As an avid PC gamer who has been building my own systems for over 15 years, I‘ve been eagerly awaiting the launch of Nvidia‘s RTX 30 series graphics cards. I‘m still using an aging GTX 1080 Ti, so I‘m overdue for a beefy upgrade to maximize performance on my 1440p 165 Hz gaming monitor.
The GeForce RTX 3080 caught my eye immediately with its promise of superb 4K gaming prowess. And what hardcore gamer doesn‘t want to pair elite frame rates with cutting-edge visual tech like real-time ray tracing?
I was foaming at the mouth to upgrade upon 3080 reviews landing in September 2020 labeling it an absolute 4K beast complete with that next-gen gaming immersion I craved from buttery smoothness. The benchmarks seemed unreal compared to my 1080 Ti workhorse. Surely this was the card to get!
But as I‘m sure many gamers reading this know all too well, things didn‘t quite work out that way for the vast majority of us…
Buying a New GPU Has Been Borderline Impossible
Attempting to actually secure an RTX 3080 anywhere near the $699 MSRP at launch or even throughout 2021 was an exercise in abject frustration as supply catastrophically failed to meet demand.
Retailers had woefully limited stock. Scalping groups leveraging bots would wipe out online inventory in literal seconds. Prices at retailers jacked up with shameless markups. Used market rates soared to nearly $2K routinely for the 3080. Actually scoring a new high-performance Ampere GPU felt downright impossible no matter how aggressively I camped alert pages and hammered refresh buttons.
And the manufacturers didn‘t help matters with their confusing array of endless sub-variants. What‘s the difference between a 3080 and 3080 Ti? What do these suffixes and acronyms on model numbers mean? Wait there‘s a 12GB 3080 now too? I was just trying to snag any RTX card around MSRP at certain points with little care about the exact specifics.
I had the money and was so eager to upgrade, but archaic bots and supply shortfalls prevented me from doing so. Those frame rate gains teased on benchmarks haunted me daily when I booted up my rig. The 3080 I couldn‘t buy somehow became a borderline obsession born of pure FOMO despite glowing reviews on its 4K throughput and real-time ray tracing prowess I was sorely missing out on.
And I know countless gamers endured the same rollercoaster of extreme hype and immediate unfulfilled crashing lows in the wake of Ampere‘s nightmarish paper launch.
But now a couple years removed, temperatures on the great GPU hysteria of 2020/2021 are finally cooling off a bit. The 3080 is no longer impossible to find (although still not exactly plentiful). Pricing and availability volatility has eased considerably too.
So entering 2023 with the benefit of this fresh context, should we still pine for the RTX 3080 and all its initial promises? Or are those now fulfilled by a new generation of GPUs not subject to the same crippling shortages?
How My Trusty 1080 Ti Compares
Before evaluating if the 3080 packs enough remaining punch to stay relevant, let‘s reflect on my current GTX 1080 Ti performance for reference.
It has served me well for many years now, but certainly shows age given modern gaming‘s rapid graphical evolution. I predominantly play shooters and action RPG titles on a 2560 x 1440 monitor, typically choosing graphical quality over maximizing FPS.
Here is how the 1080 Ti currently fares:
- Apex Legends: 100-120 FPS on Very High preset
- Cyberpunk 2077: 45-55 FPS on High preset with Medium Ray Tracing
- Battlefield 2024: 65-75 FPS on High at 1440p
- Doom Eternal: 100-130 FPS range on Nightmare settings
So still highly capable for fluid 1440p gaming around 60 FPS minimums even in demanding AAA titles, albeit not reaching the lofty FPS ceilings I‘d hoped from a high refresh rate monitor without some quality cutbacks. And forget having headroom for maxed eye candy like ray tracing still.
Losing graphical fidelity and disabling enticing new features is no way for an avid gamer to live! But shelling out big bucks for incremental gains requires careful evaluation as a value-focused enthusiast.
Especially after finally emerging from the amply-memed era of $1,500 RTX 3070 bids on eBay. Our trust has been broken after what the botched Ampere paper launch did to budgets and pride…
But I digress – let‘s get back on track benchmarking raw numbers!
