Review Asus GeForce RTX 3080 TUF Gaming OC Review: Traditional Cooler, Same Performance

[nofanneeded]

The cooler on the 3090 FE is really beefy. Its probably the 3090 cooler thats 150? Or did the 3080 FE cooler cost 150 as well?

There is no way that cooler costs $150 ...

 

[Phaaze88]

Yep, Nvidia's FE cooler is darn good this time around.
The AIBs do have their work cut out for them.

To me, the 3080 TUF Gaming isn't that impressive.
+I don't care for RGB anyway.
-It's not any quieter.
-It's ~50USD more, but Asus overcharges for most of their products anyway.
Plus, from what the different reviews have shown me, the FE model is slightly more efficient when it comes to dumping waste heat into cpu coolers - except front mounted cpu hybrid coolers.
Whodathunkit?

 

[vinay2070]

Yep, Nvidia's FE cooler is darn good this time around.
The AIBs do have their work cut out for them.

To me, the 3080 TUF Gaming isn't that impressive.
+I don't care for RGB anyway.
-It's not any quieter.
-It's ~50USD more, but Asus overcharges for most of their products anyway.
Plus, from what the different reviews have shown me, the FE model is slightly more efficient when it comes to dumping waste heat into cpu coolers - except front mounted cpu hybrid coolers.
Whodathunkit?

Its not quieter with default fan curve, but the temps a lot cooler. So if you set the fan curve to get the temp similar to FE, it should be much more quiter.

 

[Phaaze88]

Its not quieter with default fan curve...

No one should be using the default fan curve, PERIOD. Custom curve, all day, every day.
And no one's going to notice a 1dBA difference at max fan speeds either. It takes 3dBA for that.

the temps a lot cooler.

Ok?
The FE isn't melting either; those are perfectly acceptable thermals.
If you believe that bit's worth 50USD+, then by all means, help yourself to one.

So if you set the fan curve to get the temp similar to FE, it should be much more quiter.

Noise never was an issue for the likes of me.
Before I replaced the cooler on my 1080Ti Gaming OC, I ran the fans at 100% whenever I loaded up a game anyway. It never saw over 65C


I did say in my last post, "TO ME, the card isn't impressive", along with why.
I wasn't telling everyone else that the card was terrible. If you like it, that's cool.

 

[Arbie]

So... nVidia paid about $155 per card for the fancy-schmancy cooler on the FE models and ASUS just turned around and proved that it wasn't necessary.

Unless you know more than NVidia engineers about thermal transfer, you might want tone down your remarks. They were working within a 2-slot package. A 2.7-slot design allows for about 30% more heatsink and ought to cool a hell of a lot better. Maybe you don't value the slot. Maybe others do. But crowing over the different results seems... umm... extremely uninformed.

Edit: sorry, didn't notice the "be like" locution. Guess you are operating at some other level.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I guess I went to the wrong area of the Asus site or something. LOL. But ... I'm super skeptical of the ROG Strix actually maintaining a 115MHz higher boost clock. I mean, the TUF I looked at was running at basically identical clocks to the 3080 FE (+10-15MHz is all), despite a 75MHz spec advantage. I've got an MSI card that's supposed to have an 1815MHz boost. I'll have to check what the average clocks are on that, but while I saw initial clocks break 2000MHz, I don't think it maintained that. And the Strix is supposedly 100MHz higher still? I mean, maybe it really is overclocking that well. Certainly I'll be looking to check it out.

Possibly but the Strix will have a larger cooler so maybe they will be able to keep it cool enough to push it further.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Well not exactly , the FE card is shorter and more compact.

That could be true but it's still plenty big.

The cooler on the 3090 FE is really beefy. Its probably the 3090 cooler thats 150? Or did the 3080 FE cooler cost 150 as well?

I honestly don't know. My post wasn't altogether serious. I just thought that it was funny that nVidia went nutz with this fancy new cooler (which reportedly cost a lot) and ASUS just releases a rather conventional-looking tri-fan solution.

Unless you know more than NVidia engineers about thermal transfer, you might want tone down your remarks. They were working within a 2-slot package. A 2.7-slot design allows for about 30% more heatsink and ought to cool a hell of a lot better. Maybe you don't value the slot. Maybe others do. But crowing over the different results seems... umm... extremely uninformed.

Edit: sorry, didn't notice the "be like" locution. Guess you are operating at some other level.

