3080 vs 3070. Which one?

[Ryan Larson]

Hello, I have recently started building a somewhat high end build, around a corsair theme. While looking for gpus, I found out that I really cant decide on either the 3070 or 3080. Neither are in stock either way. Obviously the 3080 is more powerful, but is the extra performance being utilized? or is it just wasted money? ( I know that the 3080 isn't worth 1500$, that's just the gpu i would get if i got a 3080.

My future build: 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor	$499.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Corsair iCUE H115i RGB Pro XT 63 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$124.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard	$192.76 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$167.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$139.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$54.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$1499.00 @ Amazon
Case	Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case	$94.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$144.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2918.70
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-19 12:36 EST-0500

 

[jaslion]

Is this a gaming pc? I mean I would honestly just wait at his point. Cards are selling for double their price at this point and it's all just such a waste of money.

[Mark Kaine]

11 minutes ago, Ryan Larson said:

Obviously the 3080 is more powerful, but is the extra performance being utilized?

Impossible to say without knowing your target framerates and resolution. 

 

 

GENERALLY 

 

3070 =1440p / 60 fps 

 

3080 = 4k / "hopefully" 60 fps 

 

 

So yeah basically it depends if you buy into the 4k fad or not.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor	$559.98 @ Newegg
CPU Cooler	Corsair iCUE H115i RGB Pro XT 63 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$124.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$184.86 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$167.99 @ Newegg
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$54.99 @ Best Buy
Storage	Pioneer APS-SE20G 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$224.79 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$909.98 @ Newegg
Case	Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case	$94.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$144.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2467.56
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-19 12:59 EST-0500

 

[Ryan Larson]

4 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Impossible to say without knowing your target framerates and resolution. 

 

 

GENERALLY 

 

3070 =1440p / 60 fps 

 

3080 = 4k / "hopefully" 60 fps 

 

 

So yeah basically it depends if you buy into the 4k fad or not.

Alright so what I'm taking from this is that I definitely want to get the 3080, once in stock at msrp price. My current build (prebuilt) has a 2080 super, which im using in combination with a 32in 1440p monitor. So overall the 3080 would probably suit my performance needs better as i like running my games at least over a 100 frames. Thanks for the input.

[jaslion]

5 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Impossible to say without knowing your target framerates and resolution. 

 

 

GENERALLY 

 

3070 =1440p / 60 fps 

 

3080 = 4k / "hopefully" 60 fps 

 

 

So yeah basically it depends if you buy into the 4k fad or not.

3070 is highish 1440p 144hz no problem 3080 should do 4k 60 at good settings without much problem

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, Ryan Larson said:

Alright so what I'm taking from this is that I definitely want to get the 3080, once in stock at msrp price. My current build (prebuilt) has a 2080 super, which im using in combination with a 32in 1440p monitor. So overall the 3080 would probably suit my performance needs better as i like running my games at least over a 100 frames. Thanks for the input.

Should have said you had a 2080 super the 3070 is basically identical in performance

[Bobbysixjp]

5 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Impossible to say without knowing your target framerates and resolution. 

 

 

GENERALLY 

 

3070 =1440p / 60 fps 

 

3080 = 4k / "hopefully" 60 fps 

 

 

So yeah basically it depends if you buy into the 4k fad or not.

I would say that the 3070 can easily handle 1440p high refresh (100+ FPS) in most games. The 3080 is more of a 4K GPU but is still good for 1440p high refresh and will continue to give you high FPS at this resolution for years to come. 

But as already mentioneded, now is a terrible time to be in the market for a new GPU. Give it another six months and perhaps things will settle down in terms of price and availibility. 

[maizenblue]

It depends on a few factors like what resolution you're gaming at and what you can find available at a reasonable price.

 

At msrp i would go 3080 at 1440p and above, but cards arent going for anywhere near that. In todays climate I would go with whatever 3000 series card u can get near msrp for now, with an upgrade if necessary when prices have returned to normal. 
 

 

[Ryan Larson]

44 minutes ago, Bobbysixjp said:

I would say that the 3070 can easily handle 1440p high refresh (100+ FPS) in most games. The 3080 is more of a 4K GPU but is still good for 1440p high refresh and will continue to give you high FPS at this resolution for years to come. 

But as already mentioneded, now is a terrible time to be in the market for a new GPU. Give it another six months and perhaps things will settle down in terms of price and availibility. 

 

4 minutes ago, maizenblue said:

It depends on a few factors like what resolution you're gaming at and what you can find available at a reasonable price.

 

At msrp i would go 3080 at 1440p and above, but cards arent going for anywhere near that. In todays climate I would go with whatever 3000 series card u can get near msrp for now, with an upgrade if necessary when prices have returned to normal. 
 

 

Yeah most likely I will not be buying a GPU for at least 4 more months, because I'm buying parts over time. Hopefully by then or at by 6-8 months they will finally be able to buy at msrp or maybe even a discount. Also, I play a  Wide Variety of games, including FPS, MOBA, Racing, RTS, MMO's, RPG, pretty much anything that isn't 2D I have played. With this in mind I like to have a high end system so I can run all of these games ex: Forza, Rainbow, Arma 3, Need For Speed, League of Legends, etc. And with a 1440p monitor, anything below a 3070/2080 super will probably not fit my needs. (also I'm very detail oriented, graphics are one of my main things for gaming.) Again, Thanks for the input. Sorry to jaslion that I didn't tell you I had a 2080 super before, i should have been more specific.