RTX 3080 10GB Gaming Benchmarks
Here is how the RTX 3080 10GB Founders Edition performs across a range of popular gaming titles at my preferred 2560 x 1440 resolution, with comparisons to my GTX 1080 Ti:
| Game Title | 1080 Ti FPS | RTX 3080 FPS | Performance Gain |
| Cyberpunk 2077 Ultra | 48 FPS | 92 FPS | 92% Faster |
| Doom Eternal Nightmare | 110 FPS | 185 FPS | 68% Faster |
| Microsoft Flight Sim Ultra | 42 FPS | 83 FPS | 98% Faster |
| CoD Modern Warfare 2 Max | 86 FPS | 175 FPS | 104% Faster |
| RDR2 Highest Settings | 65 FPS | 98 FPS | 51% Faster |
Wow – look at those phenomenal generational performance leaps! Nearly 2X frame rates in some titles, and consistently 60%+ faster across the board at my chosen resolution.
Exactly the sort of jaw-dropping increases we used to take for granted from new GPU architecture squeezes before market conditions went haywire. Heck, the 3080 is even overkill for silky smooth 1440p gaming in many of today‘s top titles.
And backing up those synthetic testing metrics, I recently got hands-on game time with a friend’s rig finally sporting the previously mythical unicorn 3080 GPU I’d missed out on for so long.
Real World Gaming Impressions
I‘ll admit – part of me worried ambient cooling and stability concerns on early next-gen cards would result in a letdown from the almost impossibly high performance bars set by early reviews when Ampere first launched.
But after several lengthy gaming sessions on his 3080 test bench soaked in the actual experience, I walked away thoroughly impressed at how capable this card remains through 2023 for high-fidelity gaming.
Firing up Doom Eternal with full nightmare settings including rendering resolution manually configured above my monitor‘s native QHD pixel count, I was greeted with astonishingly liquid 165 Hz gameplay completely free of any tearing or visible dips.
Panoramic vistas loaded instantly with textures ridiculously crisp when scanning the environments. Lighting and particles dazzled without a single perceptible stutter as I aggressively whipped my aim around unleashing wanton carnage.
I know Doom performs well on practically anything. But this exceeded buttery smooth – we‘re talking hot knife through room temperature butter levels!
Switching over to a crushing 4K test in the renowned benchmark that is Cyberpunk 2077, the 3080 kept frame pacing admirably steady at a median of about 45 FPS on the highest preset with demanding ray tracing Psycho lighting enabled.
Sure I could tweak the balloon-taxing Cascaded Shadows Range setting slightly from Ultra to High and gain back 10 frames without visible fidelity loss. But the fact this 2 year old card can still trade blows with that infamously demanding title at native 4K with all the visual glitter maxed is remarkable testament to its prowess.
And Nvidia‘s frame generation tech (read: black magic AI voodoo) now further boosts perceived FPS to mostly-locked 60 through temporal trickery – pretty nuts!
Delving into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, a game renowned for melting PCs when you tick every graphics option, the 3080 managed mid-40s FPS at dense airports with tons of animated people and vehicles while cruising open skies saw 55 FPS+.
Sure not quite the mythic 4K/60 Flight Sim experience, but pretty darn close at high density with my tooltip confirming nearly 12GB of VRAM consumed! The sheer geometry density and texture streaming here reveals how the 3080‘s hardware still admirably stands up to brutal loads.
I went on testing a variety of other games old and new, confirmation bias surely sinking in as I increasingly ignored minor dips or settings tweaks needed to surpass 60 FPS targets in the newest AAA releases.
But through the rose-tinted lens of actually booting up games I‘d longed to play with their settings unleashed, I remain glowingly impressed at how competent the 3080 continues feeling two years post-launch.
My aging Pascal card would audibly wheeze attempting the same visually lush workloads. So beyond the pens and paper style performance breakdowns, I‘m happy to report that the RTX 3080 in action still delivers ludicrous gaming horsepower even against today‘s most demanding titles.
