Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP HoloBlack Review

Name: Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP HoloBlack
Brand: ZOTAC

W1zzard

on Jun 2nd, 2021,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: ZOTAC

(2 Comments) »

Introduction

The Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP HoloBlack is the company's top graphics card based on the swanky new RTX 3080 Ti "Ampere" GPU by NVIDIA. Hot on the heels of its Computex 2021 announcement, we have with us NVIDIA's new flagship gaming graphics card, a distinction it takes from the RTX 3080. The RTX 3090 is still around in the NVIDIA's product stack, but is positioned as a TITAN-like halo product, with its 24 GB video memory benefiting certain quasi-professional applications when paired with NVIDIA's GeForce Studio drivers. The RTX 3080 Ti has the same mandate from NVIDIA as the RTX 3080—to offer leadership 4K UHD gaming performance with maxed out settings and raytracing.

Based on the same 8 nm "GA102" silicon as the RTX 3080, the new RTX 3080 Ti has 12 GB of memory, maxing out the 384-bit GDDR6X memory interface of the chip while packing more CUDA cores and other components—10,240 vs. 8,796, 320 TMUs, many Tensor cores, 80 RT cores, and 112 ROPs. The announcement of the RTX 3080 Ti and its sibling, the RTX 3070 Ti, which we'll review soon, may have been triggered by AMD's unexpected return to the high-end gaming graphics segment with its "Big Navi" Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, particularly the RX 6900 XT and RX 6800.

The GeForce Ampere graphics architecture debuts the 2nd generation of NVIDIA RTX, bringing real-time raytracing to gamers. It combines 3rd generation Tensor cores that accelerate AI deep-learning neural nets that DLSS leverages, second-generation RT cores that introduce more hardware-accelerated raytracing effects, and the new Ampere CUDA core that significantly increases performance over the previous-generation "Turing."

The Zotac RTX 3080 Ti AMP HoloBlack features the highest factory-overclocked speeds from the company for the RTX 3080 Ti, with up to 1710 MHz boost, compared to 1665 MHz reference, a bold new cooling solution design that relies on a large triple-fan heatsink, and aesthetic ARGB lighting elements that bring your gaming rig to life. Zotac hasn't provided us with any pricing information yet, but we're assuming the card will end up $100 pricier than the base cards, like the Founders Edition.

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Market Segment Analysis
	Price	Cores	ROPs	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Memory Clock	GPU	Transistors	Memory
RTX 3060 Ti	$1300	4864	80	1410 MHz	1665 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT	$1000	2560	64	2424 MHz	2581 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti	$1400	4352	88	1350 MHz	1545 MHz	1750 MHz	TU102	18600M	11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070	$1300	5888	96	1500 MHz	1725 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800	$1400	3840	96	1815 MHz	2105 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT	$1700	4608	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080	$1500	8704	96	1440 MHz	1710 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RTX 3080 Ti	$2000 MSRP: $1200	10240	112	1365 MHz	1665 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	12 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
Zotac RTX 3080 Ti AMP Holo	$2100 MSRP: N/A	10240	112	1365 MHz	1710 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	12 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit
RX 6900 XT	$2100	5120	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090	$2900	10496	112	1395 MHz	1695 MHz	1219 MHz	GA102	28000M	24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit

Packaging

The Card

Zotac uses a metal cooler shroud paired with a metal backplate, which looks great. In terms of color theme, various shades of gray are used, and along the top edge, an RGB strip has been installed.

Dimensions of the card are 32 cm x 12.5 cm, and it weighs 1536 g.

Installation requires three slots in your system.

Display connectivity includes three standard DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.1.

The DisplayPort 1.4a outputs support Display Stream Compression (DSC) 1.2a, which lets you connect 4K displays at 120 Hz and 8K displays at 60 Hz. Ampere can drive two 8K displays at 60 Hz with just one cable per display.

Ampere is the first GPU to support HDMI 2.1, which increases bandwidth to 48 Gbps to support higher resolutions, like 4K144 and 8K30, with a single cable. With DSC, this goes up to 4K240 and 8K120. NVIDIA's new NVENC/NVDEC video engine is optimized to handle video tasks with minimal CPU load. The highlight here is added support for AV1 decode. Just like on Turing, you may also decode MPEG-2, VC1, VP8, VP9, H.264, and H.265 natively, at up to 8K@12-bit.

The encoder is identical to Turing. It supports H.264, H.265, and lossless at up to 8K@10-bit.

With just two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, the AMP HoloBlack is among a minority of the RTX 3080 Ti cards tested today. This configuration is rated for 375 W.

The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti does not support SLI.

Teardown

The design of the card is quite conservative overall despite streaks of modern RGB lighting. A simple metal shroud covers a chunky aluminium heatsink that's ventilated by three fans.

Seven nickel-plated copper heatpipes make indirect contact with the GPU and memory through a base-plate out of the same material.

An additional structural frame doubles up as the VRM heatsink. Thermal pads for the memory are 2.0 mm thick, backplate pads are 2.2 mm, and VRM pads 2.5 mm.

A 3-D metal backplate with its own lighting element finishes things off.

High-resolution PCB Pictures

These pictures are for the convenience of volt modders and people who would like to see all the finer details on the PCB. Feel free to link back to us and use these in your articles, videos or forum posts.