{"id":8112,"date":"2020-09-04T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/why-theres-no-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-yet\/"},"modified":"2020-09-04T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T10:30:00","slug":"why-theres-no-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/why-theres-no-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Why there’s no GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (yet)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Why there’s no GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (yet)<\/h2>\n

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Two long years after the GeForce RTX 20-series kicked off real-time ray tracing and uncompromising 4K performance in earnest, Nvidia finally took the wraps off its hotly anticipated successors on Tuesday. The first GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs are damned impressive, culminating in the ferocious GeForce RTX 3090 with 24GB of cutting-edge GDDR6X memory and enough power to game on an 8K display. But glancing over the launch lineup, one things sticks out: Why is there no GeForce RTX 3080 Ti? The RTX 2080 Ti was the heavy hitter in the 20-series lineup, after all.<\/p>\n

Nvidia never talks about unannounced products, but there are several reasons to skip a high-end Ti out of the gate this generation, and a lot of it has to do with the competition. Big Navi and new consoles cometh, after all.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dig in.<\/p>\n

Why GeForce RTX 3090 instead of 3080 Ti?<\/h2>\n

Debuting with a $1,500 GeForce RTX 3090 instead of a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti makes sense for two key reasons: It lets Nvidia continue to push graphics card pricing upward while establishing a hard-to-topple performance benchmark, and it leaves room to maneuver if AMD\u2019s imminent RDNA 2-based \u201cBig Navi\u201d Radeon graphics cards come out with GPUs blazing.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with that first part. Nvidia\u2019s machinations over the last few GPU generations make two things clear: It hates losing in performance benchmarks, and it likes making as much money as possible from its high-performance graphics cards. (Which is the entire reason for a business to exist!)<\/p>\n

Witness how Nvidia endlessly held off launching the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti as a counter to Radeon Vega\u2019s potential (and unrealized) threat, or how it launched the superfluous GeForce GTX 1070 Ti solely to take the Radeon Vega 56 down a peg in performance charts. Nvidia wants to win, full stop. And in a year with both Big Navi and the AMD-powered Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles launching, striking first with a monstrous GeForce RTX 3090 firmly establishes Nvidia as the high-water mark for enthusiast-class gaming performance. Big Navi could pull a surprise upset, but it\u2019s unlikely.<\/p>\n

\"geforce<\/a> Brad Chacos\/IDG<\/small>
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The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cost a staggering $1,200 on arrival, but the GeForce RTX 3090 costs even more.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By pulling this card out with the long-dead xx90 classification, Nvidia can also keep prices high. The company faced fierce criticism and slow starting sales thanks to the higher prices established in the GeForce RTX 20-series, which pushed up costs for each GPU tier (the RTX 2070 and 2080 each cost $100 more than their predecessors) but offered the same traditional gaming performance in each price tier. The $700 GeForce RTX 2080 went toe-to-toe with the $700 GTX 1080 Ti outside of ray tracing tasks.<\/p>\n

If Nvidia called this the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti but priced it $300 higher than the 2080 Ti, forum-goers would grab their torches and pitchforks. Stuffing this much performance and 24GB of cutting-edge GDDR6X memory into a radically redesigned graphics card isn\u2019t cheap. By calling it the GeForce RTX 3090, Nvidia can squeeze more money out of the price-is-no-object enthusiasts while avoiding unrest.<\/p>\n