Nvidia RTX 4080 Graphics Card Review

The RTX 4090 launched a little over a month ago and it felt somewhat like a bittersweet victory. Not only did we see a HUGE and frankly unparalleled jump in performance, but we also saw the same thing happen with the price, putting it out of reach for let’s say, the average consumer. Sure, you were going to get extreme amounts of power, but even at the MSRP price, which we only really saw briefly at launch, it was just too expensive. Luckily today sees the launch of the 4080 16GB, not to get confused by any other potential 40 series card with a different memory capacity, and NVIDIA is now looking to offer huge gains again, but for a much more, let’s say, palatable price. We have five, yes FIVE, cards in for this test today, and they are as follows: Nvidia RTX 4080 FEGigabyte Gaming RTX 4080 OCINNO3D RTX 4080 iChill X3Palit RTX 4080 GameRock OCMSI RTX 4080 SuprimX Nvidia RTX 4080 So let’s talk about the 4080, and yes, I’ve got five here today including the NVIDIA Founders Edition, which as a side note, is the first NVIDIA-branded card I’ve had since at least two generations ago. Now I will be focusing mainly on the Founders Edition in terms of performance, but we’re also be comparing the other cards and the FE to each other in a small selection of games, as well as looking at the cooling performance, power and overclocking on each card later on in this review. Ada Lovelace Architecture Now obviously, the 4080, much like its bigger brother, does utilise the latest Ada Lovelace architecture, and that juicy TSMC 4N process node by way of the AD103 GPU, compared to the AD102 GPU used on the mammoth RTX 4090. What is interesting is now that NVIDIA has moved away from Samsung for the Ampere-based cards, and is now using that TSMC 4N node, it now means they’ve managed to shrink the die size from 628mm² which was used on everything from the RTX 3080 up to the 3090 Ti, down to 379mm² for the 4080, which is around 39% smaller than what we saw on the AD102 GPU used for the RTX 4090. This has some huge benefits including a higher yield, meaning stock should be a lot better than what we’ve already seen on the 4090, which in turn, hopefully, means better pricing, due to supply and demand along with the ability to include a higher transistor count compared to the predecessor products. In fact, it’s so good that we’re now seeing a whopping 45.9 Billion transistors, which is a hefty 62% increase over the GA102 GPU used on the RTX 3080, 3080 Ti, 3090 and 3090 Ti. Yes, the GA102 had various derivatives, but it was still the GA102 silicon so specs were the same across the actual GPU size and transistor count. Compared to the RTX 4090, the die size is around 62% of its size, and the transistor count is around 60% of its bigger brother, but even at those numbers, it’s still impressive nonetheless and I’m still expecting some pretty huge numbers in terms of performance across the board. For in-depth features and specifications, please visit the official product page here. Video If you want to see our full video going through this, you can do so below. Nvidia RTX 4080 Hardware When looking at the main specs, it’s a hard one to compare to, because, what do we compare the 4080 against? The 3080 10GB and 12GB because it is the natural successor in name, or against the 3080 Ti as NVIDIA claim the 4080 to be twice as fast, while using around 10% less power. On top of that, the RTX 4080 is also launching for the same $1199 price tag that we saw the 3080 Ti launching for, so I guess that seems like the obvious card to focus on in our comparisons. Third-Generation RT Cores & Fourth-Generation Tensor Cores When looking at the specs like for like, we do see some interesting points, as the RTX 4080 actually comes in with less CUDA cores, less stream processors, less texture mapping units, tensor cores, and RT cores, while the ROPs or Render Output Units stay the same at 112. Luckily, it’s not as clear cut as that, as NVIDIA are now claiming that their new streaming multiprocessors can offer up twice the performance and power efficiency, while the new third generation RT cores claim to give up to twice the Ray Tracing performance, and the new fourth generation tensor cores are touted to give up to twice the AI performance, and if history has taught us anything, it’s that these jumps have been fairly significant generation to generation and something we’ll definitely be putting to the test a little later on including DLSS3, especially now with more titles supporting it than ever and a lot more coming in the very near future, and I feel that this is where the 4080 is going to completely outshine the previous generation cards, and of course, the competition from AMD, where NVIDIA have always been the leader. DLSS 3 A couple of areas when comparing the 3080 Ti and 4080 that do differ comes down to the memory, where the 4080 now comes with 16GB, opposed to 12GB, though it still uses the same GDDR6X memory, though it does operate at a lower 256-bit bus, giving us bandwidth of 716.8GB/s, and of course, power which sees the 4080 coming in with a TDP of 320 Watts, so a small reduction from the 350 Watt TDP of the 3080 Ti. Due to this reduction in power, and the new efficiency of the core, we’re now also seeing a slight reduction in the maximum GPU temperature from 93 degrees on the 3080 Ti to 90 degrees on the 4080. NVIDIA also recommends a 750 Watt PSU for the FE but obviously AIC cards with potential higher power limits may require more so definitely keep that in mind. The other thing worth noting, is just like the 4090, it still uses the PCI-Express 4.0 x16 interface, even though we do have boards that support PCIe 5.0 on the market. Even though the 40 series is stupidly fast as a whole, if the 4090 is anything to go by, we’re not even close to maximising the throughput of bandwidth of PCI-Express 4 just yet hence the decision on that one. In terms of the reference specs, the 4080 as standard and therefore the Founders Edition, comes with a GPU clock of 2205MHz, a boost clock of 2505MHz and a memory clock of 1400MHz or 22.4 Gbps Effective. Now I did mention that I have a total of FIVE cards with me today and while we’re be focussing on the performance of the Founders card for the majority, we will be looking at all of the cards and how they compare performance wise a little later on, alongside the performance of the coolers, thermals, power and of course overclocking. Video A Closer Look - Nvidia RTX 4080 FE So talking about each model individually, starting with the Founders and as mentioned, this is the first FE card I’ve had from NVIDIA in a long time, so my opinion may be a bit jaded compared to others who have had a Founders card recently, but it’s simply stunning to look at and doesn’t give the gamer vibe