Following last month’s launch of the $1,599 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, a graphics card meant largely for professional use, today the new generation of GPUs has finally arrived for the slightly less wealthy crowd of PC gamers in the form of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 16GB Founders Edition, which launches tomorrow for $1,199. That means the entry point for the RTX 40-series’ lofty performance claims and frame-generating DLSS 3 has come down at least a bit. We’re still at the beginning of this new GPU generation, but so far the RTX 4080 is a strong showing.
What’s in a Name
Before we get to the spec sheet and performance numbers, we should cover the RTX 4080 naming kerfuffle and talk a bit about how Nvidia’s GPUs are typically positioned – and why this generation is a bit different than years previous. Dating back more than a decade, Nvidia GPUs bearing the “-80” moniker are considered the flagship mainstream cards, and have been priced in the $500 to $700 range. Looking more specifically at recent trends, the GTX 1080 launched at $599, and both the RTX 2080 and 3080 launched at $699.
You might be wondering, then, why the RTX 4080 starts at nearly double that range. The answer is in that aforementioned naming fiasco. Originally, Nvidia planned two variants of the RTX 4080 – a 16GB for $1,199 (the version we’re reviewing here) and a 12GB, priced at $899. This wouldn’t have been the first time Nvidia has launched VRAM-variant cards, but typically the amount of VRAM was the only difference, whereas in this case the two cards also carried different core counts and clockspeeds – differences that previously would have warranted a bump down to another tier (in this case, the RTX 4070).
People rightfully complained about the confusion this was already starting to cause, and to Nvidia’s credit it responded, opting to “unlaunch” the RTX 4080 12GB; it’s now rumored that those cards will be re-announced with the “RTX 4070 Ti” name, though as of yet there’s nothing official.
That’s all well and good, but it still leaves us with a “mainstream” card bearing the enthusiast-tier pricing that would previously have been reserved for a card bearing the “Ti” label – representing a mid-generation step up. In other words, typical generational comparisons are a bit skewed this time around, so we’ll mostly be comparing the RTX 4080 against the RTX 3080 Ti, which also launched at $1,199 in June 2021, as opposed to the RTX 3080.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 – Design and Features
If you read my review of the RTX 4090, you’ll remember that it’s an absolutely massive card, in both size and performance terms. The RTX 4080, meanwhile, is…not any smaller. It bears the same triple-slot designation, measuring 11.9 inches (304mm) long, 5.4 inches (137mm) wide, and 2.4 inches (61mm) thick – the exact same dimensions as the RTX 4090. This is a big card. For comparison, the RTX 3080 measured 11.2 inches (285mm) long, 4.4 inches (112mm) wide, and 1.5 inches (40mm) thick, while the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080 were even smaller.
Most of that heft comes from the large, dual-axial flowthrough cooling solution required to keep temperatures in check. The cooler design is mostly similar to that of the RTX 3090, but with larger fans and taller fins in order to achieve what Nvidia says is 15% more airflow at the same acoustic level. In practice, the RTX 4080 remained whisper-quiet while keeping temperatures hovering around 53-55C, with a peak of 57C, during a long stretch of benchmarking.
Compared to the RTX 3080 Ti, the RTX 4080 has 9,728 CUDA cores (down from 10,240), 304 fourth-gen Tensor cores (vs 320 third-gen), and 76 third-gen RT cores (vs 80 second-gen). In other words: it has newer cores, but slightly fewer of them overall. The decrease in count shouldn’t be alarming though, since the 4080 includes a boost clock speed of 2,505MHz compared to the RTX 3080 Ti’s 1,665MHz clock, not to mention the 16GB of GDDR6X VRAM, compared to 12GB on its 30-series “predecessor.”
Like the RTX 4090, the 4080 uses the somewhat contentious 16-pin 12VHPWR power connector that has recently been in the news due to reports of it overheating and melting. We haven’t had any issues with it in any of our testing, but we’ll definitely be monitoring the situation as this generation of graphics cards matures.
Speaking of power, the RTX 4080 has a TDP of 320W, down from 350W on the RTX 3080 Ti. Nvidia recommends using a 750W power supply at minimum. There’s also a 3x 8-pin adapter in the box for people whose power supplies don’t have the new connector.
For ports, the RTX 4080 has 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x HDMI 2.1a. This is the typical layout for current-gen graphics cards, though AMD’s recently-announced RX 7900 XT and XTX use the newer DisplayPort 2.1, which has more than triple the bandwidth and enables 4K resolution at up to 480Hz, or 8K up to 165Hz, versus 240Hz at 4K and 60Hz at 8K for DisplayPort 1.4. Most games and monitors won’t be able to take advantage of that bandwidth, so it’s sort of a moot point, but AMD does technically have the advantage.
