Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC Dual Slot Review

1. Introduction
2. Everything You Need to Know About Ampere
3. RTX 3080 Ti Tech Specs
4. Detailed Look
5. Test System Specs
6. Benchmarks - Synthetic
7. Benchmarks - 1080p
8. Benchmarks - 1440p
9. Benchmarks - 4K
10. Overclocking
11. Power Consumption & Temps
12. What's Hot, What's Not
13. Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 94%

The Bottom Line

Inno3D's new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC provides RTX 3090 levels of performance in a dual-slot design, with a triple-fan cooler and only requires dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Impressive stuff here.

Introduction

Inno3D have been working with TweakTown closer than previous launches with the new GeForce RTX 30 series, sending us 3 of their iChill X3 OC graphics cards... but when they asked me which model GeForce RTX 3080 Ti of theirs I wanted to review, I chose something different.

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The new Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC is different to the other custom RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards that I have reviewed so far in that it has a dual-slot design. The custom MSI RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X and ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 Ti are 3-slot and 2.9-slot behemoths, respectively.

Inno3D on the other hand is offering a much tighter dual-slot custom GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, just like NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition and its dual-slot design. Inno3D changes it up with a custom cooling solution and triple fans, which will keep the card cooler than the RTX 3080 Ti FE -- but what about performance? That's what we'll talk about soon.

• Read more: Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 iCHILL X3 Review
• Read more: Inno3D GeForce RTX 3070 iCHILL X3 Review
• Read more: Inno3D GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCHILL X3 Review

Inno3D is using a triple-fan cooler with 3 x 90mm fans and high-quality bearings, with the scythe fan blades used to increase airflow and have been optimized to work in low fan speed conditions. There are 7 heat pipes inside, with two heat pipes dedicated to taking the heat from the 12GB of GDDR6X memory and moving it to the heat spreader which drops the GDDR6X temps by up to 10C.

We'll go through that testing later in the review, but from the start -- I'm really digging the dual-slot design and triple-fan cooler which is a good change from the huge triple-slot custom beast GPUs. This is still the same RTX 3080 Ti GPU beast, but in a smaller design -- perfect for mATX and ITX SFF gaming PCs.

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A nice little family photo of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series Founders Edition graphics cards, and my reviews on each of the separate cards.

• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition Review

For the entire time testing the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC Dual Slot graphics card, I was using the new ASUS ROG Strix XG43UQ monitor... a huge 43-inch 4K 144Hz monitor with HDMI 2.1 connectivity. I used HDMI 2.1 directly into every GeForce RTX 3080 Ti that I've tested here today and will continue from this day onward.

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12GB

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$999.99	$989.99	$1038.99	$1064.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/18/2024 at 7:14 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Everything You Need to Know About Ampere

• Ampere GPU architecture: NVIDIA has so much going on under the Ampere GPU hood, with the GA102 GPU packing a huge 28 billion transistors (that's 28,000,000,000) on the Samsung 8nm node. We have a huge 10240 CUDA cores on GA102, over double the 4608 CUDA cores on the TITAN RTX.
• RTX improvements: NVIDIA has effectively doubled everything when it comes to RTX, where it will rips and tears your games and delivers them to your eyeballs faster than ever before with Ampere. If you want to run any RTX-powered games, you'll want a new GeForce RTX 3080.
• GDDR6X memory: The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has 12GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit memory bus, with a massive 912GB/sec of memory bandwidth. You should see the 4K gaming results for the evidence of the Ampere GPU + GDDR6X memory slaying it.

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• PCIe 4.0 connectivity: NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards are now PCIe 4.0 compatible, so if you're building a new AMD Ryzen 3000 series system with an X570 motherboard -- you will be ready to rock and roll with PCIe 4.0 connectivity.
• HDMI 2.1: 4K 120Hz + 8K 60Hz = single cable: If you are buying a new TV in the coming months or years, HDMI 2.1 is going to be something you want. It opens up the bandwidth floodgates to 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz over the single HDMI 2.1 cable.
• RTX IO: NVIDIA's introduction of RTX IO with Ampere is very similar to the ultra-fast game load times on the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles. You can read all about RTX IO right here, which is something we'll see build more foundation in 2021 and beyond.

RTX 3080 Ti Tech Specs

NVIDIA has up to 1.5x more performance at 4K with the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti over the previous-gen Turing-based GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, which can lead to a gigantic improvement in frame rate in the latest games at the glorious 4K resolution on the RTX 3080 Ti.

