Get the 3080 or wait?

SotoSoto Posts: 1,440
edited March 2021 in The Commons

Hi, I have a 1080ti.

I can get a 3080 for $1225, but 10 GB sounds worrying for that price, sometimes I struggle with my 11 GB. I have 0 scene optimization habits tho.

3090 is too expensive. Is there any solid info on 3080ti specs? Should I wait?

Can I have both the 3080 and the 1080ti at the same time or it's one or the other? XD

Thanks.

Post edited by Soto on

Comments

  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,696

    If you can afford it and find one pull the trigger. There is no signs that anything is going to get any better anytime soon. 3080ti might be awesome, but they might only make 10 of them that will get snatched up by bots and sold for half a million dollars lol

  • JVRendererJVRenderer Posts: 661

    There's no inventory out there. We are all waiting

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715

    TheKD said:

    If you can afford it and find one pull the trigger. There is no signs that anything is going to get any better anytime soon. 3080ti might be awesome, but they might only make 10 of them that will get snatched up by bots and sold for half a million dollars lol

    I'm tempted to say you're exagerating.

    ... But not by much.

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715
    edited March 2021

    Hellboy said:

    Hi, I have a 1080ti.

    I can get a 3080 for $1225, but 10 GB sounds worrying for that price, sometimes I struggle with my 11 GB. I have 0 scene optimization habits tho.

    3090 is too expensive. Is there any solid info on 3080ti specs? Should I wait?

    Can I have both the 3080 and the 1080ti at the same time or it's one or the other? XD

    Thanks.

    I think it's a rip-off price.

    I bought a 3090 for 1640 i think it was; considering I'd saved for a Titan - I think it was almost a bargain. Agreed, RAM is very important, which is why I went Titan (or in this case 3090).

    I would certainly wait until the 4000 series if the best available is a 3080 for 1225. I upgraded from a 980ti, which I'd been promising myself an upgrade since the 1080ti appeared.

    Post edited by nicstt on
  • QuasarQuasar Posts: 650

    I really want to upgrade to a 3000 card but prices are crazy. As long as the 1080ti with 12GB is working, I'm going to keep using it until a 24GB card becomes available for a fair price. I may never get what I want at this rate though lol. I'd recommend not cutting down on VRAM for rendering though.

  • JVRendererJVRenderer Posts: 661

    yup,, waiting for another bitcoin crash.

  • SotoSoto Posts: 1,440
    Unfortunately, everything here in Costa Rica has a rip-off price, even in normal scenarios :/
  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,696
    edited March 2021

    Same in canada, everything but our paychecks are at least double the US up here :P

    Post edited by TheKD on
  • PetraPetra Posts: 1,156
    edited March 2021

    I got the 3080 when they came out and paid just about  £700 for it,  

    If I were you I would grab it.

     

    Post edited by Petra on
  • MelissaGTMelissaGT Posts: 2,611

    If your 1080TI is still trucking along, I'd stick with it til the 3080TI comes out and you can score one of those. That's what I'm doing. I just can't justify the move to the 3080 with that price tag and actually less VRAM than I have now. 

  • rrwardrrward Posts: 556

    As for using both the 3080 and the 1080ti at the same time; yes you can.  As for price, that's all up to you. I've been trying to get a 3090 for months and can't find anything save for buying a $4,000 (US) PC and tossing out the rest of the crappy OEM build, and I hate wasting money and filling my local landfill with toxic crud.

  • MelissaGTMelissaGT Posts: 2,611

    rrward said:

    As for using both the 3080 and the 1080ti at the same time; yes you can.  As for price, that's all up to you. I've been trying to get a 3090 for months and can't find anything save for buying a $4,000 (US) PC and tossing out the rest of the crappy OEM build, and I hate wasting money and filling my local landfill with toxic crud.

