GeForce RTX 30 series

{{See also|2020–2023 global chip shortage}}

Launch day for the RTX 3080 was September 17, 2020. The lack of pre-order functionality and high demand exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and boost in scalping, resulted in a large number of online retailers struggling with the sheer number of purchases.{{Cite magazine|last=D'Anastasio|first=Cecilia|date=November 13, 2023|title=Desperate Gamers Camp Out in the Pandemic for $700 GPUs |url=https://www.wired.com/story/nvidia-amd-demand-pandemic-lines/|magazine=Wired}}{{Cite web|last=Ridley|first=Jacob|date=September 24, 2020|title=Here's the latest on RTX 3080 stock, according to retailers and manufacturers|url=https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-rtx-3080-back-in-stock-check/|website=PC Gamer}} Newegg had completely sold out as expected on Black Friday. Long lines formed outside physical stores with stock, such as Micro Center in the United States,{{Cite web|last=Freedman|first=Andrew |date=September 17, 2020|title=Nvidia, Newegg Address Nearly Non-Existent RTX 3080 Availability|url=https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-newegg-rtx-3080-apologize|website=Tom's Hardware}} and {{Ill|Thirdwave Group|ja|サードウェーブ|lt=Dospara}} in Japan.{{Cite web|last=株式会社インプレス|date=2020-09-18|title=GeForce RTX 3080の夜間販売に自作PCファン集結、120名以上の人で賑わうドスパラにはキャンセル分を求める行列も|url=https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/news/1277860.html |access-date=2020-09-27|website=Akiba PC Hotline!|language=ja}} Twitter users reported that they used bots to buy large numbers of cards to resell for higher prices.{{Cite web|last1=Kan|first1=Michael |date=September 17, 2020|title=How a Bot Bought Dozens of RTX 3080 Units Before Consumers Could Grab Them|url=https://uk.pcmag.com/graphic-cards/128682/how-a-bot-bought-dozens-of-rtx-3080-units-before-consumers-could-grab-them|website=PCMag UK}}

Nvidia released a statement the following day, apologizing for the difficulties with their online store, which went down on launch day due to high traffic.{{Cite web|date=September 17, 2020|title=NVIDIA issues a statement on GeForce RTX 3080 going immediately out of stock|url=https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-issues-a-statement-on-geforce-rtx-3080-going-immediately-out-of-stock|website=VideoCardz}} On October 2, Nvidia announced that it would delay the release of RTX 3070 cards by two weeks to guarantee availability.{{Cite web|title=GeForce RTX 3070 Availability Update|url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/geforce-rtx-3070-available-october-29/|access-date=October 2, 2020|website=NVIDIA}} On October 5, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced delays due to supply shortages, which were expected to go on until 2021.{{Cite web|last=Lyles|first=Taylor |date=2020-10-05|title=Nvidia CEO anticipates supply shortages for the RTX 3080 and 3090 to last until 2021|url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/5/21503001/nvidia-rtx-3080-and-3090-supply-issues-2021 |access-date=2020-10-05|website=The Verge|language=en}} On October 9, the company announced that all Founder's Edition graphic cards in the United States would temporarily be sold via Best Buy, while the official web store would be upgraded to improve the shopping experience.{{Cite web|title=NVIDIA Store Update, GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 Founders Edition|url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/402196/nvidia-store-update-geforce-rtx-3080-and-rtx-3090-/ |access-date=2020-10-18|website=NVIDIA|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Allan|first=Darren |date=October 10, 2020|title=Nvidia admits defeat with RTX 3080 and 3090 Founders Edition stock, passes baton to Best Buy|url=https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidia-admits-defeat-with-rtx-3080-and-3090-founders-edition-stock-passes-baton-to-best-buy|access-date=October 20, 2020|website=TechRadar|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2020-10-11|title=NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series Founders Edition locked to Best Buy in US|url=https://www.tweaktown.com/news/75617/nvidia-geforce-rtx-30-series-founders-edition-locked-to-best-buy-in-us/index.html |access-date=2020-10-20|website=TweakTown|language=en-US}} In early December, Nvidia blamed continued component shortages on Samsung wafer shortages, resulting in chip shortages, among other factors.{{cite web|url=https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/nvidia-ampere-stick-issues-is-not-only-based-on-gpu-shortages.html |title=NVIDIA: Ampere RTX 30 Stock Issues Is not only based on GPU shortages|date=2020-12-03|website=Guru3D}}

