Due to popular demand nosotros're following up to our comparing of the RTX 3070 and RX 6800 from a few weeks back. This latest GPU shootout sees the faster and more expensive GeForce RTX 3080 pitted against the Radeon RX 6800 XT. We accept a long list of games to be tested roofing the 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions.

Merely before we get to that, a quick disclaimer: yes, we know availability for both graphics cards is terrible, particularly the Radeon which is almost non-real based on what we're hearing from retailers. The RTX Ampere GPUs are coming in slowly, but supply is nowhere virtually it needs to exist, so shortages volition proceed for the foreseeable. As nosotros reported final week, scalpers have been a major gene in the equation unfortunately.

Still, there'due south a take chances if you're patient plenty, you lot'll somewhen get your hands on one of these GPUs, and of course we're hoping availability improves soon. Whenever that time comes, this review volition help answer the question of which 1 should yous buy?

For reference, here are the GPU specs and suggested retail pricing for these cards.

GeForce
RTX 3080		 Radeon RX
6800 XT
Price (MSRP) $700 $650
Release Date Sept. 2022 November. 2022
Procedure Samsung 8N TSMC N7
Transistors (billion) 28.3 26.8
Die Size (mm2) 628.4 519
Core Config 8704 / 272 / 96 4608 / 288 / 128
Cadre Clock Frequency 1440 / 1710 MHz 2015 / 2250 MHz
Memory Chapters ten GB 16GB
Memory Speed 19 Gbps 16 Gbps
Memory Type GDDR6X GDDR6
Double-decker Type / Bandwidth 320-scrap / 760 GB/s 256-bit / 512 GB/due south
TGP 320 watt 300 watt

Since we first tested the GPUs, nosotros've updated the our exam rig, moving away from the Ryzen 9 3950X to the newer 5950X, though we're sticking with the DDR4-3200 CL14 dual-rank retentivity as information technology'southward quite a bit faster than even DDR4-3800 single rank. We have too disabled stuff like Smart Access Memory unless specified otherwise.

Representing the GeForce squad is the RTX 3080 Founders Edition graphics card, while the Radeon GPU volition be represented by AMD'south own reference carte.

Both were tested at stock settings with no overclocking. As usual, of the 30 games we tested nosotros've picked around half a dozen of the near interesting results before we jump into breakdown graphs to summarize all the data.

Benchmarks

Starting with Battlefield V nosotros see that the Radeon GPUs have a pregnant performance advantage in this title, so much so that the RX 6800 is able to trounce the RTX 3080 at 1080p and 1440p.

At 1440p the 6800 XT is 20% faster than the RTX 3080, a massive performance difference considering they occupy a similar price indicate, or are at least are meant to.

The Ampere architecture does scale ameliorate at 4K, or at least the higher core count parts like the RTX 3080 practise. This isn't so much a memory bandwidth consequence for the RDNA two GPUs as people oft claim, rather information technology's a case of the RTX 3080 and its underlying architecture coming to life at this higher resolution.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the RTX 3080 often performs meliorate at 4K and here we're seeing it come from 17% behind the 6800 XT at 1440p to 6% faster. It's not a large departure in this championship, but the GeForce GPU shows information technology'south the better performer at 4K.

Hitman two is mostly CPU limited at 1080p, so we tin can skip those results and move to 1440p.

Here the RTX 3080 and 6800 XT are evenly matched with the GeForce GPU winning past a slim 6% margin. That difference is increased at 4K to just 7%, making the RTX 3080 slightly faster in Hitman ii.

Microsoft Flying Simulator 2022 is also CPU limited at the lower resolutions and pushing past 60 fps when flight over densely populated areas is very difficult.

The 6800 XT is but 3fps faster at 1080p on boilerplate. The RTX 3080 then pulls ahead at 1440p to win by a 5% margin and then a more than significant eleven% at 4K allowing the GeForce GPU to reach 40 fps which does brand the game noticeably smoother.

