13 specifications

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

On paper, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has more shading units. Specifications describe what each card is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.

10 specifications · 3 with a higher side

Full specifications

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB

NVIDIA · GeForce RTX 30 · Desktop

Full specifications

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

NVIDIA · GeForce RTX 30 · Desktop

Compute

Architecture

Ampere

Shading units

8,960

10,240

Base clock

1260 MHz

1370 MHz

Boost clock

1710 MHz

1670 MHz

Memory

12 GB

Memory type

GDDR6X

Memory bus

384-bit

Power and platform

TDP

350 W

Process

Not verified

Launched

Not verified

2021-06-03

A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.

Reading the table

What the difference means.

The same architecture

Both are Ampere cards from NVIDIA, so their figures can be read against each other directly, and the features are the same on both. The differences in the table are the whole difference.

Video memory

Both carry 12 GB, so neither has the advantage where memory is the limit: high resolutions, heavy textures and local AI models fill both at the same point.

Shading units

The RTX 3080 Ti has 10,240 shading units against 8,960, 14 percent more of the same kind of core. Within one architecture that is the clearest single guide to how much more work the chip can do, provided it is given the power and cooling to use them.

Board power

Both are rated at 350 W, so they ask the same of a case and a power supply.

What no table says

How much of its speed a graphics card keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.

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Questions

Is the RTX 3080 12GB better than the RTX 3080 Ti?: On the specifications they are closely matched. They share an architecture, so the table is a fair guide. Frame rates depend on the game and its settings, and how much speed either card keeps after ten minutes depends on its cooling, which is what a sustained test measures.
Do the RTX 3080 12GB and the RTX 3080 Ti have the same features?: Yes. Both are Ampere designs from NVIDIA, so they share the same generation of video encoders and decoders, upscaling and driver support. What separates them is in the table: how much of the chip each one has, and how much power it is given.

More comparisons

Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.

Nothing above describes how a graphics card behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.

We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.

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