The Nvidia RTX 3000 Series Is Great News for Both Gamers and Professionals

Introduction

Nvidia has announced their new RTX 3000 Series on September 1. The RTX 3080 launched on September 17, and the RTX 3090 on September 24. The RTX 3070 comes on October 15 and should be released by now. There is still no official information about cheaper offerings, but it is widely believed that the RTX 3060 will come later this year to compete with AMD’s RX 6000 graphics card.

Nvidia RTX 3000 Series Features

Improvements to AI

The GeForce RTX 3000 series of graphics cards marks a huge leap from the previous generation in both price and performance. Nvidia’s new Ampere architecture brings the third-generation Tensor Core technology. The new generation of this technology promises massive speedups to AI and improved performance. The official benchmarks show a major performance upgrade at a lower price.

Ray Tracing

The new series now has better, second-generation Ray Tracing Cores. This means that the new generation has up to two twice the performance when compared with the previous RTX 2000 series.

Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS)

Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology introduces AI-assisted rendering. In more simple terms, it means that DLSS 2.0 improves performance in video games while also outputting a sharper image. It is somewhat similar to Anti Aliasing (AA), but this technology produces better graphical results without a negative impact on performance. DLSS exists for some time now, but DLSS 2.0 is better in every way.

DLSS 2.0 now has three different quality options:

• Quality for the best graphics
• Performance for better framerates
• Balanced for a mix of both

The Performance mode allows you to enable super resolution, up to four times from the native resolution (You can render the picture at 4k and output it to your 1080p monitor for a significantly sharper picture).

DLSS 2.0 is now available in several titles, such as Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Deliver Us The Moon. Unreal Engine 4 developers have gained access to DLSS 2.0. This means that you will be seeing many upcoming games that will support this brand-new technology.

Benchmarks that compare DLSS 2.0 off vs on show excellent results. For example, in Control you can expect a performance boost by up to 76%. And this is in the quality setting. The performance setting shows gains up to 3x. The RTX 2080 Ti has an average of 26 frames per second at 4k with everything maxed out and ray-tracing enabled. When DLSS 2.0 (performance mode) is switched on, the average framerate increases to ~69 FPS. The game changes from barely playable to a gorgeous gaming experience

The RTX 3000 Series

Let us now take a closer look at the RTX 3090, 3080, and 3070 graphics cards.

RTX 3090

Specs

• 10496 CUDA cores
• 1.4 GHz base clock, boosts up to 1.7 GHz
• 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM
• 384-bit memory interface
• 350 W power draw
• HDMI 2.1 Support (8K 60Hz or 4K 120 Hz), DisplayPort 1.4a (3x)

Price

The starting price of the RTX 3090 is $1,499. The steep price places the RTX 3090 out of most people’s budgets. It is only about 15-20% faster than the much cheaper ($699) RTX 3080, so it is not a huge loss for most people.

Performance

The RTX 3090 has 36 shader teraflops and 69 ray-tracing teraflops.

This is one of the first cards that can deliver a solid 8K gaming experience. The proof for this is the card’s insane 24 GB of VRAM. That being said, the performance gap between the RTX 3090 and the 3080 gets smaller as resolution goes down. If you have a 1080p display, this card is not the best choice. 

Battlefield V at 4K with ultra settings on the RTX 3090 runs at an average of 96.1 FPS. In Horizon Zero Dawn the card pushes 88.1 FPS at 4k ultra. Red Dead Redemption 2 runs at 82.8 FPS with all settings turned to ultra and on 4k.

The graphics card also proved itself in synthetic benchmarks. It beats the RTX 3080 in Blender 2.90 by 25% and the Titan RTX by more than double.

Temperature

This is one of the beefiest heatsinks on any graphics card ever. The two fans on the graphics card are enormous (85mm) and have a very interesting design. The bottom fan pulls air through the fins and the top fan pushes the hot air out. In FurMark(1600×900), the card does not go above 63.8°C. This means that Nvidia’s design, despite the highest wattage of any graphics card, still has great thermals.

RTX 3080

Specs

• 8704 CUDA Cores
• 1.4 GHz base clock, boosts up to 1.71 GHz
• 10 GB of GDDR6X VRAM
• 320-bit memory interface
• 320 W power draw
• HDMI 2.1 Support (8K 60Hz or 4K 120 Hz), DisplayPort 1.4a (3x)

Price

The RTX 3080 starts at $699, making it a relatively affordable high-end graphics card.

Performance

The RTX 3080 has 30 shader teraflops and 58 ray-tracing teraflops.

Just like the RTX 3080, this card is capable of high-resolution gaming. It is also a more compelling choice for 1080p than the RTX 3090.

Battlefield V runs at an average of 85.1 FPS at 4k ultra settings. Red Dead Redemption 2 runs at an average framerate of 75.4 FPS (4k, ultra). Horizon Zero Dawn is also excellent, running at 75.7 FPS (4k, ultra).

The card also does an excellent job in all synthetic benchmarks. It is about 20% slower on average when compared against the king of the hill – the RTX 3090.

Temperature

It features the same fan design as the RTX 3090. The temps do not go above 69.9°C in FurMark (1660×900), which is only slightly lower than RTX 2080’s 70.5°C.

RTX 3070

Specs

• 5888 CUDA Cores
• 1.5 GHz base clock, boosts up to 1.73 GHz
• 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM
• 256-bit memory interface
• 220 W power draw
• HDMI 2.1 Support (8K 60Hz or 4K 120 Hz), DisplayPort 1.4a (3x)

 Price

The RTX 3070 starts at $499.

Performance

The RTX 3070 has 20 shader teraflops and 40 ray-tracing teraflops.

The card is slightly faster than the RTX 2080 Ti all across the board at a much lower price point. The interesting part is that the RTX 3080 has a significant advantage over the RTX 2080 Ti when ray tracing is turned on.

Temperature

Unlike the RTX 3090 and 3080, the 3070 has a traditional dual fan design.

Final Words

Nvidia’s new RTX 3000 Series is a landmark for both gamers and professionals all around the world. The cards offer excellent performance at lower prices, especially when placed against the RTX 2000 lineup.

References:

• https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/introducing-rtx-30-series-graphics-cards/
• https://www.techradar.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2020/09/01/nvidias-new-rtx-3000-series–faster-bigger-better-and-more-power-hungry/#29d19712782c
• https://www.howtogeek.com/688625/nvidias-rtx-3000-series-gpus-heres-whats-new/
• https://www.tomsguide.com/news/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-revealed-release-date-price-specs-and-pre-order