Next up we have Borderlands 3 and here the Radeon GPUs perform quite well. The 6800 XT is vii% faster than the 3080 at 1440p and eight% faster at 1080p, not massive margins past whatever means only a clear win for the 6800 XT. Once once more though, as we reach 4K, the 3080 catches up and this fourth dimension matches the 6800 XT with 66 fps.

Equally we know from recent benchmarks focusing on Cyberpunk 2077 operation, the GeForce GPUs have a slight functioning advantage in this title everything being equal. Given this title was sponsored by Nvidia, the operation is acceptable overall on the Radeon side.

For case, the RTX 3080 was 8% faster at 1440p, just a much more substantial eighteen% at 4K. Turn on DLSS (we accept a dedicated article for that) and the GeForce delivers an entirely superior class of functioning.

Command is some other title where Nvidia had close involvement on optimizing it with ray tracing and DLSS. Without utilizing those features, the RTX 3080 is 13% faster at 1440p which is a big performance increase and every bit expected this margin just increased at 4K, blowing out to an 18% reward in Nvidia's favor.

DLSS ii.0 is a key gene for playing Control using an RTX GPU. For example, the RTX 3080 goes from a 60 fps boilerplate to xc fps if you enable DLSS. Then using both ray tracing furnishings and DLSS gets you down to about the aforementioned 60 fps average with better graphics in this detail title and solid implementation of ray tracing.

Red Dead Redemption 2 sees the GPUs matching each other'southward performance at 1080p and 1440p. And so at 4K, the RTX 3080 is able to pull alee, beating the 6800 XT by a convincing 15% margin.

The Outer Worlds was congenital using Unreal Engine 4 which typically favors Nvidia hardware, so it comes as little surprise to see the RTX 3080 pulling well ahead of the 6800 XT, fifty-fifty at 1080p.

At 1440p the GeForce was fifteen% faster and that margin blows out to a whopping 21% at 4K giving Nvidia a significant functioning reward in this game.

There are plenty of new AMD sponsored games as well. Such is the example of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. AMD's investment has paid off as the 6800 XT is a full 31% faster at 1080p, 21% faster at 1440p and xi% faster at 4K.

F1 2022 is an Nvidia Gameworks title but it'due south always run well on AMD hardware. Here we tin can see the 6800 XT offers slightly more frames at 1080p and 1440p, though it's a mere 6% advantage at 1440p. At 4K results are more evenly matched.

Monster Hunter Earth sees the RTX 3080 performing uncommonly well. Even at 1080p information technology was 10% faster than the 6800 XT, 11% faster at 1440p and 20% faster at 4K.

Concluding up are Doom Eternal results and while the margins here are probably meaningless given we're talking about well over 150 fps even at 4K, let's quickly go over the results anyway. The 6800 XT was barely any faster at 1080p with 412 fps on boilerplate. It's only at 4K where the 3080 takes charge to win by an eleven% margin.

xxx Game Summary

So far the Radeon RX 6800 XT and GeForce RTX 3080 looked competitive at 1440p, while the GeForce appears more dominant at 4K. Let's take a await at the full list of games we tested to see how the GPUs compare overall.

Starting with the 1440p data, we run across that these GPUs are indeed even at 1440p. At about the 6800 XT was upwards to 20% faster, only we too saw instances where information technology was xiii-17% slower. For half the games tested the margin was 5% or less, which we deem a draw. There were just 11 games out of xxx where the margin was ten% or greater in either direction.

Things become more clear cut at 4K. Here the 6800 XT was on average 6% slower and nosotros're looking at just a few titles where the Radeon GPU came out on top, almost of which are AMD sponsored titles. This time at that place are xiv games where the 6800 XT was slower by a 10% margin or greater, making the RTX 3080 the superior choice for 4K gaming.

This is also in line with our findings in our twenty-four hours-one reviews of both GPUs (tested with the R9 3950X). Even if the list of games were non the same (or the aforementioned quantity of titles), on average the conclusions we could describe from those results were the same.

What We Learned

All that testing later, nosotros accept a solid idea of how the Radeon RX 6800 XT and GeForce RTX 3080 compare across a huge number of games. At present the question is which i should you purchase?... once availability improves.

