NVIDIA RTX 3080 PCIe 3.0 vs. PCIe 4.0 x16 Benchmarks (& Intel vs. AMD for 3080 Discussion)
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Date: 2020-09-19
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Comments and reviews: 10
Illuminati
I would be interested to see AI learning / scientific computing test of the two generations. As far as I know in theory (although I am not familiar with new APIs such as Vulkan), rendering is one-side process where meshes and texture data are usually transferred to the VRAM during loading times (usually bounded by non-volatile storage such as NVMe/SSD/HDD speeds) and there is no reason to transfer back from VRAM to RAM or non-volatile storage. All data is to be discarded after rendering (with possible exception of recording/streaming), where as in scientific computing not only the result needs to be stored back onto permanent storage, but also a new data can be reintegrated into the current result, thus far more VRAM-to-RAM and vice-versa transfers must occur, resulting in higher and more often utilization of the PCIe lanes.
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I would be interested to see AI learning / scientific computing test of the two generations. As far as I know in theory (although I am not familiar with new APIs such as Vulkan), rendering is one-side process where meshes and texture data are usually transferred to the VRAM during loading times (usually bounded by non-volatile storage such as NVMe/SSD/HDD speeds) and there is no reason to transfer back from VRAM to RAM or non-volatile storage. All data is to be discarded after rendering (with possible exception of recording/streaming), where as in scientific computing not only the result needs to be stored back onto permanent storage, but also a new data can be reintegrated into the current result, thus far more VRAM-to-RAM and vice-versa transfers must occur, resulting in higher and more often utilization of the PCIe lanes.
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ElementOfC
Games that lean on DirectStorage likely have the capability of revealing a meaningful difference. The big question is when this becomes a meaningful factor versus the expected life of a system built today. For those who only build a base system (CPU, board, memory) every 5+ years, I think gen4 should be highly advised. For those who build more often than that, it's probably not going to matter.
The other thing to remember is that the first generation of PC games that run DirectStorage will probably have very conservative performance targets set by the developers/publishers to maximize their potential install base. So it's not necessarily about when the first DirectStorage game ships, but rather when there is enough inertia behind the API that devs start leaning harder on it.
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Games that lean on DirectStorage likely have the capability of revealing a meaningful difference. The big question is when this becomes a meaningful factor versus the expected life of a system built today. For those who only build a base system (CPU, board, memory) every 5+ years, I think gen4 should be highly advised. For those who build more often than that, it's probably not going to matter.
The other thing to remember is that the first generation of PC games that run DirectStorage will probably have very conservative performance targets set by the developers/publishers to maximize their potential install base. So it's not necessarily about when the first DirectStorage game ships, but rather when there is enough inertia behind the API that devs start leaning harder on it.
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Donald
Uuuuckkk! The screen cap software you used (OBS) for the 3DMark Benchmark was either not set up properly, or was being bottlenecked cuz it looks like absolute garbage. For future reference, maybe try changing the settings from variable bitrate to constant bitrate x264. Definitely dont use variable bitrate x265.
Also, it's a wee bit confusing as to what your results mean when you show the Quake II RTX results with the i7-10700k and PCIE 4.0 vs 3.0, when Comet Lake is not compatible with PCIE 4.0. And you then, after the Quake II results, proceeded not to include any additional comparisons between Gen 3.0 vs 4.0 on the Intel platform. ?
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Uuuuckkk! The screen cap software you used (OBS) for the 3DMark Benchmark was either not set up properly, or was being bottlenecked cuz it looks like absolute garbage. For future reference, maybe try changing the settings from variable bitrate to constant bitrate x264. Definitely dont use variable bitrate x265.
Also, it's a wee bit confusing as to what your results mean when you show the Quake II RTX results with the i7-10700k and PCIE 4.0 vs 3.0, when Comet Lake is not compatible with PCIE 4.0. And you then, after the Quake II results, proceeded not to include any additional comparisons between Gen 3.0 vs 4.0 on the Intel platform. ?
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Marc
Moore's Law is Dead was certain! that gen4 will make a difference and that gen3 will bottleneck. He claimed that Intel is by default disqualified as a cpu choice because of its lack of gen 4. He was talking of 10% differences even with Turing cards. Again, he has shown himself to be wrong. I'm telling you this because he won't admit to being wrong even though every video has a portion where he will claim that
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Moore's Law is Dead was certain! that gen4 will make a difference and that gen3 will bottleneck. He claimed that Intel is by default disqualified as a cpu choice because of its lack of gen 4. He was talking of 10% differences even with Turing cards. Again, he has shown himself to be wrong. I'm telling you this because he won't admit to being wrong even though every video has a portion where he will claim that
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Sami
I don't agree on your statement regarding the PCIE3.0.
