After Nvidia’s keynote at GTC 2022, the dust is beginning to settle, so it’s time to see what the company has planned for its marginally less expensive Ada Lovelace GPUs. Here, I’m referring to the two GeForce RTX 4080 (opens in new tab) versions that will compete for your money and have somewhat perplexing names.
The two RTX 4080 GPUs’ specifications, release dates, price, and performance indication are all known.
These are constructed using the most recent Ada Lovelace architecture from Nvidia, just like the GeForce RTX 4090 (opens in a new tab).
These cards expect a fantastic improvement in efficiency and performance over the previous generation thanks to the utilization of TSMC’s N4 production process, which is the same one that drives the GPUs in HPC data centers.
Even though these cards have the same model number, the RTX 4080, they differ significantly internally, not just in terms of the amount of GDDR6X VRAM they have. On October 12, the GeForce RTX 4090 will be the first product to be released, while a pair of GeForce RTX 4080s will follow on November 1. Below, you’ll find a list of these GPUs’ specifications and details.
RTX 4080 Price:
The two RTX 4080s present a challenging read regarding the contentious topic of price. While the GeForce RTX 4090 at the top can naturally command a higher price due to its position as the company’s flagship model, the same is typically not true with cards priced at or below 80.
The GeForce RTX 4080 (16GB) is priced at $1,199 as a starting point. This product is $500 more expensive than the GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB), which debuted for $699. This card will be offered as a Founders Edition, just like the RTX 4090.
The GeForce RTX 4080 (12GB) is priced at $899 as of right now. However, since there isn’t a Founders Edition version of this card, it will be up to the makers of graphics cards to attempt to achieve that price.
We would anticipate many cards to cost more than this due to sophisticated cooling solutions and undoubtedly better-overclocking capabilities.
THE BEST RTX 4080 INFORMATION AND LEAKS
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 is available in two sizes: 16GB and 12GB GDDR6X. The 16GB model has 9728 CUDA cores and a 23Gbps memory speed. Max power draw is anticipated to be 516W, which is lower than prior forecasts. The base TGP for the 12GB model is 285W/240W.
RTX 4080 Performance:
Nvidia has published some internal RTX 4080 benchmark results to showcase its newest architecture, making for some fascinating reading. While the performance of all of the new Ada Lovelace GPUs has increased significantly in what Nvidia refers to as “Next Generation” games, the situation is less favorable for today’s games.
Compared to the RTX 3090 Ti, games like Resident Evil Village, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and The Division 2 all seem to exhibit performance drops for the RTX 4080 (12GB) edition and just marginal performance gains for the RTX 4080 (16GB).
Though things are a little better regarding Microsoft Flight Simulator and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, which enjoy an almost doubling frame rate, this isn’t the complete home run one might expect for the money. When we get these cards on the test benches, it will be interesting to see how they perform in various games because, while the RTX 4090 has some serious performance chops, it is less obvious lower down the stack.
RTX 4080 Specification:
The two RTX 4080 graphics cards from Nvidia feature support the third-generation Ray tracing cores, fourth-generation Tensor cores, and DLSS 3. (opens in new tab). Nvidia has stayed with the PCIe 4.0 interface for this generation, and the cards support Microsoft DirectX 12 Ultimate, Resizable BAR, and Vulkan RT API.
The GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB) Founder Edition cards will be produced by Nvidia, but not the GeForce RTX 4080 (12 GB) cards. This means that the specifications for the $899 cards will entirely depend on the manufacturers in terms of fan configurations and the overall card size.
There are many differences between the RTX 4080 (12GB) and the RTX 4080 (16GB), much more than just the amount of memory offered, as I stated at the beginning. The most noticeable of these is the number of CUDA Cores, which differs significantly from 7,680 to 9,728.
Compared to the RTX 3080 (10GB) model from the previous generation and the RTX 3080 (12GB) GPU unveiled at the beginning of the year, which had 8,704 cores and 8,960 cores, respectively, this is a very different situation. Undoubtedly, the GeForce RTX 4080 (12GB) should have been referred to as the RTX 4070.
| Nvidia RTX 40-series specs | RTX 3080 (10GB) | RTX 3080 (12GB) | RTX 4080 (12GB) | RTX 4080 (16GB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | GA102-200-KD-A1 | GA102-220-A1 | AD104-400 | AD103-300 |
| CUDA Cores | 8,704 | 8,960 | 7,680 | 9,728 |
| Base Clock | 1,440MHz | 1,260MHz | 2,310MHz | 2,210MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1,710MHz | 1,710MHz | 2,610MHz | 2,510MHz |
| Memory Bus | 320-bit | 384-bit | 192-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Type | 10GB GDDR6X | 12GB GDDR6X | 12GB GDDR6X | 16GB GDDR6X |
| Memory Speed | 19Gbps | 19Gbps | 21Gbps | 23Gbps |
| Graphics Card Power (W) | 320W | 350W | 285W | 320W |
| Required System power (W) | 750W | 750W | 700W | 750W |
| Launch Price | $699 | $799 | $899 | $1,199 |
RTX 4080 Launch Date:
With no specific release date yet indicated, the GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB) and GeForce RTX 4080 (12 GB) GPUs are “Coming November.” We anticipate learning the exact release date for the two RTX 4080s once the RTX 4090 goes on sale on October 12.
On Nvidia’s website, you can register to receive notifications when the cards become available (opens in a new tab). Similar services—not quite pre-orders, but letting customers sign up for alerts when the cards arrive—are anticipated from resellers. This does make sense in this case, given the lack of a firm release date. There is no official word from Nvidia regarding when the review embargo for these cards will be lifted, which is not entirely unexpected given the lack of a release date.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 design:
- A cooling system with four slots and three conventional fans.
- There have not yet been any Founder’s Edition card leaks.
- Bigger and heavier than anything we’ve seen so far, it is anticipated.
At this moment, it is hard to determine which image leaks of alleged RTX 4000-series GPUs are authentic – and so far, they have all been concentrated on the top-tier RTX 4090. The fonts used on some purported Zotac Gaming RTX 4090 packaging raised some red flags for our US computer editor John.
Even so, we may anticipate a hefty RTX 4080 that likely uses the same novel quad-slot design as the RTX 4090 images that have emerged. One RTX 4090 from Galax that has been leaked is said to have four fans—a three-fan design with an additional fan added to the back—and a substantial heat sink.
It’s unknown exactly how these Founder’s Edition (FE) versions of the cards will look because we haven’t yet seen them leak properly (although various renders have been circulating).
When it comes to the outside case of the card, each third-party manufacturer will, of course, have their own aesthetic, so trust your instinct if you believe that Gigabyte GPUs look nicer than MSI ones. In any case, these new GPUs will cause problems for PC builders because they will be larger, heavier, and more complicated than anything we have seen in the past.
At this point, everything we’ve discussed is just speculative; we’ve compiled our most reliable leaks into this report, but there’s no way to verify which bits of information are factual and which are nonsense.
When we have all the information from Nvidia, we’ll be returning to update this page on September 20!