It's been ii months since the Radeon RX 6800 series launch and AMD bodacious us that in iv to 8 weeks it would be possible to purchase AIB cards at the suggested retail price: $580 for the RX 6800, and $650 for the RX 6800 XT.

Apparently that hasn't happened, and availability has go a bigger effect than pricing, even though cards are grossly overpriced and out of stock at nearly all times. Therefore it'south fourth dimension to telephone call it: AMD has failed to deliver. We've heard there'southward virtually no supply of 6800 serial GPUs coming in and the situation is worse than the one presented by Nvidia.

On the Nvidia side, at to the lowest degree there are RTX 3080 AIB models listed at the MSRP, even if they are out of stock. Whereas the 6800 XT's appear to exist $200+ over the MSRP, there are a number of 3080's priced within $100 of the MSRP. So supply and pricing on Nvidia'south end appears to be ameliorate, though even so a dire situation.

Bluntly the 6800 XT isn't worth $850 and you absolutely shouldn't pay that much for ane. We'd rather spend $150 on something like a second hand RX 570 and play some older games, or esports titles with lower quality visuals and expect it out.

That's the situation as of writing, but what about a time to come where both the RTX 3080 and 6800 XT are available at the MSRP, which is improve value and then?

If yous're into streaming and wish to apply your GPU for all the heavy lifting, then the RTX 3080 is the obvious choice, too. AMD offers only poor encoding support which is something they should have addressed by this signal, especially if they desire to charge top dollar for their GPUs.

The Radeon has the upperhand on VRAM buffer, though the RTX 3080 does very well at 4K right now with x GB of memory and we don't see this beingness an upshot any time soon.

In terms of cost per frame, both are similar. Features similar ray tracing support and DLSS can make the RTX 3080 more than appealing to you, especially if the games you play employ those features. In fact, if you intendance virtually ray tracing, the RTX 3080 is a much improve option.

Although nosotros didn't spend much time showing how the two GPUs compare in this regard, we have defended manufactures about this, and we're particularly enthusiastic about DLSS ii.0 back up coming to more games. As nosotros've noted in the past, the list of games that back up ray tracing is slowly growing, just there are few games where the feature truly shines. Games such as Command, Watch Dogs Legion, Cyberpunk 2077 and Minecraft are the best showcases, whereas a Fortnite-style game, Call of Duty and Battlefield 5, are not as well suited to it given their fast paced gameplay and demand for top FPS.

You will almost always want to enable DLSS 2.0 in whatever game that supports it though. This is something you'd probable enable in Fortnite, for instance. How useful DLSS is both game and resolution dependent. Typically we meet reviewers evaluating DLSS in games similar Cyberpunk 2077 using an RTX 3080 at 4K, and this is by far the best fashion to showcase the technology. Every bit y'all lower the resolution, even to 1440p, the prototype becomes slightly blurry equally DLSS has less information to work with and at 1080p, even in Cyberpunk 2077, the quality DLSS choice isn't swell and in our option noticeably worse than native 1080p.

With that said, we consider DLSS is a stiff selling indicate of RTX Ampere GPUs and it'due south something AMD will demand to counter sooner rather than later.

As for Smart Access Memory, which correct now is only enabled by AMD on Zen 3 setups -- we've defended an article to it as well. The consensus appears to exist that until the engineering is universally supported and enabled past default, we shouldn't exam with it. Although SAM tin can be enabled for all games, merely some come across a noteworthy performance uplift, others little or fifty-fifty a slight decline. With SAM enabled, the 6800 XT average operation is but improved by three%.

TL;DR: The RTX 3080 and RX 6800 XT are evenly matched, but overall the GeForce RTX 3080 has the upperhand in this battle. New technologies such equally ray tracing and DLSS make it harder than ever to make a curtailed GPU recommendation, but hopefully our thorough testing can assistance y'all narrow down your choice betwixt the two.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 on Amazon
  • AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT on Amazon
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 on Amazon
  • AMD Radeon RX 6800 on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 9 5950X on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen five 5600X on Amazon