Yeah I was making a joke. As for what nVidia engineers know about heat transfer, I'm sure that it's a good deal but since nVidia out-sources their Founder's Edition cooling solutions to Cooler Master (as shown by Steven Burke in a factory tour), I don't think that it matters much.

It's just that we've heard so much about this oddball cooler, the oddball 12-pin connector and then we heard how expensive the thing is. Then we hear all the BS reasons and excuses for both. Also remember that the RTX 3070 is only 220W and it also has one of these insane coolers.

Then ASUS just turns around and releases a normal-looking triple-fan solution with a standard PCI-Express 2x8pin power connector. I won't lie, I was in stitches because, as I had previously posted, I didn't believe that this fancy cooler was necessary. To me, it was just a gimmick, albeit a pretty one.

The way nVidia and the tech press have been talking lately, one would think that the RTX 3090 is the most power-hungry card ever made. I would pardon a lot of the younger people who read them for not knowing that this is false but the tech press should DEFINITELY know better because I automatically did and I'm not a "professional" like them.

Now, the RTX 3090 is 350W but it's not the most power-hungry card ever. If memory serves, the Radeon HD 7990 had a TDP of 375W. Here's what the HD 7990 looked like:

Not really all that odd-looking, is it? If you want odd-looking,

Now, the RTX 3090 is a triple-slot card which I think is ridiculous because the last triple-slot card I can remember was the Radeon R9 390x2:

and THIS monster had FOUR 4-pin connectors and a TDP of (get ready for it)
580W!!! THIS MAKES THE RTX 3090 LOOK LIKE A LITTLE PUPPY IN COMPARISON!

Now, Jim at AdoredTV put forth the theory that the reason that nVidia did this is because of noise. Apparently this expensive-as-all-hell cooler is extremely quiet despite being able to dissipate all that heat. Jim pointed out that AnandTech panned the R9 290 because it was too loud but recommended the Titan at the time, despite being twice as expensive and less powerful than the R9 290 because it was quiet.

Personally, I think that whoever wrote those articles was an absolute moron (if they wrote both articles that is) because to recommend a weaker card that is literally DOUBLE the price of a more powerful card simply because of fan noise is insane at best and dishonest at worst.

I'm going to guess that it was insanity but nVidia read it and I'm sure that JH made a mental note to NEVER release a loud card no matter what. That may be what's at the heart of this. Whether or not it makes a difference is another story because I do know that tri-fan coolers tend to be very quiet.

EDIT: I just read another review and it appears that the ASUS TUF Gaming version is even quieter than the FE model. So I guess that nVidia's FE cooler is expensive and oddball for no reason except that it looks kinda cool.

 

[King_V]

Well, it does fit within a 2 slot size limit, for those that such a thing is important to. And it does weigh a little less than Asus's version (and apparently MSI's card is heavier still).

Those may not be important to everyone, but there are probably people who have systems where such considerations can make a difference. Wouldn't matter to me for the next new system I'm going to build, were I in the market for a card of that level.

Now, if someone can get a traditional cooler to fit within the size envelope of Nvidia's cooler, with equal or better effectiveness (cooling, and noise levels) that would definitely be something.

 

[vinay2070]

No one should be using the default fan curve, PERIOD. Custom curve, all day, every day.
And no one's going to notice a 1dBA difference at max fan speeds either. It takes 3dBA for that.


Ok?
The FE isn't melting either; those are perfectly acceptable thermals.
If you believe that bit's worth 50USD+, then by all means, help yourself to one.


Noise never was an issue for the likes of me.
Before I replaced the cooler on my 1080Ti Gaming OC, I ran the fans at 100% whenever I loaded up a game anyway. It never saw over 65C


I did say in my last post, "TO ME, the card isn't impressive", along with why.
I wasn't telling everyone else that the card was terrible. If you like it, that's cool.

My answer was only for that 1 point - -"It's not any quieter". You made a whole story out of it by spitting the sentence into 3? My goodness!

 

[Phaaze88]

My answer was only for that 1 point - -"It's not any quieter". You made a whole story out of it by spitting the sentence into 3? My goodness!

Sure did! It's a bad habit of mine. I get trigger happy with multi-quotes!

I should've done a TL;DR that ended with...
"IMO, the 3080 TUF Gaming doesn't offer enough for the price premium over the FE model."

 

[Unolocogringo]

That could be true but it's still plenty big.

I honestly don't know. My post wasn't altogether serious. I just thought that it was funny that nVidia went nutz with this fancy new cooler (which reportedly cost a lot) and ASUS just releases a rather conventional-looking tri-fan solution.