Shortages of RTX 30 series cards continued into 2021, and has been ongoing ever since its release.{{Cite web|last=Evangelho|first=Jason|title=What's Really Going On With Nvidia RTX 30 Series Supply?|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2020/10/06/nvidia-ceo-rtx-30-series-has-a-demand-problem-not-a-supply-problem/ |access-date=2021-04-06|website=Forbes|language=en}} In an effort to limit purchases by cryptominers, Nvidia announced in February that the RTX 3060 cards would be able to detect algorithms for mining of the Ethereum cryptocurrency and halve the hash rate.{{Cite web|last=Wuebbling|first=Matt |date=2021-02-18|title=GeForce Is Made for Gaming, CMP Is Made to Mine|url=https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/02/18/geforce-cmp/ |access-date=2021-04-06|website=The Official NVIDIA Blog|language=en-US}} Shortly after release, Nvidia accidentally released a driver update which disabled the detection.{{cite web |url=https://www.techradar.com/news/did-nvidia-just-unlock-rtx-3060-cryptomining-by-mistake |title=Did Nvidia just unlock RTX 3060 cryptomining by mistake? |last=Loeffler |first=John |date=March 15, 2021 |website=TechRadar |access-date=May 5, 2021}} In March, TechRadar reported that the shortages could continue until the third quarter of the year, in part blaming a global GDDR6 memory shortage and the cards' supply being bought out by cryptominers.{{Cite web|last=Page|first=Carly|title=Nvidia RTX 3080 shortage could continue until Q3|url=https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidia-rtx-3080-shortage-could-continue-until-q3 |date=15 March 2021 |access-date=2021-04-06|website=TechRadar|language=en}} In April, Hong Kong Customs and Excise seized 300 non-video CMP cards.{{cite web |last1=Roach |first1=Jason |title=Smugglers transported 300 GPUs in a Mission Impossible-style speed boat chase |url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/nvidia-gpus-smuggled-in-hong-kong-raid/ |website=www.digitaltrends.com |publisher=Digital Trends |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210408143932/https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/nvidia-gpus-smuggled-in-hong-kong-raid/ |archive-date=8 April 2021 |date=7 April 2021 |quote=Without any video outputs, the CMP 30HX is good for cryptocurrency mining and nothing else |url-status=live}}

Nvidia officially announced new RTX 3080, RTX 3070, RTX 3060 Ti Limited Hash Rate (LHR) SKUs on May 18, 2021, which limits the Ethash mining hash rate.{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/05/18/lhr/|title=A Further Step to Getting GeForce Cards into the Hands of Gamers|date=18 May 2021}}

Nvidia released the RTX 3080 Ti on June 3, and the RTX 3070 Ti one week later, on June 10. Both included the cryptocurrency mining hash rate limiter.{{Cite news|last=Warren|first=Tom|date=June 1, 2021|title=Nvidia announces new RTX 3080 Ti, priced at $1,199 and launching June 3rd|work=The Verge|url=https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/1/22461660/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-specs-price-release-date-features|access-date=June 16, 2021}}

There have been multiple attempts to meet the demand. EVGA has a system designed to put people into a queue; the goal is to prevent cards from selling out quickly and decrease wait time.{{Cite news|last=Ridley|first=Jacob|date=2020-10-06|title=EVGA's new virtual queue will auto-reserve you an Nvidia RTX 3080|language=en|work=PC Gamer|url=https://www.pcgamer.com/evga-nvidia-rtx-3080-stock-queue-notification/|access-date=2021-09-25}}

