Nvidia boasts that the RTX 3080 GPU easily copes with 4K gaming at max details
Nvidia also asserts that 10GB of VRAM is plenty enough for the graphics card
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 cannot only chew through Doom Eternal at 4K with ease – embarrassing the RTX 2080 Ti as we’ve seen – but it also renders a bunch of other games smoothly (60 fps+) at that resolution, the GPU maker just made clear on Reddit.
Some very interesting nuggets of info were dropped in a Reddit Q&A, giving us a better idea of what we can expect from the RTX 3080 (which will launch on September 17) in some existing AAA games at 4K resolution with all graphical settings maxed out (including running any high-res texture packs – and with RTX on in games which support it).
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So in other words, this is the best these games can look at 4K, and according to Nvidia’s Justin Walker, director of product management, the following games hit 60 to 100 fps with the RTX 3080 on average: Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Metro Exodus, Wolfenstein Youngblood, Gears of War 5, Borderlands 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
In a follow-up question about 144Hz monitors, Walker clarified that the RTX 3080 can run certain games at max details and 4K resolution hitting 144 fps on average, and that includes Wolfenstein Youngblood (plus Forza 4 and Doom Eternal).
But he notes that some others – including Red Dead Redemption 2, Borderlands 3, and indeed Control – are closer to 60 fps.
Of course, this is with Nvidia’s internal testing, and no further details are provided (such as the testbed PC’s specification aside from the GPU), so exercise a little caution – we can’t wait to get our own benchmarking done, naturally enough.
Memory matters
Another interesting point to note is that these benchmarks were trotted out in reply to a question about why the RTX 3080 was only equipped with 10GB of video memory – with the asker adding: “How was that determined to be a sufficient number, when it is stagnant from the previous generation?”
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Walker answered that Nvidia was constantly analyzing memory requirements of the latest games and found that 10GB was sufficient, and balanced performance well with price, further observing that the above tested games used anything from 4GB to 6GB of memory.
Walker said: “Extra memory is always nice to have but it would increase the price of the graphics card, so we need to find the right balance.”
He also noted that one of the major breakthroughs Nvidia has made with the Ampere graphics cards is in memory technology, as well as the new GPU architecture of course.
The stage is set for a potentially awesome GPU offering, then, and perhaps the biggest problem with the RTX 3080 on launch day is that stock might disappear in the blink of an eye (and the RTX 3080, and 3090 as well, may remain thin on the ground until 2021, if the rumor mill is right).
Via Wccftech
Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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