like we’re used to on AIC cards and instead looks more professional looking than anything, and it really works. The design really doesn’t give much to talk about as it’s quite simple overall and instead just feels like one solid block of metal which is a big step up from the last cards I had in my hands from NVIDIA. The design is split up by the sweeping X pattern across the card with a mixture of different fin densities to assist in cooling, and to separate up the design. Sticking with cooling, the card has a single 115mm fan on the front and the same at the opposite end, but on the reverse of the card. Also on the reverse of the card, we do find some small amounts of plastic with RTX 4080 branding, which would be clearly visible once installed horizontally in your case. If installed vertically, or horizontally, you’re going to get a great view regardless with a simple GeForce RTX logo that lights up white, making it easy to tie in with any system. Now, the GPU isn’t small by any sense of the word and comes in the same as the RTX 4090 Founders at 304mm long, 137mm wide and 61mm thick, meaning that it will take up 3 slots inside your case and the cooler doesn’t protrude beyond that. It’s not a light card at all, weighing in at 2435 grams which is actually more than some of the RTX 4090’s I’ve looked at recently, though it doesn’t surprise me due to the sheer size of the block that makes up the cooler though it’s not the heaviest RTX 4080 we have here today. It also doesn’t come with any form of support, but being such a solid block and the way that it’s put together, I wouldn’t expect it to sag anyway. The cooler is pretty crazy, and taking it apart isn’t something I’d recommend, because it’s almost like, if you imagine what a GPU would be made like if Apple made one, then you already have the answer. Once you dismantle things, you’ll notice some pretty interesting points, like the fans that connect in by ribbon cables and more importantly, the grooved heatsinks that make contact with the memory chips. The heatsink is split and is connected by six heatpipes which are much fatter than what you’re likely to see on other cards, though they will generally have 8 heatpipes instead. Coming in at $1199 in the US and £1269, it’s obviously priced as MSRP and will likely be the only card you see today from us that will see that price for launch. Gigabyte Gaming RTX 4080 OC Moving onto the Gigabyte Gaming OC and if you checked out the content we already did on the RTX 4090 Gaming OC, then this will look identical. Much like NVIDIA, Gigabyte has opted to use the exact same cooler for the 4080 and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. On our 4090 coverage, it did well compared to the competition in both temperatures and acoustics, and generally doesn’t demand a huge premium over a reference priced model so I’m expecting much of the same on the 4080. For those of you unaware of what this iteration of Gaming OC looks like, much like other 40 series cards, it’s big, bold and pretty decent looking. I’ve been a big fan of the Gaming OC lineup for quite a few years, as it’s always a nice balance between value, features and performance. It is, admittedly, one of the simpler looking cards that we’re looking at today, which does mean it’s likely to match your system pretty well, and based on the chatter I heard with the 4090, it was one of the more popular SKUs to be snapped up by gamers. It’s large, in fact, much larger than the Founders from NVIDIA, coming in at 342mm long, 150mm wide and 75mm thick, so while it takes up two slots in terms of the physical IO, it’s actually larger than 3 slots due to the cooler. It’s a fair bit lighter than the FE, weighing in at 2285 grams which is exactly the same as the 4090 Gaming OC as expected, and due to the size and weight, it comes with a support bracket to alleviate any sagging of the card. Cooler-wise, Gigabyte are using the same vapour chamber design that they used on the RTX 4090 Gaming OC, which isn’t a bad thing and also includes a LOT of thermal pads to make contact with the memory and phases for the very best heat dissipation. Due to it being a custom model and being an OC card, it does demand a bit of a premium, where we’ve seen the leaked Micro Center pricing coming in at $1269 in the US, and no official word on UK pricing, but you’d be expecting to likely pay around £1349 based on previous releases and how they compare. INNO3D RTX 4080 iChill X3 Moving onto the INNO3D iChill X3 and this actually differs slightly to the 4090 version of the same model. The cooler actually looks to share some similarities with its bigger brother, though changes things up a bit on the front of the shroud with some grey bolted-on accents instead of the glossy RGB panels that were on the 4090 version. Speaking of RGB, it still includes a panel on the top of the card, which makes it visible when mounted horizontally or vertically and in another small changeup, it’s matte, instead of glossy, which does in my opinion, look a lot better. The card still remains very large, measuring in at 334mm long, 148mm wide and 62mm thick so it takes up 3 slots inside your case with the cooler sitting just under that. It’s the lightest card we have today, coming in at 2060 grams, which don’t get me wrong, is still heavy, but a lot less than the other SKUs we have. Due to the weight and length of the card, INNO3D do include a pretty decent-looking stand to hold the card into place to avoid any potential sag, which is a shame, as the 4090 included a built-in bracket to aid with stability, but being a cheaper card, I do get it. The cooler features a large vapour chamber design, similar to what we’ve seen on the 4090, and includes a total of 8 heatpipes to help dissipate the heat away from the core and surrounding memory chips. The heatsink is actually split into 3 sections with the heatpipes connecting them all together for the biggest surface area for the heat to travel to. No word on pricing on this one, but being a custom card, and being factory overclocked, you’ll likely pay a slight premium of around £200 or so in the UK, and INNO3D have no presence in the US so there’s nothing to really comment on there. Palit RTX 4080 GameRock OC Now if you want something different and frankly completely bonkers in terms of style, then you have the Palit GameRock OC, which I’ll come straight out and say it, but colour me impressed. I love the look of the GameRock cards, because they're bold and brash and they’re not trying to hide it at all, though the 40 series as a whole have had a bit of a redesign, with the midnight kaleidoscope styling. Now featuring a slightly darkened crystal design, it simply looks stunning, but I also get that it’s going to be a love/hate type design. Again, it looks to use the same