You notice a 2% to 6% dip between PCIe 3.0 vs PCIe 4.0 . As far as I know Overclocking a 3080 brings as much perf.
The way I see it, you have to OC the hell out of your 3080 if you have a PCIe3.0 only to match a stock card on 4.0
Im not saying it's a game changer, but for many of us who like to get the max it's definitely more than a mkt gimmick
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I don't agree on your statement regarding the PCIE3.0.
You notice a 2% to 6% dip between PCIe 3.0 vs PCIe 4.0 . As far as I know Overclocking a 3080 brings as much perf.
The way I see it, you have to OC the hell out of your 3080 if you have a PCIe3.0 only to match a stock card on 4.0
Im not saying it's a game changer, but for many of us who like to get the max it's definitely more than a mkt gimmick
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J nos
Hmm, I don't get it. Why didn't you check the situation when you run out of VRAM, like with Doom / Nightmare. 10GB of VRAM might not be enough for future titles and the numbers with Doom could help us predict what to expect then. I guess PCIe data transfer comes to picture in these cases as games normally are DESIGNED to avoid the necessity of excessive PCIe transfers.
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Hmm, I don't get it. Why didn't you check the situation when you run out of VRAM, like with Doom / Nightmare. 10GB of VRAM might not be enough for future titles and the numbers with Doom could help us predict what to expect then. I guess PCIe data transfer comes to picture in these cases as games normally are DESIGNED to avoid the necessity of excessive PCIe transfers.
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markiangooley
I just want a not-too expensive motherboard that provides 3.0 x16 on two slots (for two GPUs running Folding at Home). For under US 150 I can get a used dual Xeon motherboard complete with Xeons and memory and four (rather cramped) 3.0 x16 slots. Power-hungry, slow (might not matter here), won t fit in a standard case. Not a common situation, of course.
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I just want a not-too expensive motherboard that provides 3.0 x16 on two slots (for two GPUs running Folding at Home). For under US 150 I can get a used dual Xeon motherboard complete with Xeons and memory and four (rather cramped) 3.0 x16 slots. Power-hungry, slow (might not matter here), won t fit in a standard case. Not a common situation, of course.
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Alex
Gamers Nexus have you tried to turn off SMT on 3950X and check if it will OC higher than 3900XT?
Also earlier there was a statement that the difference between PCIE4 and 3 will be bigger in ESports cases where these 240-360 HZ monitors will come into play with high FPS numbers for titles like CS:GO and Rainbox Six Siege, can you confirm or reject it?
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Gamers Nexus have you tried to turn off SMT on 3950X and check if it will OC higher than 3900XT?
Also earlier there was a statement that the difference between PCIE4 and 3 will be bigger in ESports cases where these 240-360 HZ monitors will come into play with high FPS numbers for titles like CS:GO and Rainbox Six Siege, can you confirm or reject it?
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eloj
Seems odd to leave out Horizon Zero Dawn, when it's known to be PCIe bandwidth hungry. Is it an outlier due to bad porting, or a harbringer of things to come? Anyway, it doesn't matter until suddenly it does. If you're investing in a system today to keep for the next 4-5 _years_, why would you go PCIe3 when the option doesn't cost you anything?
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Seems odd to leave out Horizon Zero Dawn, when it's known to be PCIe bandwidth hungry. Is it an outlier due to bad porting, or a harbringer of things to come? Anyway, it doesn't matter until suddenly it does. If you're investing in a system today to keep for the next 4-5 _years_, why would you go PCIe3 when the option doesn't cost you anything?
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Lazirus951
PCIe 4.0 is relevant for NVMe SSDs. Drives such as the Samsung 980 PRO have a generational leap in performance thanks to the bandwidth of PCIe 4.0. This isn't super helpful yet, but will become meaningful next year once Microsoft launches DirectStorage for Windows API and we start seeing RTX I/O being an option in some games.
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PCIe 4.0 is relevant for NVMe SSDs. Drives such as the Samsung 980 PRO have a generational leap in performance thanks to the bandwidth of PCIe 4.0. This isn't super helpful yet, but will become meaningful next year once Microsoft launches DirectStorage for Windows API and we start seeing RTX I/O being an option in some games.
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