Question RTX 3080 vs 6800XT

[eli150]

Honestly, If these gpus were in stock, I still wouldn't know which one I want to get. I got a 1070 ti now and I really want to upgrade.

On the one hand, with Nvidia, I'm getting better ray tracing performance - assuming turning it on in future games won't kill the fps and some extra features. Don't care about DLSS because I don't plan on going 4K. I'm happy with my 1440p 144hz monitor.
On the other hand, I'm getting 16gb of vram. That might not be such a huge difference right now but I think games are going to use a lot more vram very soon and that will probably cause the RTX 3080 to run into some limits. I'm just not sure if it will actually be a problem for 1440p.
Performance is going to be different depending on the game but overall it's about the same.

What are you guys thinking?

EDIT: Maybe I should tell you guys what my specs are so I can help you help me 😅

Ryzen 3900x - upgrading to the 5900x
x570 Aorus Master
Corsair 32gb 3600
Corsair hx750i

 

[Solidjake]

I think it comes down to the games you are playing and will play in terms of VRAM usage. I just bought a 3080 FE and I'm extremely happy with it. In all of my games VRAM usage is around 6-8gb and in COD Cold Way I have it setup to run as much as possible so it's near the 10gb limit.

 

[eli150]

I think it comes down to the games you are playing and will play in terms of VRAM usage. I just bought a 3080 FE and I'm extremely happy with it. In all of my games VRAM usage is around 6-8gb and in COD Cold Way I have it setup to run as much as possible so it's near the 10gb limit.

It might not actually be at the limit. Maybe you checked correctly but in most cases people are looking at memory allocated, not the memory actually in use. In either case, I'm not really talking about right now. I want to buy a gpu that will last for a while.. and I'm not sure the 3080 with 10gb will be enough. Now you probably wont run into any limits with that gpu and I'm happy you are enjoying it, I just hope I could have bought one without feeling like I might be making a mistake in the long run. Problem is, the same goes for the 6800XT because of the ray tracing performance. It's not bad but definitely not as good as the 3080

 

[Solidjake]

If you can wait and spend the extra then the 3080ti/super should be the perfect choice. Higher VRAM and better RT than the AMD cards. I'm ok with skipping out on that but in your case that looks to be the best option/best of both worlds.

 

[eli150]

If you can wait and spend the extra then the 3080ti/super should be the perfect choice. Higher VRAM and better RT than the AMD cards. I'm ok with skipping out on that but in your case that looks to be the best option/best of both worlds.

True.. but it's kind of hard to justify spending that much money on 3080 ti. It's not gonna be better than a 3090 and the difference between that and a 3080 is not really that big. That's why I narrowed myself down to the 6800XT and the 3080.. I just find it hard to make a choice.
What resolution are you gaming on? Maybe I should have stayed on 1080p 😅

 

[Solidjake]

Haha, yea I get what you're saying

I run 1440 (3440x1440)

 

[eli150]

Haha, yea I get what you're saying

I run 1440 (3440x1440)

Nice
Maybe I'm stressing myself over nothing and should just get the 3080. Maybe by time we need more vram we will actually need a new gpu... gotta keep up with my 144 monitor

 

[Solidjake]

When I got rid of my 1080p monitors and went to 1440 there was a noticeable difference in framerate on a 2070s so I needed the upgrade (for games such as assetto corsa competizione and flight sim 2020). You won't be disappointed with either. Testing does show the 3080 better overall but not by much.

 

[RTX 2080]

Honestly, If these gpus were in stock, I still wouldn't know which one I want to get. I got a 1070 ti now and I really want to upgrade.

On the one hand, with Nvidia, I'm getting better ray tracing performance - assuming turning it on in future games won't kill the fps and some extra features. Don't care about DLSS because I don't plan on going 4K. I'm happy with my 1440p 144hz monitor.
On the other hand, I'm getting 16gb of vram. That might not be such a huge difference right now but I think games are going to use a lot more vram very soon and that will probably cause the RTX 3080 to run into some limits. I'm just not sure if it will actually be a problem for 1440p.
Performance is going to be different depending on the game but overall it's about the same.

What are you guys thinking?

EDIT: Maybe I should tell you guys what my specs are so I can help you help me 😅

Ryzen 3900x - upgrading to the 5900x
x570 Aorus Master
Corsair 32gb 3600
Corsair hx750i

Like it was already said, by the time the 10 GB of VRAM is seriously holding you back, you'll need a faster GPU anyway.

FYI, DLSS isn't just for 4K, it'll work great at 1440p.

 

[eli150]

Like it was already said, by the time the 10 GB of VRAM is seriously holding you back, you'll need a faster GPU anyway.

FYI, DLSS isn't just for 4K, it'll work great at 1440p.

