Nvidia's RTX 4080 Super is the third and potentially last of Nvidia's updated 40-series GPUs. The RTX 4070 Super got a significant performance boost, the RTX 4070 Ti Super got a smaller boost, and the RTX 4080 Super barely gets any faster. But it's $200 cheaper than the RTX 4080, which is a bit of a game changer.
Nvidia's RTX 4080 Super is the only new Super GPU in the RTX 40 series that drops the price over the original card it's replacing. At $999, it's $200 less than the eye-popping $1,199 MSRP of the RTX 4080, which often sells for even more. A price reduction is certainly welcome, but not much has changed in terms of performance. The RTX 4080 Super is 3 to 4 percent faster than the RTX 4080, meaning the RTX 4090 remains the reigning performance champion. Now you'll have to pay at least $600 more on top of the RTX 4080 Super if you want Nvidia's best GPU for 4K, and the RTX 4090 offers around 25 percent higher frame rates at that resolution.
The RTX 4080 Super also puts the RTX 4070 Ti Super's $799 price tag in an even tougher spot, especially since you get nearly a 20 percent improved performance for an extra $200 with the latter card. But the RTX 4080 Super's $999 price tag is still a lot of money for a GPU. The closest competition is AMD's $999 Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which trades blows with Nvidia's RTX 4080 Super.
We have already seen AMD respond to the RTX 4070 Ti Super by bringing its RX 7900 XT from $899 to $749, although who knows for how long. The RX 7900
Hardware
If you place the RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super Founders Edition cards side by side, there is little difference between the two. Nvidia is now using a darker alloy throughout the RTX 4080 Super, but the GPU is still huge. It's still the same size as an RTX 4090, which surprised me when I reviewed the original RTX 4080.
Nvidia hasn't changed the fan design or cooling here, so there's a seven-blade fan on either side of this three-slot design. The RTX 4080 Super Founders Edition appears thicker than it is long at 304mm, but you may still need to check that your case can accommodate this card, particularly third-party ones that will ship in a variety of designs and sizes.
Personally, I prefer the space gray look of the original RTX 4080, but I'm sure many will enjoy the fact that the RTX 4080 Super Founders Edition is now essentially a black GPU. It's a striking departure from the silver/space gray aesthetic we've seen on all RTX cards so far. I wonder if this will indicate a move to black and white variants for future Founders Edition cards, particularly when most PC cases ship in black or white options.
On the back, there are the usual three DisplayPort 1.4 ports (up to 240Hz at 4K with DSC) and a single HDMI 2.1 port (up to 60Hz at 8K with DSC). There's no support for DisplayPort 2.1 here, but given that most 240Hz 4K OLED panels hitting the market do so with DSC enabled and without DisplayPort 2.1, it is a less immediate problem. However, I hope Nvidia moves to DisplayPort 2.1 with its next generation cards.
The RTX 4080 Super also continues the RTX 40 series tradition of requiring a single 12-pin PCIe 5 connector. There's a 12VHPWR adapter cable included in the box, which you'll need to connect to three regular eight-pin PCIe power cables. I've made it clear many times that I hate this ugly, bulky adapter, and I never use it in my personal builds. If you're lucky enough to have an ATX 3.0 power supply, you can use a single cable, or there are many options from companies like CableMod to allow you to convert a variety of PCIe power cables into a single 12 VHPWR cable without as much bulk.
I'm glad to see that Nvidia was able Get a little more performance without increasing power requirements. Nvidia still recommends at least a 750W power supply — the RTX 4080 Super It can consume up to 320 watts of power, although on average you should use just 250 watts during gaming. The only small change here is that the RTX 4080 Super now runs at 15 watts at idle instead of the original RTX 4080's 13 watts.
The RTX 4080 Super still ships with the same 16GB of VRAM found in the RTX 4080, but with 736GB/s of bandwidth instead of the 717GB/s found in the RTX 4080. Nvidia also has slightly increased the base and boost clocks of the RTX 4080. Super and increased the CUDA core count from 9,728 to 10,240.
1440p benchmarks
For 1440p tests, I paired the RTX 4080 Super with AMD's latest Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor and Samsung's 32-inch G7 monitor. This monitor supports refresh rates of up to 240Hz as well as Nvidia's G-Sync technology.
