NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB: specs and benchmarks

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Summary

NVIDIA started GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB sales 11 January 2022 at a recommended price of $799 . This is a high-end Ampere architecture desktop card based on 8 nm manufacturing process and primarily aimed at gamers. 12 GB of 384 memory clocked at 1.71 GHz are supplied, and together with 19000 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 285 mm. 1x 12-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 350 Watt.

It provides good gaming and benchmark performance at 68.98% of a leader's which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

RTX 4090GeForce RTX4090
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General info

Some basic facts about GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking20
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Value for money16.16
ArchitectureAmpere (2020−2022)
GPU code nameAmpere GA102
Market segmentDesktop
Release date11 January 2022 (2 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$799
Current price$1053 (1.3x MSRP)of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores8960of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
Boost clock speed1260 MHzof 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors28,300 millionof 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology8 nmof 4 (GeForce RTX 4080)
Power consumption (TDP)350 Wattof 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate478.8of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)

Size and compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

InterfacePCIe 4.0 x16
Length285 mm
Width2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 12-pin

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory type384
Maximum RAM amount12 GBof 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Memory bus width19000 Bit
Memory clock speed1710 MHzof 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)
Memory bandwidth912.4 GB/sof 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI+

API support

APIs supported by GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.6
OpenGL4.6
OpenCL3.0
Vulkan1.3
CUDA8.6

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

RTX 3080 12 GB 26740

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

RTX 3080 12 GB 44533

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

RTX 3080 12 GB 217116

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RTX 3080 12 GB 35922

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RTX 3080 12 GB 549644

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

RTX 3080 12 GB 52

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

RTX 3080 12 GB 102294

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD184
1440p123
4K83

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 130−140

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 100−110
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 110−120
Battlefield 5 150−160
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 170−180
Cyberpunk 2077 130−140
Far Cry 5 171
Far Cry New Dawn 136
Forza Horizon 4 190−200
Hitman 3 200−210
Horizon Zero Dawn 200
Red Dead Redemption 2 110−120
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 209
Watch Dogs: Legion 118

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 100−110
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 110−120
Battlefield 5 150−160
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 170−180
Cyberpunk 2077 130−140
Far Cry 5 162
Far Cry New Dawn 131
Forza Horizon 4 190−200
Hitman 3 200−210
Horizon Zero Dawn 165
Metro Exodus 147
Red Dead Redemption 2 110−120
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 202
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 321
Watch Dogs: Legion 108

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 100−110
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 110−120
Battlefield 5 150−160
Cyberpunk 2077 130−140
Far Cry 5 151
Far Cry New Dawn 118
Forza Horizon 4 190−200
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 165
Watch Dogs: Legion 95

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 120−130
Hitman 3 150−160
Horizon Zero Dawn 132
Metro Exodus 98
Red Dead Redemption 2 65−70
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 147

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 75−80
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 85−90
Battlefield 5 130−140
Cyberpunk 2077 70−75
Far Cry 5 147
Far Cry New Dawn 116
Forza Horizon 4 160−170
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 120−130
Watch Dogs: Legion 84

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 75−80
Hitman 3 85−90
Horizon Zero Dawn 80
Metro Exodus 65
Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 83
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 132

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 50−55
Battlefield 5 90−95
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
Far Cry 5 102
Far Cry New Dawn 98
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
Watch Dogs: Legion 55

Relative perfomance

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.


AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is Radeon RX 7900 GRE, which is nearly equal in speed and lower by 1 position in our ranking.

RX 7900 GRERadeon RX7900 GRE
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Here are some closest AMD rivals to GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB:

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

RX 7900 GRERadeon RX7900 GRE
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RTX 3090GeForce RTX3090
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RX 6900 XTRadeon RX6900 XT
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RTX 4070GeForce RTX4070
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RTX 3080 TiGeForce RTX3080 Ti
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RTX 6000 Ada GenerationRTX6000 Ada Generation
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Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB according to our statistics.

User ratings: view and submit

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.


4.4 768 votes

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Questions and comments

Here you can ask a question about GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.