cooler design as the RTX 4090, though I never had a Palit 4090 in my hands, so I can’t directly compare but it’s easy to see the similarities in the design. Speaking of the design, it is unique. I said it when they first introduced the crystal style on the 30 series, and while that has improved, turning the card on is where you really get to appreciate the appearance, especially if you’re a fan of RGB. I won’t lie and say that it’s to everyone's tastes, or that it will seemingly blend in with the rest of your system as it won’t and I’m fine with that. Along with the crystal showstopper, the card features a nice mixture of materials and has some premium elements down the top and bottom that add to the rigidity of the card while also adding to the look. The card is slightly smaller than some of the competition, coming in at 329mm long, 137mm wide and 71mm thick, so it’s up there with the Gigabyte Gaming OC in terms of being over 3 slots thick and weighs in at 2240 grams. So not the heaviest, but also not the lightest either. To avoid sag, much like the other cards, it does come with a support bracket to cater for any worries you may have due to its size and weight. With the cooler apart, it’s easy to see that there is some extra strengthening between the cooler and the PCB and again, another vapour chamber design, again featuring 8 heatpipes which flow into the cold plate, which makes contact with both the GPU core and the surrounding memory chips, which then transfers the heat away towards each end of the card. Again, no word on pricing, but based on the design and its factory overclock, you’d be expected to pay a premium over a reference spec or FE based card. MSI RTX 4080 SuprimX Lastly, we have the MSI RTX 4080 SuprimX. As someone who uses a SuprimX card in my own system, I’m a true advocate for them because they appeal to both gamers and professionals with a premium, yet slightly gamery look. The design for the SuprimX has gotten better with every generation since its inception and the 4080 is no different. It's a blend of materials with contrasting colours and brushed metal, and just oozes quality. Once turned on, the RGB gets to work and adds that little touch of gamery aesthetics, though can be turned off if that’s not your bag, as RGB isn’t for everyone. The card, much like the others, is large, coming in at 336mm long, 142mm wide and 78mm thick, so is actually the thickest card we have due to that slightly angled cooler that is raised in certain sections, and along with being chunky, that’s evident in the weight as this card is the heaviest we’ve seen at 2700 grams. Inside the box is a stand to aid any sagging due to the sheer size and weight of the card, and based on my experience with the 30 series, they do work very well. With the card apart, you can continue to see the sheer quality of the cooler. The main heatsink not only makes contact with the GPU and the memory, but also makes direct contact with the VRMs as well. What difference that makes, we may look at in a VRM analysis piece of content at a later date if enough of you want to see it. In terms of pricing, as expected, it does come in as the most expensive we have at $1399 in the US, while in the UK, pricing was still unclear, but you’d like to think, based on the 4090 and how that compared, along with the US pricing, that again, you’ll be looking to pay a premium over other cards. Clock Speeds So let's talk about clock speeds because that’s another area where each card will differ. Now all cards obviously come with the same 2205MHz GPU clock, but have also come in with the same 1400MHz memory clock speed, so the only difference comes down to the boost clock. Now, putting this in order, the FE from NVIDIA comes with a boost clock of 2505MHz. The Gaming OC from Gigabyte improves on that slightly, coming in at 2535MHz. The Inno3D iChill X3 manages to push out a little more at 2565MHz. The MSI SuprimX storms ahead and features a boost clock of 2625MHz. Then lastly, the Palit GameRock OC sports the highest boost clock here at 2640MHz. What that means for overclocking, we’ll delve into a little later on. Power Now power is an interesting one, as not all of the cards are equal in that sense and when it comes to the reference spec of 320 Watts, three of the cards conform to that which are the FE from NVIDIA, the iCHILL X3 from INNO3D, and the MSI SuprimX, while the Palit and Gigabyte cards all come with a default power of 340 Watts, therefore sacrificing a small amount of efficiency, in exchange for some free performance. When looking at the max power of each card, that differs too, with the Inno3D card not having any adjustment to its power limit, while the Founders card gives you the ability to crank things up to 110%, resulting in a 355 Watt max power level while the Palit, Gigabyte and MSI cards all have the ability to increase the power limit beyond that, maxing out at 400 Watts. Again, what this means for overclocking, we can find out a little later on. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Processor Test Systems Test System (GPU) Motherboard ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus HeroBIOS Version 1720 Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 12900K Review Buy Now GPU Changes Per Review RAM Patriot Viper Venom 32GB (2x16GB) 6200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers AMD Graphics: 22.10.1NVIDIA Graphics: 521.90 Additional Hardware Nvidia PCAT (Power Capture Analysis Tool) Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download)PugetBench for Davinci Resolve (download) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've began using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do, however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. A Plague Tale: RequiemAssassin's Creed ValhallaCall Of Duty Modern Warfare 2ControlCyberpunk 2077Death StrandingDoom EternalDying Light 2F1 22Far Cry 6FortniteHorizon Zero DawnMarvel's Spider-Man RemasteredMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2020Watch Dogs: Legion Resolutions 1080 (Full HD)14404K Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content on simply reading total system power draw, we now run F1 22 for an hour loop and measure power draw at the end of the loop for the most accurate measurement that represents real-world gameplay experience. Temperatures We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered during the same runs as when we measure power consumption, being during our Cyberpunk 2033 run, and during Cinebench R23 at load too. 3DMark Timespy Extreme Time Spy Extreme is a new 4K DirectX 12 benchmark test, available in 3DMark Advanced and Professional Editions. You don't need a 4K monitor to run it, but you will need a GPU with at least 4 GB of dedicated memory. With its 4K Ultra