Skip to content
Main Navigation Puget Systems Logo
  • Solutions
    • Content Creation
      • Photo Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe Lightroom Classic
        • Adobe Photoshop
        • Stable Diffusion
      • Video Editing & Motion Graphics
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe After Effects
        • Adobe Premiere Pro
        • DaVinci Resolve
        • Foundry Nuke
      • 3D Design & Animation
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk 3ds Max
        • Autodesk Maya
        • Blender
        • Cinema 4D
        • Houdini
        • ZBrush
      • Real-Time Engines
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Game Development
        • Unity
        • Unreal Engine
        • Virtual Production
      • Rendering
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Keyshot
        • OctaneRender
        • Redshift
        • V-Ray
      • Digital Audio
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Ableton Live
        • FL Studio
        • Pro Tools
    • Engineering
      • Architecture & CAD
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk AutoCAD
        • Autodesk Inventor
        • Autodesk Revit
        • SOLIDWORKS
      • Visualization
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Enscape
        • Lumion
        • Twinmotion
      • Photogrammetry & GIS
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • ArcGIS Pro
        • Agisoft Metashape
        • Pix4D
        • RealityCapture
    • AI & HPC
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Data Science
      • Generative AI
      • Large Language Models
      • Machine Learning / AI Dev
      • Scientific Computing
    • More
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Compact Size
      • Live Streaming
      • NVIDIA RTX Studio
      • Quiet Operation
      • Virtual Reality
    • Business & Enterprise
      We can empower your company
    • Government & Education
      Services tailored for your organization
  • Products
    • Puget Mobile
      Powerful laptop workstations
      • Puget Mobile 16″
    • Puget Workstations
      High-performance desktop PCs
      • AMD Ryzen
        • Ryzen 9000:
        • Small Form Factor
        • Mini Tower
        • Mid Tower
        • Full Tower
      • AMD Threadripper
        • Threadripper 7000:
        • Mid Tower
        • Full Tower
        • Threadripper PRO 7000WX:
        • Full Tower
      • AMD EPYC
        • EPYC 9004/9005:
        • Full Tower
      • Intel Core Ultra
        • Core Ultra Series 2:
        • Small Form Factor
        • Mini Tower
        • Mid Tower
        • Full Tower
      • Intel Xeon
        • Xeon W-2500:
        • Mid Tower
        • Xeon W-3500:
        • Full Tower
    • Custom Computers
    • Puget Rackstations
      Workstations in rackmount chassis
      • AMD Rackstations
        • Ryzen 9000:
        • R132-4U
        • R550-6U 5-Node
        • Threadripper 7000:
        • T121-4U
        • T120-5U
        • Threadripper PRO 7000WX:
        • T141-4U
        • T140-5U (Dual 5090s)
        • EPYC 9004:
        • E140-4U (Quad 4090s)
      • Intel Rackstations
        • Core Ultra Series 2:
        • C132-4U
        • Xeon W-3500:
        • X131-4U
        • X141-5U
    • Custom Rackmount Workstations
    • Puget Servers
      Enterprise-class rackmount servers
      • Rackmount Servers
        • AMD EPYC:
        • E200-1U
        • E120-2U
        • E140-2U
        • E280-4U
        • E281-4U
        • Intel Xeon:
        • X200-1U
        • X240-2U
    • Comino Grando GPU Servers
    • Custom Servers
    • Puget Storage
      Solutions from desktop to datacenter
      • Network-Attached Storage
        • Synology NAS Units:
        • 4-bay DiskStation
        • 8-bay DiskStation
        • 12-bay DiskStation
        • 4-bay RackStation
        • 12-bay FlashStation
      • Software-Defined Storage
        • Datacenter Storage:
        • 12-Bay 2U
        • 24-Bay 2U
        • 36-Bay 4U
    • Recommended Third Party Peripherals
      Curated list of accessories for your workstation
    • Puget Gear
      Quality apparel with Puget Systems branding
  • Publications
    • Articles
    • Blog Posts
    • Case Studies
    • HPC Blog
    • Podcasts
    • Press
    • PugetBench
  • Support
    • Contact Support
    • Support Articles
    • Warranty Details
    • Onsite Services
    • Unboxing
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Our Customers
    • Enterprise
    • Gov & Edu
    • Press Kit
    • Testimonials
    • Careers
  • Talk to an Expert
  • My Account
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Hardware Articles
  4. /
  5. Redshift 3.0 – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance

Redshift 3.0 – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance

Posted on September 17, 2020 by William George
With the release of the RTX 3090 on 9/24/2020, we have an updated article that includes results for both the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090: Redshift 3.0 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Test Setup
  • Benchmark Results
  • Performance Analysis
  • Is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Good for Redshift?

