Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 Series | Thoughts!

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Just a few hours ago, Nvidia unleashed their might and announced the RTX 3000 series graphics cards, or, three of them. Namely, the 3070, 3080 and finally the 3090. In comparison to the previous years and generations, 3090 or the "90" series card is a new addition. Though it made me think if they are abandoning the "Ti" lineup for the sake of simplicity and prevent any confusion with "Titan" - I must admit that I watched the conference, or more like, the presentation video with my mouth open.

The Specs

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10.5 THOUSAND CUDA CORES! That is absolutely crazy! And it's not just 3090 that is awesome, 3080 and 3070 are similarly best in class. It is very refreshing to see "GHz" indicators rather than "MHz" for the clock speeds now, as a cherry on top, 3090 can do 36 TFLOPS while 3080 can perform 30 TFLOPS. These numbers are crazy, out of this world.

And the biggest thing? 3080 just costs $699. Well, at least, the MSRP is $699.

RTX 20xx?

This was something I have been wondering for a very long time and I am assuming it is somewhat confirmed by the Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang himself. In the presentation, he specifically said and I quote:

Pascal gamers, it is time to upgrade. - Jensen Huang

I wonder if Nvidia admits how useless RTX 20xx series cards were, incremental upgrade over the 10xx series and had no outstanding features or specs in comparison. Hence what I was wondering... was RTX 20xx series cards a demo/concept for the 30xx series? Or it was just a case of "ah, we couldn't make it in time, let's just tone down the 30xx and release it as 20xx instead." I don't know. I didn't buy it, don't recommend buying it to anyone.

Pricing, Stocks.

At $1499 MSRP, RTX 3090 is probably out of reach for most gamers. Unless you are dabbling in machine learning or anything VRAM intensive like @foxon or @themarkymark, I don't think getting an RTX 3090 is the best option here. When you compare it with the RTX 3080, there are minimal differences other than VRAM itself. Considering the price and the performance, I am somewhat 50/50 on this. A part of me says the stocks will be wiped clean as soon as it releases by enthusiasts, crypto miners and workstation builders while the other part says due to its pricing, we won't see it out of stock.

At $699 MSRP, RTX 3080 is the best choice of the three. 30 Teraflops performance, 10GB GDDR6X VRAM... 4k60fps gaming with Raytracing Enabled? Sign me up... and other few million people. With the crypto mining somehow on the rise again and people starting to build rigs out of second-hand graphics cards, this card will probably be out of stock at release.

At $499 MSRP, RTX 3070 is the budget performer. Unfortunately, we did not see an RTX 3060 release in this presentation (though hardly surprising given how low-budget cards release at a later date) if the price can hold or stay around the $499 mark, with 8 GB GDDR6 (NOT GDDR6X) VRAM and 5888 CUDA cores, RTX 3070 is a great choice for gamers who don't want to break the bank.

Will I be upgrading?

Short Answer: NO.

Long Answer: I already have a GTX 1080. I bought it in 2016, still using it. Still works just fine. My monitors are 1080p, my main monitor is 144Hz. Even though it has been over 4 years at this point since I purchased my GPU, it still works just fine. I can run most games on ultra settings above 60, and games that require fast input (competitive games, mostly) are mostly played in low settings anyways so it is super easy to get over 144Hz, therefore, I do not see a need for an upgrade for the time being. Maybe if I end up buying a 4k monitor... who knows.

Should you upgrade?

Maybe?

It's a really tough question to answer as it is a very subjective topic. Do you play games at 4K? Do you run/have a project that requires that extra VRAM and GPU processing power? Do you want to run 100 copies of Crysis at once? Think about that carefully. If you are buying a new computer, definitely go for the 3000 series. It is worth it.



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10 comments
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I think upgrading to often is wasting money. Not ever single FPS is paying a lot of time for get the money to realised that what most people do not see and need.

The hole PC- Consumer Market is going back the last years, i think the tops we reached. Time to fall on a real worth to build up new ways again.

Salve and nice post.
Alucian

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Hey timely post. In about two months im looking to buy a gaming laptop. I know i know get a tower. But i want a system i can take with me and lounge on thr couch or bed or gor when i travel. I plan to get one built as opposed to going to best buy and get an alienware or whatever.
Right now im seeing a lot of them running the 2080. Do you think in two months time ill see a 3000 available for laptop and if yes which should i realistically get. Im trying to keep the entire build no higher than 2500 usd

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Realistically... It could take up to 6 months or a year to see potential gaming laptops. Maybe even more. In comparison to 2000 series, 3000 series draw a lot more power. For a tower, this isn't an issue. But for laptop, it is a major issue. Until they can figure it out, no laptops.

If you desperately need a laptop immediately, laptops with 2060 have been performing well, 2070 and 2080 have their own set of problems though.

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What's been the issue with the 2070-2080 line. Overheating? Power? I see most are going with the 2070. I dont know too much about this stuff and just want to make smart decisions when i go gor tye build. I want something that has longevity for a few years and wont be obsolete and unable to keep up.

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The opposite. NOTHING. Nothing was going on with the 2070-2080s. Other than the higher power use and higher thermals (due to power) the performance gain has been very incremental with the Max-Q implementation. (Max-Q is like desktop-grade chip but slightly toned down, less performance than the desktop counterpart. 5-10% perf. hit) Hence not a lot of purchasers and/or manufacturers prefer them in their laptops.

So far, only 2060 has been actually viable both performance and thermal/power-wise.

Honestly, I don't recommend buying gaming laptops to anyone :)

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I know. Its inferior to a tower but i want something mobile. Where i can lounge on thr couch or in bed snd use it ir for when i travel. Before coronavirus i used to fly a lot. I want something mobile. Hence the laptop. Im not a super hardcore gammer that needs to have 4k but i do like mods for enhanced graphics and i want something that wont run into requirements issues with new games coming down the line in three years or so. I can't afford to buy or upgrade a computer often so i need the purchase to last four or five years. But i also move around a lot and need mobility. So im at a conundrum.

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If you have a nice internet speed on the go, cloud gaming services (such as Nvidia GeForce NOW) have been gaining traction. Maybe check those? Worst case scenario, go with a laptop that has an RTX 2060.

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Cool. I shall keep that in mind. I plan on doing a build. A lot of times ill be away from wifi or internet so its gotta be able to stand alone on its own.

Thank you btw for taking the time to explain all this to a noob like me. I appreciate it.

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Hi deathwing! It is amazing how fast technology had evolved. I am still using my old GTX 970M on my Alienware laptop that I bought 4 years ago. Haha! Upvoted!

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