NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 11GB GDDR5X | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 484 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Shaders | 3584 | 4864 |
| Boost Clock | 1582 MHz | 1665 MHz |
| TDP | 250W | 200W |
| Architecture | Pascal | Ampere |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 2,231 | 2,678 |
| Best Price | $699 | $399 |
| Value Score | 14/100 | 44/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the clear winner — it offers both better performance and better value.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti: Which Should You Buy?
This is not a close race. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers 70 fps at 1440p ultra to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti's 50.2 fps, a 39% gap. Only pick the slower card if it is dramatically cheaper or you need it for a lower resolution.
Pricing settles it: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is both faster and 75% cheaper at $399 versus $699. There is no scenario in this pairing where the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the better buy at these prices.
Two things beyond raw speed: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti draws 50W less (200W versus 250W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 3 years newer (2020 versus 2017), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.