NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB Review Roundup
Written on September 17, 2020 by Matt BachIntroduction
On September 1st, NVIDIA announced the new GeForce RTX 30 Series, touting major advancements in performance and efficiency. While gaming is almost always a major focus during these launches, professional applications - especially those in the content creation fields - is becoming increasingly important.
To see how the new GeForce RTX 3080 10GB performs in real-world scenarios, we have reviews looking at a number of applications across rendering, game development, the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, and more. While this post includes a summary for each entry, we highly recommend reading the full article for programs you are interested in as we go into much greater detail in the individual reviews.
If you want to see the full specs for the new GeForce RTX 3070, 3080, and 3090 cards, we recommend checking out NVIDIAs page for the new 30 series cards. But at a glance, here are what we consider to be the most important specs:
| VRAM | CUDA Cores | Boost Clock | Power | MSRP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 2070S | 8GB | 2,560 | 1.77 GHz | 215W | $499 |
| RTX 3070 | 8GB | 5,888 | 1.70 GHz | 220W | $499 |
| RTX 2080 Ti | 11GB | 4,352 | 1.55 GHz | 250W | $1,199 |
| RTX 3080 | 10GB | 8,704 | 1.71 GHz | 320W | $699 |
| Titan RTX | 24GB | 4,608 | 1.77 GHz | 280W | $2,499 |
| RTX 3090 | 24GB | 10,496 | 1.73 GHz | 350W | $1,499 |
While specs rarely line up with real-world performance, it is a great sign that NVIDIA has doubled the number of CUDA cores compared to the comparable RTX 20 series cards with only a small drop in the boost clock. At the same time, the RTX 3080 and 3090 are also $500-1000 less expensive than the previous generation depending on which models you are comparing them to.
Since only the RTX 3080 is fully launched at this point (the 3090 is set to launch on Sept 24th, and the 3070 sometime in October), we, unfortunately, will only be able to examine the 3080 at this time. However, we are very interested in how the RTX 3070 and 3090 will perform, and when we are able to test those cards, we will post follow-up articles with the results.
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Unreal Engine
Read the full article: Unreal Engine 4.25 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: In virtually every test we performed, the RTX 3080 outperformed both the 2080 Ti and Titan RTX by a wide margin while costing significantly less. At 4k resolutions, we see an average 60% improvement in FPS over the 2080 Ti, with some tests being nearly double the frame rate. In the worst cases, the RTX 3080 was neck and neck with the Titan, only loosing out when VRAM was a limiting factor.
OctaneRender
Read the full article: OctaneRender 2020 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: If you are on a very limited budget, or only have room in your workstation for a single video card, then the GeForce RTX 3080 is a great choice for OctaneRender. It has the highest single-card performance we have seen (though it will surely be eclipsed by the RTX 3090 later this month) and 25% more memory than the previous-gen model at the same price point.
At the same time, though, if you are accustomed to workstations with three or four powerful video cards stacked inside to give you the best rendering speeds possible... that may not be an option with this generation, or at least not for a while. Without rear-exhausting models it will be hard to cool even two of these beasts in a single system, and while the price:performance ratio of the RTX 3080 is undeniably great the raw performance of two RTX 2080 Ti cards (which were produced in single-fan, rear-exhaust variants) will still outpace it by a fair margin... not to mention three or four of those, which we routinely built into a single tower or rackmount workstation. We will have to wait and see when, or even if, we are ever able to offer that density of RTX 3000-series cards.
Redshift
Read the full article: Redshift 3.0 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: If you only have room in your workstation for a single video card, or are on a strict budget, then the GeForce RTX 3080 is a fantastic choice for rendering in Redshift. It offers the fastest single-card performance we have seen (though it is likely to be surpassed by the RTX 3090 later this month) and 2GB of additional VRAM compared to the previous-gen model at the same price.
However, if you are used to buying workstations with multiple high-end video cards stacked inside to give you the best rendering speeds possible... that may not be possible with this generation, or at least not yet. Without blower-style coolers it will be hard to cool even two of these cards in a single system, and while the price:performance ratio of the RTX 3080 is undeniably great the raw performance of two RTX 2080 Super or Ti cards (which were produced in single-fan, rear-exhaust variants) will still exceed it... not to mention three or four of those, which we often built into a single tower or rackmount workstation. Only time will tell when, or even if, we are ever able to offer that many RTX 3000-series cards in one computer.
V-Ray GPU Rendering
Read the full article: V-Ray GPU Rendering - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: If you are operating on a budget, or only have room for a single video card in your workstation, then the GeForce RTX 3080 is a great GPU for rendering in V-Ray and V-Ray Next. It has the best single-card performance we've yet tested (though it is certain to be outdone by the RTX 3090 later this month) and 25% more video memory than previous-gen models at the same price point.
As good as that sounds, though, if you are someone who built workstations with three or four powerful video cards stacked inside to give you the fastest rendering times possible... that may not be an option with the RTX 3080 & 3090, at least not at this time. Unless single-fan, rear-exhausting cooler versions come out it will be hard to put even two of these GPUs in a single system, and while the price:performance ratio of the RTX 3080 is undeniable the raw performance of two RTX 2080 Ti cards (which were produced in single-fan variants) will still outpace it by a fair margin... not to mention three or four of those, which we routinely built into a single tower or rackmount workstation. We will have to wait and see if we are ever going to be able to offer that density of RTX 30 Series cards in a PC.
