That loop bothers me... o_O

POSCAPS! 😱 :D:D:D

Digging a little deeper, we can see a minor voltage differential, likely this is related due to ASIC quality; NVIDIA might be binning the chips and likely keep the best batches for themselves. The differences are a negative 1 to 2% at best, though, so that remains marginal but measurable.

Just a opinion, feel free to disagree :> If NVIDIA is binning the chips and keep the best batches for themselves then the issue with CTD that affected mostly AIB cards is really NVIDIAs own fault and basicly shooting themselves in the foot because they had to adjust driver afterwards so it affected all cards even their own and not just AIB cards. They knew in advance that most AIBs would create overclocked versions of the RTX 3080 GPUs. So even if NVIDIA FE RTX3080 GPUs passed all NVIDIAs own tests, a lot AIBs would be close to failing because their so close to the vcore clock limit already and really no wonder some would fail going above 2.0GHz since the tests AIBs could do was limited and NVIDIA could test anything they wanted. Some AIBs still created nice normal and overclock versions I think, but it was really a gamble from NVIDIA that did not go well. They should have known better. I will still buy a 3090 but most likely a one of the normal versions and not factory overclocked ones :> I rather overclock it myself a bit or not at all than bumping into issues down the road because a driver and/or game/rendering suddenly pushes the GPU to much.

I recommend to undervolt, overclock and add custom fan profile/curve on these cards all in the same time. Best way to get best performance, noise levels down and temps down while keeping it stable and not throttling or anything like that.

.Tweaking We fired off several tweaking scenarios at the card; it's difficult to tweak, and with the recent CTD issues in mind, we need to wonder, would you like to be in that 2.0+ GHz range? Even an automated curve based overclock would not be stable. Much like we have seen with other cards, the tweaks on the memory frequency will run fine, but the performance was lower. New safety protection is active in memory. A +1000 MHz would result in poor performance but no stability issues. Ergo +500 max currently is what I'd recommend on the RTX 3080 cards (but this will also differ per caird and brand). Of course, increase the power limiter to the max, so your GPU gets more energy budget, and then the GPU clock can be increased anywhere from +40 to +100 MHz, but here again, that will vary per board, brand and card. So, in the end, I expect 20~21 Gbps on the memory subsystem (effective), and with a +75 Core frequency and added power, you should see your card hovering at a 2 GHz range (which is pretty awesome).

This one is the interesting part regarding the +2.0GHz...issue....

I dont know how people can buy this brand....

imho, this is the best looking card i've ever seen from Zotac. but this price range and not a fully enclosed chassis blowing air out of your case, i will pass. there is going to be a severe price/performance battle between AIB's and Nvidia. if you're fortunate (like Asus) with a robotic board building plant you can fight Nvidia's reference more easily with higher tolerances, better cooling, and different style. there is no way i'm paying even half of that msrp without state of the art performance in every facet. what's harder this time round is Nvidia's determined to move more cards at launch and they are no doubt binning. the new Nvidia reference ampere style is very good-looking this time round if massive. that's a real issue for those with itx rigs... they may have to buy a matx case just to have the 3 slots

Just out of curiosity, why is Assassin's Creed Odyssey not used for benchmarking anymore? It was one of the more 'demanding' games out there and was tested with the RTX 2000 series. I haven't seen the RTX 3080 tested on it yet, anywhere I looked. I might have missed a few, I'm not following every single reviews websites but of the ones I checked the RTX 3080 was never tested on Odyssey.

Zenoth:

Just out of curiosity, why is Assassin's Creed Odyssey not used for benchmarking anymore?

Sure, in 4k and 1080p can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TestingGames/videos

Loster:

Sure, in 4k and 1080p can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TestingGames/videos

Thanks, that does give a better appreciation of the game running with that card. However, I was more specifically looking for a review with a 1440p test. But seeing the 4K test is good too, ty.

AMD Vega says minimum 1000 watt PSU yet uses less power than the 3080 you recommend a 650 watt PSU Only 750 watt for the 3090 that is using 30 watts more than Vega. Dont you think your recommendations might be a little to optimistic ? Makes no sense. https://i.imgur.com/xYT3COr.jpg

What is this RTX 3080 card? Not a single major shop in my country has that for sale, never had. Not a FE version or any of the other versions including this one.

The OC version of this card seems to be in stock in OCUK right now... but they are charging a ridiculous £840 for it - which is equivalent to 937.55 Euro. Crazy upmarking.