NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB
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 RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 11GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Bandwidth | 616 GB/s | 912.4 GB/s |
| Shaders | 4352 | 8960 |
| Boost Clock | 1545 MHz | 1845 MHz |
| TDP | 250W | 350W |
| Architecture | Turing | Ampere |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 3,524 | 4,797 |
| Best Price | $999 | $799 |
| Value Score | 15/100 | 38/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is the clear winner — it offers both better performance and better value.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB: Which Should You Buy?
This is not a close race. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB delivers 102.3 fps at 1440p ultra to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti's 75.6 fps, a 35% 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 3080 12 GB is both faster and 25% cheaper at $799 versus $999. There is no scenario in this pairing where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the better buy at these prices.
Two things beyond raw speed: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti draws 100W less (250W versus 350W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is 4 years newer (2022 versus 2018), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.