Jacob Roach \/ Digital Trends<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo we’ve seen what happens when Nvidia takes a good GPU and cuts its VRAM and core count down without changing the name, but what happens when it takes a good GPU and adds more VRAM and cores? Making a good GPU even faster sounds like a great idea! Well, in the case of the RTX 3080 12GB, it resulted in the creation of what might be Nvidia’s most pointless GPU in every way.<\/p>\n
Compared to the original RTX 3080 10GB, the 3080 12GB wasn’t actually much of an upgrade. Like other Nvidia GPUs with more memory, it did have more cores too, but only about 3% more. In our review, we found that the 10GB and 12GB models had almost identical performance, very unlike how the 1060 3GB was noticeably slower than the 1060 6GB. To Nvidia’s credit, the name of the 3080 12GB was pretty accurate, a noticeable improvement over the 1060 3GB.<\/p>\n
So, what’s the problem with offering a new version of a GPU with more memory? Well, Nvidia released the 3080 12GB during the GPU shortage of 2020-2022, and naturally, it retailed for an absurdly high price at anywhere between $1,250 and $1,600. Meanwhile, 10GB variants were retailing for $300 to 400 less, and since the memory upgrade clearly didn’t matter, it was obvious which card you should buy.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most embarrassing thing for the 3080 12GB wasn’t its cheaper 10GB version, but the existence of the RTX 3080 Ti, which had the same memory size and bandwidth as the 3080 12GB. The thing is, it also had 14% more cores and consequently significantly higher performance. On review day, the 3080 Ti was cheaper, making the 3080 12GB pointless from literally every angle and just another card released during the shortage that didn’t make any sense at all.<\/p>\n
Nvidia’s worst GPUs, so far<\/h2>\n To Nvidia’s credit, even most of its worst GPUs had something going for it: the 970 was good in spite of its memory, the 1060 3GB was just named poorly, and the RTX 2080 was just overpriced by about $200. Nvidia has made very few technological mistakes so far, and even the GTX 480 was at least the fastest graphics card with just a single GPU die.<\/p>\n
That being said, good technology can’t make up for bad business decisions like poor naming conventions and exorbitant pricing, and these are mistakes Nvidia keeps making every year. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like either of these things is going away any time soon, with the RTX 4080 12GB almost making it to market while the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090, while excellent cards, are simply far too expensive to make sense.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t hard to predict that Nvidia’s GPUs would keep getting more and more expensive, and I fully expect this trend to continue into the future. Nvidia’s next GPU won’t be let down by shady marketing or worst misleading branding or technological blunders, but by price alone. We’d be lucky to see the RTX 4070 cost no more than AMD’s upcoming RX 7900 XTX.<\/p>\n
\n \tEditors’ Recommendations<\/h4>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span> \n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nvidia has a strong pedigree for making great graphics cards. It has never really been the underdog and its greatest GPUs outshone those of its rival AMD time and time again. But despite Nvidia’s penchant for innovation and technological advancement, it has put out quite a few abominable cards, cursed not necessarily by bad technology, …<\/p>\n
The 5 worst Nvidia GPUs of all time<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe 5 worst Nvidia GPUs of all time - harchi90<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n