From what I've heard on Hardware Unboxed DLSS on a 1440p screen isn't really worth it. It only looks good on higher resolutions 4k+. They checked it in Control which suppprts DLSS 2.0. If DLSS does end up looking good on 1440p monitors then it's definitely another point to consider. 1080p performance for a 1440p image sounds great

About the vram, I keep checking reviews. According to Guru3d, in MSFS, in certain areas, vram usage can go up to almost 10.5 vram usage at 1440p. This is exactly what Im worried about. I don't want to turn down settings like textures and shadows 2 years from now just because the gpu doesn't have enough memory. Another thing you can see in their Watch Dogs Legion review is that ray tracing raises the vram usage. Here, at 1440p usage can go up to almost 7gb with ray tracing enabled

 

[RTX 2080]

From what I've heard on Hardware Unboxed DLSS on a 1440p screen isn't really worth it. It only looks good on higher resolutions 4k+. They checked it in Control which suppprts DLSS 2.0. If DLSS does end up looking good on 1440p monitors then it's definitely another point to consider. 1080p performance for a 1440p image sounds great

About the vram, I keep checking reviews. According to Guru3d, in MSFS, in certain areas, vram usage can go up to almost 10.5 vram usage at 1440p. This is exactly what Im worried about. I don't want to turn down settings like textures and shadows 2 years from now just because the gpu doesn't have enough memory. Another thing you can see in their Watch Dogs Legion review is that ray tracing raises the vram usage. Here, at 1440p usage can go up to almost 7gb with ray tracing enabled

You should read this article: https://www.pcgamer.com/au/nvidia-dlss-2-performance-benchmarks-control-wolfenstein-youngblood/ They praise the performance and quality of DLSS 2.0 in Control; when using the quality setting (which renders internally at 1706x960) the output is actually very good and is definitely worth using.

About the VRAM, MSFS is a very specific example: it is designed with future hardware in mind, pushing the best GPUs and CPUs of today to their limits. It is because of MSFS (which I play) and the 10 GB of VRAM that it uses that I'm holding out for the RTX 3080 Ti/Super and the 20 GB of VRAM its rumored to ship with, but the difference between you and me is that I'm playing MSFS, I'm doing it at 4K, and I'm willing to pay extra for a RTX 3080 Ti/Super. None of those things describe you. So your choice is between 16 GB of VRAM (6800 XT) vs better ray tracing, DLSS (or not), and slightly better performance (RTX 3080). It sounds to me like you're a lot more worried about the VRAM than you are about slightly reduced rasterization/ray-tracing performance, so I think you'll be better off with a 6800 XT.

 

[RememberThe5th]

AMD finewine.

 

[Exeonx]

These cards have more similarities than differences.
I'd say either of them will be fine, these are the factors that can make you lean one way or another.

1. Price, msrp aside where I live the 3080 is 819€ the 6800 xt is 999€
There is no way that different is worth it, but pricing differs in each country, if the difference is anywhere near 100€ I'd go with the cheapest.

2. Ray tracing support, if this matters to you the the rtx3080 will be the better choice

3. VRAM for 4k I'd definitely go with the 6800 XT, you can make an argument for longevity but how much VRAM we will need is speculation.

 

[eli150]

You should read this article: https://www.pcgamer.com/au/nvidia-dlss-2-performance-benchmarks-control-wolfenstein-youngblood/ They praise the performance and quality of DLSS 2.0 in Control; when using the quality setting (which renders internally at 1706x960) the output is actually very good and is definitely worth using.

About the VRAM, MSFS is a very specific example: it is designed with future hardware in mind, pushing the best GPUs and CPUs of today to their limits. It is because of MSFS (which I play) and the 10 GB of VRAM that it uses that I'm holding out for the RTX 3080 Ti/Super and the 20 GB of VRAM its rumored to ship with, but the difference between you and me is that I'm playing MSFS, I'm doing it at 4K, and I'm willing to pay extra for a RTX 3080 Ti/Super. None of those things describe you. So your choice is between 16 GB of VRAM (6800 XT) vs better ray tracing, DLSS (or not), and slightly better performance (RTX 3080). It sounds to me like you're a lot more worried about the VRAM than you are about slightly reduced rasterization/ray-tracing performance, so I think you'll be better off with a 6800 XT.

Honestly, yes I am more worried about running into VRAM limitations because it happened to me before. I would like to use ray tracing in some games but I'm just not sure It will be worth the performance hit. Even now there is a really big drop in performance once you enable ray tracing even if the effects aren't that great like in Shadow of The Tomb Raider. I guess I could also wait for the 3080 ti and buy that.. but isn't it kind of hard to justify? you are barely getting any extra performance. It's not like the 2080 and 2080 ti. Even between the 2080s and 2080 ti there is a bigger difference then 3080 and 3090

 

[eli150]

These cards have more similarities than differences.
I'd say either of them will be fine, these are the factors that can make you lean one way or another.

1. Price, msrp aside where I live the 3080 is 819€ the 6800 xt is 999€
There is no way that different is worth it, but pricing differs in each country, if the difference is anywhere near 100€ I'd go with the cheapest.

2. Ray tracing support, if this matters to you the the rtx3080 will be the better choice

3. VRAM for 4k I'd definitely go with the 6800 XT, you can make an argument for longevity but how much VRAM we will need is speculation.

It's weird. 6800XT is actually a bit more expansive.. but yeah if the price is that much higher for one of them then you should probably go with the other.
If I could only know how ray tracing is going to affect gaming a year or two from now the choice would have been a lot easier