Almost a year after NVIDIA launched its flagship RTX 3060, 3070, 3080 and 3090 cards, the 3080 Ti has arrived. NVIDIA has designed this GPU to sit in-between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 when it comes to performance and specs. Gigabyte offers this Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC model which is what I am covering in this review. This card is sort of an advancement over the Founders Edition as Gigabyte has slightly tweaked the performance to pump a little bit more juice out of this GPU.
A brief rundown of the specs of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC reveals its 12GB of GDDR6X RAM, 10,240 CUDA cores, a memory clock of 19,000Mhz, 384-bit memory bus and a TDP of 360W. It also comes packed with Gigabyte’s Windforce cooling system, requires at least a 750W power supply and packs 3 DisplayPort 1.4a ports and 2 HDMI 2.1 ports. You’ll also need 2 PCIe 8-pin connectors to power this beast.
Watch our Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC review down below.
For starters, it is important to note that this Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC GPU packs 12GB of VRAM which is only two more than the RTX 3080 but half of that in the 3090. If you still want the best of the best, you’ll need a 3090 to get it but it will, of course, cost you a lot of money. Also, keep in mind that the sheer amount of VRAM on these GPUs are still not utilized by games on the market yet. If you’re into heavy workstation loads then it is a different story so keep that in mind when shopping around. Just because 24GB of VRAM is the most, does not mean you need it.
The big difference between this Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC version and the base GPU can be found in some of the specs. A base 3080 Ti comes with a 1665MHz boost clock and a memory speed of 1188MHz. This model comes with a 1710MHz boost clock
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Tech Specs
- SM Count: 80
- VRAM: 12GB GDDR6X
- Memory Interface: 384-bit
- Memory Bandwidth: 912GB/s
- CUDA Cores: 10,240
- RT Cores: 80
- Tensor Cores 320
- Boost Clock 1710
- ROPs: 112
- Texture Units: 320
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Design
Any gamer will love the overall design of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. While not as uniform and sleek as the founder’s edition, this GPU is massive. It is also very long due to the third fan on it. However, the higher clocks speeds on the GPU rely heavily on improved cooling. The GPU features a gunmetal grey styled design with no colour on it at all. Of course, that changes when you power it up and the RGB is activated.
The GPU includes on strip of RGB that is found on the logo. It can be tweaked and changed using the RGB Fusion 2.0 software. It goes without saying that it also syncs up with other Gigabyte hardware you have on your PC. In my case, this is the RAM, motherboard and GPU. My PC is slowly becoming a Gigabyte dream and I love to see it.
The overall design is also clean although there are some heat pipes that show depending on how you look at it. I won’t say it is the best and most stylish GPU on the market but it works. The button metal plate hides most of the chips away and the fans are visible enough to clean when needed. It is also important to state that this card doesn’t come with a mount. I thought it would be an issue at first but it took up two grate spots on my NZXT Hero H510 case and after installing the card, it was surprisingly sturdy. There isn’t much else to speak about when it comes to the design.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Performance and Cooling
A big push for this card is its cooling. Gigabyte included an extra fan in this GPU to help with the higher clock speeds so putting it to the test meant monitoring how hot this card got while maxing out the performance. It is also important to compare these scores with the RTX 3080 because right now that GPU is your closest purchase option.
For the most part, the performance tests were great but at the same time, in line with the RTX 3080 that it kind of makes this RTX 3080 Ti a hard sell. Don’t get me wrong, the 3080 Ti outclassed the standard 3080 but the gap isn’t big enough to warrant the price difference. You need to be going into this purchase with your eyes on the RTX 3080 Ti from the start and not deciding between the two.
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Benchmarks
I ran some tests using the following PC build and got someone to test the same games using their RTX 3080 (I own a 1080 Ti like a peasant). The scores I got were as follows:
PC Build
- Ryzen 5 3600X 6 Core 12 Thread
- B550 Aorus Elite AM4 Motherboard
- NZXT Kraken X62
- Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti
Far Cry 5 (4K Direct X12 Ultra Settings)
- 3080 Ti – 104 FPS average
- 3080 – 95 FPS average
Watch Dogs Legion (4K Ultra Raytracing On)
- RTX 3080 Ti
- 39 FPS Average (DLSS on Performance)
- 60 FPS Average RT off
- RTX 3080
- 30 FPS Average (DLSS off)
- 41 FPS Average (DLSS on)
- 50 FPS Average RT off
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (4K Direct X12 Maxed Settings)
- 3080 Ti – 89 FPS Average
- 3080 – 78 FPT Average
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (4K Raytracing On Maxed Settings)
- 3080 Ti – 60 FPS Average
- 3080 – 52 FPS Average
Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition (4K Ulitmate Settings)
- 3080 Ti – 82 FPS Average / Max 153 FPS
- 3080 – 69 FPS Average / Max 129 FPS
Metro Exodus
- 3080 Ti – 80 FPS Average
- 3080 – 70 FPS Average
Time Spy Extreme
- Graphics Score – 9408
- Overall Score – 7352
- Max Temperature – 65-degrees celsius
Final Fantasy XV (Max out DLSS On)
- Total Score: 6815
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC Performance
The results speak for themselves. The Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti is a beastly card. With the right PC, you can easily get above 60FPS on 4K maxed settings on some of the most graphically intense games around. When enabling raytracing on these games, the frames do half most of the time. We saw this with games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Watch Dogs. It was almost a clean half drop in average FPS. However, thanks to DLSS this also increased the frames across various tests. We saw Watch Dogs jump up by ten average frames when using DLSS on 4K with RT on. It is still mad how demanding ray-tracing can be.
Can the Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti be overclocked to get even more performance? Most definitely. Using Afterburner, one could tweak your PC to output a little bit more power here but don’t expect it to drastically change your performance. Increased the core voltage by 50, increased the power limiter and added a bit more clocks to the GPU. In the end, I saw about a 4-7 frame boost across all tests. Watch Dogs went from 60FPS to 64FPS. Other games also saw a slight jump.
As for the cooling of the GPU, the three fans make for a pretty decent thermal system. While idle, the card sat at around 34 degrees celsius with a mid-68-degree max mark during the most intense test environments. Keep in mind that it is winter in SA and quite chilly at 18 degrees. As for thermal throttling, the Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti, when pushed to the limit seems to throttle at around 1980MHz.
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC GPU Review
Gigabyte has quite a hefty GPU on its hands here. The cooling is impressive and the overclocking features mean you can get an extra 5% of power out of this card. At the same time, it acts as a nice middle-ground between the 3090 and the standard 3080. You really don’t need 24GB of VRAM for gaming so this is a great option. Still, it is hella expensive and very hard to find. You could also just wait for the Aurus model to arrive and see how that performs?
This Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC review was based on a loan unit sent to us by Gigabyte. The card retails from R38,999 and is available at select retailers. Find out more here.
