GeForce RTX 30 Series Graphics Cards: The Ultimate Play

GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards. The ultimate play. For all the ways you play.

The new GeForce RTX 3080, launching first on September 17, 2020

Powered by Ampere, NVIDIA’s 2nd gen RTX architecture, GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards feature faster 2nd gen Ray Tracing Cores, faster 3rd gen Tensor Cores, and new streaming multiprocessors that together bring stunning visuals, faster frame rates, and AI acceleration for gamers and creators.

GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs also feature several world firsts: they’re the first gaming-class graphics cards with up to 24GB of new, blazing-fast GDDR6X VRAM; they’re the first GPUs with HDMI 2.1, for 4K high refresh rate and 8K gaming; they’re the first discrete GPUs with support for the AV1 codec, enabling you to watch high-resolution streams using significantly less bandwidth; and our Founders Edition cards are the first with innovative dual axial flow through cooling solutions.

And of course, GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs come packed with new technologies for esports competitors, livestreamers, creators, and gamers alike – NVIDIA Reflex reduces system latency, providing split-second PC gaming responsiveness; NVIDIA Broadcast turns any room into a home broadcast studio with AI-enhanced video and voice comms; updates to NVIDIA DLSS make 8K HDR gaming a reality on the GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card; and new NVIDIA Studio enhancements make creative applications run faster than ever before.

For the complete rundown on the world’s most powerful gaming graphics cards keep on reading, and be sure to check out the full GeForce RTX 30 Series video presentation from NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Huang:

Starting September 17th, NVIDIA and our partners will release the GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080, and GeForce RTX 3070:

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Partners from around the world, including ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY and Zotac, will have custom cards on shelves alongside NVIDIA Founders Edition models. And select cards sold by participating retailers come bundled with Watch Dogs: Legion and a 1-year GeForce NOW Founder’s Subscription. Learn more here.

Our Founders Edition GeForce graphics cards feature excellent cooling and stunning designs that make your PC a striking showcase. For our new GeForce RTX 30 Series, we’ve created an innovative dual axial flow through cooling solution, featuring two fans - one at the left front, and another on the right rear that draws air through the card (the GeForce RTX 3070 flow through design differs slightly, with its fans both mounted on the top of the card).

As heat is drawn away from components into the hybrid vapor chamber, it is efficiently distributed across the length of the card and throughout the massive aluminum fin stack. The left fan pushes air heated by the fin stack out through extra-large GPU bracket vents, while the right fan draws the air towards the top chassis exhaust.

Ordinarily, GPU circuit boards (PCBs) are the length of the graphics card. So to insert a full-sized fan in the rear of the card we had to get creative! To that end, our engineers designed a much smaller PCB, shrank the NVLink and power connectors, and still managed to pack in 18-phases for improved power delivery. Don’t worry, we included an adapter that allows Founders Edition cards to work with users’ existing power supplies.

These changes, among others, gave us the space to chop a large fan-sized chunk from the PCB, giving our dual axial flow through cooling solution plenty of space to breathe.

Acoustically, the new Founders Edition design is quieter than traditional dual axial coolers, while still delivering nearly 2x the cooling performance of previous generation solutions. The aforementioned NVLink and power design changes help here, creating more space for airflow through the largest fin stack seen to date, and the larger bracket vents improve airflow in concert with individually shaped shroud fins. In fact, wherever you look, every aspect of the Founders Edition cards are designed to maximize airflow, minimize temperatures, and enable the highest levels of performance with the least possible noise.

These card-wide cooling innovations allow us to give you more performance, without a corresponding increase in temperature or noise over prior-generation graphics cards.

Purchase when the cards are released on the GeForce RTX 3090, GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 landing pages.

The blistering performance of our new GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards is made possible by a combination of cutting-edge tech and over two decades of gaming graphics R&D. Here’s a brief overview of the highlights; if you wish to know more, check back on September 17th for the GeForce RTX 30 Series Whitepaper, which will delve into every aspect of our new graphics cards in exhaustive detail.

Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) are at the heart of NVIDIA GPUs, and our newest NVIDIA Ampere Streaming Multiprocessors are our best yet. Compared to previous-gen SMs on the Turing-architecture GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, new NVIDIA Ampere Architecture SMs offer 2x FP32 throughput for superior performance.

And as with previous generations, we’ve also increased performance per watt, getting gamers even higher frame rates. Together with PCIE 4.0 support, a 18-phase power supply, and new innovative cooling solutions, GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs deliver new performance records even before you overclock.

