Overall and Final Verdict

With the RTX 3080 being Nvidia’s gaming flagship card for 8 months now the addition of the RTX 3080 Ti is a little surprising. But it was clear from the start that the RTX 3090 was more focused on 8K and workloads like Nvidia’s Titan series of cards given it's monster 24GB VRAM. So filling in the gap between the RTX 3080 and the RTX 3090 with a card that gets you the same 10496 CUDA cores, 328 Tensor cores, and 82 RT cores while cutting that memory size in half to keep the cost down makes sense. In actual use getting to use the rest of the GA102 GPU translated to a monster when it comes to 4K performance. It rips through 1080p and 1440p games as well, but honestly, in a lot of those situations, you are more likely to be CPU limited than anything so the RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition shines at 4K the most.

Nvidia also did it in the original RTX 3080 Founders Edition package, not the huge card they designed for the RTX 3090 which makes it a lot more usable. That also means the card has the same unique styling that I loved before and like all Founders Edition cards, the quality is off the charts. Holding the card is like holding a chunk of solid metal and it feels more like an award than a video card. While there are a few designs I like a lot, I still think this is the best looking of them all.

Packing a higher TGP GPU into the same cooler as the previous RTX 3080 FE does mean that the cooling performance could be a little better. The original 3080 FE wasn’t exactly topping the charts and this thing does run a touch warmer. They tweaked the fan profile which helps, but it also has it running louder while under load as well. The other big downside is power usage, the RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition topped our charts when properly loaded. You do want to make sure you have a power supply to support things, especially if you pair a CPU with it that can get the best possible performance.

We have talked about it a lot and I hate to even bring it up again, but 2020 was a crazy year and 2021 isn’t far off as well. Especially in the PC market where things have become the wild west in a lot of ways. The GPU market has had cards selling for unthinkable markups and card availability has been tough, to say the least. So I expected the price of the RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition to be higher. But the RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition has a launch MSRP of $1199 which surprised me when the RTX 3080 Founders Edition launched at $699. It is somewhat in the middle between the RTX 3090 ($1499)and the RTX 3080($699) for their launch prices but on the higher side even with dropping the larger 3090 cooler and half the VRAM. That said, given that lower-end cards like the RTX 3060 Ti are selling for even more I don’t think people who manage to get their hands on the RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition are going to be too upset. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the price ends up adjusted if/when things settle down which they have been calming down slightly from the looks of it.

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Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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