Nvidia RTX 3080 12GB review: The bad version of a great GPU
RRP $1,249.00
"The RTX 3080 12GB is a powerful graphics card that has been acidified by Nvidia's shady practices."
benefits
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Still a solid 4K graphics card
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Outstanding design in MSI Suprim X version
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Increased memory bandwidth
disadvantage
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Significantly more expensive than the 10GB model
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Slight improvement in performance over the 10GB model
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Worse availability than other GPUs
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Increased power consumption
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Additional memory does very little
Imagine you are in charge of Nvidia. CEO Jensen Huang has retired to his kitchen, and now you can decide how to launch a new flagship GPU: the 12GB RTX 3080. What do you do? Do you use a list of influencers and media to spread the news? Do you use a big stage like CES?
No matter what you did, you probably wouldn't release a new flagship by burying the announcement at the bottom of a blog post focusing on a new GPU driver three days after the card's launch. And you certainly wouldn't launch the card a week after the biggest tech event of the year without day-one reviews.
That's what Nvidia did with the RTX 3080 12GB, and people are rightly confused. It's a graphics card that needn't exist with Nvidia's current offerings, and it shows a worrying trend for where GPU prices could be headed in 2022. The 12GB RTX 3080 is a bastardized version of one of the best graphics cards you can buy – and that's a shame.
price and availability
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Our reviews usually start with a discussion of design, specs, and performance, but remember: it's impossible to talk about a graphics card other than price. Performance alone doesn't matter. The performance in relation to the price makes the difference.
And in this case, it's the most important element of the 12GB version of the RTX 3080.
Nvidia has never set a list price for this graphics card, and while the list price doesn't say much, it still serves as a comparison. Even amidst the GPU shortage that has prices rising and falling, the cards still stack up as list prices suggest – the RTX 3080 costs more than the RTX 3070 and so on.
So what is the price of the 12GB RTX 3080? At the lower end, it's around $1,249 – $50 more than the RTX 3080 Ti. For example, the EVGA XC3 Ultra version is listed at this price. That's $40 more expensive than the RTX 3080 Ti version of the same model and $440 more expensive than the 10GB version. I'm not comparing high-end cards either. These are the most basic versions of EVGA.
You pay an inflated price no matter where you get your card.
The Asus ROG Strix version costs $1,600, which is $400 more expensive than the 10GB ROG Strix model. Technically, it's cheaper than the RTX 3080 Ti version, but that's only because this card is non-stock and Asus doesn't offer list prices on its website.
Even with inflated prices, you're looking at a much more expensive graphics card. On eBay, the 12GB model sells for about $300 more than the 10GB model, which is actually closer to the prices advertised by retailers. Prices at retailers and on the used market may be closer now, but that just means you're paying an inflated price wherever you buy your card.
There are a number of speculative reasons why the 12GB RTX 3080 is so expensive, but it boils down to this: the 12GB RTX 3080 will continue to sell at scalper prices once the market settles down. I'm not against Nvidia or board partners taking advantage of their products, but I'm against releasing a marginal upgrade to a GPU at a significantly higher price point when most people still can't even buy the base model.
draft
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
If it's not already clear, I'm not a fan of the 12GB RTX 3080. However, I have to give credit where it's due, and credit goes to MSI.
MSI was kind enough to send me a 12GB RTX 3080 Suprim X, which is great considering Nvidia doesn't have a Founders Edition model of the 12GB RTX 3080. Regardless of what Nvidia plans to do with this card, the Suprim X remains a wonderful design.
It's technically a dual slot card as it only occupies two slots on the back of your device, but the extra cooler height takes up almost enough space to occupy a third. As with other Suprim X models, this model includes a dual BIOS switch to toggle between Silent and Gaming modes, but even with Gaming mode set, the card was never loud enough to become an issue.
Despite the silicon underneath, MSI has created an excellent graphics card.