TL;DR: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance in Redshift 3.0

Is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 good to use in Redshift 3.0? That is a hard question to answer directly because it depends greatly on your situation. 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.

Redshift 3.0 GPU Rendering Performance Review for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
Image
Redshift 3.0 GPU Rendering Performance Review for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
Open Full Resolution

Introduction

On September 1st, NVIDIA launched the new GeForce RTX 30 Series, touting major advancements in performance and efficiency. While gaming is almost always this media focus during these kinds of launches, professional applications like Maxon's Redshift should also see some significant per-card improvements as well.

There is a downside to this product launch for GPU-based rendering, though: the new cooler design that NVIDIA has introduced on their Founders Edition RTX 3000-series cards is even worse for multi-card configurations than the last generation. If third-party card manufacturers are able to produce RTX 3080 and 3090 cards with rear-exhaust coolers then things will still be okay, but if not then per-system performance in GPU rendering will be much lower despite the speed of a single card being higher.

If you want to see the full specs for the new GeForce RTX 3070, 3080, and 3090 cards, we recommend checking out NVIDIA's page for the new RTX 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 2070 Super 8GB 2,560 1.77 GHz 215W $499
RTX 3070 8GB 5,888 1.70 GHz 220W $499
RTX 2080 Super 8GB 3,072 1.65 GHz 250W $699
RTX 3080 10GB 8,704 1.71 GHz 320W $699
RTX 2080 Ti 11GB 4,352 1.55 GHz 250W $1,199
RTX 3090 24GB 10,496 1.73 GHz 350W $1,499
Titan RTX 24GB 4,608 1.77 GHz 280W $2,499

While specs don't always line up with real-world performance, it is a great sign that NVIDIA has roughly doubled the number of CUDA cores compared to the GeForce RTX 20 Series cards at similar price points. At the top-end of the new line, NVIDIA appears to have also combined the roles of the previous-gen RTX 2080 Ti and Titan RTX into the new RTX 3090. It has as much VRAM as the Titan did, but for $1,000 less – putting it in the same ballpark as the 2080 Ti, but with more than double the memory and CUDA cores.

Since only the GeForce RTX 3080 is fully launched at this point (the RTX 3090 is set to launch on Sept 24th, and the RTX 3070 sometime in October) we, unfortunately, will only be able to examine the RTX 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 their results.

CTA Image
Redshift Workstations

Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.

Configure a System!
CTA Image
Labs Consultation Service

Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.

Find Out More!

Test Setup

Listed below is the specifications of the system we used for our Redshift testing:

Test Platform
CPU Intel Core i9 10900K 10 Core
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S
Motherboard Gigabyte Z490 Vision D
RAM 4x DDR4-2933 16GB (64GB total)
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
NVIDIA Titan RTX 24GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB
Hard Drive Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Ver. 2004)
Redshift 3.0.28 Demo

*All the latest drivers, OS updates, BIOS, and firmware applied as of September 14th, 2020

Big thank you to Gigabyte for providing the GeForce RTX™ 3080 GAMING OC 10G sample used in our testing!

To test each video card, we used the latest demo version of Redshift: 3.0.28. We also tried the older 2.6.41 demo that we have used in previous reviews, but it looks like the new RTX 30 Series cards do not work properly in versions of Redshift prior to 3.0. That release also added RTX support to Redshift, so the benchmark included in this new demo version should show improved performance on 20 Series cards as well.

If you wish to compare performance to your existing system, you can download the demo version of Redshift directly from their website (free account required).

Benchmark Results

Here are charts showing the performance of the new GeForce RTX 3080 compared to the other video cards we tested:

Redshift 3.0.28 Demo Benchmark Performance on GeForce RTX 3080 & RTX 20 Series
Image
Redshift 3.0.28 Demo Benchmark Performance on GeForce RTX 3080 & RTX 20 Series
Open Full Resolution

Performance Analysis

The raw performance of the new GeForce RTX 3080 is fantastic in Redshift 3.0! It is faster than anything in the RTX 20 Series was, and 85% faster than the RTX 2080 Super for the same price. Combined with a 25% increase in VRAM, that massive increase in rendering speed makes it a fantastic value…

… if you only need or want one video card. But that is where the problem lies for the RTX 30 Series cards: GPU based rendering scales very well across multiple graphics cards, but this generation is not built in a way that is friendly to operate multi-GPU configurations. The Founders Edition cards that NVIDIA showed off at their launch event appear particularly ill-suited to this, as one of the fans on them blows hot air directly up – which would mean heat from a lower card going directly into the cooling system of the card above it. Even the triple fan GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING OC 10G from Gigabyte that we did this testing on passes through some heat from one of the fans directly upward, and the heat from the rest of the fans simply circulates back into the chassis. We've looked at how this sort of approach to cooling does not work well in multi-card systems before.

