Nvidia markets its RTX 30XX graphics cards. Several models are available for all budgets. Variants, price, technical sheet and comparison of architectures, here is everything you need to know about Nvidia graphics cards.
Graphics cards Nvidia are in the RTX 30XX generation. It uses the Ampère architecture and wants to democratize the use of ray-tracing as well as technologies such as DLSS. The first models were announced in September 2020 and since then they have been joined by new maps as well as variations.
In total, we therefore have eight cards available. Here is the list, from the most powerful to the least powerful:
- GeForce RTX 3090
- GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
- GeForce RTX 3080
- GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
- GeForce RTX 3070
- GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
- GeForce RTX 3060
- GeForce RTX 3050
If you are lost, don’t panic. We will clarify all that in this file. What is the best card for your uses? How much are they sold. We tell you everything!
? Are Nvidia’s Geforce RTX 30XXes available?
The Geforce RTX 30XX are theoretically available, except the latest, the RTX 3050. This was indeed presented at CES but will not be available until the end of January 2022.
However, the manufacturer’s graphics cards are very difficult to find. Since the release of the first models at the end of 2020, stockouts have continued to annoy potential buyers. The shortage of semiconductors is obviously to be pointed out, but also the mining farms which get their hands on thousands of cards to the detriment of the players.
At the start of 2022, the situation is still not resolved and you still have to either be patient or break the bank to buy one at an indecent price. If Nvidia promises a reduction in the shortage this year, we are still not out of the woods.
? How much do Nvidia graphics cards cost?
The firm has made a remarkable effort in the field of prices knowing that its new cards make a huge leap forward in terms of performance. Here are the official prices for the RTX 30XX:
- GeForce RTX 3050: 250 euros
- GeForce RTX 3060: 325 euros
- GeForce RTX 3070: 519 euros
- GeForce RTX 3080: 719 euros
- GeForce RTX 3090: 1549 euros
Note, however, that at the time of this writing the cards officially on the market are chronically out of stock. Their prices sometimes peak on eBay, when manufacturers like MSI don’t inflate the prices themselves. The competitive environment has also become more complex in the graphics chip market. AMD has become very aggressive with its new RDNA architecture.
Nvidia therefore offers its cards at fair prices… in theory. Today, it is impossible to find the brand’s products at the displayed price.
⚙️ What is the datasheet for the RTX 3060, 3070, 3080 and 3090?
Nvidia offers real developments on paper. The GeForce RTX 3050, 3060, 3070, 3080 and 3090 are particularly attractive. We are indeed on an engraving almost twice thinner than the previous one, with a new architecture which explodes the memory bandwidth, and particularly muscular VRAM options:
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU (architecture) | Ampere GA104-300 | Ampere GA102-200 | Ampere GA102-300 |
| Engraving fineness | 8nm | 8nm | 8nm |
| CUDA hearts | 5888 | 8704 | 10496 |
| Shader Flops | 20 TFLOPS | 30 TFLOPS | 36 TFLOPS |
| RT Flops | 40 TFLOPS | 58 TFLOPS | 69 TFLOPS |
| Tensor Flops | 163 TOPs | 238 TOPs | 285 TOPs |
| GDDR memory | 8 GB GDDR6 | 10 GB GDDR6X | 24 G0 GDDR6X |
| Memory bus | 256-bit | 320-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory speed | 16 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 19.5 Gbps |
| Memory bandwidth | 512 GB / s | 760 GB / s | 936 GB / s |
| Price | 519 euros | 719 euros | 1549 euros |
| Release date | October 2020 | September 17, 2020 | September 24, 2020 |
RTX 3090: the most powerful of all
It’s the ultimate from the Serie. The RTX 3090 clearly gives the impression of replacing the Titan range, as its performance is above the rest. It is equipped with a 24 GB GDDR6X VRAM, which is more than twice the 11 GB of the RTX 2080 Ti. As for the raw power, it delivers 36 TFLPOPS for the Shader Cores, 69 TFLOPS for the RT Cores and 385 TFLOPS for the Tensor Cores. With this reference, Nvidia is targeting 8K at 60 FPS and has also made demos in this direction during its conference.
In addition to video games, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge applications, this new card would also be particularly good at cracking passwords.
