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Early Blender benchmarks suggest that two NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 cards would outperform a single GeForce RTX 3090 had NVIDIA included NVLink support

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 could be the card of choice for content creators. (Image source: NVIDIA)
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 could be the card of choice for content creators. (Image source: NVIDIA)
Initial benchmarks suggest that the GeForce RTX 3090 should outperform the RTX 3080 by up to 23.5% in professional applications, according to a new report. That is a far cry from the paltry 5% improvement in some gaming benchmarks, but two RTX 3080 cards would beat an RTX 3090 in professional applications if NVIDIA had enabled NVLink.

The GeForce RTX 3090 may not cut an impressive figure in early gaming benchmarks. Still, NVIDIA's new flagship card seems to hold a more substantial advantage over the RTX 3080 in professional applications. To recap, TecLab demonstrated that the RTX 3080 comes within 5% of the RTX 3090 in some games, despite costing a fraction of the price of an RTX 3090.

However, Videocardz has uncovered that the RTX 3090 achieves between 15.3-23.5% faster render times in Blender. All results have been achieved using version 2.90 of Blender, for reference. So, the RTX 3090 could be the card for content creators who want the fastest possible render times, albeit for substantially more money than NVIDIA charges for the RTX 3080.

Sale off now on Amazon - NVIDIA Geforce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition

(Image source: Videocardz)

A 20% gap in professional applications does distinguish the RTX 3090 from the RTX 3080 somewhat, although perhaps not for the additional US$800 that NVIDIA charges for the RTX 3090. Theoretically, two RTX 3080 cards would outperform a single RTX 3090 though, while costing US$101 less. However, NVIDIA has restricted its NVLink GPU interconnect to just the RTX 3090, nixing that idea. The RTX 3090 Founders Edition will formally arrive on September 24, so we should get a better idea of its performance advantage over the RTX 3080 in professional and gaming applications, then.

(Image source: Blender)

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 09 > Early Blender benchmarks suggest that two NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 cards would outperform a single GeForce RTX 3090 had NVIDIA included NVLink support
Alex Alderson, 2020-09-21 (Update: 2020-09-22)