Zotac 3080/ti

Fabian03

Active member
So I've ordered a rig with the 3080ti non strix and I've heard mixed reviews, some outlets and forums say it is a good card while others say it runs hot and loud, is of lower build quality and doesn't boost as high as the TUF gaming or similar bracket cards.
my question is what camp is right about the trinity cards ?
 

loso64

Well-known member
If multiple well known reviewers says the card is not boosting as much and is running hot and loud, then it is most likely true. If some random Joe on reddit or other forums is saying it, i would take it with massive grain of salt. Fanboys will be fanboys.

That said for 3080 and 3090 zotac and palits cards are at the bottom of the all brands. They run hottest, loudest and dont overclock high, their bios is also limited to stock levels of Watts. They also dont have really great parts, specificaly mosfets and were known to cause some issues.

For most poeple, especially those that dont overclock at all it does not matter. Asus is known to have best cards this gen in built quality, cooling and power delivery, however they have high premium price hike on them. To me it was worth it and i went with originally 3090 Strix, later downgraded to 3080TI Strix.


TL;DR Watch reputable reviewers to built opinion, not a random Joe on the forums/reddit. And i am aware of the irony, this applies to me too, expressing my own opinion and research i did.
 

Fabian03

Active member
If multiple well known reviewers says the card is not boosting as much and is running hot and loud, then it is most likely true. If some random Joe on reddit or other forums is saying it, i would take it with massive grain of salt. Fanboys will be fanboys.

That said for 3080 and 3090 zotac and palits cards are at the bottom of the all brands. They run hottest, loudest and dont overclock high, their bios is also limited to stock levels of Watts. They also dont have really great parts, specificaly mosfets and were known to cause some issues.

For most poeple, especially those that dont overclock at all it does not matter. Asus is known to have best cards this gen in built quality, cooling and power delivery, however they have high premium price hike on them. To me it was worth it and i went with originally 3090 Strix, later downgraded to 3080TI Strix.


TL;DR Watch reputable reviewers to built opinion, not a random Joe on the forums/reddit. And i am aware of the irony, this applies to me too, expressing my own opinion and research i did
See my predicament is I amended from the 3080 strix to the 3080ti non strix after getting an email like two days ago and I'm kind of regretting the decision as its an overall downgrade in quality control :/
 

loso64

Well-known member
See my predicament is I amended from the 3080 strix to the 3080ti non strix after getting an email like two days ago and I'm kind of regretting the decision as its an overall downgrade in quality control :/
you can always amend back, it should not really change your position.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
It does all come down to if you're overclocking or not. The Palit and Zotacs will operate exactly the same as any other card at stock (within margin of error differences).
 

loso64

Well-known member
It does all come down to if you're overclocking or not. The Palit and Zotacs will operate exactly the same as any other card at stock (within margin of error differences).
Indeed as Spyder says, yes it will operate the same, if you dont overclock and it will run within operating temps, even tho those temps are higher. so for most people this does not matter as i posted above
 

Fabian03

Active member
It does all come down to if you're overclocking or not. The Palit and Zotacs will operate exactly the same as any other card at stock (within margin of error differ
Indeed as Spyder says, yes it will operate the same, if you dont overclock and it will run within operating temps, even tho those temps are higher. so for most people this does not matter as i posted above
I'll take both of your words for it and hold course, thankyou for the reassurances its highly appreciated :)
 

loso64

Well-known member
i am sure you will be more than happy with your purchase, the marginal gains from overclocking are not worth chasing unless you are really enthusiast. We are talking about 1-3% difference maybe for much higher power usage and temps.
99% of people dont care, it is only the 1% that does overclocking, those people also tend to browse forums and reddit and such and thus are the loudest.
Happy players dont go to forum to complain, they have too much fun playing games :D
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
i am sure you will be more than happy with your purchase, the marginal gains from overclocking are not worth chasing unless you are really enthusiast. We are talking about 1-3% difference maybe for much higher power usage and temps.
99% of people dont care, it is only the 1% that does overclocking, those people also tend to browse forums and reddit and such and thus are the loudest.
Happy players dont go to forum to complain, they have too much fun playing games :D
You also can't overclock the GPU under PCS warranty terms.

