News GeForce RTX 3080 12GB Gets Official: More Cores and Higher TDP

[Admin]

One of the worst-kept secrets in the gaming industry has now been made official.

GeForce RTX 3080 12GB Gets Official: More Cores and Higher TDP : Read more

 

[VforV]

One of the worst-kept secrets in the gaming industry has now been made official.

There wasn't any considerable fanfare about the new SKU, as NVIDIA simply updated the main RTX 3080 product page to reflect the changes.

Is this what proper journalism is supposed to look like?

The adequate reaction towards this is to call nvidia on their anti-consumer practices that this launch has again shown they are the masters of... If this represents the so called tech press, then I have a better word for it, but there are to many snowflakes here to post it...

At least we have HUB and GN, for the remaining sane people.

 

[TJ Hooker]

The adequate reaction towards this is to call nvidia on their anti-consumer practices that this launch has again shown they are the masters of...

Can you elaborate on what makes the 3080 12GB release anti-consumer?

 

[bigdragon]

I'm not understanding the purpose of continuing coverage of GPUs that cannot be purchased. Yes, the RTX 3080 12GB is probably amazing. Yes, it would help speed up my gaming and game dev work. No, it is not for sale to gamers and developers. The only people who will be able to own an RTX 3080 12GB are the miners, scalpers, and people with golden horseshoes stuck up their butts.

 

[sizzling]

Can you elaborate on what makes the 3080 12GB release anti-consumer?

Probably this

View: https://youtu.be/tS7lx5us1fg

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Probably this

View: https://youtu.be/tS7lx5us1fg

What the world needs is more angry YouTubers! Because clearly that is helping change Nvidia's course. You can see how all their "outrage" over a stealth-launched "for AIC vendors" product is just killing their bottom line.

Nvidia didn't "block" reviews; it just didn't sample press (Tom's Hardware included) and set an embargo time of today. Oddly, I'm not sure any drivers work with the new 12GB 3080 right now — last public driver update was 497.29 and that's from a couple weeks back now. I suppose the January 14 drivers will be the first to support the cards.

 

[sizzling]

What the world needs is more angry YouTubers! Because clearly that is helping change Nvidia's course. You can see how all their "outrage" over a stealth-launched "for AIC vendors" product is just killing their bottom line.

Nvidia didn't "block" reviews; it just didn't sample press (Tom's Hardware included) and set an embargo time of today. Oddly, I'm not sure any drivers work with the new 12GB 3080 right now — last public driver update was 497.29 and that's from a couple weeks back now. I suppose the January 14 drivers will be the first to support the cards.

Its not just some YouTuber though, Hardware Unboxed reviews are of equal quality to Tom's and their monitor reviews are more in depth. They just use a different medium to reach their audience.

There does seem to be a case to suspect this was an attempt to manipulate the media and given how the 3080Ti reviews went its reasonable to expect the new 3080 would add fuel to that fire. Seeing how they must have significant marketing expertise they have decided launching and preventing reviews at launch is a better option. Its not a good way to treat your customers.

 

[TJ Hooker]

last public driver update was 497.29 and that's from a couple weeks back now. I suppose the January 14 drivers will be the first to support the cards.

511.17, with support for 3080 12GB, is available on Nvidia's site now.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Its not just some YouTuber though, Hardware Unboxed reviews are of equal quality to Tom's and their monitor reviews are more in depth. They just use a different medium to reach their audience.

There does seem to be a case to suspect this was an attempt to manipulate the media and given how the 3080Ti reviews went its reasonable to expect the new 3080 would add fuel to that fire. Seeing how they must have significant marketing expertise they have decided launching and preventing reviews at launch is a better option. Its not a good way to treat your customers.

The whole "manipulate the media" theory doesn't make much sense given Nvidia didn't even make an announcement for the release. All that's happening is that the wave of reviews will be a few days later than it otherwise would have been. And given that this seems more or less like a paper launch, nobody will really be able to get their hands on the card before the reviews come out anyway. Yes, deliberately preventing launch-day reviews from being available is not consumer friendly, but it doesn't look like it'll actually make any difference in this case.