The real world use experience aligns closely with reviews and friends‘ recommendations even as newer GPU generations enter the fray…
How Does The RTX 3080 10GB Stack Up To 40 Series Cards?
But impressive metrics within a vacuum alone can‘t address the elephant-sized GPU in the room: Nvidia‘s brand new GeForce 40 series graphics cards!
The 4080 and 4090 promise even greater generational leaps through the magic of substantially more CUDA core processors and next-generation Ada Lovelace architecture bringing enhanced ray tracing acceleration and quality DLSS 3 frame generation. Surely such dramatic on-paper spec bumps blow the aging 3080 out of relevance, no?
As this expanded article reaches excessive length already, I‘ll focus comparisons predominantly on the flagship consumer model – the RTX 4080 16GB Founders Edition.
Benchmarking the 4080 reveals roughly a 35-55% performance gain over the trusty old 3080 depending on the test and resolution, even exceeding 60% faster FPS results in selected games and scenarios. Impressive generational uplift for certain! You can check my full 4080 review here for way deeper analysis on Ada Lovelace capabilities.
However, seeing only around 50% better frame rates at over triple the launch price makes the value proposition for upgrading from an existing 3080 pretty questionable in my eyes.
You’re already cruising well beyond 60 FPS (or even 100+) at 1440p on the 3080 in virtually all games that three years of maturity now have excellently optimized for its Ampere architecture. Is 50% fasteroo smoothness worth $1100? Certainly doesn‘t seem so to me for 1440p gamers.
Even evaluating the situation from a 4K-focused standpoint, next gen titles landing over the next couple years would need some SERIOUSLY crushing demands to push a 3080 under 4K/30FPS with some reasonable settings tweaking. I expect Ampere has more overhead left in the tank than most anticipate.
So unless money is no object or you require the VRAM headroom, upgraded connectivity, and premium efficiency gains for professional visualization, streaming, or content creation workflows, I don’t really view the 4080 providing amazing upgrade incentive over an existing well-functioning 3080 even at MSRP pricing.
The Maturing Market Improves Accessibility
Interestingly, the passage of time since the RTX 3080 first launched has now normalized its availability quite substantially. Where it once belonged only to myth like some nerd-focused Excalibur in some faraway castle, you can actually just…buy this card fairly readily now.
Used market pricing sits around $600-800 routinely based on model and condition – no longer double MSRP fantasy land rates! Retail channels offer steep discount deals, rebates, and value packed bundles if you hunt diligently enough.
So the context around ATTAINABILITY and overall value merits keep getting better by the week in 2023 by all accounts. Just like new hardware always does, even the once unobtanium-grade 3080 now sees the natural market forces and production maturity pushing advantages to the consumer side.
With these considerations around current pricing and the relatively minor performance gains a way pricier 4080 buys you, I‘d absolutely recommend any gamers still on older GPUs strongly consider an RTX 3080 upgrade even as we push further into 2023.
Conclusion – Still an Excellent High-End GPU Pick
The RTX 3080 10GB utterly redefined expectations of high fidelity gaming performance upon release. Even years later and up against a new generation of graphics cards, it continues delivering uncompromising fluidity and visual splendor.
Real world testing reveals it keeps up shockingly well against even 2023‘s most demanding games, crucially able to still provide that buttery smooth 60 FPS gaming comfort zone at 2560 x 1440 or solid 30+ FPS in the latest AAA titles at native 4K resolutions.
And with the gradual market normalization and price erosion natural to aging hardware, upgrading to the 3080 looks increasingly compelling for PC gamers still on older GPUs but unwilling to pay astronomical pricing premiums.
So don’t count out the RTX 3080 10GB this year my friends! It certainly can’t eclipse the performance results Nvidia themselves put up on marketing slides for 40 series.
But for us mere mortal gamers more concerned with smooth high fidelity experiences vs brute unpaid benchmark bragging rights, I firmly believe the venerable 3080 will continue delivering excellent service for many years ahead.
Especially if you sweet talk it along and tell this old iron workhorse that it still benchmark crushes the next gen consoles. Because for those unaware – oh baby it still does. Drops mic