GeForce RTX 3080 Promises 60+ FPS At 4K With Max Eye Candy And Ray Tracing

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By Zhiye Liu
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Butter smooth 4K gameplay at $699.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (Image credit: Nvidia)

Justin Walker, product manager for GeForce desktop graphics cards, shared some compelling information on the GeForce RTX 3080's performance yesterday in an Nvidia Reddit AMA.

The GeForce RTX 3080's attributes are nothing short of amazing, and we're sure the graphics card will likely earn a spot on our Best Graphics Cards for Gaming list. However, despite the substantial uplift in the number of CUDA cores, the GeForce RTX 3080 lost 1GB of memory when compared to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, the last-generation flagship for Turing. Naturally, the memory deficit raises an eyebrow considering that the GeForce RTX 3080 is geared towards 4K gaming.

Walker responded to questions on the matter, saying that the GeForce RTX 3080 delivers frame rates between 60 and 100 FPS on games, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Metro Exodus, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Gears of War 5, Borderlands 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 at a 4K resolution with the maximum settings (including high-resolution textures when applicable), and with ray tracing on. Walker estimated that the aforementioned titles would probably gobble up between 4GB to 6GB of memory, leaving ample headroom on the GeForce RTX 3080.

With the proliferation of 4K 144 Hz monitors, one Redditor was curious if the GeForce RTX 3080 could handle this new generation of high refresh rate monitors. Walker believes that the GeForce RTX 3080 can deliver a perfect 144 FPS gaming experience at 4K on Doom Eternal, Forza 4 and Wolfenstein Youngblood with maximum fidelity. On more punishing titles, such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Control and Borderlands 3, the general expectation is 60 FPS.

The Ampere-powered graphics card rolls up with 8,704 CUDA cores, 68 RT cores and 272 Tensor cores. In regards to the memory, the GeForce RTX 3080 enjoys 10GB of 19 Gbps GDDR6X memory across a 320-bit memory interface, amounting to a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 760 GBps. 

When put in doubt whether the GeForce RTX 3080's memory was sufficient for 4K gaming, Walker reassured GeForce fans that the graphics card has what it needs. Apparently, Nvidia didn't pull the number out of the air. The chipmaker consulted with game developers on graphics card memory requirements on existing and new titles and determined that the sweet spot for the GeForce RTX 3080 was at 10GB.

Nvidia has some bold claims about the GeForce RTX 3080. The graphics card launches for $699 on September 17. For now, we'll have to hold the chipmaker to its word about the GeForce RTX 3080's performance, but, as always, our reviews will tell the final story. 

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

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12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Zizo007
    10Gb isn't enough for 4K Max graphics with RT. My 2080 Ti's 11Gb is nearly maxed in CoD Modern Warfare 4K max settings.
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    Zizo007 said:
    10Gb isn't enough for 4K Max graphics with RT. My 2080 Ti's 11Gb is nearly maxed in CoD Modern Warfare 4K max settings.

    Nearly maxed out ? like how much ?

    The max setting with raytracing ON recommendation for this game is RTX 2080 Super ... That is 8GB Vram ..

    Also how do you judge all the 4K gaming based on just one game?
    Reply
  • Zizo007
    nofanneeded said:
    Nearly maxed out ? like how much ?

    The max setting with raytracing ON recommendation for this game is RTX 2080 Super ... That is 8GB Vram ..

    Also how do you judge all the 4K gaming based on just one game?
    In online maps VRAM usage is around 10800mb using AfterBurner. I am talking about 4K RT with AA 2x Filmic etc all maxed.
    Without RT vram usage is around 9500mb.
    Reply
  • Zizo007
    nofanneeded said:
    Nearly maxed out ? like how much ?

    The max setting with raytracing ON recommendation for this game is RTX 2080 Super ... That is 8GB Vram ..

    Also how do you judge all the 4K gaming based on just one game?
    Its the only game I play.
    Reply
  • Zizo007
    nofanneeded said:
    Nearly maxed out ? like how much ?

    The max setting with raytracing ON recommendation for this game is RTX 2080 Super ... That is 8GB Vram ..

    Also how do you judge all the 4K gaming based on just one game?
    Can you try and tell me your VRAM usage in that game with those settings? Maybe its a game bug. I have the latest updates though.

    I submitted many tickets to Activision bcz certain areas of certain maps drop to under 15fps instantly. Been months no reply.
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    Zizo007 said:
    Can you try and tell me your VRAM usage in that game with those settings? Maybe its a game bug. I have the latest updates though.

    I submitted many tickets to Activision bcz certain areas of certain maps drop to under 15fps instantly. Been months no reply.

    You are Right no bugs ... just checked with a friend , and he said 10500MB on his system .
    Reply
  • Zizo007
    nofanneeded said:
    You are Right no bugs ... just checked with a friend , and he said 10500MB on his system .
    It sucks bcz sometimes the game drops to under 15fps instantly in certain areas of certain maps, Activision doesn't want to fix the issue. I have already made 5 tickets.
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    Zizo007 said:
    It sucks bcz sometimes the game drops to under 15fps instantly in certain areas of certain maps, Activision doesn't want to fix the issue. I have already made 5 tickets.

    This is because the Game is using the system memory for the needed missing VRAM ... you need to lower some effects thats all . I did not expect that by the way . This changed my plans for RTX 3080 upgrade ...
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    BEWARE, almost all video games will consume more vram than it needs. There's a set limit on how much the game engine requires, then it uses some or the rest of your VRAM for other non important stuff. Very similar to Windows 10, how it will use all your RAM but like half of it most of the time is just extra stuff that isn't important. (Easy test, transfer a video from one hard drive to another, if large enough, all your RAM should be saturated according to task manager (under standby data).
    Reply
  • Zizo007
    TechyInAZ said:
    BEWARE, almost all video games will consume more vram than it needs. There's a set limit on how much the game engine requires, then it uses some or the rest of your VRAM for other non important stuff. Very similar to Windows 10, how it will use all your RAM but like half of it most of the time is just extra stuff that isn't important. (Easy test, transfer a video from one hard drive to another, if large enough, all your RAM should be saturated according to task manager (under standby data).
    How do I reduce my VRAM usage? I want to max the game without maxing my VRAM. I have disabled RT usage is still 10750Mb. That's insane. Why would they do that and market gpus for 4K?
    Reply