GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB
The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, a 12 GB VRAM version of the GeForce RTX 3080, was announced in late 2021 as an upgrade to the base RTX 3080 with more VRAM for better performance in games and other applications.
The graphics card architecture is based on Ampere, the second generation of the NVIDIA RTX architecture, which is an improvement over the Turing architecture. Ampere was designed to improve performance in ray tracing enabled games using DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology.
Announcement and release date
NVIDIA announced the RTX 3080 12 GB at the end of 2021, and its official release took place in early 2022. The release was timed to coincide with the growing demand for video cards with a large amount of video memory and expanding the capabilities of the Ampere architecture.
Characteristics
- Architecture: Ampere
- Processor: GA102
- Number of CUDA cores: 8704
- Base frequency: 1440 MHz
- Boost frequency: 1710MHz
- Video Memory: 12 GB GDDR6X
- Bus width: 384 bits
- Memory Bandwidth: 912 GB/s
- TDP: 320W
- Power connectors: 2x 8-pin PCIe
Gaming performance at release vs. competitors
The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB has been designed to deliver powerful performance in high resolution and ray tracing games. Compared to the base RTX 3080, the 12GB version offered more VRAM, allowing the card to handle more demanding games and textures.
At the time of the release of the RTX 3080 12 GB, the graphics card competed with the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, offering comparable performance in many games, but outperforming AMD in games with active ray tracing and DLSS technology.
In high resolution games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Control and Metro Exodus, the RTX 3080 12 GB performed well, delivering smooth gameplay with ray tracing enabled at high detail levels.
Among other graphics cards available on the market, the RTX 3080 12 GB also outperformed the RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti, offering better performance with additional CUDA cores and more video memory. However, compared to more powerful graphics cards such as the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090, the RTX 3080 12 GB was inferior in performance, although it offered a better price/performance ratio for most users.
Interesting facts about the video card
- The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB was released in response to the growing demand for graphics cards with more video memory to handle more complex scenes and textures in today's games.
- NVIDIA has been actively promoting DLSS technology, which allows you to increase performance without losing image quality. This technology has been integrated into many games and allowed the RTX 3080 12 GB to outperform the competition without DLSS.
- It's also worth noting that NVIDIA hasn't released the various RTX 3080 12 GB Founders Edition models. NVIDIA partners such as ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI offered their versions of the RTX 3080 12 GB with various overclocking settings and cooling designs.
- Despite the advantages of the RTX 3080 12 GB, its release was also accompanied by limited access to graphics cards due to the global shortage of semiconductors and high demand for graphics cards, which led to a significant increase in prices in the market.
Overall, the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB represented a significant improvement over previous graphics cards and demonstrated excellent performance in high resolution and ray tracing games. With more video memory, Ampere architecture, and DLSS technology, the RTX 3080 12 GB has become a popular choice for gamers looking for high-quality gameplay and innovative technology.