[Jrasero]

6 hours ago, Ryan Larson said:

Hello, I have recently started building a somewhat high end build, around a corsair theme. While looking for gpus, I found out that I really cant decide on either the 3070 or 3080. Neither are in stock either way. Obviously the 3080 is more powerful, but is the extra performance being utilized? or is it just wasted money? ( I know that the 3080 isn't worth 1500$, that's just the gpu i would get if i got a 3080.

My future build: 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor	$499.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Corsair iCUE H115i RGB Pro XT 63 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$124.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard	$192.76 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$167.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$139.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$54.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$1499.00 @ Amazon
Case	Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case	$94.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$144.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2918.70
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-19 12:36 EST-0500

 

With price hikes and scalping aside the RTX 3070 is basically a next gen RTX 2080 Ti in terms of traditional rasterization, so if you game at 1080P it crushes it, 1440P very good, and 4K 60 FPS can do in a lot of games with some compromises.  In contrast the RTX 3080 does everything the RTX 3070 does but is almost 20% faster at 1440P and 25%-30% faster at 4K.  Where this really makes a difference is 4K, since finally there is a card that can not only hit 60 FPS in really any game but also do 120 FPS in a lot of games.  

So it all depends on what resolution you plan on gaming at or what games you play.  You are probably right to wait, just know this craziness could end in a month or so or could bleed into mid 2021.  This is very similar to happened in 2017 where GTX 1080 Ti we going for $1200 as mining boomed and the only sensible option was getting lucky with a restock.  And man did it suck, since that mining boom and lack of stock lasted a while

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Bobbysixjp said:

would say that the 3070 can easily handle 1440p high refresh (100+ FPS) in most games. The 3080 is more of a 4K GPU but is still good for 1440p high refresh and will continue to give you high FPS at this resolution for years to come. 

yeah in "most" games for sure, but it indeed depends on the games and settings, for example 1440p I can't even Max out every setting in MHW - although I can some of the most demanding which is amazing tbh - and still reach 60fps *locked*, ROTTR is very similar in that regard - everything maxed out - except 2x MSAA, forget it, drops to 55 fps almost constantly for example. Another game where highish to medium settings at 1440p won't give you 60 fps *locked* (not even close) is Resident Evil 3 remake...

 

So yes, I would say the card is very powerful, more than I thought tbh, but the answer to your question depends very much on how you define "most" games... 

 

Also note in any of these titles there's no cpu bottleneck or anything, cpu is boring itself to death at 1440p most of the time.

 

 

3 hours ago, Ryan Larson said:

Alright so what I'm taking from this is that I definitely want to get the 3080, once in stock at msrp price. My current build (prebuilt) has a 2080 super, which im using in combination with a 32in 1440p monitor

im glad this helped you making a decision but it's not really what I meant to say, more like simply the 3080 is a 4k card, the 3070 may be too, but barely. 

 

If all you care about is the FPS, the stronger card will yield better results of course lol... 

[Ryan Larson]

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah in "most" games for sure, but it indeed depends on the games and settings, for example 1440p I can't even Max out every setting in MHW - although I can some of the most demanding which is amazing tbh - and still reach 60fps *locked*, ROTTR is very similar in that regard - everything maxed out - except 2x MSAA, forget it, drops to 55 fps almost constantly for example. Another game where highish to medium settings at 1440p won't give you 60 fps *locked* (not even close) is Resident Evil 3 remake...

 

So yes, I would say the card is very powerful, more than I thought tbh, but the answer to your question depends very much on how you define "most" games... 

 

Also note in any of these titles there's no cpu bottleneck or anything, cpu is boring itself to death at 1440p most of the time.

 

 

im glad this helped you making a decision but it's not really what I meant to say, more like simply the 3080 is a 4k card, the 3070 may be too, but barely. 

 

If all you care about is the FPS, the stronger card will yield better results of course lol... 

I do understand what you are saying Mark. the 3070 would most likely suffice at 1440p for pretty much most games, except apparently monster hunter world. But with the 3080, I have headroom with graphics processing power, and room to upgrade, because I feel that in a year or two, 4k will become more mainstream in gaming. Also one of the gaming genres I have the most time on is RTS, and anyone who has played an RTS game before knows that one of two things always happens, one, the game engine sucks in a RTS game and therefore cannot render all the **** happening. Or two, your Gpu practically sets itself on fire trying to keep up with well, all the **** going on. What I'm trying to say is that while the 3070 will probably work just fine, the 3080 gives me peace of mind and I don't have to worry about upgrading for a few years. BTW apparently RGB increases fps? lol 

[Mark Kaine]

22 minutes ago, Ryan Larson said:

except apparently monster hunter world

And a few other games such as Rise Of The Tomb Raider, but yeah, it's not that it isn't sufficient, you just can't put everything to max and expect to get 60+ FPS... these games also always seem to have some settings that prevent them from doing so by default, 4x MSAA, when already 2x brings a 3070 to its knees? and that's an older game... lol... not really an issue, although 2x MSAA really does look good hah... 

 

And I mean I agree, of course a 3080 is better... I just kinda took this as a "is it worth it" question and that really depends obviously...