HD rendering resolution, Time Spy Extreme is an ideal benchmark test for the latest high-end graphics cards. The CPU test has been redesigned to let processors with 8 or more cores perform to their full potential 3DMark is available on Steam here. So starting things off with synthetic benchmarks and in Timespy Extreme, we straight away see an uplift in performance from the 3080 Ti of 27%, though more interestingly, we see a 16% uplift in the performance compared to the 3090 Ti, so already we’re off to a flying start for a card that is launching $800 cheaper than the 3090 Ti launched for. 3DMark Port Royal 3DMark Port Royal is the world’s first real-time ray tracing benchmark for gamers. It shows you how well your PC handles ray-tracing effects in real time. Use Port Royal to benchmark graphics cards that support Microsoft DirectX Raytracing. Compare Port Royal benchmark scores to see how overclocking affects ray-tracing performance. Find your PC's performance limits with custom benchmark settings and detailed hardware monitoring charts. 3DMark is available on Steam here. Port Royal gives us an early indication as to what the newest generation of RT cores can do, with a 30% increase in performance over the 3080 Ti, and a smaller, yet still very impressive leap of 17% over the 3090 Ti. PugetBench for Davinci A benchmark for both CPU and GPU performance that is a great basis for comparing the video and graphics editing capabilities of any system. Available now on Puget. Now, not everyone is looking to buy an RTX 4080 for the sake of gaming, so looking at PugetBench for Davinci Resolve which is something important to us as it’s what we use to render our videos and we can straight away see an uplift in performance of around 7% over the last generation Ampere flagship 3090 and 3090 Ti cards. A Plague Tale: Requiem Far across the sea, an island calls… Embark on a heartrending journey into a brutal, breathtaking world twisted by supernatural forces. After escaping their devastated homeland, Amicia and Hugo travel far south, to new regions and vibrant cities. There, they attempt to start a new life and control Hugo’s curse. But, when Hugo’s powers reawaken, death and destruction return in a flood of devouring rats. Forced to flee once more, the siblings place their hopes in a prophesized island that may hold the key to saving Hugo. Discover the cost of saving those you love in a desperate struggle for survival. Strike from the shadows or unleash hell, overcoming foes and challenges with a variety of weapons, tools and unearthly powers. Available now on Steam. So moving onto our first game, A plague Tale: Requiem and at 1440p, the RTX 4080 already shows its sheer performance with a 32% uplift in performance over the 3080 Ti and a 16% lead over the Ampere flagship 3090 Ti. At 4K, the gains draw a bit closer, but still come in impressive with a 12% lead over the 3080 Ti and 5% faster than the 3090 Ti. Assassin's Creed Valhalla Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major instalment in the Assassin's Creed series and the successor to 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Principally set in the years 872–878 AD, the game recounts a fictional story during the Viking expansions into the British Isles. Players control Eivor Varinsdottir, a Viking raider who becomes embroiled in the centuries-old conflict between the Assassin Brotherhood, who fight for peace and liberty, and the Templar Order, who desire peace through control. The modern-day portion of the story is set in the 21st century and follows Layla Hassan, an Assassin who relives Eivor's memories so as to find a way to save the Earth from destruction. Available now on UPlay. In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, we find the RTX 4080 sitting with a comfortable 35% lead over the 3080 Ti and an impressive boost of over 24% compared to the last generation's flagship. The 6950 XT from AMD put up the biggest fight, though was still no match for the RTX 4080 that pushed forward by just under 20%. At 4K, it was a very similar story, with a 34% lead over the 3080 Ti, an 18% uplift over the 3090 Ti and a 24% leap over the flagship 6950 XT from AMD. Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II drops players into an unprecedented global conflict that features the return of the iconic Operators of Task Force 141. From small-scale, high-stakes infiltration tactical ops to highly classified missions, players will deploy alongside friends in a truly immersive experience. Infinity Ward brings fans state-of-the-art gameplay, with all-new gun handling, advanced AI system, a new Gunsmith and a suite of other gameplay and graphical innovations that elevate the franchise to new heights. Modern Warfare® II launches with a globe-trotting single-player campaign, immersive Multiplayer combat and a narrative-driven, co-op Special Ops experience. Available now on Steam. Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II saw some really strong numbers with the RTX 4080 coming in 38% faster than the 3080 Ti and 27% faster than the beastly 3090 Ti. T RX 6950 XT, which did come in at 137 FPS, still wasn’t enough to keep up with the new Ada-based GPU that commanded a 15% lead over team red. At 4K we saw similar gains of around 36% when compared to the 3080 Ti and slightly lower but still massive gains of 22% compared to the 3090 Ti. Strangely, the 6950 XT dropped in this title which ended up giving the 4080 a 28% lead over it. Control A corruptive presence has invaded the Federal Bureau of Control…Only you have the power to stop it. The world is now your weapon in an epic fight to annihilate an ominous enemy through deep and unpredictable environments. Containment has failed, and humanity is at stake. Will you regain control? Available now on Steam. In Control at 1440p, the gains just keep coming, with a 30% improvement over the 3080 Ti and around 40% in the 1% lows, giving us a much more fluid gameplay experience. While the 3090 Ti does offer up a slightly better FPS than the 3080 Ti, it’s still not enough to get close to the new Ada Lovelace GPU which pushes 22% ahead of the last generation's flagship. At 4K, the gain over the 3080 Ti is still exceptionally strong, coming in 26% faster, and we still see the 3090 Ti left in the dust as the 4080 pushes ahead by just short of 20%. