Nvidia has quietly released an update to its popular RTX 3080. It’s not much of an improvement, adding an extra 2GB of video memory and a small increase in core count. Now that we’ve had a chance to test the RTX 3080 12GB, we’ll see how it compares to the original model.
It’s no secret that the RTX 3080 is one of the best graphics cards you can buy. If you want to see why it was so impressive when it launched, and why the upgraded 12GB is hard to come by, be sure to read our full RTX 3080 review.
Prices and availability
Nvidia released the 10GB RTX 3080 in September 2020 at a retail price of $700. However, anyone who has looked at graphics cards in the last year and a half knows how far that price is. If you’re lucky enough to find the card at a dealer, you’ll pay around $900 to $1,100 for it. At the time of publication, prices on the used vehicle market are closer to $1,200 to $1,300.
The 12GB RTX 3080 is unusual. Nvidia didn’t officially announce it, instead quietly releasing the card in January 2022, a week after announcing two other GPUs at CES. Unlike the 10GB model, Nvidia hasn’t made a reference model or Founder’s Edition, and the company hasn’t set a list price.
All we have to quote are retail prices. The cheapest 12GB RTX 3080 models are around $1249, even more expensive than some RTX 3080 Ti models. At the high end, tickets go up to $1,600. But many GPU manufacturers have yet to set list prices, patiently waiting to see what they sell for on the used card market.
Early signs show that tickets are selling at a high price. We’re looking at prices between $1,500 and $1,800, which is quite a bit more than the 10GB model. We may not have a list price to compare the RTX 3080 12GB, but among dealers and on the used market, it sells for much more.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
In terms of availability, both cards are out of stock just like the vast majority of GPUs. There are many more RTX 3080 10GB models available, but most of them are over a year old. It’s hard to say whether the larger stock 10GB model or the newer 12GB model is better for availability, but regardless, both cards are hard to find at a reasonable price.
Glasses
Between the RTX 3080 12 GB model and the 10 GB model, the specifications are the most important. They sit as the same graphics card, with only minor differences between the two models. The most notable change is the additional 2GB of GDDR6X video memory on the 12GB model, but there’s little else.
| RTX 3080 12GB | RTX 3080 10GB | |
| CUDA cores | 8,960 | 8,704 |
| turn up the clock | 1.71GHz | 1.71GHz |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6X | 10GB GDDR6X |
| memory bus | 384 bit | 320 bit |
| effective yield | 912.4GB/s | 760.3GB/s |
| tensor nuclei | 280 | 272 |
| RT core | 70 | 68 |
| power withdrawal | 350W | 320W |
In addition to the additional video memory, the 12 GB model has a 384-bit memory bus. Together, this increases effective bandwidth to 912 GB/s, a solid 20% increase over the 10 GB model. The 12 GB model actually matches the RTX 3080 Ti with the same memory configuration and bus size.
It’s an improvement, but as you’ll see in our benchmarks below, it doesn’t make a huge difference. Games can hardly saturate the bandwidth of the RTX 3080 10 GB, even at 4K. When it comes to performance improvements, additional memory and bandwidth only matter when those areas are saturated, and most modern games aren’t even close.
The biggest changes come in center and strength, even if they aren’t huge. The 12GB RTX 3080 has 3% more cores than the 10GB model, as well as a 30W power boost. The extra cores bring a few extra cores for ray tracing, as well as a set of Tensor cores , although neither make much of a difference in games.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
The only other change is the base clock speed. The 12GB RTX 3080 has a slightly lower base speed than the 10GB model. Graphics cards almost always run at accelerated clock speeds unless there is a heavy workload, so the base clock speed is irrelevant.
