NVIDIA RTX 4080 assessment: A (barely) extra sensible 4K gaming titan | Engadget

So what do these numbers imply in apply? The RTX 4080 scored round 3,500 fewer factors in 3DMark’s TimeSpy Extreme benchmark in comparison with the 4090. But if that extra highly effective card did not exist, the 4080 can be essentially the most succesful GPU we have ever reviewed. Its TimeSpy Extreme rating was about 50 % larger than the 3080 Ti, and it reached a snug 130fps whereas enjoying Halo Infinite in 4K with all of its graphics settings maxed out. Seeing Cyberpunk 2077 hit 74fps in 4K with extremely ray tracing settings (and the assistance of DLSS 3) almost introduced a tear to my eye.

A phrase on DLSS 3: It’s NVIDIA’s newest AI answer that may take lower-quality imagery and upscale it to larger resolutions. But along with intelligently sharpening edges and upgrading textures, DLSS 3 may also inject interpolated frames to easy out 4K gameplay. While I can sometimes spot points with significantly low high quality DLSS upscaling, I did not discover any uncommon framerate hiccups whereas testing Cyberpunk and A Plague Tale: Requiem with the expertise enabled.

The solely actual draw back to the RTX 4080 is that I can not assist however evaluate it to the 4090. That identical Cyberpunk ray tracing benchmark was virtually twice as quick on the 4090, reaching an eye-watering 135 fps. It additionally hit a 40-fps-higher common framerate within the 3DMark Port Royal ray tracing benchmark. Still, these are the kinds of beneficial properties solely essentially the most devoted avid gamers will discover, the precise marketplace for the 4090. When it involves precise 4K gameplay, even with ray tracing in demanding video games like Control, I by no means felt held again by the RTX 4080.

And for those who’re in search of extra efficiency, overclocking is all the time an possibility. I did not have an opportunity to take action myself, however the 4080’s thermal efficiency makes me assume there’s loads of room for pushing issues tougher. It by no means climbed past 61 celsius throughout my testing, round 10 levels cooler than the 4090. That’s a testomony to NVIDIA’s glorious cooling setup (and maybe partially as a result of my workplace being barely cooler this month).

The actual query: Is it price settling for the 4080 if there’s an opportunity you will really be capable of purchase the 4090 for $1,599? At the second, most on-line retailers are promoting 4090 playing cards for effectively above $2,000. It sounds loopy to say it, however the $1,199 card looks like a steal with that gulf. But, after all, who is aware of how lengthy you can discover the RTX 4080 at its launch value. It possible will not be too lengthy earlier than it creeps in the direction of the 4090’s larger tag.

And if paying greater than $1,000 for a video card appears insane to you — and let’s be clear, it ought to — sit tight to see what NVIDIA’s future playing cards seem like. We’re undoubtedly anticipating RTX 4070, 4060 and 4050 playing cards ultimately, however the the query is when. (Also, what the heck will NVIDIA do with its deliberate $899 4080 GPU? Does that change into the 4070?) AMD’s flagship RDNA 3 GPUs will launch beneath $1,000, and on the entry degree, Intel’s new Arc GPUs are surprisingly compelling.

All in all, the RTX 4080 is strictly what I’d need from an RTX 3080 Ti successor. It’s sooner and has loads of new options to make it a demonstrable leap from the earlier playing cards. I’m not saying you ought to be upgrading your 3080 anytime quickly, however for those who in some way stumble onto $1,199, I would not blame you for being tempted by the 4080.