Proof 3080 10 GB not Enough VRAM in a few Weeks - Irony, RTX 3090 is Cheaper over RTX 3080 for 4k Ultra Until RTX 4### Series

[Yoshi Moshi]

Watch Dogs Legions comes with the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 as a free game bundle when you purchase the card. The irony behind it is that if you have a 3080 10 GB, you don't meet the minimum VRAM requirements to play the game at 4k Ultra, per the developer's recommended specifications to do so, 11 GB is recommended. Look under 4k ultra with ray tracing on.

If you want to play 4k ultra from now until the RTX 4### series, it will likely be cheaper for you to get the RTX 3090 now in 2020 over the RTX 3080 10 GB in 2020. Nvidia is releasing a RTX 3070 16 GB and a RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021. The value card RTX 3070 16 GB to be released in 2021 will have more VRAM than the RTX 3080 10 GB. Nvidia clearly believes that 10 GB is not enough VRAM if the most popular card in 2021 is going to have 16 GB of VRAM. Nvidia likely knows what they are doing, and limited the RTX 3080 to 10 GB so that way they can sell us a card in 2021 with more VRAM. Yes the RTX 3090 is expensive, but consider this. If you get the RTX 3080 10 GB VRAM in 2020 for $699, and decide that 10 GB of VRAM is no longer enough VRAM for 4k ultra (this will be the case in a few weeks actually) and upgrade to the RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021, it only has to cost $101.01 more to have it cost more than the RTX 3090. I suspect the RTX 3080 20 GB will have a price increase of more than $101.01 over the RTX 3080 10 GB. This will especially be the case when you consider reselling two video cards over one.

 

RTX 3080 10 GB for $699 in 2020 + RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021 > RTX 3090 in 2020 for $1,499

 

It's ironic because this game comes with the RTX 3080 10 GB, and it doesn't meet the requirements for 4k ultra.

 

Between now and the RTX 4### series, it's likely that playing the latest games at 4k ultra with ray tracing on will require even more than 11 GB of VRAM.

[AndrewZScorpion]

1 minute ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

RTX 3080 10 GB for $699 in 2020 + RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021 > RTX 3090 in 2021 for $1,499

Except you can sell your old 3080. I agree that the 3080 should have more VRAM, but this argument makes no sense.

[Yoshi Moshi]

3 minutes ago, AndrewZScorpion said:

Except you can sell your old 3080. I agree that the 3080 should have more VRAM, but this argument makes no sense.

Buy RTX 3080 10 GB in 2020 for $699

Buy RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021 for > $700.01

Sell your RTX 3080 10 GB in 2021

Sell your RTX 3080 20 GB in 2022

 

Above will cost more than below, in terms over how much money you spent vs what you get back from selling your cards.

 

Buy RTX 3090 in 2020 for $1,499

Sell RTX 3090 in 2022

 

Do you disagree, and if so why?

[Sauron]

Uh... is it really ironic that the second best card isn't quite enough for 4k maxed in the absolute latest game? Also minimum specs like that are usually bullshit, they just wanted to recommend the 2080ti and that's probably where they got the number. Something tells me the game isn't actually going to be using more than 10GB of vram.

13 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

If you get the RTX 3080 10 GB VRAM in 2020 for $699, and decide that 10 GB of VRAM is no longer enough VRAM for 4k ultra (this will be the case in a few weeks actually) and upgrade to the RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021, it only has to cost $101.01 more to have it cost more than the RTX 3090.

Dude, maybe just... lower a setting or two? Ultra isn't usually that noticeable a change over high to begin with...

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Dude, maybe just... lower a setting or two? Ultra isn't usually that noticeable a change over high to begin with...

But if I can't see my face at a distance of 500m in the reflection of someone's coffee then it's not realistic enough!!!

[AndrewZScorpion]

1 minute ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

Buy RTX 3080 10 GB in 2020 for $699

Buy RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021 for > $700.01

Sell your RTX 3080 10 GB in 2021

Sell your RTX 3080 20 GB in 2022

 

Above will cost more than below

 

Buy RTX 3090 in 2020 for $1,499

Sell RTX 3090 in 2022

 

Do you disagree, and if so why?