RTX 3080: twice as powerful as the RTX 2080 Ti
It is the choice of balance. Much more suitable for the vast majority of players than the RTX 3090 which seems ahead of its generation for a price that is cooling. Nvidia announces performance twice as high compared to the RTX 2080 Ti, the most powerful of the Turing generation. At least for the general public.
The RTX 3080 embeds 10 GB of GDDR6X RAM memory and offers a powerful raw of 30 TFLOPS for the Shader Cores, 58 TFLOPS for the RT Cores and 238 TFLOPS for the Tensor Cores. Here you have a graphics card cut for 4K at 60 FPS without a hitch, with ray tracing enabled please.
RTX 3070: the best value for money with performance in the order of 2080 Ti
Here is the card that replaces the RTX 2080 Ti in terms of value for money. It is indeed more efficient while being offered at almost 2/3 the price of the RTX 2080 Ti. An official benchmark confirms performance 8% above, on average, that of the 2080 Ti.
It is therefore an interesting proposition for those looking for the best value for money. The RTX 3070 embeds 8 GB of standard GDDR6 memory and delivers raw powers of 20 TLOPS for Shader Cores, 40 TFLOPS for RT Cores and 163 TFFLOPS for Tensor Cores.
RTX 3060: the best value for money with performance in the order of 2080 Ti
The RTX dedicated to those who want to play without breaking the bank is equipped with 3584 CUDA cores, 12 GB of memory on a 192-bit bus and a base frequency of 1.32 GHz which can go up to 1.78 GHz in boost. It has a TDP of only 170W, which is 10W more than the RTX 2060. We recommend that you use a power supply of at least 550W to install it on your PC. The RTX 3060 is compatible with the DLSS, RTX, Reflex and other proprietary technologies from NVIDIA. Regarding the connectors, we find no surprise HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4a ports.
RTX 3050: Ray-Tracing in Full HD at 60 FPS for less than 250 €
This entry-level model is intended above all for modest budgets. Available from € 250, this GPU can run the most recent games in Full HD and 60 FPS or more. Also based on the Ampere architecture and 3rd generation Tensor cores, it has 8 GB of GDDR6 RAM and is also compatible with the latest technologies from Nvidia, namely Ray Tracing and DLSS 2.0. The RTX 3050 will be available from January 27, 2022 from € 250.
What are the performances of the mobile versions?
Nvidia sells versions of its cards for laptops. Obviously, they provide more performance than the portable RTX 20XX models. However, they remain below their model on desktop, which is logical. For example, the RTX 3080 performs significantly less than its classic iteration.
There is nothing really surprising about this. These cards have a very high energy dissipation, and because of this, manufacturers have no choice but to severely limit performance to maintain a TDP below 150 W. It is nevertheless possible that optimized computers can reduce the gap.
What is the difference between Ampere and Turing architecture?
Ampere
With the Ampère architecture, Nvidia switches to 8nm engraving. The name of Ampère microarchitecture takes its name from the mathematician and physicist André-Marie Ampère to whom we owe many discoveries in electronics.
The new RT Cores in the architecture offer twice the power of the previous generation for ray tracing processing. Ditto for third-generation Tensor cores that make it faster and more efficient to perform AI-based tasks like NVIDIA DLSS. The new architecture pushes the limits of performance in all areas.
Turing
The Turing architecture was introduced in August 2018. This architecture is the first on a consumer product to allow Ray Tracing. It offers, in addition to cores dedicated to Ray Tracing, cores dedicated to artificial intelligence (Tensor cores). Note that a variant of the Turing architecture without Ray Tracing exists. The Turing architecture is engraved in 12nm according to the FinFET process (TSMC). The most premium GPU, the TU 102, has 18.6 billion transistors. The Turing architecture is also the first to support GDDR6 memory.
CUDA cores have been revised for output that the Turing architecture allows, according to Nvidia, performance gains between 30 and 50% on existing games compared to the previous generation. Ray Tracing side, the performance would have been quadrupled compared to what allowed the most high-end card under Pascal architecture. As for the hearts dedicated to artificial intelligence, they are mostly used to complete missing parts of the image (a technique called de-noising).
It is these cores that are used, for example, when the definition exceeds the original one. In addition, these hearts do not directly make artificial intelligence. The models are created on supercomputers which define by machine learning the most suitable method for the AI cores (Tensor Cores) of the cards.