Nvidia's 3000 Series RTX GPU [3050, 3060, 3070, 3080, 3090 now with TIs]

Power efficiency keeps climbing.

Caches are a good way to improve efficiency, too.

 

About 80% of the performance of a 3070Ti with about 40% of the power draw. Granted, GDDR6X makes up some of that, but will also factor into the performance differential as well.

Compared to regular 3070, it's 85% of the performance for about 60% of the power draw.

Stock performance of gaming cards is being pushed well past the efficiency sweetspot nowadays, but the efficiency is still improving quite a lot in reality. The A4000 at 140w is performing about 45% better than the 160w 2060 as another comparison point. And this is still with Samsung 8nm, not the best node. Should be a bigger leap going to a very mature TSMC 5nm.

So there will almost definitely be sizeable performance improvements at a given power level this next generation and those who want to have solid gaming performance at under 150w should have options with a little bit of tuning.

 

I honestly think that all vendors should add a TDP level control in their drivers for those who want to get a modern relatively high performing low power option.
Launching a separate SKU for that seems excessive when the same can be achieved by simple driver level undervolting option.

 

I would welcome the SKU. Less fans, simpler power regulation, lower costs...

 

Isn't that already available via apps like afterburner? So it's supported just not part of the driver control panel.

 

Yes but it's a 3rd party app which you must run in the background for changes to apply and the interface of setting up a downvolt isn't what I'd call easy.
It should be a driver CPL feature.

 

Yeah the down volt in afterburner isn’t automatic and the UI for adjusting the voltage curve isn’t intuitive.

 

Shameless plug, but the undervolting in AMD drivers is easy and intuitive. (Well, at least it's easy and intuitive to me. )

Their fan curve is equally easy to play with, although I really wish I could tie my side fan in to my GPU rather than running it at full tilt all the time.

EDITED BITS: I had to do a clean driver install yesterday and re-enter all my custom settings from scratch so I was thinking about it. Funny thing? New drivers came out today...

 

So Microcenter now has a lot of stock on hand of various Ampere cards, with 3070ti below $800 and even a 3080 at $1k. With apparent stock levels of 20-30+ for some of these vendor models, they're apparently not walking off the shelves anymore and gamers are still waiting for prices to drop more, or for 4000 series to release. I see even better prices down to realistic MSRPs soon. My wife might actually get her new GPU this year.

I really wish the 3070 was available though, the 3070ti is such a stupid "upgrade" for way too much.

 

Since the new generation is getting closer the only cards I'm really looking at right now are either the 3060ti or the 6700xt. Both of them are still way too far above MSRP for me to seriously consider them, however.

Prices are coming down, but not far enough for me.

Regards,
SB

 

They are still available in the U.K
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-c...nvidia-graphics-cards/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070

ps: It's not Nvidia's policy to stop supplying non ti gpu's when the ti version is released is it ?

 

Prices on higher end cards are in free fall. There are some after market xx90 and xx70 cards on Newegg very close to the usual AIB markups ~15%. The xx60 cards and lower seem to be stubbornly overpriced though.

 

They make a lot more profit off the Ti versions. They were all released to reap the market. Otherwise who would buy a 3070Ti for 5% higher performance but 20% or more higher price?

 

It’s not quite that bad. At 4K it’s more like 10% more performance for 20% more dollars. The other 10% is for the good feels of having a fully enabled chip. Also nobody would buy a regular 3070 if the price was any closer. It’s only $100 difference.

 

My wife games at 1080p but I want her to have decent raytracing performance. I guess unless I go for a 3080 then I might as well get a 3060Ti instead.

 

In the UK now (in stock only):

3060: £380
3060Ti: £500
3070: £580
3070Ti: £630
3080: £800
3080 12GB: £980
3080Ti: £1050

At those prices I'd be temped by a 3060 or 3070 if the 4xxx series weren't just around the corner. I guess a lot of people are making the same calculation which is why prices continue to drop.

 

At those prices I'd still continue waiting on 40x0 series of products.

 

Prices coming down nicely, i'd still wait for them to further drop or simply go for a RTX4xxx series gpu. I'd choose the latter if i didnt have my 2080Ti, i think im going to keep it for the rest of this generation.

 

But then the 40x0 products upon release will be at higher prices and inflated by scalpers etc then we're in the same position waiting on stock and prices to drop.

 

My next graphics card will be under $200 and under 100w and there's a distinct possibility that it will never happen the way things are going.