The GPU's these days have auto overclocking in GPU Boost 4 on nvidia and Radon Wattman on AMD, these are so effective these days that it leaves very little headroom on the actual silicon to overclock any further than that.
 

loso64

Well-known member
You also can't overclock the GPU under PCS warranty terms.
oh really? and how would they even know that this happened? Considering it is literally a profile in MSI afterburner? Well screw warranty, i am not watercooling my GPU not to tap overclocking :D
 

loso64

Well-known member
You also can't overclock the GPU under PCS warranty terms.
tho, considering how Boost works, the fact having higher limits, better power delivery and better cooling should provide better clocks even without manually tweaking profile in MSI afterburner
 
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loso64

Well-known member
these are so effective these days that it leaves very little headroom on the actual silicon to overclock any further than that.
Actually, regarding this, you can get even more out of the GPU once you undervolt it. You find the lowest possible voltage to keep highest possible clock (base clock, not boost clock). By doing this you can get the GPU running cooler because more Volts -> higher hear. Now if you have lower heat, the boost you mentioned can do its magic better and boost even higher.

It is kinda mind-blowing that by undervolting GPU, you actually can make it run faster in certain situations. But as you said, this is a form of overclocking/underclocking, so if PCS has certain terms for warranty, this would go against it.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Now if you have lower heat, the boost you mentioned can do its magic better and boost even higher.
It's not the case with the 3000 series, they're locked to 2GHz with GPU Boost at the driver level. But even without that limit, the max available on the actual silicon is only a fraction over 2GHz anyway.

 

loso64

Well-known member
It's not the case with the 3000 series, they're locked to 2GHz with GPU Boost at the driver level. But even without that limit, the max available on the actual silicon is only a fraction over 2GHz anyway.

oh, cool, did not really looked into 3k series OC, just mine good old trusty 1080TI strix OC, thanks for the link
 

loso64

Well-known member
It's not the case with the 3000 series, they're locked to 2GHz with GPU Boost at the driver level. But even without that limit, the max available on the actual silicon is only a fraction over 2GHz anyway.

wait there is talk about those caps, It was one of the reasons why i went with Strix, as they are not using those i think. I will have to look further into this later, yup strix has zero of those caps that were causing OC issues. So that card might be better at OC, strix cards use exclusively MLCC caps, so this do not have the crashing issue and should not have this overclocking hard limit due to crashes.

That said, it still does not mean it will overclock much higher, as it depends on lots of factors and silicon lottery, but yes, that was main reason why i paid the premium tax on strix
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
strix cards use exclusively MLCC caps, so this do not have the crashing issue and should not have this overclocking hard limit due to crashes.
The hard limit is in the driver, not the card, it’s on all cards. You can get hacked BIOSes for overclocking.
But yes, the strix and the Tuf models both didn’t have the cheaper caps arranagement.

Again, only relevant for overclocking.
 

loso64

Well-known member
The 1000 series were insane overclockers! I’m still on a 1080, incredible cards!
indeed, as i mentioned in some other thread, i do not need upgrade with my 1080TI Strix OC, it is just i want to, to get RT and such.
But this old girl is not done yet, my GF is grabbing my pc, for her 1080p gaming it is gonna be a great card for few more years.
This card i have is incredible overclocker, it can do easily +150 on core and +800 on ram, i managed to undervolt it and still getting like 90 on core, running much cooler. This card never reaches 70C at 60% fan speed.
 

loso64

Well-known member
The hard limit is in the driver, not the card, it’s on all cards. You can get hacked BIOSes for overclocking.
But yes, the strix and the Tuf models both didn’t have the cheaper caps arranagement.

Again, only relevant for overclocking.
yup, only relevant for overclocking. As is the whole Strix and the fact it has flash dual bios option for example.
 
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