PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 REVEL EPIC-X LHR

Trusted choice

Ideally, the latest GeForce RTX 4080 should have taken its place here, but circumstances turned out differently. On the one hand, this graphics card stands out for its impressive power, outperforming its predecessor, the RTX 3080, by almost 50%. On the other hand, it costs almost double the price of the previous model, making the price difference difficult to justify, even considering the introduction of DLSS 3.0 technology with its breakthrough AI engine for frame generation. For this reason, we'd prefer the GeForce RTX 3080 for above-midrange builds.

Efficient and compact

The PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 REVEL model belongs to the low hash rate versions equipped with a cryptocurrency mining protection system. Based on the Nvidia Ampere microarchitecture, this video card has an increased video core frequency of up to 1710 MHz right out of the box, and the amount of GDDR6X video memory is a standard 10 GB. Versions of the RTX 3080 with 12 GB of video memory turned out to be unreasonably expensive, which practically excluded them from sales. This card is relatively compact in size (length 294 mm, width 2.7 slots) and less demanding in terms of power consumption compared to the RTX 3090, which makes it easy to install it in small cube cases or mini towers with a 750 W power supply.

Ideal for 2K and 4K gaming

The PNY GeForce RTX 3080 guarantees stable gameplay at 60 – 70 FPS in “4K + ultra settings” in popular games such as Elder Ring, Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3. More demanding games such as Alan Wake 2 may require an upgrade at 2K resolution. However, it is worth trying out the capabilities of DLSS 2.0 scaling algorithms to optimize performance. The only downside is the 10GB VRAM limit, which may not meet the high-definition requirements of some games in the future. Already, games like Resident Evil 4 and Hogwarts Legacy may experience difficulties on systems with 8 GB of video memory.