nVidia 3080 opinions & discussion

[albert]

Hi Folks,

So I waited patiently for 14:00 yesterday when the new RTX 3080 was planned to start appearing. I was after the founders editions because of the innovative cooling it has and and the fact it's a little more narrow than the other brands so my mATX should benefit

On the button, I had one in my basket, but it never let me get to the payment screen. And now, all gone!

I was looking through the other options and having bought MSI for the 980 I had, then Gigabyte for the 1080Ti, I felt that if I cannot get a founders edition, then at least get a better alternative. EVGA keep coming back time after time as a great quality brand.

I was wondering what others think of EVGA, anyone own one of their products? Also had experience of customer service and returns?

Also does anyone know any websites that are able to track stock of items? I guess it's US centric: https://www.zoolert.com/computers/videocards/nvidia/rtx-3080/

Cheers,

Bert

[TeaLeaf]

EVGA are excellent imo.  They are also they only brand I know of that do NOT void the warranty if you remove the air cooling and slap a waterblock onto it.   Someone mentioned MSI also do this, but having checked into it they don't do it any more, certainly not in the UK/EU.  

Reports are that bots snaffled up most of the 3080 stock yesterday.  I'm waiting to see if the EVGA hydro copper comes out soon, its either that or wait to see fi the EVGA air-cooled gets a compatible EK waterblock.

[albert]

EVGA are excellent imo.  They are also they only brand I know of that do NOT void the warranty if you remove the air cooling and slap a waterblock onto it.   Someone mentioned MSI also do this, but having checked into it they don't do it any more, certainly not in the UK/EU.  

Reports are that bots snaffled up most of the 3080 stock yesterday.  I'm waiting to see if the EVGA hydro copper comes out soon, its either that or wait to see fi the EVGA air-cooled gets a compatible EK waterblock.

I found the same reports of EVAGa as well, thanks. nVidia's website is terrible, no captcha fields, very American, in that any old credit card will work probably without even address verification. So I can see how bots would have a field day. The only security is 1 card per order.

I've owned a Gigabyte water cooled 1080Ti for the last 3 years and there's no doubt it's a very stable card, noisey radiator fan with a proprietary pin config. It did however add 35% to the cost of the card therefore if the manufacturers exploit this opportunity, the water block cards will probably be around 1K. I think with £700 as the high end air cooled price, £300 is a lot to play with to convet to water. Also the new water coolers will have double radiators, and that's not an option for my case due to space. I'd guess November/ December for the hybrid cards to start appearing. but somtimes they take even longer, the 1080Ti took a good 6 months.

So to me if I get the air cooled EVGA card, and it doesn't work out for whatever reason, then I'll just retrofit a block on there, or sell the card for small loss.

I placed an order for: https://www.alternate.nl/EVGA/GeForce-RTX-3080-XC3-Ultra-Gaming-grafische-kaart/html/product/1674164? mainly because of the 30 day return and free cancellation, plus the order is only accepted when stock is available. I would still be happy to revert back to a founders card but if this EVGA turns up fast and is looking nice, then I'll stick with it. Interesting, it is the only one quoting a boost clock speed of higher than 9MHz more than base. 1755Mhz, whether I use it or not suggests they are confident in their QC.

[TeaLeaf]

Yep retro fit is likely where I will end up, but I am waiting for the EK website to confirm EVGA compatibility which thus far they have not :sad:

[albert]

Yep retro fit is likely where I will end up, but I am waiting for the EK website to confirm EVGA compatibility which thus far they have not :sad:

They would have to be all-in-one for me to bite, unelss I build a new PC with a larger case. I suspect, the air cooling is going to stick with me for a while. The EVGA one I chose is 2.2 slots in size, so I have a nice clearance below the card for airflow directly in line with my case front fans.

[BrotherTobious]

I will never buy another EVGA after I have had 2 go pop on me.  Some people love them and have had no issuse but twice bitten all the time shy.

The RMA where fine took time as they usually do but no faith in them, got back the last one and sold it, as I had brought a gigabyte card while waiting.  Gigabyte cards I have not had a issue with and continue to buy.