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be? Available now on Steam. Cyberpunk at 1440p clearly shows that even at a higher resolution, it’s still extremely limited due to the CPU, though the 4080 still does manage to eke out more performance that puts it 22% ahead of the 3080 Ti and 14% ahead of the 3090 Ti. 4K sees our biggest gain so far with a 40% lead over the 3080 Ti, 27% lead over the 3090 Ti and a somewhat laughable 53% push ahead of the 6950 XT from AMD. Death Stranding From legendary game creator Hideo Kojima comes a genre-defying experience, now expanded in this definitive DIRECTOR’S CUT. As Sam Bridges, your mission is to deliver hope to humanity by connecting the last survivors of a decimated America. Can you reunite the shattered world, one step at a time? Available now on Steam. The brutality of how fast the RTX 4080 really is just keeps on coming in Death Stranding where we find another instance of CPU bottlenecking, which is so bad, that the 4090 actually performs worse than the 4080, though that doesn’t stop us seeing a 16% performance uplift over the 3080 Ti from the last generation. Moving up to 4K and it’s clear to see how a lot of these cards are tuned for 4K, as we now see the likes of the 6950 XT moving towards the top of our chart, though it’s still not enough to get close to the RTX 4080 which sits 7% ahead, and compared to the 3080 Ti, now comes in 24% faster at this resolution. Doom Eternal Hell’s armies have invaded Earth. Become the Slayer in an epic single-player campaign to conquer demons across dimensions and stop the final destruction of humanity. Experience the ultimate combination of speed and power in DOOM Eternal - the next leap in push-forward, first-person combat. Armed with a shoulder-mounted flamethrower, retractable wrist-mounted blade, upgraded guns and mods, and abilities, you're faster, stronger, and more versatile than ever. Available now on Steam. Doom Eternal saw some results at 1440p that just had us all laughing. With the 3080 Ti getting an impressive 359 FPS, we wondered how much better the 4080 could be, and with a 39% improvement, it left us gobsmacked at over 500 frames per second. Even compared to the 6950 XT, which is no slouch in this game, the RTX 4080 makes it look inferior coming in 19% faster. At 4K, the RTX 4080 just keeps on flexing, now with a 33% lead over the 3080 Ti while the RTX 3090 Ti with lots more memory drew closer, but was still beaten by a huge 20% margin by the RTX 4080 Dying Light 2 The virus won and civilization has fallen back to the Dark Ages. The City, one of the last human settlements, is on the brink of collapse. Use your agility and combat skills to survive, and reshape the world. Your choices matter. Available now on Steam. In Dying Light 2 at 1440p we find the 3080 Ti giving us some solid numbers, yet the RTX 4080 still manages to come in again, 30% faster and then compared to the 6950 XT from AMD, which was topping our charts, the RTX 4080 still manages to hold a strong 16% lead. It’s the same story at 4K with a 16% lead over the flagship AMD card, while the 3080 Ti drops below that, giving us a 22% lead in favour of the new 4080 GPU. F1 22 Enter the new era of Formula 1® in EA SPORTS™ F1® 22, the official video game of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship™. Take your seat for a new season as redesigned cars and overhauled rules redefine race day, test your skills around the new Miami International Autodrome, and get a taste of the glitz and glamour in F1® Life. Race the stunning, new cars of the Formula 1® 2022 season with the authentic lineup of all 20 drivers and 10 teams, and take control of your race experience with new immersive or broadcast race sequences. Create a team and take them to the front of the grid with new depth in the acclaimed My Team career mode, race head-to-head in split-screen or multiplayer, or change the pace by taking supercars from some of the sport’s biggest names to the track in our all-new Pirelli Hot Laps feature. The official video game of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship™: Available now on Steam. Now F1 has always been a game that’s heavily favoured AMD, and coupling that with a CPU bottleneck at 1440p, and you get some weird and wonderful results for both the RTX 4080 and 4090, though it does come with some pretty impressive 1% lows in relation to the average FPS. At 4K, it’s business as usual, where the 4080 retakes its position above withe 6950 XT that was topping the charts, albeit by a 4% margin, though the more important talking point, is the 21% improvement that we now see over the RTX 3080 Ti. Far Cry 6 Welcome to Yara, a tropical paradise frozen in time. As the dictator of Yara, Antón Castillo is intent on restoring his nation back to its former glory by any means, with his son, Diego, following in his bloody footsteps. Their oppressive rule has ignited a revolution. Available now on Ubisoft Connect. Moving onto Far Cry 6 on Ultra settings and generally speaking at lower resolutions, we’d notice quite a bit of CPU bottleneck, though even with that, at 1440p we continue to see some decent gains of around 23% over the 3080 Ti with the most noticeable point coming by way of the 1% lows which saw a HUGE 55% uplift in performance, so there’s definitely still some form of bottleneck going on here. At 4K, we see the gain increase slightly to 25% over the 3080 Ti, while the 6950 XT again fights back, but as we know, Far Cry 6 does generally favour AMD GPUs over the competition, though even that isn’t enough as the RTX 4080 commands an 8% lead over the AMD based 6950 XT. Fortnite Fortnite is a survival game where 100 players fight against each other in player-versus-player combat to be the last one standing. It is a fast-paced, action-packed game, not unlike The Hunger Games, where strategic thinking is a must in order to survive. There are an estimated 125 million players on Fortnite. Available now on EPIC. In Fortnite at 1440p, we do see a gain of around 13% over the 3080 Ti and a smaller, yet still impressive 10% lead over the 3090 Ti, but it still amazes me every time, when you see such shocking 1% low scores across the board. At 4K, the lead further extends itself with an 18% uplift over the 3080 Ti, 16% increase over the 3090 Ti, and even with the 6950 XT fighting back, the 4080 is still able to hold a 7% margin over the AMD flagship. Horizon Zero Dawn Experience Aloy’s entire legendary quest to unravel the mysteries of a world ruled by deadly Machines. An outcast from her tribe, the young hunter fights to uncover her past, discover her destiny… and stop a catastrophic threat to the future. Unleash devastating, tactical attacks against unique Machines and rival tribes as you explore an open world teeming with wildlife and danger. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action role-playing game – and this Complete Edition for PC includes the huge expansion The Frozen Wilds, featuring new lands, skills, weapons and Machines. Available now on Steam. Horizon Zero Dawn is another game that generally favours AMD and at 1440p, while the 6950 XT did give strong competition over the 3080 Ti and 3090, it still wasn’t enough to get close to the new RTX 4080 which comes in 22% faster. Compared to the previous generation, the real focus worth talking about here is the 3090 Ti which gave us 216 FPS, though the 4080 coming in with an average FPS of 247 still manages to see a 14% uplift in performance. At 4K, the gains improve even more seeing the 4080 around 34% faster than the 6950 XT which dropped down the rankings along with the 4080 coming in 5% faster than the 3090 Ti which was already ahead of the 3080 Ti by quite some margin. