ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME
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ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3080
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ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME
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ROG STRIX GEFORCE
RTX 3080 The GeForce RTX 3000 series has been with us for almost a month. In that time, we’ve seen many interpretations of both 3080 and 3090. While I can’t speak to the RTX 3090, I can say that the RTX 3080, and especially the ROG STRIX model, is incredible.
A
bold assertion to start an editorial piece with, given my limited exposure to the GPUs. However, we have such things called benchmarks. From what I have gathered through comparative benchmarks, the ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 3080 is the mightiest of them all.
Being the fastest, however, isn’t all there is to a graphics card. Past the synthetic fi gures and outright performance, the graphics card has to be usable and easy to live with. This may seem obvious, but it matters when we are talking about the ROG STRIX model and its high price.
draw over 360W of power right out of the box. In fact, during my testing I sometimes recorded figures above 370W. This is a good 50 watts more than the rating on the Founders Edition. With that boost in power draw, you get a matching uptick in performance. Many of the competing cards, including the Founders Edition, are supposedly limited by power. The ROG STRIX with its three 8-pin 12V sockets suffers no such limitations. In fact, using ROG’s own GPUTweakII, the graphics card can draw up to 447 Watts, which is significantly more than many of its contemporaries.
It is likely that the ROG 3080 can As we expect from STRIX models, the provide more than double this power 3080 has two BIOS options (quiet and output for the extreme overclockers performance mode) and two four pin and enthusiast. There are markings fan headers. These are standard, but and pads on the PCB for soldering the biggest difference with the 3080 all the relevant components needed is in the cooling and perhaps power for controlling various voltages rails. delivery. I will not speak at length Three such locations are on the front about power delivery as there isn’t of the PCB (three pads each for much reliable information on this, but SDA/GND/SCL), along with the usual it features 22 power stages or phases voltage measuring points on the if you prefer. With this, it can provide upper rear edge. Nowhere does ROG copious amounts of power to the GPU mention these features on the PCB, and memory. Important because it but they are there and deliberately is this which allows the ROG 3080 to placed on the PCB for such use. It
ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME
...the ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 3080 is the mightiest of them all... may not be obvious at face value, but extreme overclocking DNA runs through this card. For all intents and purposes, the ROG TRIX 3080 is extreme overclocking ready right out of the box (finding an LN2 BIOS though may prove most challenging). For those that do not dabble in the fine art of extreme overclocking, there is the matter of
the heat-sink and fan assembly, which objectively is the best ROG has ever produced. The reason one can write this with confidence is down to just how cool the graphics card operates, even under extreme loads. Even with the default power target increased (up to 121% using GPUTweakII), I did not record temperatures above 71 degrees Celsius. Even this figure was a once off affair, as I could not
reach that temperature again with the highest reproducible figure at a stunning 68 degrees. For a mid-range Graphics card this is an impressive temperature, but for this class of GPU, it’s nothing short of astonishing. This figure means the STRIX 3080 operates at a lower temperature than the outgoing ROG STRIX GeForce
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ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME
...The ROG 3080 is easily the most capable and impressive offering to come out of the ROG labs... RTX 2080Ti. That card has a lower TBP (Total Board Power) rating, and the Turing GPU itself draws less power. Despite all this, the new cooling solution drops operating temperatures over its predecessor. With such cooling prowess, one expects an increase in fan noise, but again this is not the case. The odd thing here is that this superior cooling performance makes the dual BIOS capability somewhat redundant. There is virtually no difference between quiet and performance mode in acoustics. The card remains quiet regardless of the load or setting between the two. The combination of exceptional power delivery and cooling capacity are, to me, the two
most important aspects of this card. Visually it is better in the flesh than on paper by far. The RGB Lighting is tasteful if not understated when compared against other models. As with most high-end ROG products, the construction materials, quality, finish and heft are convincing. If one picks up the ROG model and any other graphics card, just through touch alone, it is easy to tell which is the ROG model. For a graphics card this shouldn’t matter, yet it’s undeniable that there is a difference between this card and many others. Past all of this, however, the important thing ultimately is going to be performance and the everyday experience of gaming. This is where the rubber meets the road and it
is here where it all comes together to deliver an incredible experience. Component noise is something we all have to deal with on enthusiast class hardware. The dreaded ‘coil whine’ (that’s actually not what the noise is) while present is minimal on this card. In fact, I only heard this noise on the title screen of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Short of that, this noise isn’t an issue in the least (supposedly related to excessively high frame rates, such as on title screens). NVIDIA states that the target resolution for the GeForce RTX 3080 is 4K.
ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME
the GeForce RTX 3080 is 4K ready. I will say, however, that I think this GPU is most comfortable at the UWQHD (Ultra-Wide Quad HighDefinition) resolution. At this pixel density, the graphics card delivers an incredible 75FPS in one of the toughest games on the market today - Metro Exodus. This is with Ray-Tracing and image quality set to the demanding Ultra pre-set. As with all pieces of hardware, however, not all is perfect or rather, there is always room for
improvement. Number one for me is GPUTweakII. I have read that there’s a 3rd version coming soon, but at present the one on the ROG website is version 2. This application that must, for all intents and purposes, bring out the most in the graphics card is the weakest link. The issue isn’t functionality, but presentation. The UX is not up to standard as it is. That which can break what is an otherwise incredible gaming experience is this application that harkens back to the early noughties in usability.
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This Is true when one looks at the performance figures. The lowest frame rate I have on record is an incredible 50FPS in the re-mastered Crysis game. As the benchmarks in the video show, that is at very high settings with ray-tracing enabled. That level of performance was not feasible prior to the RTX 3080. Even the mighty Turing based TITAN RTX cannot produce such performance figures. True to NVIDIA’s claims then,
ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3080
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ROG MAXIMUS XII EXTREME
The other part of the ROG STRIX experience that could do with some improvement is the bundled items. There really isn’t anything of value inside the box. For such a heavy graphics card, it’s obvious that the card will sag. Honestly, I would rather have a VGA holder, instead of the little lucky-packet 10cm ruler that’s inside. These two aspects of this entire ROG experience are the only complaints I have about the graphics card. Fortunately, these are hardly the kinds of things that most potential owners will care about.
At that point, it should offer even better value as it will be faster (driver updates) and possibly cheaper too. With the ROG 3080, I came in to the evaluation with some bias against the card. Besides the inflated pricing, I was expecting a faster, but significantly warmer version of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. I could not be more wrong and happier about the fact that I was wrong. This model next to the 2080Ti leaves the 2080Ti with no redeeming qualities. The ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 3080 is breathtakingly quick and built to a quality that no other prior STRIX model can match. The ROG team has knocked this one out of the park. It is easily the most desirable GeForce RTX 3080 I’ve seen to date, and it may remain so for a while still.
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The ROG 3080 is easily the most capable and impressive offering to come out of the ROG labs, I believe. After years of being saddled with what seemed to be repetitive designs, we have a new heat sink
assembly. It isn’t new for the sake of it, but brings the most impressive thermal performance with it to date. It’s rare, but happens once in a while where a graphics card stands out from the rest in a way that all can appreciate. From the extreme overclocking crowd right through to the professional or competitive gamer. There is merit in choosing this card over other offerings on the market. Pricing at present is an issue, there isn’t a way of getting around that, but one should keep in mind that all GeForce RTX 3080 prices are inflated. With demand set to outstrip supply into 2021, this card may be tougher to find than one would like. This will only add to the high pricing, but at some point, it should normalize.
ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3080