSI GP66 Leopard and pick up this seriously powerful portable powerhouse for just $1,999.

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Alongside its seriously stacked list of internal components, there's plenty of other great features on this laptop that we were quick to praise in our MSI GP66 Leopard review. The comfortable keyboard, replaceable components and subtle design make this a great unit for on-the-go-gaming.

This laptop maintains optimal cooling with its Cooler Boost 5 thermal management, including six heat pipes and two fans that work harmoniously to maximize airflow. Plus, its variety of I/O, including both HDMI 2.1 and Mini DisplayPort 1.4, makes this easy to slot into any home setup.

If you’re a PC gaming enthusiast looking for a great RTX 3080 laptop for less than $2000, this is the kind of deal that doesn't come around very often.