NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition 16GB Review – Faster than expected and much more frugal than feared

Finally, let’s summarize the winners and losers in the two tested resolutions and in the comparison of DLSS, FSR and XeSS and look at the percentage differences. As always, all FPS were normalized, accumulated, and then combined into the geometric mean. I have to remind you again that the Radeon RX 6950XT Gaming X Trio I used is the only card that is not a reference card, as AMD could not provide it. MSI’s custom model is about 5% faster than the reference, but with significantly higher power consumption.

Summary of the gaming performance in FPS and with the P1 Low

QHD with 2560 x 1440 pixels

In QHD, the GeForce RTX 4080 is plenty of 17 percentage points faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. The comparison is interesting in that both cards operate at a similarly high price level. Therefore, the use of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti as a 100% mark is almost urgent because it is the full upgrade of the Ampere generation (which was only added very late). The (very heavily factory overclocked) Radeon RX 6950XT is about as fast as the RTX 3090, but is 17 percentage points behind the non-overclocked GeForce RTX 4080 FE and up to 27 percentage points behind the maximum overclocked RTX 4080 FE. That would be about 37 to 40 percentage points compared to the non-overclocked reference card, the Radeon RX 6950XT, while the rest, as already known, has to sort itself further behind and the RTX 4090 turns its circles lonely at the top.

The lead of the GeForce RTX 4080 over the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti in the min FPS (P1 Low) is also very clear and even surprisingly high, although almost 100 watts less are consumed here.

Ultra HD with 3080 x 2160 pixels

In Ultra-HD, the GeForce RTX 4080 is only 13.5 percentage points ahead of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti and almost 27 percentage points ahead of the heavily overclocked RX 6950XT from the factory or about 33 percentage points ahead of a non-overclocked reference card. Thus, a rumored Radeon RX 7900XTX would be clearly behind a GeForce RTX 4090 in any case, but could (maybe) beat a GeForce RTX 4080 by 10 to 20 percentage points. Pure speculation and in December we will be smarter. However, I would also like to refer you to the efficiency comparison that follows, because it is quite something. The actual power consumption and performance per watt of the upcoming RDNA3 card would then be a completely different story. There we will really have to wait and see ourselves.

Since the CPU only very rarely limits the GeForce RTX 4000 in ultra HD, the card’s lead in the P1 also remains the same again because the partial CPU limit is omitted.

Ultra HD with 3080 x 2160 pixels and DLSS, FSR as well as XeSS

If you use pixel accelerators like DLSS, FSR or XeSS, the frame rates of the cards partly increase again to very playable regions, but the gap is once again downright astounding. Almost 17 percentage points advantage of the GeForce RTX 4080 over the RTX 3090 Ti is a small claim. Here, too, the RX 6950XT gets a real snub, because the gap of about 36 percentage points is almost unbelievable. Apart from that, the picture quality in FSR should actually get a few points deducted. Intel’s XeSS looks a bit better, but also brings a bit less performance. But on this very point, I refer you to the follow-up the day after tomorrow, where we will offer countless video comparisons and supplementary benchmarks. You can write a lot about it, but you have to see it.

The P1, i.e. the min-FPS, are again within reach of the (very slight) CPU limit for the GeForce RTX 4080 here.

Efficiency evaluation

Let’s now move on to the efficiency evaluation, as the amount of watts needed to achieve a certain gaming performance in terms of an FPS, i.e. the watts per FPS metric. This is the opposite of what the manufacturers use, but I think it is much easier to use the larger numbers before the decimal point. And because I don’t want to force you to use a calculator, I’m now including the percentage points as a calculation service. Let’s start in QHD. The efficiency of the GeForce RTX 4080 increases by a staggering 91 percentage points compared to the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti! The efficiency advantage over the (factory overclocked) Radeon RX 6950XT is even almost 100 (!) percentage points. Overtaking without catching up? AMD will almost have to work some magic here, but as we all know, hope dies last.

