Review: ASUS knocked it out of the park with the ROG Strix RTX 3080
Reviewing the best graphics card isn’t a difficult task since most aftermarket GPUs will perform roughly the same, so long as they are running the same NVIDIA or AMD internals. Aftermarket cards like the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 we have for review today rely more on cooling, overclocking, price, and design to set themselves apart.
The Strix line of graphics cards from ASUS is the company’s flagship. This GeForce RTX 3080 from ASUS comes with a factory-set boost to push the card even further without you needing to touch a single setting. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 founder’s edition performed seriously well and we’re expecting just as much from ASUS.
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080
Bottom line: ASUS is used to rolling out premium high-end graphics cards and the ROG Strix RTX 3080 is no different. It offers impressive 4K gaming performance at a reasonable price, making it one of the GPUs to buy right now.
The Good
- Incredible performance
- Ideal for 4K gaming
- Excellent design and build quality
- Very efficient tri-fan cooling
- Full NVIDIA tech support
The Bad
- Requires three PCIe power connections
- High power draw
- Availability issues (like all other GPUs)
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080: Price and availability
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
ASUS launched the ROG Strix RTX 3080 for $850, which is incredible value for 4K gaming. With the older 20-series of NVIDIA GPUs, it was only possible to unlock this level of performance by spending more than $1,000 on an RTX 2080 Ti.
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080: What you’ll like
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 is a serious GPU for 4K gaming.
There are three 8-pin PCIe connections for supplying enough current to the GPU. That’s a lot of power and many PSUs may not have enough connectors available, especially at the lower end of the capacity scale. This is why ASUS recommends an 850W PSU as a minimum and we’d agree since this puppy can draw up to 320W alone.
Keeping everything cool, ASUS took a few cues from NVIDIA’s reference design with the passthrough of air. You’ll see the same feature here with this card. The right fan will actually blow air all the way through and out the top, helping to reduce blowback. The heatsink is huge with full copper heat pipes.
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
Category | ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 |
---|---|
Shader cores | 8704 |
Core clock | 1440MHz |
Boost clock | 1935MHz |
GPU | GA102 |
Memory | 10GB GDDR6X 320-bit bus width |
Memory clock | 19Gbps |
Memory bandwidth | 760GB/s |
RT cores | 68 |
Tensor cores | 272 |
Transistors | 28.3 billion |
Node | Samsung 8nm |
Architecture | Ampere |
TDP | 320W |
Ports | 2 x HDMI 2.1 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a |
Power connector | 3x 8-pin PCIe |
Category | Hardware |
---|---|
CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 5950X |
GPU | ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 |
Cooling | NZXT Kraken X73 |
Motherboard | ASUS X570 Gaming-E |
Memory | 32GB Corsair Vengeance Pro |
Storage | 1TB Sabrent Rocket 4 |
PSU | be quiet! Dark Power 12 1200W |
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080: What you’ll dislike
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
Your PSU will also need to have three available PCIe connections to supply enough power to the card. ASUS recommends a power supply with a capacity of around 850W. We’d also recommend this amount to be safe and most units in this range or above should come with enough PCIe cables. Performance-wise, we have no complaints with the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080.
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080: Competition
Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Windows Central
For aftermarket RTX 3080s, there are plenty to choose from, including a few from ASUS too. The other ASUS cards aren’t as capable and do cost a little less, but compared to other aftermarket vendors, it really comes down to price, availability, design, and cooling. Most of them will perform as well as this GPU.
If you were to want a competing AMD option to the RTX 3080, it would be the AMD RX 6800 XT with 72 compute units, 16GB of GDDR6 RAM over 256-bit and 16Gbps clock for a total bandwidth of up to 512GB/s. We reviewed the AMD RX 6800 favorably and the XT version offers a little more performance to hit 4K resolutions.
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080: Should you buy it?
Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central
You should buy this if …
- You want excellent 1440p and 4K performance
- You have an older 10-series NVIDIA GPU
- You want to keep your next GPU for many years
You shouldn’t buy this if …
- You don’t want to wait for better prices
- You don’t have a 4K monitor
- You don’t have upwards of $1,000 to spare
Unfortunately, for most people, GPUs are still way too expensive right now. The silicon shortage and crypto mining demand are still making it difficult to locate stock at reasonable prices. This ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 is no different. The MSRP is $850, and you should not fork out more than $1,000 at the very most if you really need one now.
If you were to pick one up at the original asking price, the RTX 3080 is an incredible GPU. What ASUS managed to add on top of the reference design from NVIDIA is astounding for in-game performance. The design is subtle but bold with effective lighting. The cooling is more than enough for long gaming sessions, and the stock overclock is excellent and stable.
It’s a little staggering that we’re now at a point where you can buy a very capable 4K graphics card for $850. Both NVIDIA and ASUS have done stellar jobs on their fronts that result in one of the best graphics cards available. It’s a great choice for anyone wanting to buy a GPU and not have to replace it for many years to come, so long as you have a 4K monitor to enjoy it.
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