The 3080ti is available. Need we say more?

Here’s the thing. The 3080ti when compared to the RTX 3090 is still a fantastic card for a custom gaming pc. Essentially the major difference between it and the 3090 is their VRAM. They’re built off the same GA102 GPU. There are a fair few people upset about how there is only a 7-10% performance increase from the 3080 to the 3080ti for gaming. Fair enough. If you’re just looking for a graphics card for gaming and you don’t have a 4k or 8k monitor, then yes this card must look ridiculous.

So, let’s go through the reasons why someone would land on this card as the best for their build.

They’re available

The 3080ti is available for around $2,000. The 3090, if you can find one, is selling for over $3,000. When it comes to a powerful computer, there’s really not much love lost between the two, and the $1,000 you save by accepting a tiny performance could buy you the fastest CPU on the market (the Ryzen 9 5950x) with a few hundred to spare. 

DIY builders and prebuilt PC businesses like us are all having trouble getting graphics cards. The 3080ti is a rare exception though. Since they don’t have the flash of being “The Best Graphics Card”, those looking to really splurge are opting to go ahead and spend that extra $1,000. When buying parts or a custom built computer, I think we can all agree that $1,000 for a marginal boost in performance isn’t worth the bragging rights.

The RTX 3080ti is a much better value for gamers

Since both the RTX 3090 and 3080ti have the same base GA102 GPU, the only major benefit for choosing the 3080ti is for hardcore content creators. From 1080p to 4k gaming, the FPS difference between these two cards is either within the margin of error or up to 10fps. On average, that number is 5.4fps[1]. We’ll build you the best PC money can buy, and it’ll look absolutely amazing, but even we’ll double check with someone who primarily games if they *really* want to pay the extra $1,000 for 5 extra fps.

If you’re not a professional content creator, you probably won’t notice the difference.

In the vast majority of cases[2], the RTX 3080ti is able to perform on the same scale as the 3090. Don’t get us wrong, the 3090 wins every benchmark, but does it win by a scale of $300-$1000? If you are a professional, that question is almost immediately a yes. On renders of 30min or longer, the upgrade will make minutes of difference. For casual and hobbyist content creators, a prebuilt PC that costs $1,000 less is more than likely the right option. For those of you that want a custom PC that can, say, stream 3D modeling and play games while a project renders, then go for it!

Conclusion

If you’re making money off computationally heavy work on your PC or have enough money to not care, then go for it! Purchase a gaming, streaming, rendering beast of a computer with an RTX 3090. 

[1] https://www.gpucheck.com/compare/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-ti-vs-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3090/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r6TasObpRU