GeForce RTX 3080: – Release date, features and prices
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Will we see a GeForce RTX 3080 in 2020?
With the arrival of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, or the entire RTX 3000 series, presumably this year, rumors and leaks about new Nvidia graphics cards have been in a flurry. These include the likely first look at the graphics card, as well as the chance that the RTX 3080 could be a Big Navi killer.
The RTX 3080 may only be a rumor for now, but leaks regarding the Nvidia Ampere suggest the new graphics architecture is applicable to a future family of consumer graphics cards. So far, Nvidia has announced Ampere as a datacenter architecture, very similar to how the manufacturer launched the Nvidia Volta, the predecessor of Nvidia Turing, without mentioning PC games or GeForce in principle.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has already said that Ampere’s 7nm architecture will form the basis of all next-generation graphics cards. Apparently, this means that the new GeForce video cards will also be based on Ampere, and the release theory in the third quarter of 2020 remains valid. With partner companies already saying they are cleaning up stocks in preparation for the launch of Nvidia Ampere, there is also a new report that AMD and Nvidia will release their next generation graphics cards in September, it is likely that we will see graphics cards on store shelves by October.
If the rumors are to be believed, we only have a few months to wait for the RTX 3000 release date, so we’ve compiled everything we know or have heard about Nvidia’s next-gen RTX GPUs in one article. Leave this page bookmarked to find out what awaits the upcoming Nvidia series of graphics cards as we keep an eye on all the rumors, leaks, speculation and gossip, so keep updating the article.
In pursuit!
- What is it? Nvidia’s next flagship GeForce;
- When to expect? Perhaps in August 2020;
- How much is? No cheaper than Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080;
| GEFORCE RTX 3080: RELEASE DATE
For a while, the rumor mill has suggested that we will see the next GeForce graphics cards unveiled at GTC or GPU Technology Conference in March. But since then, Nvidia has canceled “exciting graphics cards” on GTC. Then, some time later, Nvidia officially announced the Nvidia Amper. And as expected, the manufacturer completely ignored the RTX 3000 series, just like with the Volta launch in May 2017 a year before Turing.
Luckily, we don’t have to wait until 2021 to see the next generation RTX cards. In the past, GeForce graphics cards were released every two years. For example, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 was released back in May 2016, then GeForce RTX 2080 replaced it in August 2018. The time between GTX 980 and GTX 1080 was even less, and the first one appeared in September 2014. The rule is that we can count on a new series of video cards every two years.
Tweaktown reports that Nvidia plans to unveil its Amper GPU architecture in August this year with a subsequent September release at Computex 2020. This is highly likely as the process is similar to the Turing launch at Gamescom in August 2018, and will also close a full 2-year cycle of video cards of the current generation. Moreover, AIB partners are reported to be cleaning up inventory, ostensibly in preparation for the launch of Nvidia Ampere in the third quarter of 2020.
We’ve also heard about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which could be 40% faster than its predecessor when it launches in late 2020. With the way things usually go around graphics card releases, we won’t know when the RTX 3080 starts moving until Nvidia is ready to inform the public. In fact, we don’t even know if it’s called the RTX 3080.
| GEFORCE RTX 3080: PRICES
Since we’re pretty far from a potential GeForce RTX 3080 release, we obviously have no idea how much the graphics cards will cost. But this does not mean that we cannot speculate a little about it.
Nvidia Turing graphics cards have seen a significant jump in prices over their predecessors Pascal, we expect something like this to happen again. However, rumors have already reached us that next generation graphics cards will be more affordable. However, this rumor revolves around the idea that Nvidia will rely on Samsung’s 7nm EUV process technology. Therefore, not everything is clear here.
One thing to keep in mind when talking about the price of the RTX 3080 is “Big Navi”. When Nvidia Turing entered the market, AMD offered little to no resistance. Even when Team Red released the Radeon VII in February 2019, the graphics card was simply unable to undermine the RTX 2080.Since then, competition from AMD has definitely grown.
Both the Radeon RX 5700 series and the Radeon RX 5600 XT have led Nvidia to cut prices in response to the threat, and Big Navi could bypass the RTX 2080 Ti by 30%, forcing Nvidia to cut prices again in search of competition. However, we won’t know the prices of the RTX 3080 until we see information from Nvidia – or at least before more substantial leaks.
| GEFORCE RTX 3080 FEATURES
We’ve seen plenty of vague speculations and rumors about the expected specs of the RTX 3080, but there are certain constants: The 7nm graphics cards will be faster than the RTX 2080. Of course, the second feature is obvious – why would Nvidia release new graphics cards that won’t be much faster?
Another rumor regarding the 7nm manufacturing process is much more interesting. If you’ve followed AMD’s crushing battle against Intel over the past year, you probably know that AMD’s main strength at the top of processors is the full 7nm move, while Intel is stuck at 14nm for desktop processors. If Nvidia can move to 7nm process technology for the RTX 3080, AMD won’t get an easy playing field.
If the rumors about Nvidia’s move to 7nm are correct, the company could significantly increase performance – up to the 50% rumored – while significantly redesigning energy efficiency. Combined with DLSS, which will certainly remain part of Nvidia’s graphics cards, we can get 4K graphics cards in the mid-range segment.
All this performance will require additional power from the cooling system, so the recently leaked images showing the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 prototype with a startlingly new cooling system seem reasonable to us.
Hardware specialist kopite7kimi speculated that the RTX 3080 might run on a GA102-200 GPU, and the latest leaks could be the RTX 3090 GPU. If this assumption is valid, we might expect the Big Navi killer.