NVIDIA made real-time videogame ray tracing a reality with the invention of Ray Tracing Cores, dedicated processing cores on the GPU specifically designed to tackle performance-intensive ray tracing workloads. On GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, we are introducing 2nd Generation RT Cores, which have up to 2x the throughput.

These enhancements accelerate ray tracing performance by up to 2X.

To further accelerate performance in rasterized and ray-traced games, we invented NVIDIA DLSS. This deep learning neural network, powered by dedicated AI processors called Tensor Cores, boosts frame rates while maintaining crisp, clear image quality.

GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs feature our 3rd generation Tensor Cores, with up to 2x the throughput of Turing-architecture Tensor Cores, making it faster to run AI-powered technologies and techniques, and opening the door to future features.

When enabled, DLSS improves performance in titles such as Control, Minecraft with RTX for Windows 10 and Death Stranding, while generating beautiful, crisp game images that are often clearer and sharper than native resolution rendering with Temporal Anti-Aliasing. And now, we’re introducing a new Ultra Performance mode that enables DLSS to run at up to 8K on the GeForce RTX 3090.

Memory manufacturer Micron is debuting its new GDDR6X memory on the GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080. GDDR6X uses innovative PAM4 signal transmission technology to once again double the data rate per clock, delivering unprecedented graphics memory performance to feed the most data-hungry workloads, such as gaming, professional visualization, and AI inference.

These enhancements ensure the GPU’s compute cores and other components receive a constant stream of data, rather than stalling while they wait, maximizing efficiency and performance.

The development of new monitor and TV technology has rapidly outpaced HDMI’s capabilities in recent years. Display panels capable of 4K and 8K resolutions have been available for some time, but previous-gen single-cable connections and outputs were limited to 4K HDR at 98Hz. At higher refresh rates and resolutions, you’d either have to compromise by enabling Chroma Subsampling, or start using multiple display outputs and display cables.

To resolve this, GeForce RTX 30 Series are the world’s first PC GPUs to support HDMI 2.1, the newest display standard. With a certified HDMI 2.1 TV or monitor with DSC, 4K can run at high refresh rates without compromise, and 8K single-cable TVs are now a reality.

The planet’s biggest Internet companies have banded together to create AV1, a royalty-free, highly efficient video codec. This reduces the bandwidth required to stream high resolution video by up to 50% compared to H.264, and makes 4K and 8K high resolution streams feasible for consumers lacking the fastest Internet connections and unmetered contracts.

GeForce RTX 30 Series are the first discrete GPUs with AV1 decoders (as part of our new 5th generation NVIDIA Decoder), enabling users to take advantage of AV1 on desktops and in media centers.

Input lag, otherwise known as system latency, makes games less responsive, increasing the time it takes for your actions to be reflected in-game. With the launch of our GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, we’re introducing NVIDIA Reflex, a revolutionary suite of GPU, G-SYNC display, and software technologies that allow gamers to measure and optimize system latency.

Lower latency makes your PC more responsive to mouse input, which can make all the difference between winning and losing in fast paced games where milliseconds matter. Support for the new NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency Mode is coming soon for top competitive titles, including Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Warzone, Destiny 2, Fortnite, and Valorant.

For a detailed rundown of NVIDIA Reflex and how it helps measure and reduce system latency, head here.

All this tech, along with driver optimizations, memory compression techniques, and other NVIDIA Ampere architecture enhancements, makes GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards the absolute fastest available.

In ray-traced games, performance is up to 2X faster compared to our previous-generation graphics cards. And in rasterized games without ray tracing and DLSS, GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards deliver the performance necessary for max setting, high resolution, high framerate gameplay, giving you the definitive experience.

Whether you’re a competitive player seeking 360 FPS in eSports titles, or a gamer wanting zero compromise experiences with the absolute highest levels of fidelity, GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards will exceed your expectations.

