Nvidia ended its GeForce event countdown with a big bang and launched three models of its RTX 3000 graphics card series. It introduced the offerings through a pre-recorded online event hosted by its CEO Jensen Huang. The cards announced include Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3090. They are based on the Ampere architecture and perform significantly better than their Turing counterparts.
Nvidia’s RTX 3000 Series of GPUs
The newly announced RTX 3000 Series GPUs have been manufactured on Samsung’s 8N process. They feature Nvidia’s new Ampere architecture. One of the important things to note about the specifications of these graphics cards is the significant bump to their CUDA cores. We are awaiting further architecture details to find out how Nvidia managed to pull this off.
The second thing worth highlighting is that the cards feature a new 12-pin power connector. Don’t worry, Nvidia includes adapter cables with the card for converting 8-pin PCIe connectors to a single 12-pin connector. You will be able to use the cards with your existing power supplies. Nvidia’s 3000 Series of graphics cards feature 2nd Gen Ray Tracing Cores and 3rd Gen Tensor Cores. All three announced models have one HDMI 2.1 port and three DisplayPort (1.4a). Two of the models retain the same price tag as their predecessors.
| GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 3080 | GeForce RTX 3070 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CUDA Cores | 10496 | 8704 | 5888 |
| Boost Clock (GHz) | 1.70 | 1.71 | 1.73 |
| Memory | 24GB GDDR6X | 10GB GDDR6X | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bus | 384-bit | 320-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Speed | 19.5Gbps | 19Gbps | 16Gbps |
| Length | 12.3" (313 mm) | 11.2" (285 mm) | 9.5" (242 mm) |
| Width | 5.4" (138 mm) | 4.4" (112 mm) | 4.4" (112 mm) |
| Height | 3-Slot | 2-Slot | 2-Slot |
| Graphics Card Power (W) | 350 | 320 | 220 |
| Display Connectors | HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 – $699
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 was the first card introduced in the pre-recorded event. It features 8704 CUDA cores with a boost clock of 1.71GHz. The card comes with 10GB of GDDR6X memory with a 320-bit bus and 19Gbps speed. Interestingly, Jensen termed the RTX 3080 as their “flagship” and not the RTX 3090. Maybe it is because Nvidia intends to market the RTX 3090 as their prosumer card. On the performance side, RTX 3080 was depicted to be better as compared to RTX 2080Ti. It was shown to have 30 TFLOPs of shader performance, which is almost double the 14.2 TFLOPS on an RTX 2080Ti. The same can only be confirmed once independent reviews become available. Buyers can purchase an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 from September 17th. If you are wondering about its size, it is close to a standard 2-slot card. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 will cost $699, which is the same as the RTX 2080. It has a Graphics Card Power rating of 320W.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 – $499
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 will be one of the most popular graphics cards in mainstream PCs. It comes with 5,888 CUDA cores and a 1.73GHz boost clock. The GPU uses 8GB of GDDR6 across a 256-bit memory bus. Unlike the other two cards, it does not uses GDDR6X memory. The specifications that Nvidia shared for the RTX 3070 graphics card showed 20 TFLOPS of shader performance compared to the measly 9 TFLOPs of 2070 SUPER. You can expect it to beat the 2080 Ti in games. It is a standard-sized card with a 2-slot design. GeForce RTX 3070 has a Graphics Card Power Rating of 220W. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 will become available in October, and you can pick one up for $499.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 – $1499
Jensen saved the best for the last, the GeForce RTX 3090. It is a humongous card with a 3-slot design that measures 12.3” (313 mm) long and 5.4” (138 mm) wide. Nvidia RTX 3090 is the prosumer card from the company. It features a total of 10496 CUDA cores. The graphics card has a boost clock of 1695Mhz and uses 24 GB GDDR6X memory with a 384-bit memory bus. The memory is clocked at 19.5 Gbps. GeForce RTX 3090 is capable of delivering 36 TFLOPs of shader performance, which is unprecedented. It has a Graphics Card Power rating of 350W. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is going to hit the store shelves on September 24th and carries a whopping price tag of $1499.
Along with the founder edition cards, many AIB partners have announced their respective models of Nvidia RTX 3000 Series graphics cards.
