If the RTX 4070 Tremendous was all about addressing its predecessor’s so-so efficiency positive aspects, the RTX 4080 Tremendous’s course correction is extra deeply rooted in problems with chilly, onerous coinage. For higher and worse, it seems – whereas this Tremendous-fied GPU knocks a whole lot off the RTX 4080’s beginning worth, any pleasure for a possible new 4K champion is rapidly muted by it barely transferring the dial on straight FPS output. If, certainly, it’s not one way or the other operating slower.
That such a risk even exists is weird, because the RTX 4080 Tremendous makes comparable upgrades to those who gave the RTX 4070 Tremendous such a leg-up. Possibly the rise in CUDA cores is smaller (up from 9728 on the unique 4080 to 10240 right here), however there are nonetheless base and increase clock velocity enhancements, whereas the 16GB of VRAM widens its bandwidth from 717GB/s to 736GB/s. Get your self a factory-overclocked mannequin, just like the (deep breath) Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 Tremendous OC Version I’ve right here, and also you’re taking a look at extra enhancements nonetheless. This specific card ups the increase clock to 2670MHz in OC mode, past the reference RTX 4080 Tremendous’s 2550MHz and the RTX 4080’s 2510MHz.
Such third-party customisations will value extra, clearly. However you must be capable to seize this newfangled GPU from £959 / $999, an entry level that – whereas excessive – serves to make the £1269 / $1199 RTX 4080 seem like even worse of a deal than it did again in 2022. And since, what with drops under £1000 proving painfully sparse outdoors of huge Black Friday-style gross sales.
Higher specs for much less cash? I can dig that. I feel all of us can, besides those that purchased a 4080 simply earlier than the brand new Supers had been introduced. It is simply that for all its promising-sounding tweaks, the RTX 4080 Tremendous doesn’t ship the efficiency uplift that its suffix suggests.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Tremendous evaluation: 4K benchmarks
In equity, Nvidia’s newest does declare the occasional 4K win. It even caught as much as the in any other case dominant RTX 4090 in Forza Horizon 5, Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, and Watch Canine Legion, and recurrently bests the Radeon RX 7900 XTX – AMD’s top-of-the-line gaming card – with none assist from the same old GeForce trump card, DLSS. On the identical time, these three video games are additionally the one ones through which it reveals a transparent improve over the RTX 4080.
In half of those benchmarks, the older GPU truly manages to run so evenly towards the Tremendous mannequin that you just gained’t inform the distinction, or it scores a few frames greater. That may be margin of error territory nevertheless it’s nonetheless a disappointment, particularly after the RTX 4070 Tremendous so clearly stepped up from its personal non-Tremendous counterpart.
Talking of, the 4070 Tremendous’s barnstorming utility of DLSS upscaling and DLSS 3 body technology made me surprise if Nvidia boffins had discovered a solution to make the Tremendous variations even higher at leveraging their AI-based instruments. Sadly, it appears extra like that was simply an distinctive exhibiting on that single GPU’s half. In a ray-traced Cyberpunk 2077, the RTX 4080 Tremendous is simply barely sooner than its (less expensive) stablemate, whereas the unique RTX 4080 outpaces it when body gen is in play.
How bizarre, on condition that this isn’t meant as a ‘price range’ RTX 4080 however as an total {hardware} improve. There are different glimpses of the RTX 4080 Tremendous correctly fulfilling this transient: in Watch Canine Legion with each Extremely ray tracing and DLSS on High quality, its 67fps common was a marked enchancment on the RTX 4080’s 60fps. Horizon Zero Daybreak additionally rose to 129fps with the addition of High quality DLSS, whereas the RTX 4080 may solely scale as much as 135fps.
These victories are uncommon, thoughts, leaving most of my DLSS and/or ray tracing outcomes with the RTX 4080 Tremendous solely coughing up one or two additional frames per second over the older mannequin.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Tremendous evaluation: 1440p benchmarks
Not less than it’s nonetheless highly effective sufficient to point out indicators of CPU bottlenecking at decrease resolutions. Briefly, the RTX 4080 Tremendous appears a bit like overkill at this rez, particularly when the RTX 4070 Tremendous supplies a compelling choice with all the identical DLSS 3 and Ray Reconstruction assist.
That mentioned, there are – as there have been at 4K – moments of glory. In Forza Horizon 5, the RTX 4080 Tremendous one way or the other managed to punch by way of the 112fps-ish wall that the majority of its alternate options merely bounce off, and it’s one of the best of the bunch in Horizon Zero Daybreak, Metro Exodus, and AssCreed Valhalla. Hitman 3/World of Assassination as nicely, if solely simply.
As you’d anticipate, the RTX 4080 Tremendous additionally beats the 4070 Tremendous the place hardcore ray tracing is concerned. In Metro Exodus, with no upscaling however Extremely-quality RT results, this GPU scored 106fps to the 4070 Tremendous’s 82fps, sufficient of a niche which you can see the smoothness distinction on a high-refresh-rate monitor. There was additionally a level of redemption for that 4K Cyberpunk 2077 efficiency: now at 1440p and with a full set of Psycho-level ray tracing settings, High quality DLSS, and body technology, the RTX 4080 Tremendous comfortably gained with 134fps to the 4070 Tremendous’s 106fps.
Nonetheless, let’s not pat the previous’s again an excessive amount of when the latter is almost half the worth. And extra power-efficient. And extra more likely to truly slot in your PC case, as a result of the circuit board isn’t the scale of a Nimitz-class plane service. There’s doubtlessly an argument for deploying the RTX 4080 Tremendous in a 1440p rig in the event you’re totally lifeless set on maxed-out, 165Hz, absolutely ray-traced luxurious, however in the end it makes way more sense as a quick 4K card.
Is it a quick 4K card you can purchase, although? I’ll say that as little of a dial-mover that the RTX 4080 Tremendous is on efficiency, it is a greater graphics card than the RTX 4080. On common, it’s barely sooner, and even when the 2 carried out precisely the identical, the Tremendous model’s cheaper price would break the tie anyway. If you’d like high-high-hiiiiiigh-end recreation settings and the RTX 4090 stays out of attain, then in a purely numerical sense: sure, that is the subsequent smartest thing.
All the identical, you must assume very fastidiously whether or not it’s value investing in over the opposite premium-leaning Tremendous playing cards that Nvidia has simply wheeled out. The RTX 4070 Tremendous is sweet in any respect resolutions, and though I haven’t received my palms on an RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous but, it may – assuming any measurable enchancment on the RTX 4070 Ti – be an actual contender for 4K. The RTX 4080 Tremendous may be a toe-twitch in the correct path, nevertheless it nonetheless is not the RTX 3080-style celebrity that this technology of Nvidia GPUs has been lacking.
