NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is a member of the GeForce 30-series, built on the Ampere architecture and manufactured by Samsung on an 8 nm process. The GA102 chip contains 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, with a transistor density of 45.1 million per square millimeter. The card features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its launch MSRP was 699 USD. The RTX 3080 succeeds the GeForce 20 series and is succeeded by the GeForce 40 series. It was released on 2020-08-31 and is now end-of-life. The card uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and provides one HDMI 2.1 port and three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

Power and Cooling

The RTX 3080 has a TDP of 320 W. NVIDIA recommends a 700 W power supply for systems using this card. Power is delivered via a single 12-pin connector. The card occupies a dual-slot form factor, which is a common size for high-performance GPUs. Its physical dimensions are 285 mm in length, 112 mm in height, and 40 mm in width. These measurements indicate a long card that requires adequate case clearance, especially for the 12-pin connector placement. The 8 nm process node from Samsung is a key manufacturing detail, though its direct impact on cooling is not quantified here. The GA102 die measures 628 mm² and contains 28,300 million transistors, which is a high density for an 8 nm process. The transistor density of 45.1 million per square millimeter is a direct result of this process. The 320 W TDP is a significant power draw, and the 700 W PSU recommendation provides headroom for the rest of the system. The single 12-pin connector may require an adapter for older power supplies, but that is not specified in the data. Overall, the power and cooling requirements are clearly defined, and the dual-slot design should accommodate most tower cases with standard airflow.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The RTX 3080 is equipped with 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-driven features. The GPU also contains 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. These resources yield a pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s. In terms of compute, the card delivers 29.77 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16, with a 1:1 ratio. For API support, the RTX 3080 is compatible with DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set includes ray tracing and variable rate shading, though specific details are not listed. The tensor cores are essential for DLSS and other AI workloads, but no specific DLSS version is provided. The combination of RT and tensor cores positions the card for modern gaming and content creation tasks that leverage these accelerators. Additionally, the card supports PCIe 4.0 x16, which provides high bandwidth for data transfer. The display outputs include one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a, supporting modern monitors and high refresh rates. The 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are a significant part of the Ampere architecture's feature set. The 8704 shading units and 272 TMUs are also integral to the GPU's geometry and texture processing capabilities.

How It Compares

The RTX 3080's average benchmark score is 35787, placing it at the 80th percentile among all GPUs. This means it outperforms 80% of the GPUs in the database. Its nearest rivals are within a narrow performance band, with deltas ranging from -0.9% to +1%.

AMD Radeon Pro Duo: The Pro Duo scores 35860, which is 0.2% higher than the RTX 3080. The difference is negligible, making these two cards effectively tied in aggregate performance. The Pro Duo is a dual-GPU card, but that detail is not relevant here.

AMD Radeon 880M: The 880M scores 35646, which is 0.4% lower than the RTX 3080. The RTX 3080 holds a slight edge, but the margin is within typical run-to-run variance. This indicates that the two are comparable in overall performance.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE: The RX 7900 GRE scores 36101, which is 0.9% higher than the RTX 3080. This is the largest delta among the listed rivals, but still a sub-1% difference. The RTX 3080 trails by less than a percentage point.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile: The RTX 5070 Ti Mobile scores 35435, which is 1% lower than the RTX 3080. The RTX 3080 leads by a single percentage point, again a minor gap. This rival is a mobile GPU, yet its performance is close to the desktop RTX 3080.

These comparisons show that the RTX 3080 sits in a tightly contested performance tier, with no rival exceeding a 1% difference. The 80th percentile rank further underscores its position in the upper echelon of GPUs.

FAQ

Q: What is the TDP of the RTX 3080?

A: The TDP is 320 W, and NVIDIA recommends a 700 W power supply.

Q: What type of memory does the RTX 3080 use?

A: It uses 10 GB of GDDR6X on a 320-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s.

Q: What power connector is required?

A: The card uses a single 12-pin power connector.

Q: What API versions are supported?

A: It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: When was the RTX 3080 released?

A: It was released on 2020-08-31 and is now end-of-life.

Q: How many RT cores does it have?

A: It has 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores.

Benchmark Performance

In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, the RTX 3080 scores 4407. Geekbench OpenCL returns 167014, while Geekbench Vulkan yields 145176. Passmark results include DirectX 10 at 170, DirectX 11 at 207, DirectX 12 at 100, DirectX 9 at 258, G2D at 1054, G3D at 25086, and GPU compute at 14397. The average benchmark score across these tests is 35787. The card's percentile rank is 80, meaning it outperforms 80% of all GPUs in the database. When compared to its nearest rivals, the performance deltas are all within 1%. Specifically, the RTX 3080 is 0.2% slower than the AMD Radeon Pro Duo, 0.4% faster than the AMD Radeon 880M, 0.9% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE, and 1% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile. These results indicate that the RTX 3080 delivers consistent performance across a variety of workloads, with no single benchmark showing a dramatic deviation from its rivals. The DirectX 12 score of 100 is notably low compared to other Passmark tests, but this may reflect specific test conditions rather than overall capability. The Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores are substantially higher, suggesting strong compute and graphics performance in those APIs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4407 provides a modern gaming workload reference. Overall, the benchmark suite shows a well-rounded GPU with no glaring weaknesses.

Memory Subsystem

The RTX 3080 is equipped with 10 GB of GDDR6X memory. The memory interface is 320 bits wide, and the resulting bandwidth is 760.3 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1188 MHz, with an effective speed of 19 Gbps. This configuration provides substantial bandwidth for high-resolution textures and large datasets. The pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s are also relevant to memory throughput, as they reflect the rate at which the GPU can process pixels and textures. The 10 GB capacity is a defining specification, and the GDDR6X type is known for high speed, though no specific latency figures are provided. For memory-intensive workloads, the 760.3 GB/s bandwidth is a critical factor. The 320-bit bus width is wider than many contemporary cards, but comparisons to other cards are not available in this data set. The effective memory speed of 19 Gbps is a key specification for bandwidth calculations. Together, these memory specifications support high-resolution rendering and compute tasks that require large data movement.