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If we do a direct comparison between the new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and the previous-gen Turing-based GeForce RTX 2080 Ti there are some stark differences. The new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has 10240 CUDA cores up from the 4352 CUDA cores on the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

The new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has 80 SMs, 320 Tensor Cores (3rd Gen) and 80 RT Cores (2nd Gen) versus the 68 SMs, 544 Tensor Cores (2nd Gen) and 68 SMs (1st Gen). There's 320 Texture Units and 112 ROPs on the RTX 3080 Ti, versus the 272 Texture Units and 88 ROPs on the RTX 2080 Ti.

GPU boost clocks are around the same on both the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in Founders Edition form, while the new RTX 3080 Ti packs 12GB of GDDR6X against the 11GB of GDDR6 found on the RTX 2080 Ti.

GDDR6X provides a huge injection of performance, key to 4K gaming dominance -- with the 12GB of GDDR6X placed on a 384-bit memory bus providing a huge 912GB/sec of memory bandwidth. NVIDIA used 11GB of GDDR6 (non-X) on the RTX 2080 Ti on a slightly smaller 352-bit memory bus, which spits out 616GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Detailed Look

Inno3D's retail packaging does enough to attract your eyes from the front, but is pretty lacking on the back. It's not like you need to know much about the card before you rip it out of the box in seconds, but hey... I'm a fan of retail packaging.

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I'm in love with the basic-style looks of the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card. Sure the flagship triple-fan, triple-slot GPU beasts look great as well, but there's something unique about a tight dual-slot card that has better thermals than the Founders Edition.

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I would've liked more on the backplate, but it's definitely not bad at all. There's a unique style going on in the back, that's for sure.

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The magic itself: the dual-slot design. Inno3D isn't using a gigantic thermal solution on the RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot, and it shows here. The dual-slot design is perfect for SFF gaming rigs, where you don't have the room for a 3-slot beast.

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We have standard display connectivity here, with 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 connectors and a single HDMI 2.1 connector for some 4K 120/144Hz and 8K 60Hz monitor and TVs.

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Another great part of the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card is that we have just dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors required, unlike the 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors on the custom ASUS and MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards.

NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition also uses dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, plugged into a single 12-pin connector (dual 8-pin to single 12-pin adapter is included in the FE box).

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

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ASUS provided a rather large upgrade to my GPU testing lab -- or rather, I kept the ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ gaming monitor after my review on it. The 43-inch 4K 144Hz panel is just glorious to look at -- it's huge, the DPI for Windows 10 when set perfect for your viewing distance is kiss-fingers-emoji good. It's just amazing -- for work, and gaming.

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Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

I'll be making some changes over the coming months to the GPU test bed here for TweakTown, to both the Ryzen 9 5900X and then Intel's new Core i9-11900K to do some proper PCIe 4.0 testing between the chipsets for GPUs + super-fast load times into games on these new super-fast Sabrent SSDs.

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Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.

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Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)
• Monitor: ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

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3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark TimeSpy

Heaven - 1080p

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Benchmarks - 1080p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I've said this in every GeForce RTX 3080 Ti review now, but I wouldn't recommend the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card for 1080p gaming. Unless... unless you're rocking out at 240-360FPS and beyond and want ridiculous performance and don't want to buy the GeForce RTX 3090.

Benchmarks - 1440p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

1440p gaming at 144-165FPS is more common now, and with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti you'll have no issues playing the latest AAA games at super-high frame rates. If the game you're playing has NVIDIA DLSS support, then your performance is only going to improve by magnitudes thanks to the RTX 3080 Ti.

You'll get enjoying 60FPS+ in AAA titles and 120FPS+ in esports and multiplayer titles on the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti without a problem.

Benchmarks - 4K

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

4K gaming is where NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti really stands out, and the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot is crafted for this exact thing.

We have 4K 60FPS AAA gaming and even 4K 120FPS gaming if you're like me and play Call of Duty: Warzone with its new NVIDIA DLSS update -- 4K 120FPS is a reality with the RTX 3080 Ti and Warzone (and other games with DLSS support).

You'll have a 4K gaming beast for a tiny SFF gaming PC thanks to the dual-slot Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC.

