Palit GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Pro Graphics Card Review

Introduction

It’s been almost a year since the NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 30 series launched and the Ampere GPU lineup has matured from the entry-level GeForce RTX™ 3060 all the way to the BFGPU, the GeForce RTX™ 3090. Choosing the right GPU for you is not an easy task albeit worth it once you get to plug in your GeForce RTX™ 30 GPU for the first time. If you’re looking to score a GeForce RTX™ 3080 for gaming or even for content creation then the PALIT GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Pro that we have here might convince you.

RTX™ Technologies Breakdown

The latest Ampere Architecture features 2nd Generation RT Cores and 3rd Generation Tensor cores that double the performance compared to last generation’s Turing architecture as well as bringing in new and improved features such as Ray Tracing, DLSS 2.0, Nvidia Broadcast, Reflex, and many more.

The all-new GeForce RTX™ 30 graphics cards deliver unmatched Ray Tracing capabilities that further immerses you into games by using ray-traced lighting, shading, and reflection thanks to the 2nd Generation RT Cores. Real-time Ray Tracing is achieved by tracing the path of light as pixels as well as simulating how these light pixels interact with other virtual objects in the game resulting in incredible visuals.

DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling is Nvidia’s proprietary image upscaling technology that uses AI or deep learning to render fewer pixels than uses AI to construct sharp, higher resolution images. Enabling DLSS will give you more framerate at higher resolutions without the loss in image quality.

NVIDIA Reflex is a feature that debuted alongside the GeForce RTX™ 30 series but the great news is even older GeForce Graphics cards support Reflex. NVIDIA Reflex reduces overall system latency in GPU-intensive games with the help of the GPU, a G-Sync display, and software. If you’re a competitive gamer or a pro player, then NVIDIA helps you by making your PC respond faster to your keyboard and mouse inputs helping you secure victory.

Nvidia GeForce RTX™ 3080

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 3080 features 8,704 CUDA Cores using the latest Ampere architecture delivering the ultra-performance that gamers crave. The superfast 10Gigabyte GDDR6X memory allows gaming at high resolution even up to 8K with the help of DLSS. The GEFORCE RTX™ 3080 delivers double the framerate compared to its predecessor making the Ampere architecture NVIDIA’s greatest generational leap yet.

Cooling the GA102 chip on the Palit GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Pro is a Triple-A Casting Plate Kit and Advanced Turbo Fan 3.0 that brings amazing thermal performance. The Palit RTX 3080 Gaming Pro uses a similar flow-through style cooling technology found on Nvidia’s Founders Edition Graphics Cards. 

Ofcourse, the Palit GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Pro is outfitted with RGB Lighting enabling customized lighting effects to suit your style. Its RGB lighting can be customized on the latest Palit Thunder Master utility which also lets you control your graphics card settings from enabling the 0-decibel fan technology all the way to overclocking.

Nvidia GeForce RTX™ 3080 Specs

Palit RTX 3080 Gaming Pro Gaming Benchmarks

DOTA 2

Most gamers play at least one of the following free-to-play titles: League of Legends, CS: GO, Dota 2, and/or Fortnite.  Dota 2 is a good representation of the F2P titles as it is the most demanding game in the spectrum. The benchmark will give you an idea of the graphic card’s relative performance on other lesser demanding titles. Our benchmark sequence is based on a replay of OG vs. Liquid in the TI9 grand finals from the team fight that happened on 28:30 to 29:30. The Palit RTX 3080 Gaming Pro scores impressively as it breaks the 220FPS barrier of our benchmark run. It also maintains the same FPS range in 1440p and 4K resolution.

Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Seige is one of the few popular AAA games that’s still popular in 2021 due to its competitive gameplay mechanics. R6S uses the AnvilNext game engine, which is developed by the game’s publisher, Ubisoft. As of writing, Rainbow Six Siege is currently the most popular Tom Clancy title beating out Wildlands, Breakpoint and even, Division 2. Rainbow Six Seige is one of the few popular AAA games that’s still popular in 2019 due to its competitive gameplay mechanics. R6S uses the AnvilNext game engine, which is developed by the game’s publisher, Ubisoft. As of writing, Rainbow Six Siege is currently the most popular Tom Clancy title beating out Wildlands, Breakpoint and even, Division 2.