Let's assume the the 20GB is $900 (I think that's pretty fair)

 

The 3090 is only 10-15% faster than the 10GB 3080, so let's say 7-12% faster than the 20GB

 

Scenario 1: Buy 2 3080s

You sell your 10GB for $550 next year and buy the 20GB (so you've spent $1050)

You sell your 20GB for $750 in 2022 (this card is just one year old and has a ton of VRAM, remember)

 

Total Lost: $300

 

Scenario 2: Buy 1 3090

You buy a 3090 for $1500

 

People realize it isn't that much better than the 20GB 3080, so it isn't worth as much as you might think.

You sell your 3090 for $1100

 

Total Lost: $400

[Exeon]

16 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

If you want to play 4k ultra from now until the RTX 4### series, it will likely be cheaper for you to get the RTX 3090 now in 2020 over the RTX 3080 10 GB in 2020. Nvidia is releasing a RTX 3070 16 GB and a RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021. The value card RTX 3070 16 GB to be released in 2021 will have more VRAM than the RTX 3080 10 GB. Nvidia clearly believes that 10 GB is not enough VRAM if the most popular card in 2021 is going to have 16 GB of VRAM. Nvidia likely knows what they are doing, and limited the RTX 3080 to 10 GB so that way they can sell us a card in 2021 with more VRAM. Yes the RTX 3090 is expensive, but consider this. If you get the RTX 3080 10 GB VRAM in 2020 for $699, and decide that 10 GB of VRAM is no longer enough VRAM for 4k ultra (this will be the case in a few weeks actually) and upgrade to the RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021, it only has to cost $101.01 more to have it cost more than the RTX 3090. I suspect the RTX 3080 20 GB will have a price increase of more than $101.01 over the RTX 3080 10 GB. This will especially be the case when you consider reselling two video cards over one.

 

RTX 3080 10 GB for $699 in 2020 + RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021 > RTX 3090 in 2020 for $1,499

 

It's ironic because this game comes with the RTX 3080 10 GB, and it doesn't meet the requirements for 4k ultra.

 

Between now and the RTX 4### series, it's likely that playing the latest games at 4k ultra with ray tracing on will require even more than 11 GB of VRAM.

Well it has been clear to me that 4K gaming isn't going to be a thing yet, not for anything fast paced where we want to push beyond 60FPS.

Is there a confirmation on the higher VRAM cards, or just speculation?

 

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Dude, maybe just... lower a setting or two? Ultra isn't usually that noticeable a change over high to begin with...

 

No, I don't think so, not if you spend 700$ on a card, I don't think anyone should settle for lower settings on that amount of money.

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, Exeon said:

No, I don't think so, not if you spend 700$ on a card, I don't think anyone should settle for lower settings on that amount of money.

There is a huge difference between keeping realistic expectations as new titles come out and having to have every last shadow in the game ray traced 100% of the time from here until 2 generations later.

[Yoshi Moshi]

12 minutes ago, AndrewZScorpion said:

Let's assume the the 20GB is $900 (I think that's pretty fair)

 

The 3090 is only 10-15% faster than the 10GB 3080, so let's say 7-12% faster than the 20GB

 

Scenario 1: Buy 2 3080s

You sell your 10GB for $550 next year and buy the 20GB (so you've spent $1050)

You sell your 20GB for $750 in 2022 (this card is just one year old and has a ton of VRAM, remember)

 

Total Lost: $300

 

Scenario 2: Buy 1 3090

You buy a 3090 for $1500

 

People realize it isn't that much better than the 20GB 3080, so it isn't worth as much as you might think.

You sell your 3090 for $1100

 

Total Lost: $400

You sell your 10GB for $550 next year and buy the 20GB (so you've spent $1050) - Disagree, $699 - $550 = Loss of $149

I assume your going with RTX 3080 having a MSRP of $1000? I can't tell from your post, but $1,000 seems reasonable.

You sell your 20GB for $750 in 2022 (this card is just one year old and has a ton of VRAM, remember) $1,000 - $750 = Loss of $250

 

Total Lost: $300 - Disagree, $149 + $250 = $399

 

People realize it isn't that much better than the 20GB 3080, so it isn't worth as much as you might think.