    I hadn't even thought of that...I mean, yes I thought of doing a custom build through one of the places that have 3090's in stock (though it's dealer's choice as to what brand and board you get and I really only want the EVGA FTW3). But, I didn't want to hand a place like CyberPowerPC $5,000 when it's not exactly what I want. But there is the option of cheaping on everything else and then getting the 3090 and throwing the rest out. It would be such a waste. Have I mentioned that I hate crypto miners? 

  • SotoSoto Posts: 1,440
    edited March 2021
    I got the 3080,it was the last available and I know I would regret not getting it. I struggle more with speed than RAM, so I want to think that 1GB won't be terrible. Thanks for the feedback! Hope we have it easier in a future XD
    IMG_20210301_182737_797.jpg
    1840 x 2300 - 509K
    Post edited by Soto on
  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,696

    Glad you were able to snatch it up lol

  • Was just puttering about on Ebay and had to laugh at all the auctions being put up of pictures of 3080/3090 cards that bots were still bidding 1500-2000 USD on (the description clearly says that it is a photograph of the card and not the actual GPU).  Apparently not all bot programs are the smartest things in the barrel. 

    Looks like crypto markets are betting on significant inflation helping to keep their prices high or drive them higher.  My guess is we are due in the USA for significant recession in the next 6-12 months that will crash a lot of things--wonder if a crypto pullback will be an initiating event.  Good news is that GPU availability will improve, bad news is many may need the money for more pressing needs...

  • ebergerlyebergerly Posts: 3,255
    edited March 2021

    Here's how I'd answer the question the OP posed...

    Back in the GTX days, prior to RTX, I prepared a spreadsheet showing the % improvement in render times vs. the cost of the GPU's of the day. This was calculated based on render time performance in a standard scene relative to like a GTX-1060 or something. So if a 1080ti did the scene in 2 minutes and the 1060 did it in 4.5 minutes, the % improvement was around (4.5 - 3)/4.5 = 33%. Y'know, a typical cost/benefit analysis done by businesses and those wanting to follow the facts. 

    And across the broad range of GPU's at the time, if you divided the price in $$ by the % improvement in render times, the answer was generally in the 15 to 20 range. Which means for every 1% improvement in render times you're paying about $15-20 USD. 

    It made questions like this pretty easy to answer (that is, if you're concerned about whether you're overpaying and stuff). Heck, if you found one with a ratio of like 10 you're golden. 

    Unfortunately, in the RTX world it appears we can no longer do these types of analyses, since RTX performance depends hugely on "scene complexity", which changes from scene to scene and user to user. So performance improvement and benchmarking with Scene A may be totally irrelevant to someone else's Scene B. 

    So IMO, the best course is to wait. Because there's always a better model at a lower price just around the corner. Guaranteed. And if you buy it now, then next year everyone will be calling this year's "beast" a waste of money. laugh

    Although that will apply next year too. And the year after.....

    So I guess I could recommend trying scene management and compositing to vastly reduce render times beyond what you'd get from a GPU upgrade, and forget about overpriced GPU's, but I'd probably get scolded again. So I won't. 

    Post edited by ebergerly on
  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 10,024

    ebergerly said:

    So IMO, the best course is to wait.

    Easy decision as there are none to be bought laugh

    Anyways, as the 3060:s have now been released with 12GB VRAM, there is no sense in paying more for the 3080 with just 10GB:s 

  • MelissaGTMelissaGT Posts: 2,611

    PerttiA said:

    ebergerly said:

    So IMO, the best course is to wait.

    Easy decision as there are none to be bought laugh

    Anyways, as the 3060:s have now been released with 12GB VRAM, there is no sense in paying more for the 3080 with just 10GB:s 

    I think the big difference there is that the 3060 may have 12GB of VRAM, which is more than the 3080, but the 3060 is way slower by comparison.  

