ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 3080 Graphics Card Review

How Much Does It Cost?

This card isn’t the cheapest, as it does come with one of the more complex and advanced coolers for this launch. Just in raw materials alone, you’re going to pay a premium. That being said, it’s also going to be one of the best made and fastest cards, and ASUS are often a touch more expensive than their rivals, they just are. However, despite that, it’s still about the same price as a founders and cheaper than many of its 3080 rivals… I don’t know what they’re drinking at ASUS, but I like it. You can check Amazon UK for up to date stock and prices here. I’d link you to the product if I could, but the product pages come and go as stock woes continue. Stick with it folks, the rush will taper off soon enough.

Overview

Well there’s not much point beating around the bush is there, it’s the fastest card we’ve ever tested. Which isn’t too shabby considering the previous fastest record was only set yesterday! OK, it’s not the top model from the new RTX 3000 series, but it still has enough power to topple the mighty Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, which we already know is a LOT faster than the RTX 2080. From generation to generation, Nvidia is showing solid gains, and ASUS has done well to work their own magic on the card too.

When it comes to gaming, you’re going to get fantastically high frame rates at any resolution. It’s the fastest gaming GPU on the market for a little while, and it’s in a pretty reasonable price point. It’s expensive, but you do get a lot of performance bang for your buck.

Maximum Resolution!

8K performance may not seem amazing, but it was. The VRAM demands at that resolution are insane, but some games still managed pretty playable frame rates with high settings.

At 4K, we were smashing past 60 FPS regularly, and even features like Ray Tracing can be enjoyed with adequate quality settings at modern resolutions and frame rates. Not too shabby, I think you’ll agree. Overall though, that’s all I’ll say on the performance, it’s the fastest, simple.

Build Quality

This card is very well engineered, and the fact that ASUS put the card through a 144 hour rigorous test is really awesome. The upgraded hardware isn’t just there for bragging rights, it’s built to last and endure more intense usage, and well… you don’t get much more intense than gaming all night and day! A metal shroud, a huge heat sink, quality fans and more, it all adds up to something brilliant.

Should I Buy One?

I’d be surprised if this didn’t turn out to be one of the most popular cards this launch, not just for ASUS, but overall. It looks fantastic, without being too overly “gamer” in its design. It has RGB, but only a little bit, so it doesn’t feel overdone. It’s big, but everything is for performance first, and as you say, the benchmarks speak for themselves.