[albert]

I will never buy another EVGA after I have had 2 go pop on me.  Some people love them and have had no issuse but twice bitten all the time shy.

The RMA where fine took time as they usually do but no faith in them, got back the last one and sold it, as I had brought a gigabyte card while waiting.  Gigabyte cards I have not had a issue with and continue to buy.

Interesting, I had to RMA the Gigabyte 1080Ti Water, the pump went bad, it took 5 months to return to me. Now the replacement fan is noisey a hell. that's the only graphics cards I ever had problems with.

I think we can agree that OEMs are terrible at repairs.

[TeaLeaf]

I think they are all pretty much of a muchness with minor variation between the tiers. What I value about EVGA is the warranty. When you want to drop a chunk of money of a new graphics card the last thing you want to have happen is to lose the warranty on day one when you remove the air cooling and install a water block. EVGA are the only ones I know of who honour the warranty after I have removed their air cooling, so that weighs heavily in the decision making.

If it was air cooled I'd probably go ASUS as my personal experience with their products and in particular their RMA prices had been excellent.

[Gorion]

Had an EVGA 690 classified, and now using a Zotac amp extreme 1080.  Didn't have any issues with the 690 but that one was very expensive. The fist Zotac had issues immediately, but no problems with the rma, its replacement is still kicking and capable of running anything I throw at it.

Planning to buy either a 3080 or a 3090, but depends whats on offer.  Will be waiting until AMD release their cards though.

[albert]

The Aorus Gigabyte card I use now still has 1 year of it's 4 year warranty to run. Albeit that does not cover modification. So if a long warranty is required then Aorus is definately worth considering.

[albert]

Had an EVGA 690 classified, and now using a Zotac amp extreme 1080.  Didn't have any issues with the 690 but that one was very expensive. The fist Zotac had issues immediately, but no problems with the rma, its replacement is still kicking and capable of running anything I throw at it.

Planning to buy either a 3080 or a 3090, but depends whats on offer.  Will be waiting until AMD release their cards though.

So far I've read reviews stating up to a 21% overall increase from 3080 to 3090. For 100% more cost. I'm also not sure how PCIE 4 will influence performance but for sure 21% seems not to add up in terms of price jump. Also there is mention of an even more powerful Titan model around the beginnning of next year so the 3090 may drop on release of the upgrade. I still can't find a use case for justifying the 3090. I think I could replace my case, motherboard, CPU, RAM and get another 2TB of SSD for the price of that card.

[Whitey]

The Aorus Gigabyte card I use now still has 1 year of it's 4 year warranty to run. Albeit that does not cover modification. So if a long warranty is required then Aorus is definately worth considering.

I will never buy Gigabyte again.  My Aorus 1080ti died 1 month after the 3 year warranty expired (According to Gigabyte definitely 3 years despite info saying 4).  
Their support were rubbish with boiler plate responses and they basically said tough luck mate.

[albert]

I will never buy Gigabyte again.  My Aorus 1080ti died 1 month after the 3 year warranty expired (According to Gigabyte definitely 3 years despite info saying 4).  
Their support were rubbish with boiler plate responses and they basically said tough luck mate.

That's not good.

[Chaosphere]

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/75244/gigabyte-confirms-geforce-rtx-3080-with-20gb-model-3070-16gb/amp.html

I would hold off for the time being. My initial reaction to the 3080 was that its vram seemed a little anaemic, given that a 1080ti from years ago released with 11gb. Probably not a problem right now, but if you like to keep cards for a few years, a 20gb version makes more sense.

Not that you have any choice, they're like gold dust for now!

As for brand I have always bought Asus and never had a problem. I've not needed to test their warranties so I cant comment there.

As a side note, I've heard that many manufacturers will honour warranties with cards you've changed the coolers on, despite the little stickers on the cards saying otherwise. I wouldn't personally be too put off by that, I've opened up every gpu I've ever owned... but of course, do so at your own risk.

[smite]

Watched this the other day. Quite like this guys channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq7ef7sKryg

This one benchmarks the FE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32GE1bfxRVo