ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 3080 Graphics Card Review

The battle for higher FPS is never-ending, as games get more demanding, monitor refresh rates get higher, resolutions are increasing, and so on. Of course, that’s easily fixed, you just need a more powerful GPU. Until the crazy RTX 3090 model hits the market later this month though, the RTX 3080 is set to be the fastest consumer gaming card on the market. Albeit, I think it still will be the fastest “consumer” card as those £1000-£1500 are pretty firmly in enthusiast land. The new ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 3080 comes well equipped though, featuring all the latest and greatest Nvidia technologies that should please and PC gamer wanting extreme refresh rates and resolutions.

ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 3080 Graphics Card

The card features an absolutely enormous cooler, and that’s no bad thing. Bigger coolers allow for a cooler and quieter card, of course, but also mean the card can be clocked higher and maintain its peak clocks for longer without having to throttle. The Axial-tech fans, high-end Military-grade capacitors, and more mean this should be one of the fastest RTX 3080’s on the market. TUF isn’t just marketing, it really does mean TOUGH, and this card has been build to last. Each card is extensively tested before its shipped to ensure it meets the right standards.

Features

• NVIDIA Ampere Streaming Multiprocessors: The building blocks for the world’s fastest, most efficient GPU, the all-new Ampere SM brings 2X the FP32 throughput and improved power efficiency.
• 2nd Generation RT Cores: Experience 2X the throughput of 1st gen RT Cores, plus concurrent RT and shading for a whole new level of ray tracing performance.
• 3rd Generation Tensor Cores: Get up to 2X the throughput with structural sparsity and advanced AI algorithms such as DLSS. Now with support for up to 8K resolution, these cores deliver a massive boost in-game performance and all-new AI capabilities.
• Axial-tech Fan Design has been newly tuned with a reversed central fan direction for less turbulence.
• Dual Ball Fan Bearings can last up to twice as long as sleeve bearing designs.
• Military-grade Capacitors and other TUF components enhance durability and performance.
• GPU Tweak II provides intuitive performance tweaking, thermal controls, and system monitoring.

TUF Components

“Components are selected for TUF Gaming graphics cards based on their durability and performance. In addition to top-shelf chokes and MOSFETs, capacitors that meet military-grade certification make the TUF stand tall amongst the competition. The components are soldered to the PCB using our advanced Auto-Extreme automated manufacturing process. Smooth joints on the rear of the PCB and the elimination of human errors ensure each graphics card meets our rigorous specifications. Finally, to ensure flawless performance when it counts, the cards are subjected to a grueling 144-hour validation trial.”