Although Nvidia has official specs for the RTX 3080 12GB, the company has never released a founder’s edition or reference model. This means that the specs listed are often different than what you’ll find on graphics cards you can buy. For example, the MSI Suprim X 12GB RTX 3080 packs a 180MHz boost clock and a 50W power boost. We haven’t seen any graphics cards that go against the specs, and if they do, they’ll probably be small form factor or other special options.
gaming performance
In action, the RTX 3080 12GB and 10GB models perform very similarly. There are differences, but in our tests we’ve found that the differences are often offset by other games. Here are the results in 4K at the highest graphics settings using an Intel Core i9-10900K, Windows 10, and 32GB of RAM:
| 12GB RTX 3080 | 10GB RTX 3080 | |
| 3DMark Time Spy | 17,071 | 16,108 |
| red dead redemption 2 | 65fps | IN |
| Fortnite | 76fps | 95 fps |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | 61fps | 62fps |
| battlefield v | 103fps | 100fps |
| civilization VI | 252fps | 255fps |
3DMark Time Spy shows the clearest difference between the cards and represents what you can expect. The 12GB RTX 3080 offers around a 6% improvement over the 10GB model, which is what you’ll find on average in games. However, as you can see from our other results, this improvement is not always present.
IN assassin’s creed valhalla, for example, the 12GB RTX 3080 was technically worse than the 10GB model (albeit by only one frame). IN battlefield V, the 12GB model delivered a paltry 3% improvement, i civilization VI I was a few squares behind.
The only strange thing about our data is fortnite. We ran the 10 GB test on an older version of the game, so you shouldn’t compare the results directly. However, we also tested the RTX 3090 with the latest patch and only found a three-frame improvement over the 12GB RTX 3080. In a multiplayer game like this, you should expect very similar performance between the 12GB RTX 3080 and the 10GB model.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
There’s a reason both graphics cards are technically RTX 3080. They perform at roughly the same level, with the 12GB model offering an average 6% improvement in gaming. This may sound like a significant, if unexciting improvement, but it doesn’t show up in practice. Actually, some games have a decent performance boost, while others occasionally lack it.
Content creation performance.
In content creation workloads, the higher bandwidth of the 12GB RTX 3080 shines the brightest. That’s not a big enough improvement to justify spending more on the 12GB model. However, if you can find both options for the same price, the 12 GB model works better.
| 12GB RTX 3080 | 10GB RTX 3080 | |
| PugetBench for Premiere Pro | 799 | 821 |
| BMW blender (lower the better) | 19 seconds | 23 seconds |
| Blender Classroom (lower is better) | 100 seconds | 71 seconds |
| Blender Koro (the lower the better) | 65 seconds | 75 seconds |
In PugetBench for Premiere Pro, however, it was slightly worse. We are talking about a 2% difference between the results, which is within the margin of error. Here the two cards are equally paired. Similarly, Blender Classroom took longer to render on the 12GB model, a result we were able to replicate across all tests.
Blender BMW and Koro renders show the RTX 3080 12GB in a more positive light. The card was approximately 13% faster with the Koro render and 17% faster with the BMW render. These are not small advantages, but as our other results show, these advantages are not always present.
While the 12GB RTX 3080 has better content creation performance than the 10GB model overall, the differences don’t justify upgrading. If the 10GB RTX 3080 can’t help you, we recommend upgrading to the RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090. They’re more expensive, but they also offer much clearer performance benefits.
choose your poison
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends.
It’s hard to compare the 12GB RTX 3080 to the 10GB model as there’s no set price for either. A 5% improvement means nothing, positive or negative, unless it is in balance with the price. If the 12GB model were $100 cheaper, for example, a 5% performance boost would make it one of the best graphics cards you can buy.
Based on the GPU market in 2022, the 12GB model should sell for much more than the 10GB, and there’s not enough of a performance boost to justify an upgrade. If the cards continue to sell at current prices, the RTX 3080 10GB will be a better deal every time.
However, you may find yourself in a situation where a 12GB RTX 3080 is all that’s available. We wouldn’t recommend going for the 10GB model. However, both cards perform very well and are within a few percentage points of each other, so it all comes down to which card you can find and at what price.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn