With Nvidia's recent announcement of the GeForce RTX 30 Series, many were blown away with the amazing improvements in performance. For example, while the RTX 3090 boasts 8K gaming, the RTX 3080 and the lowest cost option, RTX 3070, have massive improvements as well. In fact, the cheapest option may actually be the best option for many consumers in need of a new graphics card.
During Nvidia's recent GeForce RTX 30 Series launch event, the leading graphics card manufacturer described the Ampere architecture that allows for such a huge gain in performance as the biggest generational leap ever. Ray tracing is currently one of the big GPU talking points and another area the new cards excel in. Ray tracing is a simulation of the physics of light, calculating the path of light rays and how each bounces, reflects and diffuses. It is quite complicated and, in the past, required hours or even days to render a single frame. With RTX, Nvidia does this in real time and the latest improvements handle the task even more quickly and easily than ever before.
The show-stopper of the Nvidia reveal was, of course, the GeForce RTX 3090. This powerhouse offers up to 8K resolution at 60 frames per second, but comes with an equally impressive price tag at $1499. The RTX 3080 is a significant step down, but will retail at $699, keeping within reach of more gamers. Finally, the RTX 3080, but for just $499. Price is an important consideration, but should not be the only factor in picking a graphics card. After all, one can save up a bit longer and sometimes that can make a huge difference in satisfaction.
Why The GeForce RTX 3070 Is The Best
If money was of no consequence, everyone would choose the GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card. It offers stupendous performance and much more than many current games can even take full advantage of. Is there even an option for 8K resolution for the average gamer? First of all, games may have limited texture resolutions and if the card exceeds the available texture resolution, it will have to be upscaled, which makes them either blurred, pixelated or both. Even if the game has textures that look good in 8K, does the player own an 8K monitor? All the pixels in the world do no good if they can't be displayed, so this adds to the cost. That's even if the computer system is able to keep up, considering a fast processor and memory are needed to handle the frantic pace of the RTX 3090.
Perhaps the Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti. The RTX 3070 beats the previous flagship, according to Nvidia. In other words, the company's best graphics card currently on the market can be sured for the low, low price of $499. That means every game currently available will look amazing and play smooth with the budget priced GeForce RTX 3070. The only reason to consider the higher priced models is if the entire gaming system is being upgraded. By opting for the RTX 3080 or RTX 3090, the graphics card will have some future-proofing. For everyone else, it is probably best to get the RTX 3070 and invest the extra on more games or more RAM.
Source: Nvidia