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Everyone’s excited about the new generation of Nvidia GPUs, the biggest update to their lineup since the 20-series GPUs were introduced in 2018. There’s lots of new information to dig through, so we’ve compiled a guide that puts together all the key information in one place. We are going to be going through the announcement and what power supply the RTX 3090, 3080, and 3070 will require.
Find out where to buy an RTX 3060Ti here.
The announcement of these new graphics cards was streamed live by Nvidia, and that stream has now been archived on YouTube if you want to revisit every detail of the official announcement. We’ve compiled a lot of the key information in this post, but if you enjoy this kind of tech-heavy corporate product unveilings, you can check out the entire official announcement here.
Nvidia says that you will need a 750W Power Supply for the RTX 3090 or RTX 3080 cards, and 650W Power Supply for the RTX 3070. We have a PSU calculator available here, which we’ll be updating to include these hot new graphics cards once we get more precise information on their power requirements since exact demands on the PSU will vary depending on various factors of your hardware configuration.
These new GPUs require a 12-pin power connector, which is a new format of connector cable. The RTX 3090, 3080, and 3070 cards will come with a converter to, instead, use a pair of 8-pin connectors to maintain compatibility with your current power supply, but Nvidia will be shifting to this connector format going forward.
These new GPUs require a 12-pin power connector, which is a new format of connector cable. These cards will come with a converter to instead use a pair of 8-pin connectors instead to maintain compatibility with existing setups, but Nvidia will be shifting to this connector format going forward.
Nvidia’s latest GPUs are certainly thicc bois, taking up multiple PCIe drive bays. For the RTX 3090, you’ll need three free slots just to accommodate this GPU, and for the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070, you’ll need two free slots. You’ll want to consider this when looking at what case and motherboard you’ll be pairing a new graphics card with.
The main factors to consider when appraising compatibility with your current or planned system, are having a strong enough power supply that can keep these cards fully functional, and having enough physical space for them.
Regarding your motherboard, in general, any reasonably modern motherboard that offers PCIe should support these GPUs in some capacity. Older PCIe 3.0 based motherboards will still support these cards, although they are built with PCIe 4.0 in mind. An Nvidia rep has posted on Reddit to say that they expect any performance difference between PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 to be minimal:
“The impact is typically less than a few percent going from a x16 PCIE 4.0 to x16 PCIE 3.0.”
Beyond the typical performance improvements you’d expect with a new generation of graphics card, there are a few new features that Nvidia are introducing with their newest lineup of cards. There’s Nvidia Reflex, a mode your card can operate in specifically designed to minimize any latency, ideal for competitive gaming. Nvidia Broadcast, a new selection of tools using the power of Nvidia GPUs to improve audio clarity by filtering out background noise, tracking movements to keep your face locked into the center of video broadcasts. Virtual Background is a tool for virtual green screen, allowing you to use video backgrounds without visual glitches and artifacts.
We’ve also taken a look at some of the new features coming to Nvidia’s AI upscaling tech, DLSS, which you can read in-depth over here.
The RTX 3070 is equipped with 8GB of GDDR6 video memory, the RTX 3080 comes with 10GB of GDDR6X video memory, and the RTX 3090 is packing a whopping 24GB of GDDR6X.
These new powerful GPUs are built to offer high-performance gaming, and Nvidia has announced that they will be compatible with a new range of 360Hz G-Sync monitors, offering extremely high framerate gaming on supported games. Actual performance will depend on the game, other elements of your hardware setup, and other graphical settings, but if you want to push the limits on high framerate gaming, an RTX 30-series GPU paired with high framerate gaming monitor.
RTX enabled games, games with implementations of Nvidia tech specifically designed to take advantage of their RTX GPUs, and alongside the announcement of these new cards, was news of both upcoming games that will be RTX enabled, plus already released games that will be updated to take advantage of the new cards. Here are the new RTX enabled games we just heard about:
Watch Dogs: Legion is perhaps particularly interesting because it’s hard to imagine an authentic depiction of London without accurately rendered rain and puddle simulation.
We’ve got pages highlighting the best options for picking up one of these new 30-series GPUs from Nvidia, and we’ll be breaking down pricing across each region it becomes available. Check them out here:
Where To Buy An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070?
Where To Buy An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080?
Where To Buy An NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090?
We’ll be sure to update this guide as more key information becomes available about the Nvidia 30-series GPUs, and when we can get our hands on them for first-hand impressions.
