A major announcement by NVIDIA is breaking the net of GPU enthusiasts.  A new whole GPU family was introduced. The GeForce RTX 30 series wants to bring 8K content creation and consumption to the mainstream. Meet the new GPUs in town: GeForce RTX 3070, 3080, and the mighty 3090. For those who want to live in the 8K world. Read on.

GeForce RTX 30 Series: Second Generation of RTX

Allow us to start from the architecture itself, which is the new sauce that makes the RTX 30 so powerful yet efficient. This new family of GPUs (defined by NVIDIA as Second-Generation RTX) is powered by NVIDIA Ampere Architecture, which is much more efficient than Turing-based generation (up to 2x performance and 1.9x the power efficiency as claimed by NVIDIA). The new architecture allows us to transform PCs into powerful content creation and consumption machines. The goal: To allow the privilege of enjoying the 8K world. Although it seems that NVIDIA focuses on heavy gamers, the potential of content creation is obvious, as these new GPUs will contribute to 8K HDR video editing as well. Indeed, heavy gamers and professional content creators have many things in common. They both desire the best cost-effective GPUs out there to enhance the visual experience. It appears that the GeForce RTX 30 family was developed to meet their demands.

GeForce RTX 30 highlights

Let’s dive a bit into the technology to understand what’s new:

• Dual-Axial, Flow-Through Thermal Solution: Up to 2x more cooling performance, Creators will be able to enjoy the elevated performance while their GPUs are simultaneously run cooler and quieter.
• Exquisite Mechanical and Electrical Design: A stronger mechanical structure — with a new low-profile leaf spring along with a new 12-pin power connector — allows more space for components and cooling, and is compatible with 8-pin connectors in existing power supplies, with an included adapter.
• HDMI 2.1 — The increased bandwidth provided by HDMI 2.1 allows, for the first time, a single cable connection to 8K HDR TVs for ultra-high-resolution gaming.
• AV1 Decode — First discrete GPUs with support for the new AV1 codec, enabling gamers to watch up to 8K HDR internet video using as much as 50 percent less bandwidth.

Explore the scheme below with further details regarding GeForce RTX 30 architecture. Click on the image for a full resolution view. 

8K HDR editing

According to NVIDIA, the GeForce RTX 3090 is the world’s first graphics card that lets you play, capture and watch in 8K HDR. NVIDIA claims that the RTX 30 can multiply the speed of 8K HDR video editing by two. I don’t know exactly what it means since there are no benchmark graphs that demonstrate the efficiency of the RTX 30 regarding NLEs. However, according to the speed elevation claimed by NVIDIA, the decoding, and encoding processes are expected to be faster. In fact, NVIDIA titled the RTX 3090 as: “The World’s First 8K GPU”, but again, there is no evidence nor demonstration for that definition. 

The GeForce RTX 3090 is the world’s first graphics card that lets you play, capture and watch in 8K HDR

NVIDIA

More details, prices, and availability

GeForce RTX 3070: “The Sweet Spot”

• At $499 it’s faster than the $1,200 GeForce RTX 2080 Ti – at less than half the price
• It’s also 60% faster than RTX 2070 at the same price.
• Available in October.

GeForce RTX 3080: The Flagship”

• Starting at $699, the RTX 3080 is up to 2X faster than the original RTX 2080.
• Designed for 4K gaming, it consistently delivers more than 60 fps at 4K resolution.
• Built on a custom 8N manufacturing process, the flagship GeForce RTX 3080 has 28 billion transistors and features new Micron GDDR6X memory.
• Available starting Sept. 17.

GeForce RTX 3090: “A Big, Ferocious GPU”

• It’s the fastest GPU ever built for gaming and creative types and is designed to power 60 fps at 8K resolution.
• 24GB of GDDR6X memory can tackle the most challenging AI algorithms and feed massive data-hungry workloads.
• It’s up to 50% faster than the TITAN RTX.
• Comes with a silencer — a three-slot, dual-axial, flow-through design — up to 10x quieter and keeps the GPU up to 30 degrees C cooler than the TITAN RTX.
• Available starting Sept. 24 at $1,499.

Why do we need another 8K GPUs?

The ability to edit 8K resolution natively (proxy-free) is not so new. However, it depends on many parameters. Although the ability exists and proved, the question is about real-world efficiency. Can you playback a layer of 8K RAW? Yes, you can. However, would you edit an entire project in 8K RAW? You’d probably not. We are not ready yet for editing full projects in 8K, because each project consists of multiple layers, filters, effects, and more. Thus, the technology of GPU needs to be constantly improved by continues R&D-ing to find the best GPU for the job. This second generation of RTX will allow us, editors, to edit 8K RAW in less compression rate, using more layers in the timeline, apply more effects, and without breaking the bank on expensive cards.

Final thoughts

Although NVIDIA has aimed the announcement to heavy gamers, it is pretty clear the professional content creators can benefit from the RTX 30, which basically, transforms other GPUs to become obsolete. I wish NVIDIA would publish some benchmark testing and references regarding that GPU utilization on NLEs (encoding and decoding data). Also, let’s hope to find those new cards implemented in future RTX Studios.