Maybe we've become used to more iterative generational deltas, especially considering the slight difference between the GTX 1080 Ti and RTX 2080, for example.
Regardless of which card you get your hands on, the performance uplift you get over the previous generation is huge and pretty much unprecedented. And besides, some of the cooling options on these third-party cards are impressive in their own right, so it's not all bad by any stretch. Especially if you can get one near to the MSRP. Given the stock shortages, you're going to be happy with whatever RTX 3080 you can get your hands on. The Founders Edition cards are not produced in the same volumes as the third-party versions from the likes of Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Palit, and Colorful, to name but a few. And if you end up with another version of this fine-ass GPU then I'm afraid you're likely to feel a little hard done by.Ĭhances are you're going to have to make do. Far from just being the reference version of the 'flagship' Ampere graphics card, because of that cooler and redesigned PCB, it is the ultimate expression of the RTX 3080. Pick your expletive, because the RTX 3080 Founders Edition is ****ing great. If there was one bit of advice for buying a GeForce RTX 3080 it would be that it's worth trying to get your hands on the Founders Edition if at all possible. Which I guess is also why it's so tricky to get hold of. The RTX 3080 may need a fair chunk more power-you'll want at least an 850W PSU-and be tricky to get hold of, but this is the most desirable graphics card around today. Nvidia has managed this by adding a whole load more CUDA cores to the mix in this 8nm GPU and updated Tensor Cores (for extra DLSS goodness) and second-gen RT Cores to make with the ray-traced pretties. The RTX 3080 represents a huge generational performance boost over the previous RTX 20-series. When you can now get ray-traced performance that exceeds the frame rates you'd get out of the top card of the RTX 20-series when running without it, you know that this is a whole different beast. And hey, the RTX 3080 can actually run Crysis (opens in new tab). The first generation of ray tracing-capable cards required such a huge frame rate sacrifice that most people shied away from turning it on, but that's no longer the case with this generation.
The thing which really stands out from our testing is the difference it makes to ray-tracing performance. That's impressive when put up against either the RTX 2080 or 2080 Super, but when you consider that this nominally $699 card can not just match but massively outperform the $1,2 Ti, it really hits home. Yet whichever model you go for the RTX 3080 represents a huge generational performance boost over the previous RTX 20-series. You might find it going for a little more than that today, and don't forget the 12GB model that Nvidia later released, which is even more expensive still. Well, the 10GB one is, at its original MSRP. The RTX 3080 is the best graphics card out there today. There is a better 12GB model (though it is too expensive) These first GPUs will likely offer much more performance than today's cards but for less respective cash, so you might want to wait before spending big money on a GPU. Both Nvidia and AMD are working hard on going bigger and badder with their next gaming GPUs, and these are expected to launch this year. However, there is something to think about right now: the next generation of GPUs.
If you're not 100% sure which GPU to get, scroll on to see our recommendations from Nvidia and AMD's latest line-ups. Then there's Intel with its Arc Alchemist graphics card too, though they're not looking particularly competitive (opens in new tab) just yet. For a cheaper card, we also adore the RTX 3060 Ti (opens in new tab), which is a really strong buy at or near its MSRP. It's a close call, but the GeForce RTX 3080 (opens in new tab) just about takes the crown.
With the launch of the Radeon RX 6800 XT (opens in new tab) things got very interesting, leaving both Nvidia and AMD vying for the top accolade.
This information is especially useful if you plan on shopping around for the best prebuilt gaming PC (opens in new tab) which, honestly, might still be the easiest way to nab the best graphics cards in 2022 for a while yet.Īt least we can revel in the fact the GPUs themselves are in a good place. That last one has been tricky for a while now, but things are returning to normal, and we have managed to check all of the latest graphics cards and put them through our extensive benchmarking tests. The best graphics card for PC gaming is capable of hitting silky-smooth frame rates, offers great value for money, and is easy to get your hands on.