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Developed by Insomniac Games in collaboration with Marvel, and optimized for PC by Nixxes Software, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on PC introduces an experienced Peter Parker who’s fighting big crime and iconic villains in Marvel’s New York. At the same time, he’s struggling to balance his chaotic personal life and career while the fate of Marvel’s New York rests upon his shoulders. Available now on Steam. In Spiderman at 1440p, and being a fairly CPU intensive game, we do find the 4080 dropping just below the performance of the 3090 Ti, though it does sit 8% higher in the 1% lows, lending to a better overall experience in game. Compared to the 3080 Ti, the RTX 4080 sees a small 3% gain, but again, with restrictions from the CPU, it was expected in this game. At 4K, those restrictions are thrown out the window, where we see the RTX 4080 coming in 21% faster than the 3080 Ti and a still impressive 32% better than the 6950 XT from AMD. Last generation's flagship 3090 Ti fares well, but even then, the new Ada Lovelace GPU still manages to beat it by around 10%. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 The Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, but it is also a “Thank You” to our fans – new and old – that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon. Best of all, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition will be available as a free update for existing players on PC. Available now on Steam. Microsoft Flight Sim is one of the most heavily CPU focussed games out there and due to that, at 1440p, the results are just all over the place, and is something that changes run to run due to that huge bottleneck with the only real solution in this game being that you’d have to use a 5800X3D to ditch those bottlenecks. At the larger resolution, the RTX 4080 does see some gains, but even at 4K, a 5% lead gives us the smallest uplift in performance that we’ve seen over the 3080 Ti. Again, CPU bottlenecking really does come into play in this title and it is games like this where the likes of DLSS3, that we’ll be looking at shortly, should really come into play and look to completely eliminate that area of bottleneck. Watch Dogs: Legion Build a resistance from virtually anyone you see as you hack, infiltrate, and fight to take back a near-future London that is facing its downfall. Welcome to the Resistance. Recruit and play as anyone in the city. Everyone you see has a unique backstory, personality, and skill set. Hack armed drones, deploy spider-bots and take down enemies using an Augmented Reality Cloak. Explore a massive urban open world featuring London’s many iconic landmarks and fun side activities. Take your recruits online and team up with your friends as you complete missions and challenging endgame content. Available now on UPlay. Finally, in Watch Dogs: Legion at 1440p, we continued to see the RTX 4080 coming in 26% faster than the 3080 Ti, while still maintaining a strong lead over the 3090 Ti of 19%. Compared to the 6950 XT from AMD, the 4080 was still 10% faster at this resolution. en at 4K, we saw slightly stronger performance with a 29% lead given to the new Ada Lovelace card when compared to the 3080 Ti, while, even though the extra VRAM on the 3090 Ti did allow it to fight back, it still fell short by 18% against the RTX 4080. AIB Comparison All of the cards feature the same GPU, but we wanted to offer some comparison on how their configurations affect performance. They may all have the same GPU die, but the clock speeds, power delivery and even the BIOS can all be different, and this will show how all that adds up when it comes to gaming performance. When looking at the comparative data between all of the 4080 models we had in Call of Duty Modern Warfare II at 4K, it’s easy to see that the FE with its lower clock speeds does give some baseline figures that are still 34% better than the 3080 Ti, and each AIB model improves on that slightly, but there really isn’t much in it at all. In Cyberpunk, it was very much the same story, with the Founders card from NVIDIA setting a precedent, and all of the AIB cards coming out with 2-4% more performance, which could always be argued as margin of error. Death Stranding was very similar with one real stand-out card, being the INNO3D which commands a 5% lead over the 4080 FE, with all other cards performing slightly better due to their higher boost clocks. Then in Watch Dogs: Legion, there really is nothing to report, with all models performing nigh on identically in this title. Overall Game Average FPS Testing a variety of games allows you to see how a particular piece of hardware performs in that title, but with the ability to look at overall game averages and how they perform across all titles, we can extrapolate the positioning of that hardware compared to similar hardware on the market. So as always, lots of data that we’ve been through, and some really interesting points, namely in the fact that even at 1440p, our 12900K saw some huge bottlenecks, and this is where a huge opportunity could open up for AMD’s rumoured 7000 series 3D Cache processors coming in the near future. That aside, the RTX 4080 is clearly aimed at 4K gamers and the performance gains at 4K were really clear to see, not only over the 3080 Ti but in most cases, over the 3090 Ti and anything that the competition had to offer. What I found the most interesting, is that a few titles really saw the gap narrow between the 4080 and 6950XT, which opens up more questions about the future, and what could be coming to the table from the red team with the 7900 series and that’s something we’ll definitely look at in the future. For now, with individual titles to one side, another way to look at performance is to look at a 15-game average on all of the GPUs featured, and at 1080p, even with a CPU bottleneck, the RTX 4080 still manages to sit 13% faster than the 3080 Ti and 5% ahead of the 6950 XT but with restricted performance, while it’s nice to see how things compare, it’s a bit unfair regardless. As we move up to 1440p, where a CPU bottleneck is still pretty evident in a lot of titles we do see the gap increase between the 3080 Ti and RTX 4080, now sitting 23% ahead of the Ampere based card. The lead over the 6950 XT also increased