NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 24GB GDDR6X PCI Express 4.0 Graphics Card - Titanium and Black

I was previously running a 5700xt, but I decided to upgrade from 2560x1600 to a full on 4k display and quickly hit frame rate issues in World of Warcraft @ Ultra settings and Deus Ex:MD @ Ultra. Couple this with the new Shadowlands game engine being Ray Tracing (RT) enabled along with patiently waiting for CyberPunk 2077 now due in December and I decided to take the plunge. A nifty, "THE WAIT IS OVER!" in stock email popped up in my box and I was lucky enough to score one before it almost immediately went out of stock again. Hardware wise, I'm running an EVGA Z390 FTW coupled with 9900k @ 5.2ghz and 32GB (4x8GB) of G.Skill B-Die @ 4000. This card is pretty massive and expensive, but it gets the job done providing roughly 60fps everywhere @ 4k ultra with RT on high and shadows to high. I never knew WoW could look this good and be this beautiful. Seeing as this is my main game I play (and have played since Vanilla), RT is mandatory now for all my GPUs. The custom FE heatsink and fan keep the card at 65 or cooler at all times while staying relatively quiet (my CPU fans get louder especially during raids). Even a mild overclock still keeps it relatively cool in the 60's. I absolutely LOVE the thick, industrial slab look of the FE heatsink with the lit up "GEFORCE RTX" on the top. Is this card price:performance optimal? No, not even close. The 3080 is clearly the best price:performance spot within the Nvidia family even with the 3070 now here and as always, let your software determine your hardware; but if you want the best RT card on the market, right now this is it. Everybody has their own idea of, "what's worth it." For some reason, people tend to have this odd, annoying habit of trying to tell others how they should spend their disposable income. For me, I wanted top notch performance and now having enabled RT in the game I play the most and at 4k, RT is mandatory now for myself and all future cards.

Needless to say, this card is an absolute BEAST! I was finally able to get one at the beginning of this year from Best Buy. I was originally going to try and purchase a 3080, but had absolutely zero luck for months. When I saw this in stock on January 5th though, I decided to take the plunge and haven't looked back. I've had it for a few months now and thought it was about time to review. PROS: -This thing rips and tears through every game I've tried to play so far at 4k resolution and beyond, frequently going well beyond 100 fps even at that resolution. I play MSFS 2020 often and even in heavily intense areas it still manage to get over 50 fps at 4k with everything maxed out, which is far more than enough for this sim. Other games like GTA V and even RDR2 feel like a joke at this point, but I'm not complaining. I literally ran Forza Horizon 4 at 8k and recorded it with zero issues and stuck at 60 fps pretty much the whole time. Absolutely insane... -Ray Tracing is definitely way faster and far more mature in this generation compared to before. It is finally justifiable to turn on RTX and not have to worry about losing all my frames. -Rendering some random stuff out in Blender is much faster than it used to be and allows me to tinker more, although I don't use Blender too much. -It stays cool and quiet for the most part (see cons), only reaching a maximum of 65°C on the core under full load, with plenty of room to spare for overclocking. -The build quality is fantastic. Everything from the backplate to the shroud and even the fans are made of metal and it's very heavy, which gives the product as a whole a very premium look and feel to it that you rarely see on any other GPUs out there. The I/O bracket is very strong as well and this card has absolutely zero sagging issues despite its immense weight. -Much easier to disassemble than most previous Founders Edition GPUs. CONS: -The memory on this card gets HOT! The stock thermal pads can't handle the memory on this card at all. I was frequently hitting temps in excess of 105°C and have seen 110°C before. Now, I say "was" because I have recently replaced the stock thermal pads (between the memory and backplate) with some much better ones from Thermalright (image attached). After the mod, my memory temps have dropped an average of 10-15°C! Even the core got a bit cooler too! Now, the memory usually runs in the mid 90s and hasn't touched 100° since I replaced the pads, even with a +1000MHz memory overclock and increased power limits. I highly recommend doing this mod for yourself should you buy this card. -Lots of electrical noise out of the box, particularly coil whine. This has gotten a good bit quieter after a few months of use, but it's still present and noticeable. Not too big of a deal though, since I usually have headphones on. -The included dual 8 to 12pin adapter is very bulky and pretty ugly in my opinion (see images). -RGB isn't that easy to control, and it is not diffused too well in the V-shaped RGB section behind the passthrough fan.

So what can we say about the top of the line 3090. I got lucky to grab one of these through Best Buy. Even the guy who brought it out to me at the store asked how I managed to snag one. First of all it is a HUGE heavy card. Make sure it will fit in your case. I also added a support beam under the card. I wasn't seeing any sag before I added the support but I wanted to prevent any in the future. I'm not pushing it terribly hard yet as I'm getting back in to gaming. I do run FlightSim 2020 and I maxed all the settings and average around 50 fps. I think at that point the game only using a few CPUs is limiting the frames. The card at that point is running around 62c in temp and its pumping out some serious heat so make sure you have good cooling in your case. I do like that for one of the card fans it exhausts out the back of the card. The fan towards the front does exhaust upwards towards the CPU but I'm running a AIO for the CPU so its ok. So far impressed with the card. Glad I got it for retail. Its still expensive but it should future proof me for a few years.

