RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?
10 min read
07 December 2020

Nvidia are saying that their  new RTX 3060 Ti graphics card   outperforms the RTX 2080 Super from last  generation while also costing $300 less. To put this claim to the test, I’ve compared  both graphics cards in 13 games at 4K, 1440p,   and 1080p resolutions, as well as content creator  workloads to show you what the differences are.

Spec Differences

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Starting with the spec differences,  both cards have 8 gig of GDDR6 memory,   though the 2080 Super’s is a bit faster. The  2080 Super also has higher boost clock speed,   but the 3060 Ti has more CUDA cores and uses  less power, while also having a $300 lower MSRP.

Test PC Setup

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?This is the system that I’m using to test out  both graphics cards, so an overclocked i9-10900K   at 5.2GHz with 32gb of DDR4-3200 CL14 memory in  dual channel.  We’ll first dig into the gaming results,   then check out cost per frame, power draw,  and content creator workloads afterwards.

Gaming benchmarks

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Microsoft Flight Simulator was tested  in the Sydney landing challenge.   This game saw one of the smallest  differences out of all 13 titles tested,   the difference in average  FPS was basically nothing,   however the 2080 Super had a slight xxxedge in 1%  low performance at 1080p and 1440p resolutions. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested  using the games benchmark,   and this game had the largest performance  difference between these two graphics cards   out of the games I’m covering. At 1080p  the 3060 Ti was reaching 11% higher FPS,   14% higher at 1440p, and 15% higher  at 4K, putting it above 60 FPS here.RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700? Battlefield 5 on the other hand was doing slightly  better on the 2080 Super, though it was extremely   close, and both were able to run a little above  60 FPS at 4K with the highest ultra setting   preset. A 2 to 3 FPS lead hardly justifies  paying the extra money for the 2080 Super. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?The Witcher 3 had the biggest win for the 2080  Super out of the 13 games tested, the 3060 Ti was   6 to 7% slower depending on the resolution in use,  so again not really a difference that’s worth $300   more given the 3060 Ti is still delivering more  than playable results even with ultra settings. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with  the game's benchmark. The 3060 Ti was just a   few frames ahead at 1080p, but otherwise at 1440p  and 4K both graphics cards were scoring the same. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?For Control I’ll start with ray tracing off  results. Again no major differences between   the two, the 3060 Ti is slightly ahead in  average FPS while the 2080 Super is slightly   ahead in 1% lows at 1440p and 1080p, but good luck  actually noticing these differences when playing. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?There’s a bit more of a difference with  ray tracing enabled. I haven’t used DLSS   as I just wanted to compare  raw ray tracing performance,   and the 3060 Ti was 11% faster than the 2080 Super  at both 1080p and 1440p, so it would appear that   the 3000 series cards may have more noticeable  improvements in the ray tracing department. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Dirt 5 was also tested with and without  ray tracing. With ray tracing off,   the 2080 Super was ahead at  all three resolutions tested,   though the 3060 Ti was only 2 to  7% slower depending on resolution.RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?With ray tracing enabled we’re not even  hitting 60 FPS at 1080p on either card,   but the margins are a little closer together  now, the 3060 Ti closes the gap ever so slightly,   again presumably due to the  improved ray tracing hardware. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Metro Exodus was essentially the same with  either graphics card, so let’s keep on moving. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Death Stranding had some gains with the 3060 Ti,   which was 5% faster at 1440p and 6%  at 4K, so although nothing major,   again still pretty nice given the lower price  point of the 3060 Ti compared to the 2080 Super. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was 8%  faster on the 3060 Ti at 1080p   and 7% at 1440p, though only 2%  ahead at 4K, but still a win.RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700? The differences in Watch Dogs  Legion weren’t big either,   the 3060 Ti was just 2-4% faster  depending on the resolution in use. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Call of Duty Modern Warfare was tested in  campaign mode, and again very close results,   within 1 FPS difference at 4K and 1440p,   while the 3060 Ti was 4% ahead in average FPS  at 1080p, which in this case is just 5 frames. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Rainbow Six Siege was the  only game tested with Vulkan,   the 2080 Super had higher 1% low at  4K and 1440p, while the average FPS   from the 3060 Ti had an above average  improvement at all three resolutions.

1080p Gaming Results

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?At 1080p on average over all 13 games tested  the 3060 Ti was only 2% faster than the 2080   Super in average FPS. The 2080 Super was clearly  ahead in two titles, then a few were so close it   really doesn’t matter one way or the other, but  in general the 3060 Ti was winning more than   it was losing, with up to 10% higher frame  rates in Red Dead Redemption 2 at the top.

1440p Gaming Results

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Stepping up to 1440p and nothing really changes,  the 3060 Ti still has an average lead of 2%   over the 2080 Super, but if anything more  games are now closer to no difference.   The average percentage seems to  be held up by some games like Red   Dead Redemption 2 going to extremes  relative to the rest of the results.

4K Gaming Results

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?This was also seen at 4K, where this  game was now 15% better with the 3060 Ti,   almost making it an outlier compared  to the other titles. Either way,   in these 13 games the 3060 Ti was still around  2% faster than the 2080 Super on average,   so not much difference between the two  graphics cards regardless of resolution.

Cost Per Frame

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?It’s absolutely no surprise that the 3060 Ti is  doing better in terms of cost per frame. It’s a   $300 cheaper graphics card and in most cases as we  just saw, also beats the 2080 Super in most of the   games tested, so without a nice deal on the 2080  Super it’s really not worth considering anymore.

Power Draw

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?The 3060 Ti is also using  less power while performing   better. The 2080 Super system needs around 14%   more wattage only for the 3060 Ti to run at  5% higher average FPS in this specific test.

Performance Per Watt

RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?The performance per watt measurements aren’t  perfect as I’m taking the wattage numbers   from the last graph which is one game and  applying them to the average frame rates   of all 13 titles tested, so take this as an  approximation. The 3060 Ti is the winner,   it’s using less power while also  performing better than the 2080 Super.

Not with gaming covered let’s see how  both compare in content creator workloads. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?I’ve tested DaVinci Resolve with the  Puget Systems benchmark. The difference   was extremely small here, I’m going to say it’s  a tie because although I’m taking averages from   5 tests which take more than 20 minutes  each to run, there are still variances   between each run which are bigger than  the differences between these two scores. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Adobe Premiere was exporting the same 4K video  slightly faster with the 2080 Super, however   it was only a 9 second difference in a 9 minute  render, so again essentially a tie in practice.RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?V-Ray on the other hand allowed the  3060 Ti to reach a 65% higher score.   I’ve found these new Ampere cards  to do much better in terms of   compute heavy workloads compared to  Turing, so this isn’t unexpected. RTX 3060 Ti vs 2080 Super - $400 GPU Beats $700?Likewise Blender was also seeing nice  gains with the 3060 Ti. The longer   classroom test in the open data benchmark  was completing 62% faster with the 3060 Ti,   while the shorter BMW test was 51% faster.

Conclusion

So basically the 2080 Super just isn’t  really worth considering anymore,   unless you can get it on a really good sale,  or maybe second hand might be an option,   as the 3060 Ti performs better in most  games, uses less power and costs less money. Compute heavy workloads in particular  see big gains with the 3060 Ti,   so even if both are the same price,  it makes more sense to go for that. If you’ve already got a 2080 Super then  honestly it’s not worth upgrading to a 3060 Ti.   in most of the games the performance is about  equivalent, honestly if you’ve got a 2080 Super   then you’re probably set for a while - but if  you are after an upgrade then you probably want   to check out the 3070 or 3080. 

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JT 1.4K
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