@Anonymous 
Much appreciated. I'd seen the 3080 -> 3090 jump and compared the two in a few apps. 
Definitely the 3080 seems like the bargain.
It'd be overkill for most of my gaming (World of Warcraft), but I'd like to be able to play on Ultra - something I've never been able to do, before - and not have the thing heat up.

@Anonymous 
Copy. Good point - re future proofing.

Rumors that Asetek liquid cooling for RTX 3080 and 3090 option is coming for R11, soon™.

If I were you, I would consider any of these 3 choices viable:

1) Take the risk and wait for a liquid-cooled 3080 or 3080 Ti. This will allow me to play Shadowlands on an ultra high refreshing rate BFGD (beneficial if competitive PvP).

2) Buy air-cooled RTX 3080 right now (the CPU must also be liquid-cooled). This will allow me to do just the same. While air-cooled GPUs are much louder, R11 has 2 absurdly loud ball-bearing case fans which should cover up the GPU fan noise (hehehe). I don't believe the air-cooled GPU fan noise will bother you before you upgrade the 2 case fans with maglev fans.

3) Buy liquid-cooled RTX 2080S right now (the CPU must also be liquid-cooled, of course). Can still have high FPS and ray tracing (necessary for Shadowlands because the lighting is designed for ray tracing GPUs), but maybe not ultra graphics setting.

Dell is selling both cards basically at original retail pricing because why not, they're sold out everywhere and people are still willing to pay for the high end 2000 series cards without a discount.  

Msrp 2080s: $699

Msrp 3080: $699

Dell asetek liquid cooler pcie add in card: $150-$200 (seems to usually cost somewhere in this range).

Dell already confirmed liquid cooling for the top 3000 cards, just haven't listed it for sale yet:

@AuroraHasManyFans You certainly seem to understand where I'm coming from, re Warcraft / Shadowlands. I'm not at all worried about the noise (yet). It's more that I don't want to overheat. Competitive FPS gamers might scoff at the idea that World of Warcraft could overheat anything but, as I mentioned, I quite fancy playing at higher settings. Would you expect that to happen, with a liquid cooled CPU and a 3080? I'm expecting the answer to be no, but I bow the community's greater knowledge.

@r72019 Thanks for that. I was able to search the text in the screen-cap and get the article. It's from September 01. I wonder if that would mean an order for a cooled 3080 could even be placed now. If not, any idea how long something like that would take to surface?

Competitive FPS gamers might scoff at the idea that World of Warcraft could overheat anything but, as I mentioned, I quite fancy playing at higher settings. Would you expect that to happen, with a liquid cooled CPU and a 3080?

WoW Shadowlands consumes a massive amount of GPU computing power with the new ray tracing. It is perhaps the only mass market game that prefers liquid-cooled everything.

CoD Cold War? I can maybe bear the air-cooled GPU fan noise if I just play an hour each day. World of Tanks? It doesn't use much GPU computing power at all, as long as MSAA is turned off.

But Shadowlands' Castle Nathria raid? Ashran battleground? It's just my 2 cents and take this with a grain of salt: I will absolutely prefer liquid-cooled CPU and liquid-cooled GPU, as well as both case fans replaced with aftermarket maglev fans. Otherwise, the computer would be so loud for so many hours. I would have a headache and my family won't be able to sleep.

Incidentally, every single one of my past computers (RIP) was destroyed by World of Warcraft.

I do everything work and play on my computers. I have played hardware demanding games like Crysis, Assassin's Creed, NFS, etc, etc, but these never damaged my hardware.

First computer (Sony): Destroyed by Black Temple raid (WoW The Burning Crusade). Graphics card and motherboard hardware damage due to prolonged excessive heat.

Second computer (Alienware): Destroyed by Oondasta world boss (WoW Mists of Pandaria). Graphics card hardware damage.

Third computer (Alienware): Destroyed by Ashran battleground (WoW Warlords of Draenor). Graphics card hardware damage.

By the way, Jansn has a video of testing WoW with ray tracing on. Even RTX 3090 produced an abysmal 30 FPS in Ashran, while being burning hot at 70°C. So liquid-cooled GPU? I say that's a good idea.

You mentioned noise in your earlier response. The system will be bought tomorrow. Would you care so much about fan noise, that you'd prefer a 2080 (with liquid) to a 3080?
I don't think I'll have a problem with the noise.

If you don't mind the noise, RTX 3080 has 1.5x the GPU computing power (i.e. 1.5x FPS) compared to the RTX 2080S, everything else equal. With air-cooled 3080, you can have awesome FPS to go with a high-refresh-rate monitor. For WoW raids or epic battlegrounds, you can use the in-game separate graphics setting to turn ray tracing (RT) to low or off, preventing the air-cooled GPU from running too hot.

@AuroraHasManyFans I'll send you a Private Message about that, so as to avoid steering this thread off-course. Thanks again.