Besides, if someone buys a graphics card without benchmarks available that's on them. Not that performance is a big mystery here, based on the specs it's clear it will perform only marginally better than a 3080 10GB except in highly specific scenarios where a game needs >10GB (but still <12GB) of VRAM.

 

[MasterMadBones]

Nvidia didn't "block" reviews; it just didn't sample press (Tom's Hardware included) and set an embargo time of today.

Although it's obvious as to why they don't sample the press with these cards; reviews of recent Nvidia cards have been largely negative. They know the 3080 12GB won't be received well by the press, so they hope to increase early sales while there is no negative coverage, especially when the 10GB variant isn't around anymore. And they will sell at a higher margin - all while there are still people waiting for their 3080 10GB cards, which are based on the same die, to arrive at their homes months after ordering.

What the world needs is more angry YouTubers! Because clearly that is helping change Nvidia's course.

I also don't understand the reason for his sarcastic remark. If anything is to change Nvidia's course, it's the people's buying behavior, which the press influences directly.

Don't get me wrong - I don't necessarily agree with some of the other commenters that this report should be a criticism of Nvidia's practices. Good press also means using neutral language when it's not an opinion piece or review. My criticism of TH here is mainly that it seems that opinion pieces outside of direct product reviews are very scarce. The only such article I can remember is that "Just buy it!" catastrophe around the launch of Turing.

 

[MasterMadBones]

The whole "manipulate the media" theory doesn't make much sense given Nvidia didn't even make an announcement for the release.

At first glance that is true, but when the entire product page has been replaced it makes it look as if the 12GB version was the only 3080 that ever existed to those that don't pay close attention to this sort of news. They will see the (largely positive) reviews that were written for the 10GB card in 2020 an end up paying even more. Or the other way around: they see the specs and performance on the Nvidia product page and end up buying a worse card.

 

[sizzling]

The whole "manipulate the media" theory doesn't make much sense given Nvidia didn't even make an announcement for the release.

Thats a calculated decision for their strategy

Yes, deliberately preventing launch-day reviews from being available is not consumer friendly, but it doesn't look like it'll actually make any difference in this case.

Agreed on both counts. I don't like it but I'm not getting overly upset by it. Just saying how I see it.

 

[TJ Hooker]

At first glance that is true, but when the entire product page has been replaced it makes it look as if the 12GB version was the only 3080 that ever existed to those that don't pay close attention to this sort of news. They will see the (largely positive) reviews that were written for the 10GB card in 2020 an end up paying even more. Or the other way around: they see the specs and performance on the Nvidia product page and end up buying a worse card.

They didn't replace the product page, if fact they barely changed it at all. The only difference is that down at the bottom where they list the specs for the 3080 and 3080 Ti, they now have an additional set of specs for the 3080 12 GB.

Essentially all the positive things said about the 3080 10GB still apply to the 3080 12GB. The only thing that's really changed is the price. But street pricing of the 3080 10GB is obviously very different than the MSRPs discussed in the launch reviews, so using 3080 launch reviews to determine whether a 3080 offers good perf/$ at today's prices wouldn't have worked regardless of the 3080 12GB release.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Frankly, it really didn't matter what Nvidia did in this case, which is why I made the "Angry YouTuber" comment. (It was also a response the the person suggesting traditional press was somehow worse than the typical YT stuff and that we should apparently be more like YT.) Ranting for 10+ minutes about this doesn't really differ from what would have happened in YT "reviews" I suspect. I (and other press, including YouTubers) didn't get a sample beforehand, or any briefing, because:

1. This is going to land between 3080 10GB and 3080 Ti, so it's not a huge change
2. It's not available in large quantities
3. Price will be high, regardless
4. It's not really available yet without GeForce drivers (511 Studio drivers don't count)

If some places actually had working hardware with full benchmarks, but without seeding of other reviewers, it would be far worse. As it stands, some people will still buy the card at any "reasonable" price -- where "reasonable" in the current market apparently means $1500 or less. From what I've been able to gather (talking to Nvidia), this is an add-in card driven release. Asus, MSI, etc. wanted a 12GB 3080 model, without a competing Founders Edition at an unrealistic MSRP. So that's what we have. It's sort of like the 2060 12GB, though this one might be a bit more sensible.

