Everyone was jumping and whistling when Nvidia launched their all-new RTX 30 series cards in 2020. These cards killed the last-gen RTX 20 Series cards and made them obsolete within a day of their existence. But, we all know what followed. But, since finally, pricing has started to fall a bit, this might be a great time to pick one of these cards to complete your shiny new build. So, out of the several cards launched this generation, which one is the best for you? Let’s find out by deep-diving into each of the cards.
The BFGPU: Nvidia RTX 3090 Overview
MSRP: $1,499; Retails for: around $3,000
The RTX 3090 is currently Nvidia’s flagship offering, the best they have for this generation. The card is a huge piece of heatsinks and the latest silicon. It was launched by the company at a hefty price tag of $1,499. And, it sells for twice that price normally. This card isn’t meant for a gamer. It is a spiritual successor to the RTX Titan and is meant for professional encoding / complex rendering procedures. But, Nvidia markets it as a gaming card for no reason.
The RTX 3090 is capable of 8K gaming, but that is very absurd considering the pricing of 8K displays these days. The card is a monster, but gamers, stay away from this thing.
Nvidia’s Crown Jewel: RTX 3080 Ti Overview
MSRP: $1,199; Retails for: around $1,900
The RTX 3080 Ti is a great card for 4K gaming. It is a tad faster than its non-Ti variant and packs everything a gamer would need. If you are looking for a great 4K card, this beast will last you for quite some time. The card is based on the same GA102 GPU like the RTX 3090 albeit with several bells and whistles removed.
But, the pricing of this card is way off as compared to the RTX 3080, which is just 5% slower than the 3080 Ti. So, that is something you would like to keep in mind.
The Affordable 4K Gaming Card: RTX 3080 Overview
MSRP: $699(10GB), $1,199 (12GB); Retails for: around $1,300 (10GB), $1,600 (12GB)
The RTX 3080 was a great value-for-money option when it came out in 2020. The card was supposed to be sold at $699, and that would mean a great price-to-performance ratio. But, the 10GB version of the card is being scalped these days. You can still get some entry-level cards at around $1,000. But, anything fancy will cost you a lot more.
Recently, Nvidia launched a 12GB version of the card. This card is overpriced, even from Nvidia’s end. We all know that two Samsung 1GB GDDR6X memory chips cannot cost $500. Even Nvidia, the original manufacturer is trying to make extra profits by exploiting the current situation.
A Card With Almost No Audience: RTX 3070 Ti Overview
MSRP: $599; Retails for: around $1150
Nvidia’s intentions with the RTX 3070 Ti remain unclear. The RTX 3070 lineup was meant for 1440p gaming, and the RTX 3070 nails it. At just a 5% performance gain, the RTX 3070 Ti is not worth the extra cash at all. The only difference you can see with this card is slightly better 4K performances if you want to try that. But, only a few games fair well at 4K on the 3070s, so better don’t pick any of these cards if you want to play at 4K. The RTX 3080 lineup is waiting for you in that case.
The RTX 3070 Ti is an overpriced card, and if you are targeting 1440p gaming, you better look for the RTX 3070. The only people who can benefit from the extra performance of the RTX 3070 Ti are creators and professionals who will use this card for machine learning workloads, etc.
The RTX 2080 Ti Killer: RTX 3070 Overview
MSRP: $499; Retails for: $950
The RTX 3070 was launched by Nvidia as the RTX 2080 Ti killer at a very competitive price tag of $499. The card was the GPU to hunt for if you were looking for 1440p gaming in 2020. But, after the scalping situation became worse, the value-for-money aspect of this card fell. But, recently, these cards are going for slightly cheaper as compared to other offerings from the company thanks to the increased supply of GDDR6 chips in the market.
The RTX 3070 thus by far remains the card to purchase if you are looking for great performance without spending northwards of $1000 behind a GPU.
The 1080p King: RTX 3060 Ti Overview
MSRP: $399; Retails for: around $750
If you are a 1080p gamer, the RTX 3060 Ti is the card you should be looking for. It has everything to suit your gaming needs and will nail every game at the highest settings possible. That coupled with an affordable price tag makes this card an even more lucrative deal. Several models are readily available at around $750, so you can score this card for a $2000 build easily.
The Cheap Card With a Lot of VRAM: RTX 3060 Overview
MSRP: $329; Retails for: around $650
The RTX 3060 is almost equivalent to the GPU that the PlayStation packs. It is a great performer, but the 12GB VRAM is just a gimmick and the card does not benefit from it. But, if you can manage to score one of these cards at around $400 to $500, which it goes for sometimes, you will still have a great card to pair up with your system. The RTX 3060 has a lot of potentials, and it still performs quite competitively in several titles.
The Cheapest RTX Card: RTX 3050 Overview
MSRP: $249; Retails for: $350
The RTX 3050 is the cheapest RTX card you can buy today. It is targeted towards entry-level 1080p gaming with compromises and was recently launched at CES 2022. The card, however, is disappointing. It only beats the GTX 1650 from last-gen and touches the 3-year-old GTX 1660 by a bit. This is not expected from a card that is being sold in 2022. Nvidia needs to bring an RTX 3050 Ti to the market with more VRAM and better performance.
Ray tracing isn’t the primary selling point of this card, but bear in mind, this card will crumble with ray tracing turned on in any modern AAA game. Only DLSS can save this card while it is being paired with high settings with RT turned off in any game.
So, that is all you need to know about these cards to pick up any one of them for your shiny new gaming PC. We hope this article helped you figure out the differences between all the cards being sold this generation.
Every comparison/review article should be like this: to the point, brutally honest, and well-informed. Thank you, sir.
Thanks for the kind words!