  • gsil247gsil247 Posts: 224

    I got a 3090 (thanks to my uncle Sam stimulus check), and I don't regret it for a minute. Two months later and I'm still blown away by the render speed. However I paid $1,800 even from mine (met some scalper off craigslist at the police station to avoid scammers), and yours would be $1,200. If the VRAM is an issue for your, then don't get it and save your pennies, but if you need one right now and don't care about the VRAM, then get it. Best of luck friend, and tell us what you do.

  • SotoSoto Posts: 1,440
    edited March 2021

    They had the 3090, but I think around $2500, and that's just too much for me. I just wanted to improve my work speed. But that's definitely the card I'd like in a couple of years hoping availability and prices are much better.

    They also have plenty of 3060 (12 GB) but I think I can make better use of the speed than the RAM.

    Actually, the only times I've had issues with RAM are when I do crazy stuff like using 5 Level SubD. Otherwise, my scenes are very simple, so I hope the benefits of the 3080 speed top the 1 GB downgrade.

    But so far, with my quick gaming and rendering tests, I am very pleased with the 3080. My wallet is not, but I am XD

     

    Post edited by Soto on
  • takezo_3001takezo_3001 Posts: 1,997
    edited March 2021

    Hellboy said:

    They had the 3090, but I think around $2500, and that's just too much for me. I just wanted to improve my work speed. But that's definitely the card I'd like in a couple of years hoping availability and prices are much better.

    They also have plenty of 3060 (12 GB) but I think I can make better use of the speed than the RAM.

    Actually, the only times I've had issues with RAM are when I do crazy stuff like using 5 Level SubD. Otherwise, my scenes are very simple, so I hope the benefits of the 3080 speed top the 1 GB difference.

    But so far, with my quick gaming and rendering tests, I am very pleased with the 3080. My wallet is not, but I am XD

    I only paid $1.5k for my 3090FE, which is a much better deal than $1.2k for a much slower card with 14Gb more VRAM, you should have gone the HotStock/BestBuy or NowInStock route instead, as HotStock have been dropping 3090 stock at least twice-per-month 5th/22nd in January, and 9th/25th in February...

    Forget my post, I read that you live in Costa Rica, my mistake!

    Post edited by takezo_3001 on
  • gsil247gsil247 Posts: 224

    Holy hell. I just saw the price of the 3090's and they went up. Damn it, I should have sold mine then. Not sure why the price increased so much in such a short period of time. Now I definately believe you should pull the trigger on that 3080 for 1200

  • cdreid1cdreid1 Posts: 10

    gsil247 said:

    Holy hell. I just saw the price of the 3090's and they went up. Damn it, I should have sold mine then. Not sure why the price increased so much in such a short period of time. Now I definately believe you should pull the trigger on that 3080 for 1200

    Futuredude here. Just got a top of the line 3080ti (evga ftw3 ultimate ) for 700. You made the right choice

     

  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 10,024

    Except for 3060 12GB and 3060Ti, the 30xx series has pretty much vanished from our stores. That would explain any recent price increase.

  • TheKD said:

    Same in canada, everything but our paychecks are at least double the US up here :P

    Yeah, but your dollars are loonie. cheeky 

  • PerttiA said:

    Except for 3060 12GB and 3060Ti, the 30xx series has pretty much vanished from our stores. That would explain any recent price increase.

    I bought a 3090 in December, but there were not many 30xx to be found. 

  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 10,024

    paulawp (marahzen) said:

    PerttiA said:

    Except for 3060 12GB and 3060Ti, the 30xx series has pretty much vanished from our stores. That would explain any recent price increase.

    I bought a 3090 in December, but there were not many 30xx to be found. 

    Yeah, not many in December... Even less now. One of the biggest hardware retailers in Finland has just one 3090 on their online inventory, it's badged "outlet" (ie. refurbished or the very last one), it can only be bought in the store it's located in and the location is not being revealed... laugh 

  • TorquinoxTorquinox Posts: 3,567

    I suppose 30xx above 3060 will be 2nd hand/aftermarket only now.

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