Similarly, it comes factory overclocked with a 180MHz boost over Nvidia's official spec, as well as a 50W power boost. To help with the increased power draw, the card uses three 8-pin connectors for power. To help with the massive cooler size, MSI includes a GPU bracket in the box.
Despite what I think about the underlying silicon, MSI has created an excellent graphics card here. I particularly like the RGB MSI shield on the backplate, which is accompanied by an RGB stripe that runs the entire length of the card.
Even in 2022, graphics card manufacturers are designing cards that look great from the front. The Suprim X looks great from the front, but MSI has gone to great lengths to make it look great while it's installed in your computer. This is perhaps the first time I like the backplate design more than the cooler.
All of this is to say that MSI made a great graphics card, but Nvidia made a so-so GPU. The Suprim X makes the best of a bad situation, and if you have a choice between 12GB RTX 3080 models, this is the one to go for.
specifications
The 12GB RTX 3080 is just an RTX 3080 with 2GB more video memory, at least on the surface. The extra VRAM is the most noticeable change, but there's a little more going on in the specs, especially when compared to the RTX 3080 Ti.
| RTX3080 12GB | RTX3080 10GB | RTX 3080Ti | |
| CUDA cores | 8,960 | 8,704 | 10,240 |
| boost clock | 1.71GHz | 1.71GHz | 1.67MHz |
| reminder | 12GB GDDR6X | 10GB GDDR6X | 12GB GDDR6X |
| memory bus | 384-bit | 320-bit | 384-bit |
| effective bandwidth | 912.4GB/s | 760.3GB/s | 912.4GB/s |
| tensor cores | 280 | 272 | 320 |
| RT cores | 70 | 68 | 80 |
| power consumption | 350W | 320W | 350W |
This is almost an RTX 3080 Ti, but with a big emphasis on almost. Compared to the 10GB RTX 3080, the 12GB model bumps the memory bus to 384-bit and power consumption to 350W, both specifications of the RTX 3080 Ti. It also has a slightly lower base clock, but that doesn't make a difference when gaming , when the boost clock is almost always active.
The main difference is that the 12GB RTX 3080 has a 3% higher core count over the 10GB model, which is significantly lower than the RTX 3080 Ti. Here's how you feel about the card: It's an RTX 3080 Ti, but with the core count of an RTX 3080.
It's clear that the 12GB RTX 3080 doesn't have to exist.
You should also think of it as an RTX 3080 Ti. The 2GB bump in VRAM might seem insignificant, but combined with the larger 384-bit memory bus, the 12GB model has a much higher memory bandwidth: 912GB/s compared to 760GB/s for the 10GB -Model.
Even before you get to the performance data, it's clear that this is a graphics card that doesn't have to exist. It doesn't fill any requirement that isn't already met by the base or Ti model, and it illustrates a breaking point of granularity in Nvidia's lineup where the minute differences between the models become irrelevant.
Of course, the first question you ask yourself about a new graphics card is, "What are the specs?" In the case of the 12GB RTX 3080, where specs are more important than most other GPU versions, the technical data do not paint a clear picture. They are insignificant in some areas and impractical in others. The only way to know what the 12GB RTX 3080 is trying to do is to see it in action.
Play
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
An extra 2GB of storage doesn't matter when gaming – or at least that's what you'll hear ad nauseam in comment sections and forums around the web. It's true that at a certain point video memory doesn't play a huge role in performance, but the increased memory bandwidth does matter.
I ran all my tests with 32GB of memory, an Intel Core i9-10900K, and the latest version of Windows 10. My comparison GPUs are Founders Edition cards, so I downclocked the Suprim X and capped the performance to meet Nvidia's specs. With this particular card, you can expect higher average performance. Here are my results at 4K with the highest graphics preset.
| 12GB RTX 3080 | 10GB RTX 3080 | RTX 3080Ti | RTX3090 | |
| 3DMark Time Spy | 17,071 | 16.108 | 17,634 | 18,341 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 65 fps | N / A | 72 fps | 77 fps |
| Fourteen days | 76 fps | 95 fps | 93 fps | 78 fps |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 61 fps | 62 fps | 55 fps | 63 fps |
| Battlefield V | 103 fps | 100 fps | 104 fps | 121 fps |
| Civilization VI | 212 fps | 255 fps | 259 fps | N / A |
My results are not too surprising. In 3DMark Time Spy, the 12GB RTX 3080 is about 3% slower than the RTX 3080 Ti and about 6% faster than the 10GB model. Battlefield 5 further illustrates this point, with just a single frame separating the 12GB RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti.