Should it somehow turn out that multiple cards of this type are actually able to be cooled effectively in the same system, there is still the issue of card spacing to deal with: a least one slot would be needed between cards for airflow to the fans, preventing the stacking of 3-4 GPUs that we are accustomed to from blower-style cards in past generations. And if that were solved by video card OEMs putting out cooling system variants that exhaust heat out the back of the computer, there would still be the issue of increased power consumption on these cards. NVIDIA's specs show the GeForce RTX 3080 drawing up to 70W more per card than the previous 2080 & 2080 Ti, and the RTX 3090 is slated for 100W more. Multiple cards like that would strain today's largest PC power supplies.

Is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Good for Redshift?

This is a hard question to answer directly because it depends greatly on your situation. 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.

As always, please keep in mind that these results are strictly for GPU-based rendering in Redshift. If you have performance concerns for other applications in your workflow, we highly recommend checking out our Hardware Articles (you can filter by "Video Card") for the latest information on how a wide range of programs perform with various GPUs, CPUs, and other hardware.

CTA Image
GPU Rendering Workstations

Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.

Configure a System!
CTA Image
Labs Consultation Service

Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.

Find Out More!

Related Content

  • NVIDIA Blackwell GPU GenAI Software Support
  • Choosing the Right CPU for Unreal Engine: Ryzen X3D vs Threadripper
  • Do Video Editors Need GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs?
  • AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Content Creation Review
View All Related Content

Latest Content

  • Why PugetBench for Premiere Pro is Dropping HEVC Encoding Tests
  • NVIDIA Blackwell GPU GenAI Software Support
  • Reflecting on an Incredible NAB Show 2025
  • Windows 10 End of Life: A Guide to What’s Next
View All
Tags: GPU, GPU Acceleration, GTX 1080 Ti, Hardware Acceleration, Maxon, NVIDIA, Redshift, Render, Rendering, RTX 2060 SUPER, RTX 2070 SUPER, RTX 2080 SUPER, RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 3080, Titan RTX, Video Card

Who is Puget Systems?

Puget Systems builds custom workstations, servers and storage solutions tailored for your work.

We provide:

Extensive performance testing
making you more productive and giving better value for your money

Reliable computers
with fewer crashes means more time working & less time waiting

Support that understands
your complex workflows and can get you back up & running ASAP

A proven track record
as shown by our case studies and customer testimonials

Get Started

Browse Systems

Puget Systems Mobile Laptop Workstation Icon

Mobile

Puget Systems Tower Workstation Icon

Workstations

Puget Systems Rackmount Workstation Icon

Rackstations

Puget Systems Rackmount Server Icon

Servers

Puget Systems Rackmount Storage Icon

Storage

Latest Articles

  • Why PugetBench for Premiere Pro is Dropping HEVC Encoding Tests
  • NVIDIA Blackwell GPU GenAI Software Support
  • Reflecting on an Incredible NAB Show 2025
  • Windows 10 End of Life: A Guide to What’s Next
  • Meet the 5-Node 6U Rackstation Built with Game Dev in Mind
View All

Post navigation

 Pix4D 4.5.6 – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 PerformanceUnreal Engine 4.25 – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Performance 
Puget Systems Logo
Build Your Own PC Site Map FAQ
facebook instagram linkedin rss twitter youtube

Optimized Solutions

  • Adobe Premiere
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Solidworks
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Machine Learning

Workstations

  • Content Creation
  • Engineering
  • Scientific PCs
  • More

Support

  • Online Guides
  • Request Support
  • Remote Help

Publications

  • All News
  • Puget Blog
  • HPC Blog
  • Hardware Articles
  • Case Studies

Policies

  • Warranty & Return
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Delivery Times
  • Accessibility

About Us

  • Testimonials
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter

© Copyright 2025 - Puget Systems, All Rights Reserved.