And what happens now in Ultra HD? The new GeForce RTX 4080 is still a good 80 percentage points ahead of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, because power comes from fuel and in ultra HD the card is less limited by the CPU. Free ride, then. However, the efficiency even increases to a depressing 102 percentage points compared to the Radeon RX 6950XT, which is somewhat weaker in UHD! This is almost an energetic execution.

Various processes can also be used to make Ultra HD more playable, but how does this affect efficiency? By the way, the GeForce RTX 4090 is very thinly ahead for the first time. But the GeForce RTX 4080 takes 87.2 percentage points from the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti thanks to the new Tensor cores, and I would rather have swept the 131 percentage point lead over the Radeon RX 6950XT under the carpet with a red head. We can only pray that AMD has come up with an adequate solution and that we will know more soon.

Summary and conclusion

Even though today’s article is only the beginning and we will still deliver interesting results and evaluations with another follow-up (thanks here already to Fritz Hunter, who has been doing nothing else for days!), the first picture is again surprisingly positive for the GeForce RTX 4080 FE. NVIDIA has offered a new generation for a long time, which has been able to increase the efficiency extremely. The minimum of 80 percentage points compared to an even slightly slower GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is downright (positively) shocking.

And it’s also worth looking at the overall package in addition to the bars and leaving the price out of it for now. Besides the significant performance increase and the really outstanding efficiency (in the context of the gaming performance provided), Ada namely offers much more than just an increased raster performance in the usual pixel orgies! The entire feature set of extremely increased ray tracing performance, DLSS 3.0 and Reflex is accompanied by other hardware solutions like the dual video encoder (NvEnc), which can even take on parallel tasks. There will be more details about DLSS 3.0, a high-performance continuation of DLSS based on the new architecture, tomorrow, because it also shows in which direction it could still go and that you can certainly still achieve decent results with smaller cards and considerably less energy in the end.

Simultaneous streaming and recording are only one facet, because the overall increased computing power of the GeForce RTX 4080 including the Tensor cores will also be very much appreciated in productive use. Blender is just one example of many, as many of the standard software’s CUDA-based plugins benefit immensely from the new performance. Here, too, there are many interesting topics that just call for a retest. Those who also like AI-based gadgets will find a nice solution for video conferencing or video or audio chats with NVIDIA Broadcast, for example. OBS supports quite a few of these features and the AV1 encoder is not a bad thing there either.

As a reviewer, you are of course obliged to test and judge emotionlessly and objectively. But in view of such an explosion in performance and efficiency (which outsiders wouldn’t expect), it’s fair to show something like enthusiasm. And now comes the BUT. With the 1469 Euro MSRP for the so-called “MSRP cards”, which every board partner has to deliver, we are still in a price league that is completely unaffordable for most buyers, unfortunately.

So what will matter most is how the cards that are still to come will scale down. The GeForce 4070 Ti 12GB already rumored for CES (and already finished) would have to approach or even fall below the 1000 euro mark in terms of price for a real acceptance, I alone lack faith. We will have to wait and see what AMD launches in December, how the prices and especially the availability develop. The better RDNA3 performs, the higher the probability of falling prices for NVIDIA and vice versa.

Until then, we can ponder why NVIDIA leaves such a huge gap between the brute GeForce RTX 4090 24GB and the 60% solution in the form of the GeForce RTX 4080 16GB. There would really be more than enough room for a GeForce RTX 4080 Ti and the Radeon 7900XTX could also be gallantly capped. But today and here, it’s all about the GeForce RTX 4080, which I introduced to you in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 FE 16GB. And this card is a really efficient pixel accelerator. There is no need to write anything more about it today.

As a preview of what’s to come in the next few days, I can already announce a very comprehensive review of DLSS 3.0, the latencies and Reflex with many video comparisons. Overclocking is also possible, of course, but I’m already curious about the forum when someone will present the first “under 200 watt card”. Otherwise, we hope for the time being that the new card will be widely and well available and that retailers will be a bit more cautious. And just between you and me, there are still some bargains to be had with the current Ampere cards if you don’t want to wait for the new, smaller cards.

The graphics card was provided by NVIDIA for this test. The only condition was compliance with the embargo period; there was no influence or remuneration.