Besides the Founders Edition, there are also a variety of aftermarket cards, referred to as "custom cards" by Nvidia. The graphics chip is taken from Nvidia and parts of the card are modified according to the company's specifications. Such modifications include: clock speeds, fans, heat sinks, connectors, and aesthetics. Such aftermarket cards tend to perform better than Nvidia's in-house cards, but such increased performance comes with tradeoffs in temperature and power consumption. Manufacturers include: Gigabyte, MSI, ZOTAC, Asus, EVGA, INNO3D.{{Cite web|url=https://www.inno3d.com/en/product_list/index/GRAPHICS%20CARD?q=&p1c2=on&p1c3=on&p1c4=on&p5c61=on&p5c6=on&p5c52=on&p5c7=on&p5c53=on&p5c36=on&p5c37=on&p5c38=on&p5c60=on|title =INNO3D - GeForce RTX 3090 Ti|website=INNO3D|access-date=September 27, 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://eu.evga.com/products/ProductList.aspx?type=0&family=GeForce+30+Series+Family|title=EVGA - EU - Products - Graphics - GeForce 30 Series Family|website=EVGA|access-date=September 27, 2022}}{{cite news | url=https://www.zotac.com/de/product/graphics_card/zotac-gaming-geforce-rtx-3090-trinity | title=Alle | Grafikkarten | Zotac Dach | newspaper=Zotac | date=21 January 2022 |language=de| access-date=January 21, 2022}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.gigabyte.com/de/Graphics-Card/GV-N3090GAMING-OC-24GD#kf|title = GeForce RTX 3090 Gamin OC 24G Besonderheiten | Grafikkarten |language=de}}{{Cite web|url=https://de.msi.com/Graphics-Card/GeForce-RTX-3090-GAMING-X-TRIO-24G|title = GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G|language=de}}

Nvidia officially released the GeForce RTX 3080 12GB graphics card on January 11, 2022 and the desktop GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card on January 27, 2022. The RTX 3050 had previously only had a laptop variant that was launched on May 11, 2021 along with the laptop variant of the RTX 3050 Ti that currently still has no desktop variant. Nvidia officially released the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti on March 29, 2022.

File:CUDA Cores and Memory Bandwidth per USD for RTX 30-series.png

Architectural improvements of the Ampere architecture include the following:

• CUDA Compute Capability 8.6{{Cite web|url=https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#compute-capability-8-x|title=I.7. Compute Capability 8.x|website=docs.nvidia.com|language=en-us|access-date=September 23, 2020}}
• Samsung 8 nm 8N (8LPH) process (custom designed for Nvidia)
• Doubled FP32 performance per SM on Ampere GPUs
• Third-generation Tensor Cores with FP16, bfloat16, TensorFloat-32 (TF32) and sparsity acceleration
• Second-generation Ray Tracing Cores, plus concurrent ray tracing and shading and compute
• GDDR6X memory support (RTX 3060Ti GDDR6X Version, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 3080 12 GB, RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3090, RTX 3090 Ti)
• PCI Express 4.0
• NVLink 3.0 (RTX 3090, RTX 3090 Ti)
• HDMI 2.1 supporting FRL6 (48 Gbit/s) transmission speed{{Cite web|last=Burnes|first=Andrew|date=November 5, 2020|url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/rtx-30-series-hdmi-2-1/|title = HDMI 2.1, the New Standard for TVS, is Supported by GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs|website=NVIDIA}}
• PureVideo Feature Set K hardware video decoding with AV1 hardware decoding{{Cite web|last=Delgado|first=Gerardo|date=September 1, 2020|url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/rtx-30-series-av1-decoding/|title=GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs: Ushering In A New Era of Video Content With AV1 Decode|website=NVIDIA}}

• All the RTX 30 GPUs are made using the 8 nm Samsung node.{{Cite web|last=James|first=Dave|date=September 1, 2020|title=Nvidia confirms Samsung 8nm process for RTX 3090, RTX 3080, and RTX 3070|url=https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-ampere-samsung-8nm-process/|access-date=June 1, 2021|website=PC Gamer|language=en-US}}
• Only the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti support 2-way NVLink.
• RTX 3050 feature limited 8 lanes for the PCIe 4.0 bus interface. All other cards support the full ×16 bandwidth.
• Double-precision (FP64) performance of the Ampere chips are 1/64 of single-precision (FP32) performance.

{{Row hover highlight}}

• All mobile RTX 30 GPUs support fourth-generation Max-Q. The decision to enable Max-Q Technologies such as Dynamic Boost 2.0 and WhisperMode 2.0 on devices is handled by its manufacturer.{{cite web|title=Max-Q Technologies for Laptops | NVIDIA|url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/gaming-laptops/max-q-technologies/|website=NVIDIA|access-date=September 27, 2022}}{{cite web|last=Subramaniam|first=Vaidyanathan|date=February 10, 2021|title=NVIDIA Ampere RTX 30 Laptop GPUs: TGP woes apart, OEMs may also decide boost clocks on their own|url=https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Ampere-RTX-30-Laptop-GPUs-TGP-woes-apart-OEMs-may-also-decide-boost-clocks-on-their-own.519612.0.html|website=NotebookCheck|access-date=October 16, 2022}}
• All models feature GDDR6 memory.