We do have a card arriving for review soon, we'll get drivers, and we'll test the card and see how it performs and write up a full review. Depending on price, it's basically a slightly cheaper 3080 Ti, which is fine I suppose. Nvidia can't really do anything to bring real-world prices right now, because those are dictated by the market (miners) and the market says it will pay more than the original MSRPs. I suspect we're a solid year away from the situation going away and cards getting back to MSRPs as an actual starting point.

 

[paul_kardos]

Frankly, it really didn't matter what Nvidia did in this case, which is why I made the "Angry YouTuber" comment. (It was also a response the the person suggesting traditional press was somehow worse than the typical YT stuff and that we should apparently be more like YT.) Ranting for 10+ minutes about this doesn't really differ from what would have happened in YT "reviews" I suspect. I (and other press, including YouTubers) didn't get a sample beforehand, or any briefing, because:

1. This is going to land between 3080 10GB and 3080 Ti, so it's not a huge change
2. It's not available in large quantities
3. Price will be high, regardless
4. It's not really available yet without GeForce drivers (511 Studio drivers don't count)

If some places actually had working hardware with full benchmarks, but without seeding of other reviewers, it would be far worse. As it stands, some people will still buy the card at any "reasonable" price -- where "reasonable" in the current market apparently means $1500 or less. From what I've been able to gather (talking to Nvidia), this is an add-in card driven release. Asus, MSI, etc. wanted a 12GB 3080 model, without a competing Founders Edition at an unrealistic MSRP. So that's what we have. It's sort of like the 2060 12GB, though this one might be a bit more sensible.

We do have a card arriving for review soon, we'll get drivers, and we'll test the card and see how it performs and write up a full review. Depending on price, it's basically a slightly cheaper 3080 Ti, which is fine I suppose. Nvidia can't really do anything to bring real-world prices right now, because those are dictated by the market (miners) and the market says it will pay more than the original MSRPs. I suspect we're a solid year away from the situation going away and cards getting back to MSRPs as an actual starting point.

The 511.17 GeForce WHQL driver is already available on Nvidia's website. It supports the 12gb model and is not the studio driver.

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/184915/en-us

 

[VforV]

I was not expecting that the so called press to actually acknowledge and admit their support of these anti-consumer practices of nvidia. The apologetic and "dig your hole deeper" response that I got from Jarred, is exactly what I expected.

This is the definition of pride in being wrong, not admitting and still believing you are correct OR if not then it's just plain purposeful bias. One of the two, which ever may be the case.

The last time I proved his flawed or less than optimal testing of Halo Infinite (that Steve from HUB has proved it can be done better) he did the same: made excuses and did not want to admit that he needs to improve and that others do it better?

Do you really think you are the best in the tech media? You are not. Learn to be better if you want to be the best or accept the criticism when you fail or do it sub-optimal.

I know why the so called press hates HUB and GN, but especially HUB and calls them "angry YouTubers!" - because in a world of tech media shills and ignorants, these 2 are the last ones with integrity and moral compass that still say both the GOOD and the BAD about any company, including nvidia and intel, not like the so called press that are first to blame AMD when they fail, but no so much or none at all when the Goliaths nvidia and intel do it.

There is a reason why only these 2 YT channels are the only trustworthy ones, because the rest of the press and YT have caught this disease of "lack of integrity". Who cares about professionalism anymore right? When you can just do promo pieces and be in the good graces of these big companies...

Every person with a sane moral compass can see this and the aspects I pointed out.

The world is turning more and more into an insane asylum, in all aspects of life, but more so in media and press just looking at the narrative and agendas they push and the values they support. That means the majority of people and because they are the majority they will validate their insanity as actually being sane and the right thing, not knowing or being capable to understand that they are actually the insane and the few that remain actually sane, will be called insane by those that actually are.
We are moving rapidly into that paradox and paradigm shift, this is the direction.

That's why I don't expect those that are part of the problem to know they are part of it and to admit it, or to change.

 

[Jim90]

... I (and other press, including YouTubers) didn't get a sample beforehand, or any briefing, because:

1. This is going to land between 3080 10GB and 3080 Ti, so it's not a huge change
2. It's not available in large quantities
3. Price will be high, regardless
4. It's not really available yet without GeForce drivers (511 Studio drivers don't count)

... Asus, MSI, etc. wanted a 12GB 3080 model, without a competing Founders Edition at an unrealistic MSRP. So that's what we have.