dramatically, now being separated by 15% at 1440p. Then at 4K, we see the real potential of the RTX 4080 which increases its lead over the 3080 Ti, now to a whopping 26%. It also now sits 15% faster than the 3090 Ti in the averages of all 15 titles tested and 23% over the very best offering that AMD has right now. Ray Tracing & DLSS Now while the lower resolutions did show some pretty significant restrictions due to processor performance, and the fact that the 4080 is just so fast, even at 4K, we do find ourselves with some form of bottlenecking in the likes of Microsoft Flight Sim and while not everyone is able to buy a better processor, or to wait for a new processor that doesn’t exist yet, there are other ways to bypass those restrictions, and that’s where DLSS comes in and the 40 series from NVIDIA take that one step further too, with DLSS 3. Now for those of you who don’t know, DLSS 3 is the latest upscaling technology that NVIDIA are bringing to the table as a successor to the previous generations of DLSS, 1, 2, 2.4 and so on, and this is now made possible by the next level in AI computing to create additional frames within game by way of the new optical flow accelerator, only found on the RTX 40 series, in addition to the existing DLSS features like super-resolution coupled with NVIDIA Reflex. Now, support is still somewhat thin on the ground, but more and more titles are starting to implement it along with the likes of Ray Tracing for that extra level of immersion within game. To get an idea of what kind of performance changes we get with the likes of Ray Tracing and DLSS, we tested a total of 7 titles, of which some support Ray Tracing, some support DLSS and some support DLSS 3 to give a much clearer picture of what these features mean for your overall experience. So starting things off with A Plague Tale: Requiem where the 4080 was already 29% faster in pure rasterisation compared to the 3080 Ti and 15% faster than the 3090 Ti. When enabling DLSS in performance mode, we see that gain increase slightly to 31% over the 3080 Ti and 17% over the 3090 Ti, so some small gains to be seen comparatively like for like, though when enabling DLSS 3, we actually see the performance on the 4080 increase by 32% compared to not having frame generation turned on with the same card. This also means that compared to the 3080 Ti with the older DLSS technology, we now see a huge 74% improvement on the 4080 with DLSS 3, and an equally impressive 55% improvement over the 3090 Ti with DLSS set to performance mode. In Control, the RTX 4080 was already 26% ahead of the 3080 Ti and 19% ahead of the 3090 Ti with no Ray Tracing or DLSS enabled which was pretty impressive to start. With Ray Tracing enabled, the FPS did drop significantly due to how demanding this game can be, but still saw a 16% lead over the 3080 Ti and a much smaller but still impressive 4% compared to last generation's flagship GPU. With Ray Tracing and DLSS enabled the RTX 4080 shot up compared to having DLSS disabled by 93%, though more interestingly, it now puts the 4080 with a 23% lead over the 3080 Ti and 10% lead over the 3090 Ti. So just imagine if this game had DLSS 3. In Cyberpunk, the RTX 4080 was already dominating with a 40% lead over the 3080 Ti, and 27% lead over the 3090 Ti, while Ray Tracing saw all cards we tested taking a hammering as expected. When enabling DLSS along with Ray Tracing, the performance on the RTX 4080 manages to push 27% ahead of the 3080 Ti and 15% ahead of the 3090 Ti, showing that those newer RT and Tensor cores really are making a difference in comparative performance. Enabling DLSS 3 however, just puts it into a whole different realm of performance which sees the RTX 4080 gain another 44% of performance over the previous generation of DLSS on the same card. This also means that the RTX 4080 now pushes another 66% more frames per second compared to the 3090 Ti and 83% more than the 3080 Ti. In Destroy All Humans 2 - Reprobed, which is a a new game that we wanted to check DLSS 3 performance on, we again see a 13% lead in pure rasterisation performance favoured to the RTX 4080 over the 3080 Ti, while DLSS actually saw something very interesting where both the 3080 Ti and 3090 Ti came in with better results, albeit by a few frames per second. It’s very similar behavior to CPU bottleneck, and was extremely odd to see. Luckily DLSS 3 comes in to save the day and sees the performance on the RTX 4080 jump by 23% over the older version of DLSS along with boosting performance to 21% over the 3080 Ti and 19% over the 3090 Ti. In Spider-Man, we already had a healthy lead of 21% in favour to the RTX 4080 against the 3080 Ti, and with Ray Tracing turned on, that lead remained stable at 28%, which is very impressive to see, while enabling DLSS sees that lead shrink to just 3% over the 3080 Ti. Again, enabling DLSS 3 gives us a 50% lead on the 4080 with the previous version of DLSS, while compared to the 3080 Ti, we now see a HUGE 45% uplift in performance comparing each respective model's DLSS technology. Putting the 3090 Ti back in the mix, and the RTX 4080 now comes in 40% faster in this game with DLSS 3 enabled. Microsoft Flight Sim was the one game that really showed how clearly evident the CPU bottleneck was and on all cards tested, we saw no difference when enabling DLSS, other than a few frames per second that could be argued as margin of error. It was only when enabling DLSS 3 on the RTX 4080 that we saw that limitation being smashed, at 109 FPS. Let’s just take a moment to appreciate that. Microsoft Flight Sim at 4K, on Ultra, doing 109 frames per second. That now puts it 87% better than the 3090 Ti with DLSS turned on. Wow. Lastly in Watch Dogs: Legion, we already see the 4080 coming in around 29% faster than the 3080 Ti and 18% faster than the 3090 Ti, while enabling Ray Tracing saw the FPS dip on all cards, but still saw the RTX 4080 keeping a 28% and 16% lead respectively. Enabling DLSS again sees that gain keeping consistent at 26% over the 3080 Ti and 17% over the RTX 3090 Ti. Power, Temperatures & Acoustics Now a couple of other things to go through comes down to the cooling performance on each of the models we have here where we see, after an hour loop of F1 22, that the MSI SuprimX model comes in with the coolest GPU and hotspot temperatures at 60 and 71 degrees respectively when compared to the other cards, with the INNO3D actually coming in at the hottest, but still within safe parameters. One area that the INNO3D did fairly well was on the memory temperature, at 60 degrees, along with the FE model from NVIDIA, though the Gigabyte stole the show here slightly at 58 degrees max. It’s not all praise though as the Gigabyte card did see the fans spin up to just over 1700 RPM during the hour loop, while the FE card