I upgraded my 1080 ti even though I didn’t need to. I am glad I did though because now I have incentive to upgrade to PCI E 4 and get all the other features like more USB 3.0 , ddr4 and m2 4x4 ssd. This card right now is hooked up to my 2nd gen i7 2700k at 4.5 ghz, 16gb ddr3, sata 3 ssd, etc. For such an old system it still can push this card at 1440p ultra but I do know I’m bottlenecked by the cpu but not for long. I am just deciding whether or not to go intel again since this 2700k just won’t quit even after years of being Oc’d or AMD since I have heard good things about them recently.

Absolutely amazing card. Do not waist your time with the 3080 ti (way over priced). I’m running this on a 48” lg oled and it runs everything at 120 fps (tv max frame rate). The build quality is the best I have ever seen with a gpu. The card is a beast… HUGE! Get a gpu bracket/support bracket for added long term security and pease of mind. Having this said, there was no sag when I installed this card. Shocking since my 1070 and 1080 both sagged. Got to the store at 5am to pick up this card. I was happy to see they passed out tickets per card. Therefore, I knew before getting in side the store the card I wanted was available.

This card is definitely not for everyone. If your looking for the best at the moment in gaming or work editing applications and price to performance isn’t your concern than this is the card to get! AMD Big Navi is right around the corner at the time of writing this review so competition should be back which is great. If you need the high video memory for things like blender, rendering, Or want the best for gaming specifically with ray tracing this is it. AMD it’s your time now and very excited to see what you have in store!

This was a huge upgrade for me coming from a 1080 FTW card. I originally was targeting a 3080, but the stock has been so limited and I had not been able to get one. I finally broke down and went with this card since Best Buy seems to be the only remaining retailer not going with higher prices, created ridiculous bundles, or establishing a stupid lottery. I give Best Buy big props for the way they have been handling the high demand products! This card has been amazing so far. Again...it is a giant leap from a 1080, but I have not had any struggle with the card so far. The card is very large and heavy, so be prepared. The card is so wonderfully built, however, I have not been experiencing any card sag in my system. I am very happy with my purchase! The only two negatives for me are the fact that the GEFORCE RTX LEDs on the card are only white. I am thankful they didn't make them green, but my system is set to a blue theme, so it would have been nice to set this to blue as well. The other interesting note is that the LEDs on the top of the card (forms a V) can actually have different colors set. I was able to set that to blue using the Corsair iCue software. It is very interesting that the other LED's are not RGB. I also wish that 3090 would have been included with the GEFORCE RTX. My only other complaint is the way they handled the power. I am thankful that they included the splitter cable, but it is always frustrating when a company uses a proprietary connection. The splitter really makes the cabling a mess. For someone who takes pride in how "clean" the computer looks, this was something I could not handle. I was able to find a cable from Corsair that actually has the proprietary 12 pin connection on one end, and then splits into the two connectors that connect to the power supply. This is a much better solution!

After a huge battle for months, finally was able to snag one from BBuy. Biggest problem was not to add a card to the cart, but next step when you try to purchase- you keep getting "not available for your store", "why"? (God only knows)... This one, I got extremely lucky. Someone gave me a link to purchase on social media on jan 5th drop and I tried it without hope and it went through! Don't ask me why regular process didn't work and why this link worked...but I got it anyways...thank you God and BBuy. Now, lets talk about the price - yes its 1500$/-, for most gaming, 3080 is best performance for price, however, for any 8K video rendering, for resize bard support coming in Feb, for other programs (outside games), having more VRam for me was worth it. 2080TI was 1200$/- and this is 1500/- for titan class card. really, its expensive but it depends on the perspective you look at. Now I don't have to worry about potential 3080TI which might or might not come ever... who knows. For performance, I get 15% more FPS on 1440p and in some games over 18% easy. With more coda cores and more VRam, games those will come out in future, will run better if it needs more VRam (like Flight Sim). if 3080 did have 16GB, it would have been the BEST no doubt. the card runs quiet and cool. Its massive (in size) when you unbox it. Takes time to get over the size for couple of hours or days :). It only uses two 8PIN for power and 12Pin to connect. I love the 12 pin connector. The new design works perfectly for me as it works like a blower style to remove heat from back of the card, in addition to the blowing any warmer air using back fan of the case. The build quality is nothing I have ever seen. all metal design. Logo RGB can be controlled using iCue. Default is neutral white. It looks amazing in the case. Who is this for? If you can afford it, get it. There are anything we waster $$$ one. Compromise somewhere else to make up for difference if you are very picky about cost. Highly recommend this over the AIB just for the design, build and aesthetics alone. I am more of design and aesthetics than a few more FPS at the cost of higher dB and boring three fan design.