Palit GeForce RTX 3080

It’s clearly a card that isn’t for everyone, but that’s actually the best thing about it. It’s nice to see a brand taking a risk like this and doing something different from the competition. I hope more brands do the same in the future, as most cards are beginning to look the same. If you want to stand out from the crowd and have a PC that literally outshines the competition, the Palit RTX 3080 GameRock is where you start!

Mit der Palit GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Pro ist seit dem Launch auch Palits “Butter-und-Brot”-Ampere-Karte im Handel bzw. sollte es sein. Wobei der Hersteller für die Verfügbarkeit erst einmal nichts kann. Im Gegensatz zur schlanken Founders Edition, setzt Palit auf das wuchtigere 2,5-Slot-Design und stellt eine Karte in die Regale, die ebenfalls einen guten Kompromiss aus Performance und Kosten bieten soll. Klappt das und wo hat ggf. die Kostenminimierung zugeschlagen? Die Antworten liefert der heutige Test.

Die Palit GeForce RTX 3080 GamingPro zeigt in diesem ersten Test, was die neue GeForce RTX 3080 Modellreihe zu leisten vermag. Der Sprung der neuen Generation ist enorm, was hauptsächlich auf die mehr als Verdopplung der Cuda-Kerne und den neuen GDDR6X Speicher zurückzuführen ist. Der Speicher bietet eine massive Steigerung der Bandbreite von 448 GB/s auf 760 GB/s und auch die Anzahl an ROPs und Raytracing-Kernen deutlich gesteigert worden. Sowohl in Spielen als auch in synthetischen Benchmarks kann sich die RTX 3080 deutlich vor die RTX 2080 Super als auch den doppelt so teuren Klassenprimus RTX 2080 Ti absetzen. Damit eignet sich die RTX 3080 nicht nur für Spiele in 1080p, sondern auch für höhere Auflösungen. Wir sehen speziell für Virtual Reality einen großen technologischen Vorteil der Serie, weil bei den Head-Mounted-Displays hohe Auflösung bei gleichzeitig hohen fps sehr wichtig ist. Für VR-Titel würden realistischere Schatten und Reflektionen dank Raytracing enorm viel bringen. Palit GeForce RTX 3080 GamingPro Award Palit setzt bei seiner Umsetzung der RTX 3080 in der GeForce RTX 3080 GamingPro auf ein kürzeres PCB, doch das sieht man der Karte so direkt nicht an. Die Grafikkarte als Ganzes ist mit 293 mm ziemlich lang, doch der hintere Teil wird nur als Erweiterung des Kühlers verwendet. Der Kühler an sich macht einen guten Eindruck und schafft es die Abwärme gut abzuführen. Die GeForce RTX 3080 GamingPro ist abgestimmt auf ein Temperaturlimit von ca. 85°C, wodurch die Drehzahl angepasst wird, um die Temperaturen unter der 85°C Grenze zu halten. Je nach Belüftung innerhalb des Gehäuses, kann die Grafikkarte unter Volllast deutlich hörbar sein. Das wird aber auch bei anderen Modellen der Fall sein. Wir sehen die GeForce RTX 3080 GamingPro als eine gelungene Umsetzung der RTX 3080, zumal auch der Lieferumfang etwas ausgefallener war, als man es erwarten würde. Die Leistung der neuen Generation ist ausgezeichnet, weshalb wir der GeForce RTX 3080 GamingPro vertretend für die neue Generation eine Empfehlung geben.

With the Palit GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Pro, Palit’s “butter-and-bread” Ampere card has also been in the trade since the launch, or rather should be. The manufacturer is not responsible for the availability. In contrast to the slim Founders Edition, Palit has opted for the more bulky 2.5-slot design and is putting a card on the shelves that also offers a good compromise between performance and cost. Does this work and where has the cost minimization been successful? Today’s test provides the answers.

It is hard to deny the allure of a GeForce RTX 3080. Nvidia's latest high-end GPU, built on the new-and-improved Ampere architecture, ushers in an era of high-performance gaming that finally brings smooth 4K visuals to fruition. Such credentials at a £649 price point will be tough to pass up for most enthusiasts, and that pent-up demand has been reflected in retail conditions. Just about every retailer in every major region is completely sold out, and right now your chances of finding a gold bar are about as good as finding an RTX 3080 in stock. Those market conditions have resulted in wildly inconsistent post-launch prices for myriad partner cards, and with Nvidia's sexy-looking Founders Edition stood firm at £649, dearer custom-cooled alternatives struggle to compare favourably. Palit's GamingPro OC is practically identical in terms of in-game performance, and though the cooler delivers improved temps, that advantage is negated by higher noise levels, little in the way of overclocking headroom and inflated pricing. Bottom line: Palit's RTX 3080 GamingPro OC doesn't do enough to warrant a significant premium over the Founders Edition, but with demand being what it is, the card is guaranteed to sell like hot cakes.

The final retail price for the Palit GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Pro OC isn't decided yet, but it will definitely be very close to MSRP, or even matching it. Traditionally, Palit Gaming Pro cards are sold at MSRP, I don't expect this generation to be any different. At that price point the card is too similar to the Founders Edition to conclusively beat it. On the other hand, it will be a worthy alternative in regions that have no or ultra-limited Founders Edition availablity, *waves to our friends in Australia*. Also, this card could become an option in case NVIDIA runs out of Founders Edition cards to sell.

The Palit GeForce RTX 3080 GamingPro OC is a different animal than NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 Founder's Edition. The Palit card is bigger, has much more aggressive styling, doesn't feature the new, mini-12-pin power connector, and it has a different frequency / voltage curve. They are obviously cut from the same cloth though, and the cards performed similarly. Technically, the FE card finished out in front more often than not, but we're talking about minor differences and ultimately they both crushed all of the competition.

If we filter out the challenges the RTX 3080 has (power consumption and pricing), then we can only acknowledge that the sheer performance this card series brings to the table is anything short from being impressive. You receive a product that will be dominant in that Ultra HD space. Your games average out anywhere from 60 to 100+ FPS, well aside from Flight Simulator 2020. Dropping down in resolutions does create other challenges; you'll be far less GPU bound, but then again we do not expect you to purchase a GeForce RTX 3080 and play games in 1920x1080. Arbitrarily speaking, starting at a monitor 2560x1440 resolution, that's the domain where the GeForce RTX 3080 will start to shine. The raw shading/rasterizer (read a standard rendered game) performance is staggering as this many shader cores make a difference. The new generational architecture tweaks for Raytracing and Tensor also is significant. Coming from the RTX 2080, the RTX 3080 exhibited a roughly 85% performance increase, and that is going to bring hybrid raytracing towards higher resolutions. DXR will remain to be massively demanding of course, but when you can plat Battlefield V iN ultra HD with Raytracing and DLSS enabled at over 70 FPS, hey, I'm cool with that. Also, CUDA compute performance in Blender and V-Ray, OMG. This Palit card in its default configuration sits at founder edition performance. Still, the reality is that all brands likely will different merely a few percent in performance at best anyway. I had hoped it would be a notch faster, but well, perhaps a BIOS update will bring in a bit more perf. Cooling wise, the card is better than the founder card. Design-wise it is an ethically pleasing product to look at, and if it first your gaming budget, recommended.