You sell your 3090 for $1100

 

Total Lost: $400 - Yes

 

So buying two 3080 cost you more money when you consider shipping two video cards over one, insurance on the package, signature required vs one. Unless you want to take the risk of shipping a $750 item to a customer that may claim they never got it, or the post office losses it.

 

We can guess what the resell prices will be, to argue one way or the other, but my bet is that buying one card over two will be cheaper.

 

$699 + (some cost greater than >$800.01) > $1,499

Buying two 3080s over a 3090

Overall purchase price

There only has to be a $101.01 price increase for the RTX 3080 20 GB for you to overall spend more money on two cards vs one if you buy a RTX 3080 10 GB in 2020 for $699

[Cyracus]

6 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

$699 - $550 = Loss of $199

$149 (sorry)

[Panoramix97]

5 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

You sell your 10GB for $550 next year and buy the 20GB (so you've spent $1050) - Disagree, $699 - $550 = Loss of $149

I assume your going with RTX 3080 having a MSRP of $1000? I can't tell from your post, but $1,000 seems reasonable.

You sell your 20GB for $750 in 2022 (this card is just one year old and has a ton of VRAM, remember) $1,000 - $750 = Loss of $250

 

Total Lost: $300 - Disagree, $199 + $250 = $399

 

People realize it isn't that much better than the 20GB 3080, so it isn't worth as much as you might think.

You sell your 3090 for $1100

 

Total Lost: $400 - Yes

 

So buying two 3080 cost you more money when you consider shipping two video cards over one, insurance on the package, signature required vs one. Unless you want to take the risk of shipping a $750 item to a customer that may claim they never got it, or the post office losses it.

If you buy every card that is a better than your actual card every time, you will end up losing a lot of money every time.

 

Buy the 3090 if you are worried about VRAM.

 

Buy the 3080 is you are not worried / can live with dropping shadow to high instead of ultra in some games.

 

I personally want the 3080 for 1440p 144hz setup so the 10 GB of vram is no worries at all for me.

 

Even if in 3 years some games require 12gb of vram for 1440p I can live with turning shadow and 1 or 2 other settings odwn a bit...

[AndrewZScorpion]

1 minute ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

assume your going with RTX 3080 having a MSRP of $1000? I can't tell from your post, but $1,000 seems reasonable.

Oh absolutely no way you could tell:

8 minutes ago, AndrewZScorpion said:

Let's assume the the 20GB is $900 (I think that's pretty fair)

Even if the 20GB is $1000 as you suggest, that would just serve to increase the used price.

 

3 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

You sell your 10GB for $550 next year and buy the 20GB (so you've spent $1050) - Disagree, $699 - $550 = Loss of $199

I was including the cost of the 20GB in that number. Also, check your math, 700-550=150

[Yoshi Moshi]

1 minute ago, Panoramix97 said:

If you buy every card that is a better than your actual card every time, you will end up losing a lot of money every time.

 

Buy the 3090 if you are worried about VRAM.

 

Buy the 3080 is you are not worried / can live with dropping shadow to high instead of ultra in some games.

 

I personally want the 3080 for 1440p 144hz setup so the 10 GB of vram is no worries at all for me.

 

Even if in 3 years some games require 12gb of vram for 1440p I can live with turning shadow and 1 or 2 other settings odwn a bit...

I agree buying every card that is better every time you a better card comes out you will spend a lot of money. And if you want to play 4k ultra, and you buy a RTX 3080 now, you'll have to buy another card next year.

[Yoshi Moshi]

2 minutes ago, AndrewZScorpion said:

Oh absolutely no way you could tell:

Even if the 20GB is $1000 as you suggest, that would just serve to increase the used price.

 

I was including the cost of the 20GB in that number. Also, check your math, 700-550=150

Do you agree with below:

 

$699 + (some cost greater than >$800.01) > $1,499

[AndrewZScorpion]

Just now, Yoshi Moshi said:

Do you agree with below:

 

$699 + (some cost greater than >$800.01) > $1,499

Yes, of course. But because of what I have already said, I believe you can get more for selling two slightly worse 1 year old cards than one slightly better 2 year old card.

[Suika]

20 minutes ago, Exeon said:

No, I don't think so, not if you spend 700$ on a card, I don't think anyone should settle for lower settings on that amount of money.

