Gigabyte (via momomo_us) has apparently revised the company's Aorus GeForce RTX 3080 Master 10G (GV-N3080AORUS M-10GD) with a new power layout. The Revision 2.0 board, the spitting image of the prior revision, sports a third 8-pin PCIe power connector.
The GeForce RTX 3080, rated for 320W, makes do with a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Bearing in mind that the PCIe x16 slot provides 75W, a setup with two 8-pin PCIe power connectors provides power delivery up to 375W, more than sufficient for a GeForce RTX 3080. However, custom models with high factory overclocks typically sip more power, explaining the dependency on more PCIe power connectors.
In terms of pure performance, the Aorus GeForce RTX 3080 Master 10G sports a 1,845 MHz boost clock, approximately 7.9% higher than the boost clock on the Founders Edition model. The graphics card is the second-fastest SKU in Gigabyte's Ampere GeForce RTX 3080 product stack. It only lags behind the Aorus GeForce RTX 3080 Xtreme 10G, which flaunts a 1,905 MHz boost clock and has three 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
The previous revision of the Aorus GeForce RTX 3080 Master 10G only required two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The revamped power design certainly calls for attention. We suspect that Gigabyte's decision was purely based on optimizing costs because the Aorus GeForce RTX 3080 Xtreme 10G and the Aorus GeForce RTX 3080 Master 10G are practically the same graphics card, sans the boost clock speed. By unifying both power layouts, Gigabyte could easily recycle GPUs that don't qualify for the Xtreme variant for the Master variant.
With the extra 8-pin PCIe power connector on the new revision, Gigabyte also raised the minimum power supply recommendation from 750W up to 850W. It remains to be seen whether Revision 2.0 will actually sip more, or the same amount, of power under normal circumstances. In any event, it shouldn't be a major issue unless you're running a power supply at the borderline capacity of what Gigabyte recommends.
We don't expect the first revision to be in ample circulation anymore. Performance should be identical on both revisions but, if you're set on adding the Aorus GeForce RTX 3080 Master 10G to your system, grab the new revisions just for peace of mind. We've reached out to Gigabyte for more information and will update as necessary.