actually came in the lowest at just over 1300 RPM, followed by the INNO3D iCHILL card. When it comes to audible noise, the MSI came in the best at 40 decibels, followed closely by the INNO3D and Palit cards at 42 decibels. The NVIDIA FE card was a little louder at 43 decibels, and sadly due to the fans spinning so fast, the Gigabyte Gaming OC was the loudest 4080 we had at 49 decibels. Overclocking Looking at overclocking each card and running it through the same one-hour loop of F1 22 for stability saw some varying results, card to card. Obviously, some of this comes down to the power limits that we spoke about earlier, coupled with cooling solutions, and of course, the quality of the VRMs used on each individual card. For some part of it, you could argue that the silicon lottery comes into play, but in 2022, this doesn’t make as much of a difference card to card, unless you’re going for a card that is known to have binned silicon. So again, booting up F1 22 for an hour and seeing what kind of figures we were able to achieve and due to the INNO3D card not having any adjustable power limit, we saw very similar figures to what we had at stock, while the FE card from NVIDIA saw the temperatures rise across the board with the most noticeable being the hotspot increasing from 75 degrees to 79, while the memory also increased from 60 degrees to 72, though the fan speed only increased slightly by around 3% which made hardly any difference to the acoustics. The Palit saw some of the least increases in temperature, only seeing the GPU increase by one degree, the hotspot by 3 degrees and the memory by 2 degrees, though the fan speed did increase by 10%, which only made a 1-decibel difference to the audio. Also, both the MSI and Gigabyte cards managed to keep things under control, with some pretty small gains in temperatures when overclocked, but the MSI did see the largest jump in fan speed from 1434RPM, up to 1771 RPM which is a whopping 23% increase, which also increased the audible noise from 40 decibels, up to 48. Gigabyte Gaming OC INNO3D iCHILL X3 MSI SuprimX NVIDIA FE Palit Gamerock How Much Does It Cost? Stock and prices are all over the place, as one really expects from a new GPU these days, so it’s hard to nail down what you would actually have to pay right now. However, you can check for up-to-date stock and prices on Amazon US and UK here. Overview So I think this is a record for the most comprehensive review of a graphics card that we’ve ever done and I’ll firstly apologise for the sheer length of it because I just kept adding to it as there’s so much to cover, so hopefully, it’s appreciated. I’ll try and keep this part short and sweet because I think the performance speaks for itself. The RTX 4080 is a beast, but the price I know just doesn’t sit right with most consumers who argue that it’s out of reach for the average gamer, but I want to make one thing clear. The 4080 and 4090 aren’t for the average gamer. They truly are next-level performance and that’s so clear to see when you look at the lower-resolution performance which just ends up bottlenecked by the current lineup of CPUs. Sure, we could have used the 5800X3D which would have seen huge performance gains in some titles, but the 12900K that we used, still beats it in other titles. I guess, now, more than ever, we need next-level CPUs in terms of 3D cache, on the Ryzen 7000 series. Until then, DLSS 3 really does make up the difference and frankly shocked me in certain titles, like Cyberpunk and Spider-Man and from a first glance, looks absolutely gorgeous, but as I said, I do want to drill down further into that in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled for that. DLSS 3 So ok, DLSS was always impressive and has gotten better over time, while DLSS 3 just takes it one step further. I mean, before I even came into this, I expected some pretty amazing things, based on what NVIDIA had already shown us, but you know how it can be with these canned benchmarks that brands show, and that’s why it’s so important that we’re able to come in and show you what it’s really all about. Now we will be looking at DLSS 3 in a bit more detail in the near future because while it’s great, I think there are some tradeoffs in terms of visual quality and smoothness, and this is something we need more time to fully analyse, but we wanted to wait to see more titles to grab a bigger pool of testing data and along with that data, we want to really delve into the quality side of things, because while FPS is great and in typical fashion, the higher number is better, there’s a bit more to it than that. The biggest part that worries me about DLSS 3 is actually on future products that can’t already achieve high performance to start with because based on our experience, they kind of go hand in hand. I guess a lot of that really comes down to the types of games you play, and if you really need over 144 frames per second, compared to having a visually stunning game at a lower FPS, like 80 for instance and along with that, to really appreciate the visuals, you’ll want a monitor that can handle it too, but as I mentioned, that’s something for some future content so make sure you don’t miss out on that. Founders Vs AIB Now when it comes to each model, including the FE from NVIDIA. I think there’s an argument for all of them. Style, overclocking, cooling performance, acoustics, temperatures. They all have their strong points but I fear, much like the RTX 4090 launch, you may be restricted to what’s available, but hopefully I’m wrong and things are better. I mean, the die size is smaller, so yields should be better, so stock should be better, so who knows. Fingers crossed, but hopefully, this review has given you an idea as to what you should expect, and what options you do have. The big question is, are you going to buy it? I’m intrigued to know because as you saw, it actually comes in fairly competitive when looking at the cost per frame of retail prices at the moment, especially at 4K, which is pretty impressive, considering you’ll always be expected to pay an early adopters tax with any new technology, though older cards have seen a bit of a rise in price again lately, so I’ll let you do your own sums to see if you think it’s worth it. Should I Buy One? For me, I love the 40 series. It’s the first generation of GPUs that has genuinely got me excited about graphics cards again, and while the 4090 was just a beast, the 4080 still has the same essence as it, but for a lower price. I just hope that supply and demand isn’t an issue and that we see it for $1200 or just under £1300 in the UK, though I do worry, for pure rasterisation, what has AMD got up their sleeves? I guess we'll have to wait a little longer to see what happens on that front and who comes out victorious.