According to TechRadar, "the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is an incredibly powerful graphics card". However, the problem would be that the RTX 3090 offers similar performance while "it costs significantly less."{{Cite web |last=Thomas |first=Jackie |date=2022-03-29 |title=Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti review |url=https://www.techradar.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3090-ti |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=TechRadar |language=en}} In addition to its price, they criticized the RTX 3090 Ti's high power consumption. The performance was praised, as the 3090 Ti "will likely be the go-to GPU for creative professionals that need brute force in their day-to-day work." In gaming, "the RTX 3090 Ti fares quite a bit better" compared to the RTX 3090, and even in 8K "will be able to hit a solid 60 fps in many games at high settings."

PC Gamer described the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 as a "frankly enormous graphics card", which is "supremely powerful" and "more worthy of its Titan credentials than the GeForce branding", as for the average gamer "it doesn't deliver enough over the RTX 3080 to make sense, but for the pro-creator it's a workload-crushing card."{{Cite web |last=James |first=Dave |date=2020-09-24 |title=Nvidia RTX 3090 Founders Edition review |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-rtx-3090-review-founders-edition-benchmarks/ |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=pcgamer |language=en}}

GamesRadar praised the RTX 3080 for its capability to "run almost any game at 4K60fps with ray tracing" and found that it offers "4K gaming at an accessible price for the first time ever".{{Cite web |last=James |first=Ford |date=2020-12-17 |title=Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 review |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-review/ |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=gamesradar |language=en}} According to The Verge, "4K gaming arrived with the RTX 2080 Ti", but "the RTX 3080 does the same and more at a much more affordable price point."{{Cite web |last=Warren |first=Tom |date=2020-09-16 |title=Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 review: 4K PC gaming finally makes sense |url=https://www.theverge.com/21435926/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-review |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=The Verge |language=en}} Overall, the RTX 3080 would be "great for 1440p or 4K gaming"; however, they criticized the requirement of a 750W power supply as well as the 10GB of VRAM regarding future games.

Jim McGregor from Forbes found that "the RTX 3070 is the perfect solution for the more mainstream gamer", while "the competitive gamer or high-end creator will still likely opt for the GeForce RTX 3080 or RTX 3090."{{Cite web |last=McGregor |first=Jim |title=The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 – A Good GPU Card At A Great Price |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/tiriasresearch/2020/11/06/the-nvidia-geforce-rtc-3070--a-good-gpu-card-at-a-great-price/ |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=Forbes |language=en}}

• GeForce GTX 10 series
• GeForce GTX 16 series
• GeForce RTX 20 series
• GeForce RTX 40 series
• GeForce RTX 50 series
• Quadro
• Nvidia Tesla
• List of Nvidia graphics processing units

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha|refs=

{{efn|name="Core Config"|Shader Processors, Texture mapping units: Render output units: Ray tracing cores: Tensor Cores}}

{{efn|name="SMs"|The number of Streaming multi-processors on the GPU}}

{{efn|name="Boost"|Core boost values (if available) are stated below the base value inside bracket.}}

{{efn|name="Pixel Fillrate"|Pixel fillrate is calculated as the number of render output units (ROPs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.}}

{{efn|name="Texture Fillrate"|Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.}}

{{efn|name="Processing Power"|Precision performance is calculated from the base (or boost) core clock speed based on a FMA operation. Calculation for accumulated Tensor (FP16) computation is: Tensor Cores * core clock * 256 / 1000.When used with sparsity feature, ratio is 2:1.}}

{{efn|name="Transfer Rate GDDR6X"|Cards with GDDR6X send two bits per transfer. The transfer rate should not be confused with the bit rate.}}

{{efn|name="Max-Q"|Max-Q design values are also accounted inside final clock rate value. For models with Max-Q technology the effective speeds of memory transfer and bandwidth is stated below inside brackets.}}}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/30-series/ Official website]
• [https://www.nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/geforce/ampere/pdf/NVIDIA-ampere-GA102-GPU-Architecture-Whitepaper-V1.pdf NVIDIA AMPERE GA102 GPU ARCHITECTURE whitepaper]
• {{commons category-inline|Nvidia GeForce 30 series video cards}}

{{NVIDIA}}

Category:Computer-related introductions in 2020

3000 series

Category:Golden Joystick Award winners

Category:Graphics processing units

Category:Graphics cards

Category:Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry