The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is NVIDIA's flagship graphics card released in 2017, which was king at the time, although 6 years have passed so far, it seems very far away. However, in the second-hand graphics card market, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti has always been very popular, it is a sweet potato, and it is one of the popular alternative models for many friends with limited budgets to upgrade their graphics cards.
So at this point in 2023, if you have a limited budget to buy a second-hand graphics card, how big is the performance gap between the "veteran" GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and the current mainstream GeForce GTX 3060? Is it worth buying?
Before the comparison, it should be emphasized that due to the limitations of architecture and process, the power consumption of the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is definitely higher than the subsequent new products, and it is definitely at a disadvantage, but buying a second-hand graphics card pursues performance and cost performance, so power consumption is not the focus of consideration, as long as the heat dissipation of the graphics card is in place, there is no problem.
First, parameter comparison
Before officially sharing the performance of the game, let's review the specific parameters of the "veteran" GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards.
The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti was released on March 10, 2017, using GP102 GPU (Figure 2), based on Pascal architecture, TSMC 16nm process, with 3584 CUDA cores, 224 texture units, 88 raster units, 28 multi-unit stream processors, and 2.75MB of L2 level cache.
The standard operating frequency is 1481MHz, the maximum operating frequency is 1572 MHz, equipped with 11GB GDDR5X video memory, the memory speed is 11Gbps, the memory bit width is 352 bits, the memory bandwidth is 484.4 GB/s, the FP32 performance is 11.34 TFLOPS, the power consumption is 250W, and the official recommended retail price is $699.
GeForce RTX 3060 was released on January 12, 2021, using GA106 GPU, based on Ampere architecture, Samsung 8nm process, with 3584 CUDA cores, 112 texture units, 48 raster units, 28 ray tracing units, 28 multi-unit stream processors, 112 tensor cores, and 3MB of L2 level cache.
The standard operating frequency is 1320MHz, the maximum operating frequency is 1777 MHz, it is equipped with 12GB GDDR6 memory, the memory speed is 15Gbps, the memory bit width is 192 bits, the memory bandwidth is 360 GB/s, the FP32 performance is 12.7 TFLOPS, the power consumption is 170W, and the official recommended retail price is $329.
Although the release time of the two graphics cards is four years apart, the gap in many parameters is not very different, and even some parameters GeForce GTX 1080 Ti are leading. But in addition to parameters, GeForce RTX 3060 has architectural and process advantages, each with its own advantages, so how far will their final game performance be?
2. Game measurement
The test platform processor is AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the memory is 32GB DDR4-3200 CL14, other hardware is all the same, the following games are all using 1440P medium quality settings, in order to make the comparison more referenceable, an AMD competitor RX 5700 XT is added for horizontal comparison.
The first game was Hitman 3.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 65 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 56 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 73 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 67 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 82 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 71 FPS.
Of the three graphics cards, the GTX 1080 Ti comes in bottom of the grade, which is not surprising, with the GTX 1080 Ti about 12.3% behind the RX 5700 XT and around 26.2% behind the RTX 3060 in percentage terms.
It can be seen that the performance gap between the GTX 1080 Ti and the RTX 3060 is close to one-third, which is a bit large, and a game performance is not enough to draw such a conclusion, and it is necessary to see a few more comparisons.
The second game is Warhammer 3.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 51 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 38 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 49 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 36 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 51 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 34 FPS.
In this game, the GTX 1080 Ti's performance reversed, its average frame rate exceeded the RX 5700 XT, although it was only 2 FPS ahead, which can be ignored, and tied the RTX 3060, but the gap is very small, basically even.
It is worth mentioning that the GTX 1080 Ti has the highest minimum instantaneous frame rate and higher stability, and overall, the GTX 1080 Ti is still a little stronger than the other two.
The third game is Far Cry 6.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 83 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 71 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 104 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 87 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 88 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 80 FPS.
In this game, the overall situation is similar to the first one, and the GTX 1080 Ti is still at the bottom, with the GTX 1080 Ti about 25.3% behind the RX 5700 XT in percentage terms.
However, the GTX 1080 Ti and the RTX 3060 have only 5 FPS gap, which can be ignored if the judging criteria are relaxed a bit, and the two are judged to be equal, and if strictly calculated, the GTX 1080 Ti is about 5.7% behind the RTX 3060.
The fourth game is Rainbow Six: Siege, which is a relatively lightweight game.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 233 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 183 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 245 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 202 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 232 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 197 FPS.
In this game, the GTX 1080 Ti still lags slightly behind the RX 5700 XT, but still flattens the RTX 3060, and the GTX 1080 Ti lags behind the RX 5700 XT by about 5.2% on a percentage basis.
The fifth game is Cyberpunk 2077.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 57 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 49 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 67 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 60 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 63 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 57 FPS.
The GTX 1080 Ti is still at the bottom, but it's not a big gap compared to the RTX 3060, which is about 17.5% behind the RX 5700 XT and about 10.5% behind the RTX 3060 in percentage terms.
The sixth game is Death Stranding.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 117 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 109 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 131 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 120 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 109 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 96 FPS.
In this game, the GTX 1080 Ti still lags behind the RX 5700 XT, but surpasses the RTX 3060, and in percentage terms, the GTX 1080 Ti is about 12% behind the RX 5700 XT and about 7.3% ahead of the RTX 3060.
The seventh game is F1 22.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 144 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 125 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 142 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 120 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 144 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 123 FPS.
In this game, the GTX 1080 Ti finally surpassed the RX 5700 XT, but the lead was very small, flattening the RTX 3060, and overall the performance of the three was equal.
However, like the second game, the GTX 1080 Ti has the highest minimum instantaneous frame rate and higher stability, and overall, the GTX 1080 Ti is slightly slighter.
The eighth game is Mighty Kosha: Racing.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 165 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 133 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 144 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 104 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 146 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 106 FPS.
In this game, the GTX 1080 Ti is completely countered, with both average and minimum frame rates significantly outperforming its opponents, with the GTX 1080 Ti outperforming the RX 5700 XT by about 14.6% and the RTX 3060 by about 13% in percentage terms.
The ninth game is Halo Infinite.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 64 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 52 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 70 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 61 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 68 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 58 FPS.
In this game, the GTX 1080 Ti is still at the bottom, with the GTX 1080 Ti about 9.4% behind the RX 5700 XT and about 6.3% behind the RTX 3060 in percentage terms.
The tenth game is Forza Horizon 5.
The GTX 1080 Ti has an average frame rate of 101 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 83 FPS, the RX 5700 XT has an average frame rate of 126 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 105 FPS, and the RTX 3060 has an average frame rate of 103 FPS and a minimum instantaneous frame rate of 86 FPS.
In this game, the GTX 1080 Ti is still at the bottom, significantly behind the RX 5700 XT, but basically flat with the RTX 3060, and on a percentage basis, the GTX 1080 Ti is about 14.9% behind the RX 5700 XT.
Third, the comparative conclusion
Overall, the performance of the GTX 1080 Ti is very close to that of the RTX 3060, which can basically be considered flat, but the gap is a bit large compared to the RX 5700 XT, at least 10% more.
It should be added that this comparison is not fair to the GTX 1080 Ti, because many later games may not be optimized for it, the performance may not be fully played, and the higher scores are some old games.
But in any case, these do not affect the strength and reputation of the GTX 1080 Ti, and its performance is still very good even now, which is remarkable. If you have a very limited budget and plan to buy a second-hand graphics card upgrade, then it is still worth buying, provided that it must be in good condition, no disassembly, reliable quality and moderate price.