We do have a card arriving for review soon, we'll get drivers, and we'll test the card and see how it performs and write up a full review.
...it's basically a slightly cheaper 3080 Ti, which is fine I suppose.
Nvidia can't really do anything to bring real-world prices right now, because those are dictated by the market (miners) and the market says it will pay more than the original MSRPs. I suspect we're a solid year away from the situation going away and cards getting back to MSRPs as an actual starting point.

--> This stance raises concerning questions.
--> This stance is light years away from most of the big tech channels - are you really saying they're wrong?
--> Nvidia most certainly have been extremely anti-competitive with this launch - the public have been denied day1 information.
--> The sole purpose of this card is to significantly raise 3080 pricing. Nvidia have 'taught us well' on it's long-established tactics here, unfortunately for us.

This anti-consumer action won't go unnoticed by regulators looking into Nvidia's ARM takeover...!!!

 

[peachpuff]

it just didn't sample press (Tom's Hardware included) and set an embargo time of today.

Even Nvidia doesn't have stock? 😂

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

The 511.17 GeForce WHQL driver is already available on Nvidia's website. It supports the 12gb model and is not the studio driver.

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/184915/en-us

Interesting. Those drivers won't install for me on an RTX 3070 and seem to be only for the 3080 12GB. Anyway, I should get a card this week and will be testing performance as soon as I'm able. I mistakenly thought no drivers were available because I was looking under RTX 3090, figuring that the drivers would support all recent GPUs as well. I guess that will be a minor update released on Friday.

 

[MasterMadBones]

They didn't replace the product page, if fact they barely changed it at all. The only difference is that down at the bottom where they list the specs for the 3080 and 3080 Ti, they now have an additional set of specs for the 3080 12 GB.

My apologies, I must have misread the article.

 

[-Fran-]

So partners had sampled the cards to some reviewers, but nVidia didn't release an official driver to actually run the card with until now (yesterday or so?). Some people called nVidia out on it reading between the lines and there's a divided opinion on the real reasons and motiviations, thinking nVidia has integrity left.

All I can hear here is the deafening laughter from nVidia walking to the bank to cash in on those crypto-dollars and blind "Just Buy It!" type fanbois. What we all discuss here is moot

Regards.

 

[spongiemaster]

Frankly, it really didn't matter what Nvidia did in this case, which is why I made the "Angry YouTuber" comment. (It was also a response the the person suggesting traditional press was somehow worse than the typical YT stuff and that we should apparently be more like YT.) Ranting for 10+ minutes about this doesn't really differ from what would have happened in YT "reviews" I suspect. I (and other press, including YouTubers) didn't get a sample beforehand, or any briefing, because:

1. This is going to land between 3080 10GB and 3080 Ti, so it's not a huge change
2. It's not available in large quantities
3. Price will be high, regardless
4. It's not really available yet without GeForce drivers (511 Studio drivers don't count)

If some places actually had working hardware with full benchmarks, but without seeding of other reviewers, it would be far worse. As it stands, some people will still buy the card at any "reasonable" price -- where "reasonable" in the current market apparently means $1500 or less. From what I've been able to gather (talking to Nvidia), this is an add-in card driven release. Asus, MSI, etc. wanted a 12GB 3080 model, without a competing Founders Edition at an unrealistic MSRP. So that's what we have. It's sort of like the 2060 12GB, though this one might be a bit more sensible.

Very refreshing to see common sense and level headed analysis when the common theme today is I'm right if I yell the loudest and swear everything is the apocalypse and out to screw me. There is very little to this story. I don't know what kind of surprise performance people are expecting out of this card. We know within a few percentage points where these cards are going to end up. Any announced price is going to be irrelevant. The market is going to dictate how much these are going to cost and unsurprisingly, no one is going to like what that price is. The market does not care about any of us. So you can rant and rave all you want, it isn't going to change your ability to buy a GPU. All it does is annoy everyone who has to keep reading the same whining posts over and over again from people who were never in the market for any of these high end cards to begin with.

 

[spongiemaster]

Even Nvidia doesn't have stock? 😂

With no FE model, probably not. AIB's would have to send review samples.