Fortnite only yielded a two-frame difference between the 12GB RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. My middle two benchmarks were run on a different patch of the game, so don't compare these results to the others. The difference between the 12GB RTX 3080 and the RTX 3090 paints the picture clearly: the 12GB RTX 3080 doesn't offer a huge performance advantage.
Red Dead Redemption 2 and Civilization VI are superfluous. Here the trend is clear. The 12GB RTX 3080 is intentionally handicapped or free to run at full speed. It's a slight upgrade over the 10GB model and sits below the RTX 3080 Ti. The RTX 3080 Ti was already a slight improvement over the base model; This 12GB variant just splits the difference.
content creation
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
I was hoping that the additional bandwidth of the 12GB RTX 3080 would boost content creation performance, but that wasn't the case. Even with no performance or clock speed limitations, the card performed at roughly the same level as the 10GB model, and by a decent margin to the RTX 3080 Ti.
| 12GB RTX 3080 | 10GB RTX 3080 | RTX 3080Ti | RTX3090 | |
| PugetBench for Premiere Pro | 799 | 821 | 855 | 855 |
| Blender BMW (lower is better) | 19 seconds | 23 seconds | 19 seconds | 17 seconds |
| Blender Classroom (lower is better) | 100 seconds | 71 seconds | 56 seconds | 79 seconds |
| Blender Koro (lower is better) | 65 seconds | 75 seconds | 63 seconds | 57 seconds |
The chart above shows diminishing returns in action. There are only minor differences between the 10GB RTX 3080 and the RTX 3090, with the latter only offering an advantage in dedicated workstations. Overall, the 12GB RTX 3080 sits between the 10GB model and the RTX 3080 Ti as it should, but the results here are so close that it hardly matters.
Content creation is all about what you need the graphics card for. There aren't enough advantages to justify the 12GB RTX 3080 over the 10GB version, even if you only care about content creation. Given the pricing, which I'll get to next, the RTX 3080 Ti is the better choice overall, and the RTX 3090 takes the crown.
Our opinion
The 12GB RTX 3080 does not have to be present. Even the RTX 3080 Ti was a disappointment considering how much more expensive it was than the RTX 3080, and this 12GB variant just splits the difference between those two. It's unnecessary product segmentation for the sole purpose of increasing the RTX 3080's base price.
Nvidia says the 10GB model will live on, but I find it hard to believe. There's no reason to choose the 12GB RTX 3080 over the 10GB version or the RTX 3080 Ti, and Nvidia is aware of that. There's a reason we haven't had many day-one reviews or a public launch like we did with the RTX 3050 and RTX 3090 Ti.
Given the GPU shortage, you should buy almost any graphics card you can get at a reasonable price. There's a chance this is the 12GB RTX 3080, and in that case the card is a great performer. However, if the price trends I'm seeing continue, the 12GB RTX 3080 will remain a bad buy compared to the 10GB and Ti models, even with inflated scalper prices.
Are there alternatives?
Yes. The 10GB RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti are close enough to this model to serve as viable alternatives. On the AMD side, the closest competitor is the RX 6800 XT, although it struggles with ray tracing.
How long it will take?
While the 12GB RTX 3080 is a disappointing graphics card, it's not bad. Like the base 10GB model, this one will last at least the next few years at 4K and probably several years at lower resolutions.
should you buy it
No. The 12GB RTX 3080 would be among the best graphics cards if it weren't for the 10GB version and the RTX 3080 Ti. They do, and they strike a much better balance between price and performance.
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