The news is out. The world’s fastest desktop graphics cards are here. NVIDIA has finally unveiled their next generation of desktop graphics cards after making gamers wait nearly two years. The new cards replace the outgoing GeForce RTX 20-series cards launched back in September, 2018. The unveiling was of course, done online since the COVID pandemic has affected large portions of the world. This is still, very good news for gamers, streamers, graphics designers and anyone else who uses a decent graphics card for work. It’s also good news because we can expect to hear some news of laptop variants of these graphics cards sometime in the future. A lot of what we see on the desktop graphics cards will eventually make its way to laptops with more or less the same performance.
The previous generation of RTX 20-series cards were known for their raytracing capability that benefited games that supported it. Games were able to take advantage of the superior rendering quality. Raytracing lets light trace objects and all the dynamics that go with it. Lighting, shadows, reflections and more were enhanced. The benefit of the RTX series cards was that they could do raytracing in real-time, a feat never achieved. The cards also had supremely superior 3D performance than the even older, GeForce 10-series graphics cards. However, raytracing performance in the RTX 20-series cards was decent, not excellent. The new RTX 30-series cards offer a lot more performance to the mix so it’s actually very usable now. Gamers will be able to crank up resolutions and quality with raytracing enabled in these titles. There are also many more titles lined up to take advantage of NVIDIA’S RTX technology.
Unlike previous events, this year’s unveiling took place from NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Huang’s kitchen. There are three major models announced, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and the RTX 3090. The GeForce 3070 is expected to hit Indian markets around October, while the other two models should arrive around September. The starting model for now, the RTX 3070 runs 5888 NVIDIA CUDA cores that are as much a measure for performance for graphics, more than the core speed itself. The RTX 3080 runs 8704 NVIDIA CUDA cores, while the top-end RTX 3090 models use 10,496. All the graphics cards run a steady core speed of between 1.7 and 1.73GHz. The RTX 3070 comes with a 256-bit, 8GB GDDR6 memory while the 3080 and 3090 run 10GB and 24GB of GDDR6X memory. The 3080 uses a 320-bit memory interface width while the 3090 uses a 384-bit one. This allows for better memory throughput needed to feed the massively powerful GPUs onboard these cards.
The cards are based on NVIDIA’s new Ampere architecture, which enables the next generation of RTX GPUs. They run the second generation of Ray Tracing Cores which help achieve the kind of performance we are seeing. These are the sub-systems that enable the raytracing capability. There are also the newest generation of Tensor cores which are used for a number of gaming-related activities but also for artificial intelligence and machine learning. Modern-day graphics cards are not just used for gaming, but other productivity applications. The newer cards include more streaming multiprocessors. They are essential to the high-intensity tasks that are performed by the graphics cards.
DLSS is a recent graphics quality enhancement feature that allows a capable graphics card to boost its quality and performance in games with the help of artificial intelligence. It does this task by letting the graphics card reduce workload by not rendering every detail, details that might not have any effect on the visual quality. It can also emphasizes other areas that are important, improving the detail. The latest generation of GeForce RTX 30-series cards come built with all the hardware needed for DLSS to perform at its best.
High-end graphics cards have been particularly important for game streamers who broadcast their games on YouTube and Twitch. In addition to running the games at the highest quality to wow the audience, they also need to encode the screen in real time to broadcast it to the web. The latest generation of NVIDIA’s GeForce cards don’t break a sweat in such situations. The additional CUDA cores won’t let you notice any difference with the game streaming turned on or off. There are other features that make it possible to have must-have studio-grade features at your home.
Take for example, NVIDIA Broadcast that isolates you from the background without the need of a green screen and fancy studio hardware. You and your chair are the only thing those watching your stream see. There are other audio-related enhancements too. A noise-removal feature completely removes background noise from inside or outside your home. Streamers will be able to broadcast their voice clearly now like they were broadcasting out of a professional studio setup.
NVIDIA Reflex is another feature which should interest professional gamers. The feature helps reduce the latency that most graphics cards add during the process of rendering models on the screen. This feature while recently announced will also help other, older graphics cards too but more so the latest RTX 30-series GPUs. NVIDIA claims gamers should be able to notice up to 33 per cent improvement in latency with older cads like the GTX 1660 Super. The new RTX 30 series graphics cards also support G-Sync with monitors with frequencies that go right up to 360Hz. This means a stutter-free, tear-free display experience that scales up with the performance of the screen along with the graphics output.
Even the cooling solutions on these Founder edition cards are setup with a push-pull configuration. This ensures efficient air flow and cools the cards down under load. It also makes these cards look fantastic too. They are unlike anything anyone has seen before.
NVIDIA has a lot of numbers to showcase exactly how powerful these new cards. The boldest claim is that the new GeForce RTX 3080 is about twice as fast as the RTX 2080. Prices compared; the new card is a lot cheaper too. That’s mind-boggling performance. It’s a good idea for anyone who has been using a graphics a generation or so older to upgrade to an RTX 30-series one.
The top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 3090 has a few tricks up its sleeve too. All the cards announced can display 8K resolutions but the more impressive fact about the 3090 is its ability to play modern games at high quality at 8K. That’s hard to beat. In many way, it’s a future-proof card.
A number of upcoming game titles will support the raytracing feature on the GeForce RTX 30-series cards. Gamers looking to enjoy those will be considering these cards. Among the most popular titles are Cyberpunk 2077 and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Existing popular titles like Fortnite and Minecraft will add support for raytracing and DLSS, which should make the games stand out even more.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards will be out soon, and OEM partners will also sell their versions of the cards with their own customizations added, which can include different designs and coolers. One thing’s for sure, we can expect life-like realism as technology blurs the line between games and reality, at least visually.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs take raytracing to a whole new level