You buy from this price segment because it's the highest end product on the market for a fairly reasonable price, not because it's made of fairy dust that'll grant your any wish. What you're arguing the RTX 3080 should be doesn't exist and has never existed on the market, and this is coming from somebody who's owned a GTX 780, GTX 980 Ti, and GTX 1080 Ti.

 

Also loving the argument that you always have to buy a top tier card, regardless of how financially practical and wasteful it is. I feel like the majority of consumers buying the RTX 3080 today don't plan on upgrading for a couple years at best, and don't care about the rumored 20GB Super upgrades.

[Panoramix97]

7 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

I agree buying every card that is better every time you a better card comes out you will spend a lot of money. And if you want to play 4k ultra, and you buy a RTX 3080 now, you'll have to buy another card next year.

I am pretty sure if you buy an RTX 3080 you can run 98% of games in 4K Ultra with no problems.

 

You seems to overreact just on a "recommanded VRAM" from a game website.

 

Did you try to run the game at ultra in 4K and then monitor VRAM usage to see if it actually goes over 8-9 GB ?

[Yoshi Moshi]

2 minutes ago, AndrewZScorpion said:

Yes, of course. But because of what I have already said, I believe you can get more for selling two slightly worse 1 year old cards than one slightly better 2 year old card.

I get your point, and can see where your coming from. I guess it all depends on what the resell prices will be, which we have no way of knowing.

 

All we can do is look at similar situations:

 

The purchase price and resell value of the RTX 2080 when the RTX 2080 Super came out. The purchase price of and resell value of a RTX 2080 Super when RTX 3### series was announced.

 

Vs

 

The purchase price and resell value of the RTX 2080 Ti when RTX 3### series.

 

I guess we have no way of knowing the resell values of the RTX 3080 10 GB, RTX 3080 20 GB, and RTX 3090 will be.

[Chris Pratt]

49 minutes ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

It's ironic because this game comes with the RTX 3080 10 GB, and it doesn't meet the requirements for 4k ultra.

Not everyone wants or needs 4K native. There are tons of gamers rocking 1440p displays they're perfectly happy with. Even if you do have a 4K display, DLSS 2.0 can get you visuals almost indistinguishable from 4K native running at the equivalent of 1080p.

[Yoshi Moshi]

39 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Not everyone wants or needs 4K native. There are tons of gamers rocking 1440p displays they're perfectly happy with. Even if you do have a 4K display, DLSS 2.0 can get you visuals almost indistinguishable from 4K native running at the equivalent of 1080p.

I think this will change with the $500 consoles being 4k machines, it drove me to get a 4k monitor.

[BTGbullseye]

1 hour ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

I think this will change with the $500 consoles being 4k machines

Not really. From the looks of things, it's basically going to be running on AMD's version of DLSS to get that resolution with adequate framerates. (unless RDNA2 is significantly more powerful than the leaks appear to indicate)

[HumdrumPenguin]

2 hours ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

Watch Dogs Legions comes with the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 as a free game bundle when you purchase the card. The irony behind it is that if you have a 3080 10 GB, you don't meet the minimum VRAM requirements to play the game at 4k Ultra, per the developer's recommended specifications to do so, 11 GB is recommended. Look under 4k ultra with ray tracing on.

If you want to play 4k ultra from now until the RTX 4### series, it will likely be cheaper for you to get the RTX 3090 now in 2020 over the RTX 3080 10 GB in 2020. Nvidia is releasing a RTX 3070 16 GB and a RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021. The value card RTX 3070 16 GB to be released in 2021 will have more VRAM than the RTX 3080 10 GB. Nvidia clearly believes that 10 GB is not enough VRAM if the most popular card in 2021 is going to have 16 GB of VRAM. Nvidia likely knows what they are doing, and limited the RTX 3080 to 10 GB so that way they can sell us a card in 2021 with more VRAM. Yes the RTX 3090 is expensive, but consider this. If you get the RTX 3080 10 GB VRAM in 2020 for $699, and decide that 10 GB of VRAM is no longer enough VRAM for 4k ultra (this will be the case in a few weeks actually) and upgrade to the RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021, it only has to cost $101.01 more to have it cost more than the RTX 3090. I suspect the RTX 3080 20 GB will have a price increase of more than $101.01 over the RTX 3080 10 GB. This will especially be the case when you consider reselling two video cards over one.

