ThePCEnthusiast is supported by its readers. Our articles usually contain affiliate links.
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn from qualifying purchases. See our site disclosure here.

Asus RTX 3090, RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 Graphics Cards Released

After the announcement of NVIDIA‘s RTX 3090 BFGPU, RTX 3080 new flagship card, and RTX 3070 “the RTX 2080 Ti-killer” card; Asus reveals their custom graphics cards. Asus’ RTX 30 series includes the ROG Strix RTX 30 series, TUF RTX 30 series, and a Dual Fan card. Let’s check them all out below.

UPDATE: Asus RTX 30 Series Graphics Cards Pricing and Availability:
TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 – check on Amazon.com here
ROG STRIX RTX 3080 O10G GAMING 10GB – check on Newegg.com here
TUF GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition – check on Amazon.com here
TUF GeForce RTX 3080 – check on Amazon.com here
Other GeForce RTX 3080 Graphics Cards available on Newegg.com here, B&H Photo here

Asus ROG Strix RTX 30 Series Graphics Card

Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090, RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 Graphics Cards

The Asus ROG Strix RTX 30 series is the company’s top of the line graphics card design. This one features Asus’ icon ROG Strix aesthetics with a triple fan design and full RGB lighting on its side. It simply screams “GAMING” if you ask me. It looks very Asus-like, but I think this one is much better compared to their ROG Strix GTX 10 and RTX 20 series.

According to Asus, they have redesigned everything; offering more airflow, more heatsink surface area, and more “style”. The RGB lighting on its side is addressable and on the front cooler shroud are some cut-outs with the usual Asus graffiti that you see on its Strix motherboards.

The huge 2.9-slot heatsink is cooled by three Axial-tech fans. Interestingly, Asus decided to make the center fan rotate in the opposite direction. Gigabyte has been using this kind of design since its GTX 900 series Xtreme Gaming graphics cards.

However, Asus’ approach is a bit different. The new outer fans on the ROG Strix cooler use notched barrier rings. This is to minimize any interference with an air intake in the central region of the card. Meanwhile, the center fan uses a solid barrier ring to deliver maximum airflow and static pressure over the hottest part of the GPU heatsink.

Asus also added more blades to each fan, now 11 for the outer fans and 13 for the central unit, to increase their air-moving potential. These changes are said to increase both the static pressure and cubic feet per minute of airflow available.

Finally, since the PCB is shorter on these RTX 30 series cards, there is a hole or cutout on the rear end of its backplate. This will push the air through the heatsink easily on the rear end, similar to NVIDIA’s flow-through design.

Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090 Graphics Card

All the Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090, RTX 3080, and RTX 3070 have three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. According to Asus, this is to maximize overclocking headroom and system stability. This approach means that the card will satisfy all of its power needs by drawing directly from the PSU; reducing demands from the ATX12V and auxiliary power connectors on the motherboard.

Asus also recommends that you use at least a 750W power supply with the ROG Strix RTX 30 series cards. These cards can draw up to 400W of total board power. ROG Strix cards also feature a custom VRM array comprising 22 power stages across all of the major voltage rails. There’s also 70A power stages on the main rails to ensure the cleanest and most reliable power delivery.

It is important to note that only the Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090 has an NVLink connector. It’s the only card capable of SLI or multi-GPU configuration. The RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 does not have an NVLink connector.

Asus ROG Strix RTX 3080 Graphics Card

ROG Strix RTX 3070 Graphics Card

Asus TUF RTX 3090 and TUF RTX 3080 Graphics Cards

Asus TUF RTX 30 series

The Asus TUF Gaming RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 features a matte black metallic shroud with a rugged industrial design. There are some angular accents together with a lighting accent and some tire marks on its backplate.

It has a triple fan design, and each fan has nine blades with Asus’ Axial-tech technology. There is a cutout on the rear-end of its backplate so that air can be pushed through by the third fan. There’s also a dedicated heatsink for the memory to keep them cool and a 0db fan-stop mode for silent operation during idle to light load situation.

Interestingly, the TUF Gaming RTX 30 series only has two 8-pin PCIe power connectors even for the RTX 3090. I guess two 8-pin connectors are enough to power an RTX 3090, but board partners decided to use three 8-pin connectors on cards with RGB lighting.

For those who are looking for a simpler or rugged look without any RGB lighting, the Asus TUF RTX 30 series fits the bill.

Asus TUF RTX 3090 Graphics Card

TUF RTX 3080 Graphics Card

Asus Dual RTX 3070 Graphics Card

asus dual rtx 3070 graphics card

The Asus Dual RTX 3070 is the only card on its lineup to feature a dual-fan design. Aesthetically speaking, it also looks plain and not as gaming-centric compared to the ROG Strix and TUF variant. I’m positive that this is also the cheaper option among Asus’ RTX 3070 cards.