Yeah I was making a joke. As for what nVidia engineers know about heat transfer, I'm sure that it's a good deal but since nVidia out-sources their Founder's Edition cooling solutions to Cooler Master (as shown by Steven Burke in a factory tour), I don't think that it matters much.


Now, the RTX 3090 is a triple-slot card which I think is ridiculous because the last triple-slot card I can remember was the Radeon R9 390x2:

and THIS monster had FOUR 4-pin connectors and a TDP of (get ready for it)
580W!!! THIS MAKES THE RTX 3090 LOOK LIKE A LITTLE PUPPY IN COMPARISON!

NVIDIA's cooler is actually what people need who run more than one card in a computer.
It is 2 slot thickness. With motherboard spacing at 3 slots this gives you a full slot depth for air flow.
Plus it dumps part of its heat directly out of the back of the case. Without using loud blower type fans and keeping fairly quiet.
These large 3 fan models are great for single video card systems. But for dual/triple card systems that would be a nightmare trying to get all of their heat out of the case. Almost all of it would have to go up and out the top and back causing much higher CPU/VRM and memory temperatures.
Been there done that!! several times.

 

[Unolocogringo]

My main computer/daily driver lives inside a large haverty's executive desk. Th right hand side is a large tall door with a small drawer at the top after opening the door. With a center shelf I shortened for better airflow from the bottom chamber with intake fans when the door is closed.
It is modded with 3 140mm fans for intake at the back bottom with filter box and has 1 120mm fan at the top back behind the drawer for exhaust.
I cut a hole above the upper inside shelf that allows the back of the case to fit flush to the inside back of the cabinet.
Half 912 case with side vents, power supply vent and top vents taped over and sealed. 2 83cfm intake fan in front 26db. One 54cfm 25db exhaust at the back and all slot covers removed. Power supply flipped up to help remove extra hot air out of the case.
Asus prime x570-P
Ryzen 3600 @ 4.4 all core boost
CM 212 EVO
16 gig Vengeance 3600 18/19/19/18
1 tb 970 EVO plus
EVGA GTX 1070 SC
ASUS GTX 1070 Dual
Corsair RM850X
Folds 24/7/365 with videocard temps in the 60-65C range. Video card fan speeds are set to rise 1:1 wit GPU temps. 60c = 60% fan speed.
Overall fairly quiet . more air turbulence noise than fan noise.
So the new FE video cards would be great for me and other folders. Might could turn down case fans some and still have good temps and less noise.

 

[Avro Arrow]

NVIDIA's cooler is actually what people need who run more than one card in a computer.
It is 2 slot thickness. With motherboard spacing at 3 slots this gives you a full slot depth for air flow.
Plus it dumps part of its heat directly out of the back of the case. Without using loud blower type fans and keeping fairly quiet.
These large 3 fan models are great for single video card systems. But for dual/triple card systems that would be a nightmare trying to get all of their heat out of the case. Almost all of it would have to go up and out the top and back causing much higher CPU/VRM and memory temperatures.
Been there done that!! several times.

Well, I don't know if you looked but I'm not exactly a newbie. You're explaining how GPU coolers work to me in elementary terms and it's kind of endearing because it makes me feel young again. I'm sure you encounter a lot of dumb noobs here so I'm not mad or anything because I encounter them too.

Having said that, what you're saying is actually what I considered FIRST, but then I dismissed as illogical because...

In the Ampere family, only the triple-slot RTX 3090 supports SLI so there won't be any dual or triple-card setups with the RTX 3080. Therefore, multi-card setups CAN'T be what nVidia was thinking about when they did this.

That's why I made the joke, because I really couldn't figure it out and so it was probably just a marketing thing from nVidia. I mean, let's face it, it does look pretty cool (no pun intended) and the design did garner a lot of coverage from the tech press, eh?

 

[Unolocogringo]

I run folding@Home 24/7/365. Have been since 12/14/04
Ive run 2 GTX 460s @850 . Very hot running cards.
Dual 650TI boost @1200 Cool running cards.
Dual 1070 @ 2012-1984 range depending on work unit. Run 60-65c range.
So cooling has been a fun experiment.
Positive pressure high airflow across the cards seems to work best.

F@H does not use SLI or any combining software.
Each GPU gets its own work unit and CPU core to feed it.
So stacking 2 or three cards in a system is doable with the new cooler design.
I doubt the 3080 card was designed for high density stacking but to just fit in many micro and mini builds.
But I will take advantage of its compute (Cuda) and cooling set-up.