NVIDIA constantly works with developers, optimizing PC performance, crafting Game Ready Driver updates, and incorporating game-changing technologies like ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS, and NVIDIA Reflex. Check out our new Developer Interview video for details on how we’re working with Epic Games, id Software, Riot Games, and Ubisoft to implement NVIDIA technologies into some of the world’s largest games and engines:

Alongside the unveiling of our new GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, we’re announcing partnerships and enhancements for numerous games, and releasing new RTX ON trailers and screenshots. Get more information and see the trailers by following the links below:

• Fortnite: The world’s most popular Battle Royale is adding ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS and NVIDIA Reflex. Full details and trailer here.
• Cyberpunk 2077: The year’s most anticipated title supports several ray-traced effects and NVIDIA DLSS, and now you can see it running at max settings on GeForce RTX 30 Series in a new 4K trailer.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War: The next game in the hugely popular Call of Duty franchise is adding ray-traced effects, NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, NVIDIA Ansel and NVIDIA Highlights. Full details here.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone: The popular multiplayer game and battle royale game are adding NVIDIA Reflex. Full details here.
  
• Apex Legends: Electronic Arts’ popular Battle Royale is adding NVIDIA Reflex to reduce input latency, making gameplay more responsive.
• Watch Dogs: Legion: Ubisoft’s anticipated title is already confirmed to be using ray tracing, and now it’s adding NVIDIA DLSS as well. Full details and trailer here.
• Valorant: The competitive shooter from League of Legends developer Riot Games is also adding NVIDIA Reflex.
• Minecraft with RTX Beta for Windows 10: The path-traced ray tracing of Minecraft with RTX has been updated, and two new ray-traced worlds have been released for you to download. Full details and trailers here.
• NVIDIA DLSS will also be heading to Boundary and Bright Memory Infinite.
• NVIDIA Reflex will also be coming to Cuisine Royale, Destiny 2, Enlisted, Kovaak 2.0, and MORDHAU.

For more game technology announcements, stay tuned to GeForce.com until the end of time.

NVIDIA DLSS is our groundbreaking AI rendering technology that boosts frame rates while generating beautiful, crisp game images. For 8K gaming on the GeForce RTX 3090, we’ve created a new Ultra Performance mode that accelerates performance at 8K.

For full details, check out our 8K HDR Gaming on RTX 3090 article.

PC storage solutions are entering a new era with the launch of blazing-fast Gen4 PCIE NVMe SSDs, capable of read speeds up to 20x faster than drives released just a few years ago. To make full use of these speeds, developers and game engines are working on advanced streaming and loading solutions that will allow the creation of larger worlds with less loading, less pop-in, and more detail.

To support these developments, NVIDIA has created RTX IO. This delivers GPU-based lossless decompression, and low-level, super-efficient APIs architected specifically for game workloads. Just as we did with RTX and DirectX Raytracing, we are partnering closely with Microsoft to make sure RTX IO works great with their DirectStorage on Windows API. By using DirectStorage, next gen games will be able to take full advantage of RTX IO-enabled hardware to accelerate load times and deliver larger open worlds, all while reducing CPU load.

For full details, check out our NVIDIA RTX IO article.

NVIDIA Broadcast is a universal plugin that works with most popular live streaming, voice chat and video conferencing apps. It’s supported on any NVIDIA GeForce, TITAN or Quadro RTX GPU, and uses dedicated AI processors on RTX GPUs called Tensor Cores to help the app’s AI networks run in real-time, right alongside your games. For all the details, head on over to this article.

If you use your graphics card for work as well as play, GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs make you more efficient with hardware-accelerated workflows in dozens of leading applications. To see just how much faster you can complete your work, check out our NVIDIA Studio blog.

We’ll bring you complete details and setup steps when we release our GeForce RTX 30 Series Game Ready Driver and new GeForce Experience client update.

To celebrate the launch of our GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, we’ve lined up an amazing bundle that goes live when cards start arriving on store shelves. At participating partners, select GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs and pre-built PCs include a PC digital download copy of Watch Dogs: Legion.

Powered by the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, our second-generation of RTX, GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards deliver staggering rasterized, ray-traced, and AI-enhanced horsepower, giving you the performance to make your games more beautiful and realistic with maxed out settings.

GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs power the next wave of amazing game titles, including Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite with RTX, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Minecraft with RTX for Windows 10. And they give competitive gamers the lightning response times needed to win in games like Valorant and Fortnite.

GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs also power new AI-enhanced broadcasting tools, so you can communicate more clearly and efficiently with those around you, wherever they are. And they accelerate creative apps like Davinci Resolve, Blender, and Adobe Premiere Pro, so you can spend more time creating, and less time waiting.

For gamers and creators everywhere, the GeForce RTX 30 Series is the Ultimate Play.

GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards will go on sale starting September 17th. Follow our GeForce RTX 30 Series landing page to find partners participating in our Watch Dogs: Legion bundle, which commences the same day.