It features Asus’ axial-tech design and will occupy 2 PCI slots. However, the cooler shroud or its heatsink is a 2.7-slot design. So the third PCI slot will most likely be covered by the shroud.

Asus also plans to release RTX 30 series Turbo cards on a later date. The Turbo series usually features a blower-type cooler. But they may redesign their Turbo series as well.

Asus RTX 30 Series Pricing and Availability

The GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards are expected to become available on September 17, 2020. Meanwhile, the GeForce RTX 3090 will become available starting on the 24th. As for the RTX 3070, is expected to be released sometime in October; more or less in the first half of October. Expect that the Asus variant will be priced higher than the MSRP. Check the link(s) below for latest pricing and availability:

UPDATE: Asus RTX 30 Series Graphics Cards Pricing and Availability:
TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 – check on Amazon.com here
ROG STRIX RTX 3080 O10G GAMING 10GB – check on Newegg.com here
TUF GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition – check on Amazon.com here
TUF GeForce RTX 3080 – check on Amazon.com here
Other GeForce RTX 3080 Graphics Cards available on Newegg.com here, B&H Photo here

Below are additional features of the RTX 30 series cards.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Features

Below are the “cutting-edge” technologies that the new RTX 30 Series GPUs and NVIDIA Ampere architecture have to offer:

  • New streaming multiprocessors: The building block for the world’s fastest, most efficient GPU, delivering 2x the FP32 throughput of the previous generation, and 30 Shader-TFLOPS of processing power.
  • Second-gen RT Cores: New dedicated RT Cores deliver 2x the throughput of the previous generation, plus concurrent ray tracing and shading and compute, with 58 RT-TFLOPS of processing power.
  • Third-gen Tensor Cores: New dedicated Tensor Cores, with up to 2x the throughput of the previous generation, making it faster and more efficient to run AI-powered technologies, like NVIDIA DLSS, and 238 Tensor-TFLOPS of processing power.
  • NVIDIA RTX IO: Enables rapid GPU-based loading and game asset decompression, accelerating input/output performance by up to 100x compared with hard drives and traditional storage APIs. In conjunction with Microsoft’s new DirectStorage for Windows API,(1) RTX IO offloads dozens of CPU cores’ worth of work to the RTX GPU, improving frame rates and enabling near-instantaneous game loading.
  • NVIDIA Broadcast for AI-powered Video and Voice: Turn any room into a home studio with AI-taking your livestreams and video chats to the next level with AI-powered audio and video effects like noise removal, virtual background, and webcam auto frame.
  • World’s fastest graphics memory: NVIDIA has worked with Micron to create the world’s fastest discrete graphics memory for the RTX 30 Series, GDDR6X.(2) It provides data speeds of close to 1TB/s system memory bandwidth for graphics card applications, maximizing game and app performance.
  • Next-gen process technology: New 8N NVIDIA custom process from Samsung, which allows for higher transistor density and more efficiency.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Specifications

RTX 3090RTX 3080RTX 3070RTX 2080 TiRTX 2080
Fab Process8nm Samsung8nm Samsung8nm Samsung12nm TSMC12nm TSMC
ArchitectureAmpereAmpereAmpereTuringTuring
CUDA Cores104968704588843522944
Base Clock1400 MHz1440 MHz1500 MHz1350 MHz1515 MHz
Boost Clock1700 MHz1710 MHz1730 MHz1545 MHZ
1635 MHz (FE)
1710 MHz
1800 MHz (FE)
Memory Size24GB10GB8GB11GB8GB
Memory TypeGDDR6XGDDR6XGDDR6GDDR6GDDR6
Memory Clock19.5 Gbps19 Gbps16 Gbps14 Gbps14 Gbps
Memory Bandwidth936.2 GB/s760.3 GB/s448.0 GB/s616 GB/s448 GB/s
Memory Interface384-bit320-bit256-bit352-bit256-bit
Max. GPU Temp.93°93°93°89°88°
Power Connectors2x 8-pin2x 8-pin8-pin8+8 pin6+8 pin
Graphics Card Power350W320W220W260W (FE)225W (FE)
Recommended PSU750W750W650W650W650W
Price$1,499 $699$499$999 (reference)
$1,199 (FE)
$799 (reference)
$699 (FE)

The specifications above are the NVIDIA’s Founder Edition cards’ specs. Asus ROG Strix and TUF RTX 30 series cards are similar, except for the GPU clock speeds. However, the bump is only minimal; only 25MHz to 30MHz increase. You can check them here. Asus hasn’t released the specs for their RTX 3070 graphics card.

What do you think of the new Asus ROG Strix and TUF RTX 30 series cards? Are you planning to get one when they become available?

Photo of author
Author
Peter Paul
Peter is a PC enthusiast and avid gamer with several years of hands-on experience in testing and reviewing PC components, audio equipment, and various tech devices. He offers a genuine, no-nonsense perspective, helping consumers make informed choices in the ever-changing world of technology.

Leave a Comment