 

RTX 3080 10 GB for $699 in 2020 + RTX 3080 20 GB in 2021 > RTX 3090 in 2020 for $1,499

 

It's ironic because this game comes with the RTX 3080 10 GB, and it doesn't meet the requirements for 4k ultra.

 

Between now and the RTX 4### series, it's likely that playing the latest games at 4k ultra with ray tracing on will require even more than 11 GB of VRAM.

I agree, although the faster GDDR6X will likely compensate for that lack of VRAM in Watch Dogs. (in the case of the 3080, not the 3070). You either buy the 3090 now, or wait for the versions with higher VRAM. I've been telling this since before the damn cards were released, but nobody seems to care.

[BTGbullseye]

3 hours ago, Yoshi Moshi said:

Watch Dogs Legions comes with the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 as a free game bundle when you purchase the card. The irony behind it is that if you have a 3080 10 GB, you don't meet the minimum VRAM requirements to play the game at 4k Ultra, per the developer's recommended specifications to do so, 11 GB is recommended.

Since they are only recommending 2000 series cards, I think they were going off the specs of the GPUs that they tested to be capable of running those settings, rather than bothering to check how much VRAM they actually used. (since the latter takes a lot more time and effort)

[Sauron]

10 hours ago, Exeon said:

No, I don't think so, not if you spend 700$ on a card, I don't think anyone should settle for lower settings on that amount of money.

Where have you been for the last 8 years where 700$ cards wouldn't get you anywhere near 4k ultra...? What if I had an 8k monitor, should I expect not to lower any settings either? What about high refresh rate monitors?

 

Also this depends in large part on the game's developers... if they want to get you 4k ultra on a 3080 you'll get 4k ultra on a 3080, if they don't you won't and that's not really the card's fault. They could do that for the 3090 as well if they wanted to, just have ultra include supersampling and some crazy and barely noticeable effect that destroys your card or maybe just include uncompressed textures that need 40gb of vram to load.

 

Are these cards too expensive? Probably, yeah. Is the solution to buy the more expensive card just because one game listed 11gb as the recommended spec? No.

[Exeon]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

Where have you been for the last 8 years where 700$ cards wouldn't get you anywhere near 4k ultra...? What if I had an 8k monitor, should I expect not to lower any settings either? What about high refresh rate monitors?

 

Also this depends in large part on the game's developers... if they want to get you 4k ultra on a 3080 you'll get 4k ultra on a 3080, if they don't you won't and that's not really the card's fault. They could do that for the 3090 as well if they wanted to, just have ultra include supersampling and some crazy and barely noticeable effect that destroys your card or maybe just include uncompressed textures that need 40gb of vram to load.

 

Are these cards too expensive? Probably, yeah. Is the solution to buy the more expensive card just because one game listed 11gb as the recommended spec? No.

 

Is 4K the standard? From what I've seen the past years Most people game at 1080p.

I bought my 980Ti and everyone said it was overkill for 1080p, that I should upgrade to 1440p, I didn't.

For more than 4 years I've maxed each game that I played, in the last year I have encountered 2 games I can't max due to VRAM, and a couple of others were stable FPS maxed just doesn't work anymore.

 

So why 4K ultra? I don't expect max settings at 4K for this card to be a thing in 2-3 years from now.

I'm expecting this card to be able to max 1440p for 4-5 years and get a bare minimum of 60FPS in general (yea titles like Crysis remastered or flight sim aren't your average examples)

 

I agree some dev's just push unrealistic options that just burden the GPU and don't actually do much, I'm not talking about "oh this 1 unoptimized title doesn't allow me to max settings this is unacceptable" more like, every single AAA title doesn't allow me to max it anymore, in 2 years from now.

 

If you can't skip a generation for a high end card there is for me no point in buying it.

I decide to spend 200 more on the 3080 to skip the 4000 series, sure some people have the money to upgrade to the top every gen, I sure do not (well I do but convincing the wife is a different matter alltogether)

 

I believe this gen pushed 4K in a good direction, but I do not believe it's ready for 4K long term, better off sticking with 1440p at a higher refresh rate