SNVIDIA has finally announced its new GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards, with the RTX 3090, RTX 3080, and RTX 3070 as the first three cards to make it to the new lineup.
Performance improvement is definitely something to be expected but we can see that many users are looking into the gain in raw performance when compared to the previous generation RTX 20 series cards but somewhat missed out on the new features that come together with the new GeForce RTX 30 series cards.
Improved power efficiency and big performance gain
The jump to Samsung’s 8nm manufacturing process enables the new Ampere GPU to pack more performance and deliver impressive gains over the previous generation, i.e 2.7 times the share TFLOPs, 1.7 times the RT TFLOPs, and 2.7 times the Tensor TFLOPS. Looking at the performance difference chart as shown during the product launch, the new RTX 30 series cards can easily take the previous generation flagship head-on when it comes to actual raw performance alone.
Apart from the obvious raw performance gain, these new RTX 30 cards are also equipped with the new 2nd generation RT cores and 3rd Generation Tensor cores that comes with NVIDIA’s new Ampere architecture GPUs, and the much faster GDDR6X memory. NVIDIA touts a performance per watt improvement up to 1.9 times, 2 times better performance in ray tracing, and faster access to the frame buffer at up to 2 times the bandwidth on the new Ampere GPUs as compared to the previous generation Turing GPUs.
These new features on the RTX 30 series cards will surely benefit gamers in many ways, as we can see more of DLSS and ray tracing features being implemented on the upcoming triple-A titles and existing games to deliver those stunning graphics without compromising the overall performance – that includes the DLSS Ultra Performance Mode for 8K gaming with the RTX 3090.
New features for gamers
For gamers, NVIDIA has added HDMI 2.1 support on the RTX 30 series cards which enable gamers to game on not just 4K resolution, but 8K as well with high refresh rates without any compromise when gaming on a certified HDMI 2.1 TV or monitor with DSC. With HDMI 2.1, 8K single cable TVs are totally possible and gamers can now enjoy the best possible 8K gaming experience much easier without having to deal with existing limitations such as 4K HDR at HDR, sacrificing the resolution with Chroma Subsampling, or the need for having multiple display outputs and display cables.
The NVIDIA Reflex was introduced for the first time, which NVIDIA claims to be the revolutionary suite of GPU, G-SYNC display, and software technologies that allow gamers to measure system latency and perform necessary optimization for better performance in competitive games.
Including the new set of APIs for game developers to implement into their games and the new system latency measurement tool integrated into the new 360Hz G-SYNC Esports display for participating partners like ASUS, ACER, Alienware, and MSI, NVIDIA Reflex allows gamers to identify the cause of delay and optimize their system to respond better, and enabling them to perform better in competitive games like never before.
NVIDIA is definitely serious about reducing latency to allow gamers to perform better and will continue to refine NVIDIA Reflex for this very purpose. Gamers can head on over to their Reflex community forum to learn and discuss pretty much anything about latency or ask questions about the NVIDIA Reflex.
NVIDIA also introduced a new feature, the RTX IO aimed to bring GPU-based lossless decompression with Microsoft’s upcoming DirectStorage API, removing the load from the CPU and let the GPU handle the decompression instead. As the GeForce RTX GPUs are much more efficient and capable of decompression performance that is even beyond the capability of PCIe Gen4 SSDs, offloading the workload to the GPU enables an improved I/O performance by a factor of 2.
The improved I/O performance allows games to perform better with higher frame rates and a near-instantaneous game loading. This is especially useful for large open-world games, as it enables the creation of larger worlds with greatly reduced loading time, less pop-in, and greater detail – something which most of the existing open-world games are not capable of.
New features for content streaming
If you enjoyed content streaming, NVIDIA too introduced a couple of new useful features that streamers can take advantage of to leverage their game streaming with the new RTX 30 series graphics cards.
According to NVIDIA, the Internet giants have banded together to create a new royalty-free and highly efficient video codec known as the AV1. The AV1 is 50% more efficient than the H.264, which greatly reduces the bandwidth required to stream high-resolution videos, meaning that you will only need half of the internet bandwidth to transmit the same video quality. This is especially useful for users with limited or metered internet connections.
The GeForce RTX 30 series are currently the first GPU with dedicated AV1 decoders and users with RTX 30 cards can take advantage of this new high-efficient codec for high-quality content streaming i.e 4K video streaming for users with limited internet connections, ultra high quality 8K video streaming for all the upcoming 8K TVs, and game streaming where viewers can have the full viewing experience as what their favorite streamers are enjoying.
Regardless if you’re a professional game streamer or just getting started with game streaming, the new NVIDIA Broadcast app is a rather interesting option to look into. For starters, the NVIDIA Broadcast app is a universal plugin designed to work with most of the popular live streaming, voice chat, and video conferencing apps.
As demonstrated during the RTX 30 series graphics cards launch, the NVIDIA Broadcast app uses the power of AI and Tensor cores on the RTX GPUs to enhance voice and video communication (similar to the RTX Voice), virtual background without the need to set up a green screen, as well as the auto frame feature that acts almost like your personal videographer that will follow your movement and have the shot focused on you.
These useful features available on the NVIDIA Broadcast app can also be used for communication purposes such as having a voice chat with friends and family, and also video conference for work, as long as your system is equipped with any of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX, TITAN RTX or Quadro RTX GPU that comes with a dedicated Tensor core AI processor to enable the app’s AI networks to run in real-time alongside the rest of the tasks that is running on your system.
NVIDIA also patched the RTX Voice to cater to users who are still rocking on older GeForce GTX cards, but the performance may vary on these older cards due to the lack of the dedicated Tensor core as what the RTX GPUs possess.
Closing Thoughts
If you’ve been holding back your purchase since the GeForce GTX 10 series or perhaps the older-gen GeForce GTX, the GeForce RTX 30 series is probably the upgrade that is worthy of your consideration. The GeForce RTX 3090 is more of an option for those who have plenty of budgets to spend on an upgrade and want the truly best hardware available for their system due to its price. After all, $1499 is not even an affordable price tag to many of us.
The RTX 3080 and the soon to be available RTX 3070 is definitely a much better and reasonable choice with the $699 and $499 price tag, judging from the features it has to offer, as well as the performance it can deliver – it’s still a considerable amount of money to spend for the upgrade, but at least it won’t cost you as much as what the RTX 3090 does.
