I'm currently considering 3 options:

• try to get a RTX 3080 10GB now
  
• wait until the 20 GB comes out
  
• wait and see how good the AMD RX6900 will be

What do you think and why?

What card do you currently have?

Wait

enough that I can wait as long as necessary.

Well, cant really answer your questions unless you tell us your card.

Because depending on what you already have you could be spending big money for essentially a sidegrade, or only a small upgrade, or, hell, even a downgrade.

I was hesitant to mention a budget (whatever I need) and that I currently have a GTX 1070 because that's not important. What's important is what I want to acquire through this upgrade: 4K gaming with raytracing. The RTX 3080 fits that bill perfectly.

I'm just hesitant because I'm a little worried the video RAM of 10 GB might not be future proof. And while the other 2 options I mentioned rectify that, they are both not available yet and one is going to be pricier and with the other I'm not sure about the performance.
So I'm looking for input on that specifically and any other considerations you might have to offer.

Suck it up and dish out the $1500 for an RTX 3090

Wait for the 20GB to be released.

Just drop $5k for the 48-GB Quadro RTX 8000

It needs to be over 9000. Just saying.

3080 does fit the bill for what you want. So you're going to buy a monitor and GPU at the same time? Or you already are using a 4k monitor with your current card?

Another factor to consider is refresh rate & fps. At 4k with ray tracing getting 60 fps on ultra graphics settings for the latest games may be a difficult if not impossible prospect, even with a 3090. I've also heard compelling arguments (and seen the proof with my own eyes) that 4k is a case of diminishing returns.

Why is this? Because of pixels per inch. Once you reach a certain pixel density (ppi) you don't notice it anymore. On a 28 inch display jumping from 1440p ("2.5k") to 4k is, in my opinion, a negligible difference. I say this from my own personal experience me and my mate ran tests with his 4k monitor and my 2.5k one.

My own setup is 1440p IPS panel with 144hz monitor. Once you leave 60hz behind you'll find it very difficult to go back. The smoothness of motion is amazing. So I'd take 1440p 144hz over 4k 60hz any day, especially since you can barely tell the difference. I think 4k is only viable for people with televisions. This is because the pixels per inch number goes down because the screen is so much bigger. Basically more screen resolution = more ppi, more screen size = less ppi.

But if you already have the monitor then I guess all this post is a waste of time coz you're already locked in to your purchase. Anyway it doesn't matter 2.5k or 4k resolution the 3080 is still a solid choice. Of course if you keep waiting maybe there will be Ti variants or Super variants that are even more compelling, who knows.

EDIT: As for VRAM, you have to remember nearly all games are made with consoles in mind. Either made for consoles and ported to PC or made in such a way that they can easily be downscaled for consoles. And the new gen of consoles have 16GB of RAM, which is shared between CPU and GPU. And, I believe, something like 4GB of that is reserved for OS processes. So, bottom line, I can't see 10GB of VRAM being an issue AT ALL.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 15 2020, 5:19 am by Oh_Man.

Thanks. First actually helpful response. Although you raise a good point, there's also games and mods that are PC exclusive that are not limiting themselves to console hardware. Would be annoying to have to lower textures or something for those games just because I didn't want to spend a little extra. And keep in mind I'm trying to predict at least 2 years into the future.

Unfortunately, yes. There's a reason I was limiting the considerations to 3 options. I was mostly looking for insight on the AMD side of things since they seem to be catching up. And yes, I already have a 4K monitor.

As of right now the plan is to just wait until next year when the cards will hopefully be actually available for prices around the MSRP. Didn't think the supply shortage would last that long. Good thing is by that time there will be more information about the 20GB variant and AMD.

Sure, if you can convince this is what I need.