Things might be getting better on the graphics card front, as retailer Scan has managed to keep Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti and 3090 Ti Founders Edition models in stock for far longer than expected.
The two GPUs are the latest iteration on Nvidia’s RTX lineup of cards, providing a marginal boost over their original counterparts, the 3080 and 3090, respectively. However, those still in the market looking to upgrade from the 10-series or lower-end 20-series cards will find that these two GPUs represent a ton of extra performance, plus useful features like AV1 decoding and compatibility with HDMI 2.1 TVs and monitors.
Scan has both models at RRP, which is the benefit of Nvidia’s strict control over the sale of its Founders Edition products. You also get a pretty slick thermal solution and Nvidia’s modern 12-pin power delivery cables, in a package that’s smaller and easier to fit in your PC than most 3080 Ti and 3090 Ti models.
In our testing, the 3080 Ti had a 15 percent boost over the prior version and just missed besting the original 3090 when playing at 4K. However, in another universe, we’d say to go for the ‘cheaper’ 3080 as the RRP is more than 15 percent higher, but we couldn’t find a vanilla 3080 cheaper than the Ti variant at Scan. Yes, you read that right, the 3080 Ti FE is £50 less than the cheapest 3080 on the market.
If you plan on buying the more powerful RTX 3090 Ti, be aware that RTX 40-series cards are rumoured to be in development. These cards ought to pack a punch, with the 4090 supposedly increasing the CUDA cores to 18432 over the 3090’s 10496. In theory, this could provide the 40-series with nearly double the ray-tracing performance, albeit at a significantly higher power draw.
Speaking of power, Nvidia recommend an 850W PSU at the very least – and these Ampere graphics cards are known for spiking momentarily higher, making a 1000W PSU – like the discounted Corsair 80+ Platinum rated model we posted on the @dealsfoundry Twitter yesterday – a pretty safe bet.
For the 3080 Ti, you might not need to go as wild, with a reliable 750W power supply hitting Nvidia’s minimum spec.
Do you think you’d ever shell out for graphics cards this expensive? What do you make of the 3090 Ti’s power demands? Leave a comment below!