RealityCapture
Read the full article: RealityCapture 1.1 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: As of its launch today, the GeForce RTX 3080 is the fastest video card available for RealityCapture! That could change with the release of the RTX 3090 later this month, of course, but that card is also going to be several hundred dollars more expensive - so we will have to wait and see if it can justify that price increase in this application.
Metashape
Read the full article: Agisoft Metashape 1.6.4 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: As of its launch today, the GeForce RTX 3080 is the best single video card available for Agisoft Metashape! That could change with the release of the RTX 3090 later this month, of course, but that card is also going to be several hundred dollars more expensive - so we will have to wait and see if it can justify that price increase in this application. We will also look into whether multi-GPU configurations are viable with this new generation of GeForce cards, and if so whether they still provide any benefit for Metashape.
Pix4D
Read the full article: Pix4D 4.5.6 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: The RTX 3080 is a solid video card choice for Pix4D, but if you already have a high-end 10- or 20-series GeForce card then there probably isn't a reason to upgrade for this application. Most of the recent cards in the $400+ price range will give similar results.
DaVinci Resolve Studio
Read the full article: DaVinci Resolve Studio - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: While performance when editing and doing basic grades may only be 10-25% faster with the new RTX 3080 compared to the previous generation RTX 20-series cards, when doing noise reduction or using OpenFX, the performance gap widens from a minimum of 30% faster compared to a Titan RTX to almost 2x faster compared to an RTX 2060 SUPER!
This also puts a single RTX 3080 10GB within spitting distance of a dual RTX 2080 Ti 11GB setup, which considering that is comparing a $699 GPU to a $2,400 pair of cards is extremely impressive.
Premiere Pro
Read the full article: Adobe Premiere Pro - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: While the average editor likely won't notice much of a performance gain with the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 video card, in certain situations it can provide a healthy boost to performance. In an ideal situation where you are using multiple GPU-accelerated effects, you are looking at a 10% increase in performance compared to the more expensive RTX 2080 Ti, or a 20-40% increase in performance compared to the RTX 2080, 2070, and 2060 SUPER cards.
After Effects
Read the full article: Adobe After Effects - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: For most users, After Effects is going to be CPU bottlenecked long before the performance of your GPU comes into play. However, in certain After Effects workloads, the new GeForce RTX 3080 is around 11% faster than the previous generation RTX 2080 Ti, 16% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, or a bit more than 20% faster than the older GTX 1080 Ti.
Photoshop
Read the full article: Adobe Photoshop - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: Although Photoshop has a number of GPU-accelerated effects that make it important to have a supported GPU, there was effectively no difference in performance between the various NVIDIA and AMD GPUs we tested. The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB performs just fine, but it is no faster than the RTX 2080 Ti, not to mention the RTX 2060 SUPER or even the older GTX 1080 Ti.
Lightroom Classic
Read the full article: Adobe Lightroom Classic - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance
Summary: Adobe has been steadily adding GPU support into Lightroom Classic over the last few years, but just like Photoshop, the most important thing is to simply have a supported card. There is some difference between a low-end GPU and one like the new GeForce RTX 3080, but between cards that are roughly in the same ballpark, you will be hard-pressed to notice a difference.
At most, there is only a few percent difference between the RTX 2060 SUPER and the RTX 3080, and effectively no difference between the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3080.
How well does the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 perform overall?
While the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB is certainly the most powerful GPU ever released, it is important to understand that different applications utilize the GPU in very different ways.
In GPU render engines like V-Ray, the RTX 3080 greatly out-performs the RTX 20-series cards, even beating the RTX 2080 Ti (which is significantly more expensive) by a large 60%. Unreal Engine also saw massive performance gains, averaging 60% higher performance over the RTX 2080 Ti.
Applications that are more CPU-focused like DaVinci Resolve or the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, however, have much more mixed results. In Resolve, the RTX 3080 can still be up to 35% faster than the 2080 Ti in certain situations, but this drops to just 10% faster in Premiere Pro and After Effects. And in Photoshop and Lightroom Classic where GPU acceleration is much less pronounced, there is very little performance gain to be had with the new RTX 3080.
One thing to note is that multi-GPU configurations - which can be a major consideration for some of these applications - are still up in the air at the moment. Unlike the previous generation, these new cards (including all the third-party models we have seen so far) do not vent a significant portion of their heat directly outside the chassis which may mean that using more than 2 GPUs will not be feasible without a complex and expensive liquid cooling setup. This is something we will be testing in-depth in the coming weeks and months.
In addition, there are still several RTX 30-series cards that have been announced but not yet launched. The even more powerful GeForce RTX 3090 24GB is set to launch on September 24th, while the more modest RTX 3070 8GB will be available sometime in October. Be sure to check back after these cards launch for the latest information on how these cards perform in professional applications.
Content Creation Workstations
Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.
Labs Consultation Service
Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.