Geforce GTX 1080 Ti will be five years old in March 2022 – normally a period of time by which many players would have long since switched to a newer model. Due to the current situation, however, many keep their GPUs much longer than usual. This makes the comparison of old versus new all the more relevant, as a surprised Reddit user also discovered.
Before we devote ourselves to the relevant discussion, which has now reached almost 1,000 comments, I would like to make a quick request: Take part in the following survey without looking at the benchmarks of the graphics cards mentioned or the said Reddit post. Here we go:
Let us know in the comments how you came to your assessment. In the following we explain which factors generally play a role and why there is no clear answer to this question.
What discussion is it about?
The user shows himself on Reddit unusual-user183 amazed that a friend’s GTX 1080 Ti beats his RTX 3060. He does not name the exact reason for the amazement or the suitable games and resolutions of the duel – quite apart from the fact that other elements such as the CPU, the RAM equipment or background applications also have an influence on the performance. Nevertheless, the article was discussed a lot:
Link to Reddit content
From the point of view of a hardware editorial team, the surprise is not really understandable. After all, it is quite normal for top models from older generations such as the GTX 1080 Ti to achieve a level of performance similar to that of mid-range cards from subsequent generations such as the RTX 3060.
This shows, among other things, our large overview of the performance classes of current and old graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia, which you can reach via the following link:
more on the subject
How good is my GPU? Over 50 GPUs in a performance comparison
The GTX 1080 Ti is in the same performance class as the RTX 3060, in line with our own benchmarks. in the GameStar test of the RTX 3060 Nvidia’s Founders Edition of the GTX 1080 Ti is about two to three percent ahead of the RTX 3060 Amp from Zotac (a Founders Edition of the RTX 3060 was never published).
There is no such thing as one service
At the same time, a look at the individual results of our test makes it clear that the ratios can vary considerably from case to case. Sometimes the GTX 1080 Ti is clearly ahead of the RTX 3060, sometimes the RTX 3060 is clearly ahead of the GTX 1080 Ti. The bottom line is that the performance is quite similar with slight advantages for the GTX 1080 Ti.
This also confirms the former Launch analysis by colleagues from 3DCenter.org. On average, the GTX 1080 Ti has a lead of five percent, based on the Full HD resolution.
Also not to be forgotten: Thanks to special processing units for ray tracing, the RTX 3060 has clear advantages over the GTX 1080 Ti in suitable games. In addition, you can only use Nvidia’s FPS Boost DLSS from a graphics card of the RTX 2000 generation. You can find out how this works in the following video about the RTX-2000 launch:
9:05
What is DLSS? – Nvidia’s anti-aliasing explained in detail
On the trail of the reasons
The surprise of the Reddit user is likely to have various reasons. We have already addressed factors such as the exact configuration of his PC, which may (unnecessarily) limit the FPS, as well as the game selection, which in individual cases (above average) can be clearly to the disadvantage of the RTX 3060.
Also not to be underestimated is that Old against new
-Factor. He may have assumed that the RTX 3060 must be clearly faster because it is about four years younger than the GTX 1080 Ti and has a little more and newer VRAM.
Either way, it is generally advisable to find out how it compares to older models before buying a new graphics card – and whether you really need the new GPU. Just like our graphics card tests, the following guide will give you the right help:
more on the subject
Buy a graphics card: When is it really worth upgrading?
In the current times of poorly available and extremely expensive graphics cards, such research in advance is all the more important. It also makes the said discussion a certain luxury problem. In any case, many gamers should be very happy if they had an RTX 3060 or a GTX 1080 Ti.
The RTX 3060 is now available from around 700 dollars, the GTX 1080 Ti from around 550 dollars. High sums, which are all the more sobering when you consider that the RTX 3060 is currently the best
Represents a model of the RTX-3000 series.