Overclocking

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Out of the box my sample of the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card runs at around 1800-1815MHz boost GPU clock -- this is down around 60-100MHz from the 1890MHz or so boost GPU clock out of NVIDIA's in-house GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition graphics card.

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In my experience with manual overclocking on the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot sees the GPU being pushed up to around 1900MHz or so. With the manual OC applied and fans turned up to 100% the GPU temps drop to 62C, while the GPU hotspot is at around 69-70C, and the GDDR6X memory sitting at around 70C.

In stock and overclocked form, the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot is an improvement over the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition... except NVIDIA's own card has a higher GPU boost clock (of course).

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More details on the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC in stock form.

Power Consumption & Temps

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Inno3D's custom GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card has its GA102 GPU running at around 75-77C, the GPU hotspot at around 84-86C, and the 12GB of super-fast GDDR6X memory sits at an actually pretty chill 84C (compared to 92-94C on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition).

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With the fans cranked to 100%, the GPU temps drop to 60-62C, the GPU hotspot down to 67-69C, and the GDDR6X memory temperatures drop to 70C -- the same GDDR6X temps as the higher-end flagship ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3080 Ti.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

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• The same stellar RTX 3080 Ti performance: Inno3D's new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card has all that grunt GPU performance that NVIDIA provides with GA102 and 12GB of GDDR6X memory, with unrivaled 4K performance especially when DLSS 2.0 is available.
• Perfect for SFF gaming PCs: If you are building a new small form factor (SFF) gaming PC, and the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot is available in your market -- or at all -- it is the perfect card for you. It's not loud, it doesn't run too hot, and will fit perfectly into a mITX or ITX gaming PC.
• Not a huge triple-slot beast, and that's a good thing: Even when it's not inside of a SFF gaming PC the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot is a marvel. In a world of 2.9-slot and 3-slot custom RTX 3080 Ti cards, the dual-slot Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC is a breath of dual-slot fresh air.
• Dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors: The other custom RTX 3080 Ti cards require triple 8-pin PCIe power connectors, but the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot like the RTX 3080 Ti FE, requires dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

What's Not

There's not much going wrong here with the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot, apart from that it isn't really available in big numbers or at all -- but as I've said in previous reviews, this has nothing to do with the AIB. Inno3D just has a fantastic card here that doesn't stretch too far (trying to be flagship) or is sh*t (bad cooling, loud, etc).

Final Thoughts

I'm actually pretty taken aback with Inno3D's custom GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card, after falling in love with the design and performance of NVIDIA's in-house GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition -- the new dual-slot Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC is a breath of fresh air.

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Inno3D's new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card is something that I want to use in the smallest PC that I can build, and that's something I've already started looking into. I'll build a new SFF gaming PC and do some testing with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE vs. the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC as they're both dual-slot cards with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

The triple-fan cooler keeps the card just as cool as competing cards that are an entire slot thicker, with those competing cards also requiring an additional 8-pin PCIe power connector. Inno3D provides fantastic thermal performance, great styling, all of the same RTX 3080 Ti performance, tech features, and everything in between.

NVIDIA just announced that a bunch more games will be getting RTX ray tracing and DLSS upgrades soon, where during its virtual Computex 2021 keynote the company announced that huge games like DOOM Eternal, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Rainbow Six: Siege would be getting RTX and DLSS technologies (some both, some just DLSS).

• Read more: DOOM Eternal receives ray tracing + NVIDIA DLSS update in June
• Read more: Red Dead Redemption 2 to get NVIDIA DLSS tech update soon
• Read more: Rainbow Six: Siege joins the NVIDIA DLSS train, update coming soon

If you can find the Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot graphics card at all, and if it's available in your market (Inno3D isn't available everywhere) then you've got a card that is waiting for some serious gaming. Whether it be high FPS gaming on a 1440p or 3440 x 1440 21:9 UltraWide gaming monitor, or right up on the enthusiast level 4K 120FPS... the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC has your back.

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Ray tracing, DLSS magic, 4K performance domination, great cooling, dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors and a dual-slot design. The Inno3D GeForce RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot has it all, and is one of my favorite RTX 3080 Ti cards so far.

I would've loved to have seen Inno3D do a dual-slot GeForce RTX 3090, but since the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has the same performance (for the most part) of the RTX 3090, except for half its GDDR6X memory (12GB versus 24GB) but the Inno3D RTX 3080 Ti X3 OC dual-slot is now that card.

Inno3D -- great work here, what a surprise.