The Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 was first released on September 17, 2020. Zotac, based in Hong Kong, produces high-quality graphics cards with over 6,000 employees and 40 assembly plants. This article will introduce you to the features and performance of this high-end card. Built on the Ampere architecture, it is primarily designed for gamers. The manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for this card is $699 .
Introducing the ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming graphics card
The ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card measures 31.78 cm in length, 12.07 cm in width, and occupies 2.5 slots in thickness. It features four video outputs: three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1 . These output ports are capable of delivering resolutions of 7860 x 4320 at 60 Hz. The recommended HDMI cable should therefore support 8K at 60 FPS or 4K at 120 FPS. The ZOTAC RTX 3080 has a TDP of 320 Watts . The power supply should therefore be at least 750 Watts. To dissipate the heat generated by this card, ZOTAC has implemented a cooling system with three front fans called IceStorm 2.0 . Each 90 mm fan is equipped with 11 blades. This resulted in more efficient airflow, 10% more than the previous generation. You can also use the ZOTAC Gaming FireStorm Software to control the fan speeds. Each fan can have its own speed. The cooling system stops when the GPU is not under load. The ZOTAC RTX 3080 features an RGB lighting system called Spectra 2.0 . The ZOTAC Gaming FireStorm Software allows you to customize the colors and apply animation effects.
The RTX 3080 card features a GA102 chip measuring 628 mm². This chip therefore boasts a record density of 44.6 million transistors/mm² . With the TU102 chip of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, the density is around 24.7 million transistors/mm², or 18.6 billion transistors in 754 mm².
Features of the ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming
The RTX 3080 features three processing units: CUDA, RT, and Tensor. The card has 8704 CUDA cores , 68 RT cores , and 272 Tensor cores . The 8704 CUDA cores are dedicated to standard rendering calculations. These CUDA cores are supported by 96 rendering blocks and 272 texture units. The 68 RT cores are used for ray tracing. The 272 Tensor cores are used for AI and inference calculations. These are the cores used when DLSS is enabled. While the number of Tensor cores has decreased compared to the 2000 series, this latest generation is more efficient than the 2000 series, even with fewer cores.
The ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 features 10GB of GDDR6X running at 19GHz . Data is transmitted over a 760Gbps bandwidth on the 320-bit memory bus. The GPU was manufactured using an 8-nanometer process. Under normal operating conditions, 28.3 billion transistors switch at 1.44GHz. In boost clock mode, the switching frequency reaches approximately 1.71GHz. Compared to its competitor, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, the RTX 3080 is estimated to offer 93% of the performance. This card supports, among other things, DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.2, and CUDA 8.5.
Nvidia advertises the GeForce RTX 3080 as being twice as efficient as the RTX 2080. It boasts a significant performance boost in both raw performance and ray tracing. The GeForce RTX 3080 also delivers excellent speed in cryptocurrency mining, achieving boost clock speeds of Meanwhile, the AMD Radeon RX 5700
The ZOTAC RTX 3080 Gaming supports ray tracing , enabling highly realistic effects and a truly immersive gaming experience. Indeed, shadow and lighting effects are meticulously calculated, and the paths of light follow the logic of the human eye: from the lens to objects and then to light sources. Super Sampling, or DLSS, further enhances detail and sharpness. Renderings are improved by Artificial Intelligence, and the frame rate is boosted. The DirectX 12 Ultimate API also delivers significant visual performance enhancements. All of this positions the RTX 3080 at the forefront of the most powerful graphics cards currently available.
Benchmarking of the ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming
In Fortnite, at 720p, the RTX 3080 manages to produce 425 FPS, at QHD 1440p, the average frame rate is 115 FPS, and at 4K 2160p resolution, the card achieves 57.5 FPS. These figures may vary depending on PC components and the operating system.
Comparing the performance of the ZOTAC RTX 3080 with cards in its category, it outperforms the Radeon RX 6800 and the Radeon RX 6800 XT . The top performer is the GeForce RTX 3090 , which is 6.03% faster. The lowest performer in our comparative tests is the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti , which lags behind the RTX 3080 by 16.12%.
Tested on G3D Mark, the RTX 3080 card comes out on top in our ranking, with a score of 23,740. It is closely followed by the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER with a score of 18,101 and the AMD Radeon RT 5700 XT with 16,736.
On 3DMark , the ZOTAC RTX 3080 (3DMark score 17694) is +14.89% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (3DMark score 15059), -1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (3DMark score 17744) and -1.04% ahead of the AMD Radeon 6900 XT (3DMark score 18514).
In the following chart, we highlight the price-performance ratio by comparing the different cards based on their 3DMark and their respective retail prices (MSRP). The RTX 3080 offers very good performance, with a 3DMark score of 17,694 and an MSRP of $699. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 delivers slightly better performance with a 3DMark score of 19,858, but at a significantly higher price of $1,499. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, on the other hand, offers lower performance with a 3DMark score of 14,765, but with a much higher MSRP of $999.
In short, in terms of value for money, the ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card is a good deal. It features an efficient cooling system and customizable RGB lighting. The ZOTAC Gaming FireStorm Software greatly simplifies its use. It is available online for $699.