Shadow of The Tomb Raider

Shadow of The Tomb Raider or SOTR is the latest installment of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider franchise. Developed by Square Enix, SOTR uses the Foundation engine and is further enhanced by Eidos Montreal. STOR is also one of the first games to come out with Ray Tracing and DLSS support. The Palit RTX 3080 Gaming Pro manages to score 174 average FPS in 1080p, 166 in 1440p, and 96 in 4K. Turning on Ray Tracing does show a massive graphical improvement at the expense of a few FPS but turning on DLSS immediately doubled our frame rate.

Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus is the third Metro game trilogy based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels. The game is a first-person shooter with survival horror and stealth elements. The post-apocalyptic game is using 4A Engine by 4A games. Released last 2019, Metro Exodus remains to be one of the most graphically pleasing and demanding games that’s popular to date.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare

Call of Duty is a popular FPS title dating back in 2003 and Modern Warfare brings something new to the table with its successful Battle Royale game mode and jaw-dropping Ray Tracing visuals. Call of Duty Modern Warfare is also one of the first games to support Nvidia reflex and the first game to support RTX, DLSS, and Reflex altogether. Turning on Ray Tracing reduces our framerate as usual but what’s impressive is when we turned on DLSS as it generated double the FPS compared to when RTX is turned off in both 1440p and 4K.

Valorant

Valorant has remained the most popular FPS game since its launch and has made its mark as a competitive esports title. Being the FPS kingpin of esports, Valorant adopted Nvidia Reflex to offer an edge for gamers sporting Nvidia graphics cards. Valorant is a relatively easy game to run so turning on Nvidia Reflex only reduced our FPS by a few percentages but it is a tradeoff that most, if not all gamers would be willing to take especially when there’s massive perceivable game responsiveness that helps you land more headshots and win more rounds.

F1 2020

F1 2020 is the official video game of the 2020 Formula 1 and Formula 2 championships developed by Codemasters. F1 2020 is the twelfth installment in the franchise and uses the Ego Engine 3.0. F1 2020 is a good representation of racing games thanks to its realistic graphics and fairly demanding spec requirements.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably the most hyped game of 2020. Developed by CD Projekt Red, the dystopian open-world, action-adventure RPG sports is one of the most demanding titles to date. Cyberpunk 2077 also supports three Ray Tracing settings as well as DLSS which makes the game a great tool to measure Ray tracing performance for Nvidia graphics cards.

Palit RTX 3080 Gaming Pro Temps and Power Draw

The Palit GeForce RTX™ 3080 Gaming is as cool as its little brother, the GeForce RTX™ 3070 Gaming Pro. Its peak temperature of 75c allows more headroom for overclocking even if the GPU is factory overclocked out of the box. You can definitely squeeze more performance as its cooling can clearly keep up.

The Palit GeForce RTX™ 3080 Gaming Pro consumes the same amount of power as the GeForce RTX™ 3080 Founders Edition despite being factory overclocked out of the box. This translates to the Palit GeForce RTX™ 3080 Gaming Pro having a greater FPS-per-watt efficiency as we saw it dominate the charts in our benchmarks.

Conclusion

Overall, the Palit GeForce RTX™ 3080 Gaming Pro delivers stunning visuals, high framerates, and a suite of features not only for gaming but for creative and professional purposes as well. There’s NVIDIA Broadcast and GeForce RTX™ Voice that empowers streamers, content creators, and even professionals with the help of AI to remove your background or unnecessary background noise. There’s also NVIDIA Studio for accelerated content creation. All these features are enabled by the Ampere architecture. But going back to the Palit GeForce RTX™ 3080 Gaming Pro – it can handle any game you throw at it regardless of the resolution you decide to game on. The TurboFan 3.0, Triple-A Die Casting Plate Kit, and Double-U Heatpipe cooling maximizes the GA102’s performance as you won’t have to worry about its thermals. If you’re in the market for a GPU that not only looks good but also gives you the highest possible framerate without sacrificing visuals then the Palit GeForce RTX™ 3080 Gaming Pro should be one of your top choices.

Grant Soriano

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Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.