I put the RTX 4080 Super head-to-head with the RTX 4080, RTX 4090, AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XT, and RX 7900 XT. AMD's RX 7900 XTX is the closest in both performance and price, with the RTX 4070 Ti Super $200 less and the RTX 4090 $600 more.
I tested a variety of AAA games at high or ultra settings, including a mix of ray tracing, DLSS, and some older titles that still power modern graphics cards in 2024.
The RTX 4080 Super tops out at 1440p and is capable of exceeding 100 fps in all tests except Improved Exodus Metro operating in extreme environments. The RTX 4090 is the only GPU I've tested that comfortably manages to exceed 100 fps in this same test.
The RTX 4080 Super is about 3 percent faster than the original RTX 4080 at 1440p. That's barely an improvement and is similar to what the RTX 2080 Super demonstrated over the RTX 2080 when Nvidia last used its Super brand.
The RTX 4080 Super trades blows with the RX 7900 XTX in some games, with gears 5 and Return working better on top AMD card. Performance will vary depending on the games you're playing, and Nvidia's card offers superior ray tracing performance thanks to widespread DLSS support that softens the blow.
While the RTX 4080 Super loses to the RX 7900 XTX in Forza Horizon 5 with magnification disabled, As soon as you enable it, the RTX 4080 Super with DLSS 3 is about 20 percent faster, even with FSR 2.2 enabled on AMD's card. That's been a common theme across the 30 and 40 series RTX cards, with Nvidia outperforming AMD in both ray tracing and upscaling techniques. You usually pay more for these features, but with the RTX 4080 Super priced at $999, it's sure to put pressure on AMD's top card.
You also get about 17 percent better 1440p performance on the RTX 4080 Super than the RTX 4070 Ti Super for that extra $200.
4K benchmarks
For 4K gaming, I tested the RTX 4080 Super with Acer's 31.5-inch Nitro XV2 monitor. This monitor supports refresh rates of up to 144Hz. You're still not going to come close to maxing out a 144Hz 4K monitor with the RTX 4080 Super, much less the 240Hz OLED panels arriving later in 2024. If you're up for it By reducing the settings from the maximum, this will certainly help achieve those higher rates.
However, the RTX 4080 Super still offers an excellent 4K experience. All games hit 60fps, or above average, with the exception of Improved Exodus Metro in extreme environments. It was still close at 54fps, though, and only the RTX 4090 manages to top 60fps in 4K, and you'll have to pay an extra $600 for that.
At 4K resolution, the RTX 4080 Super is about 4 percent faster than the RTX 4080 it replaces. The RTX 4090 is still about 25 percent faster in 4K gaming, and it's clear that Nvidia didn't want to close that performance gap too much here to give deep-pocketed gamers some reason to spend an extra $600 for the RTX 4090.
More interestingly, the extra $200 over the RTX 4070 Ti Super gives it nearly 20 percent better performance at 4K.
DLSS 3 helps improve 4K performance on the RTX 4080 Super, as you'd expect, but there's really not much change in raw power here with pure rasterization.
Conclusion
The best feature of the RTX 4080 Super is its price. If you've been putting off upgrading to 4K or are considering a new 4K OLED monitor, the RTX 4080 Super certainly makes a lot more sense than reaching $1,599 or, actually, a lot more for the RTX 4090.
Now that the trio of 40-series Super RTX cards is complete, we have a better idea of which card best suits the various budgets and requirements of PC gamers. I'm still very impressed with the RTX 4070 Super simply because it got an impressive performance boost over the RTX 4070 at the same price. Sure, it still only has 12GB of VRAM, but it seems like a good option for 1440p.
I'm still confused by the price of the $799 RTX 4070 Ti Super, particularly since you can step up to the $599 RTX 4070 Super and save some money for 1440p gaming or spend $200 more on the RTX 4080 Super and get 4K performance almost 20 percent better. .
The RTX 4080 Super is an ideal card if you move up to 4K, but only if the price stays the same. I just hope this $999 price actually sticks. I'd still like to see it for under $1,000, but since the competition is still selling $999 RX 7900 XTX cards, I'm not surprised Nvidia hasn't fallen further.
Photography by Tom Warren/The Verge
