NVIDIA ‘Ampere’ 8nm Graphics Cards

[Greebo]

Yeah, good point. Not sure if the reality is there are significant differences. I understand that FE chips were supposed to be higher quality, but thought power phases of cards like the galax series were better. My aorus WB extreme sits at 2100 (sometimes more) but the reasons given for not boosting further are always ‘limited by power’ so wondered if that would be significant going forward. Maybe not, or maybe a bios flash would be an option but wondering if it’s a factor in deciding which card is the best choice.

The issue isnt so much as the power connectors or the chokes/phases used on the board but more to do with the locked down bioses. I know that, so long as you had great cooling, that flashing your 2080ti card with a bios that allowed you to give your chip more power did allow some people to get higher overall boosts. There was the Galax bios which was 380W and allowed you to up that to 450W using the sliders. But even the FE and standard cards were 70A 13+3 phase VRM so could handle the 450W so you didnt need all the special bits they put on their card, just sufficient cooling. You didnt need the "superior" or additional power phases the Galax offered.

A lot of people used the Galax 380W bios and managed to get 2160 from their cards and would then be hit by the voltage limit on the boards, rather than the power limit.

Point is whether your card could hit 2160 all depended on your silicon lottery. I know people who used the Galax bios and they couldnt even get 2100.

Nvidia has put really beefy power stuff on their 3080 FE and 3090 FE boards. Subject to bios limits, it will be able to handle however much power you want to give it IMO.

It honestly comes down to silicon lottery and cooling. Hence why paying up to £600 more for these "superior" 2080ti last time seemed mental.

 

[varkanoid]

Don;t get what you mean? There doesnt seem to be that much not covered by the fan?

Its the fact that the 3090 has a cover on the second heatpipe bit that confuses/concerns me.

If you look at the 3070 it seems to be split into two seperate parts each served with a fan. The 3080 seems to be split into four parts its all open and the fan just blows down. I cant see what can channel air from the fan right to the other end.

It would be interesting how the air flow on the 3090 and 3080 is supposed to go. There is a lot of exposed area, ie between the black (plastic?) fins. Eg with a blower type the cooler is all enclosed and it sucks air in one end and blows it out the grills at the back out of the case. Just like down a tunnel. This time the fan is near the grills an there doesnt seem to be any channelling of the air. Airwill leak out through those plastic grills. Just seems a bit backwards. Take the AIB's of previous cards all have 2-3 fans which cover the entire area of the card, with heatpipes and fans. This just has one fan at one end. So if the heatpipe(s) flow towards the fan then I can see that being cooled and returned but what cools the heatpipes that travelling to the far end of the card apart from case air circulation hitting the fins ?

 

[JediFragger]

j/k before triggered

 

[gpuerrilla]

Not 2080Ti triggered though.

 

[Greebo]

If you look at the 3070 it seems to be split into two seperate parts each served with a fan. The 3080 seems to be split into four parts its all open and the fan just blows down. I cant see what can channel air from the fan right to the other end.

It would be interesting how the air flow on the 3090 and 3080 is supposed to go. There is a lot of exposed area, ie between the black (plastic?) fins. Eg with a blower type the cooler is all enclosed and it sucks air in one end and blows it out the grills at the back out of the case. Just like down a tunnel. This time the fan is near the grills an there doesnt seem to be any channelling of the air. Air will leak out through those plastic grills. Just seems a bit backwards.

The 3080 and 3090 have a fan on the opposite side of the fins you see? So they are dual fans, one of each side

 

[varkanoid]

never mind I was getting mixed up with the AIB ones.

 

[scubes]

if the 3090 isn't that much fast than the 2080ti I might just buy another now that they are so cheap lol..

 

[Greebo]

never mind I was getting mixed up with the AIB ones.

One fan on each side. Have a look at a blown apart 3080 FE here

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce...ster-than-rtx-2080-in-opencl-cuda-benchmarks/

 

[Greebo]

if the 3090 isn't that much fast than the 2080ti I might just buy another now that they are so cheap lol..

I expect the 3090 to be between 40% and 100% faster than a 2080ti depending on game and how much rt and dlSS is used.

So when SLI works my current set up will still beat a 3090. When it doesnt, the 40%+ faster 3090 would be a be better choice.

 

[Sibbers]

The issue isnt so much as the power connectors or the chokes/phases used on the board but more to do with the locked down bioses. I know that, so long as you had great cooling, that flashing your 2080ti card with a bios that allowed you to give your chip more power did allow some people to get higher overall boosts. There was the Galax bios which was 380W and allowed you to up that to 450W using the sliders. But even the FE and standard cards were 70A 13+3 phase VRM so could handle the 450W so you didnt need all the special bits they put on their card, just sufficient cooling. You didnt need the "superior" or additional power phases the Galax offered.

OK, good to know. I considered rolling up bios versions but my card was already pretty close and the few percent seemed hardly worth it. Think that makes choosing a bit easier. Do you know if there is still a thing where some chips are binned and reserved for the higher price AIB cards? I'm assuming that anyone getting a 3090 is basically getting the best chips they can make so perhaps a moot point there, but then there I see the higher price version and have to think that is the 'better' (even if unnecessary) power delivery etc as well as the cooling systems.

 

[Raiden85]

3090 will be a very nice jump over the 2080 Ti, ditching SLI myself for the first time in many years due to the crap support over the last 2yrs. And the games mainly older ones at this point where SLI is supported anyway, the 3090 should run them fully maxed out at 4K ultra with little effort as a single 2080 Ti can just about.

 

[Greebo]

OK, good to know. I considered rolling up bios versions but my card was already pretty close and the few percent seemed hardly worth it. Think that makes choosing a bit easier. Do you know if there is still a thing where some chips are binned and reserved for the higher price AIB cards? I'm assuming that anyone getting a 3090 is basically getting the best chips they can make so perhaps a moot point there, but then there I see the higher price version and have to think that is the 'better' (even if unnecessary) power delivery etc as well as the cooling systems.

EVGA still bin their chips for using on Kingpins and so do Galax. Not sure about anybody else anymore.

Does that mean the lesser card you buy from that manufacturer has a "lesser" overclocking chip? Who knows. I doubt they test all their chips and all depends on how many lesser cards vs speed binned cards they are selling.

If they need a lot of speed binned chips and they are struggling to find them, the argument goes you are better off buying from a manufacturer who doesnt sell any speed binned cards

 

[Woodsta888]

Is there an NDA on the NDA date for reviews or are they on the same day as cards available for sale?

 

[GAC]

Is there an NDA on the NDA date for reviews or are they on the same day as cards available for sale?

there are nda's on it all with dates but someone apparently let slip the 15th or 14th as first reviews going up. cant remember which date exactly but early next week it seems.

 

[Woodsta888]

there are nda's on it all with dates but someone apparently let slip the 15th or 14th as first reviews going up. cant remember which date exactly but early next week it seems.

Oh right, nice one cheers.

I can stop smashing F5 on tech sites 24/7 and get some sleep now.

 

[beany_bot]

Pretty glad im not considering the 3090. This is just stupid.

 

[Jono8]

^ lol that is insane.

 

[Marky]

Haha wow that is a chunky boi

Think I'm going to hold fire on my PC upgrade - Certainly until the new AMD CPUs are released, as I'm quite keen for a full change of CPU/Motherboard/RAM/GPU.

 

[bicpug]

Im not so sure the 3090 would fit into my new fractal r7 case with the hdd cage setup, ridiculous such a big case isnt enough.

 

[Woodsta888]

Pretty glad im not considering the 3090. This is just stupid.

The top part of that 3090, houses an onboard fire extinguisher