How Good is an RTX 4080 Super for Gaming?

January 11, 2024

In Nvidia’s ever-evolving landscape of graphics cards, a new range of contenders has entered the mix in the form of the RTX 40-series Supers. Announced at CES at the beginning of 2024, Nvidia plans to release three new Super cards: the 4070 Super, the 4070 Ti Super, and the focus of this article, the 4080 Super. 

Both the 4070 Ti Super and the 4080 Super will actually be replacing their older non-Super counterparts, whilst the 4070 Super will continue to coexist with the current standard RTX 4070 GPU.

As gaming enthusiasts eagerly await the release of these new GPUs, the spotlight shines brightly on the RTX 4080 Super. Touted as the pinnacle of graphics performance, it’s second only to the top-tier RTX 4090. 

But, the question remains: how good is the RTX 4080 Super when it comes to gaming?

RTX 4080 Super Features

The RTX 4080 Super is being labelled as the new go-to for 4K ultra gaming as it is stocked full of upgrades.

At its core lies the latest Ada Lovelace architecture from Nvidia, shipping with the full AD103 chip, so it’s not cut down like the RTX 4080 before it. Plus, with a substantial increase in CUDA cores, the 4080 Super ensures a substantial leap in raw computational power, enabling smooth gameplay at higher resolutions and frame rates. 

The integration of 16GB GDDR6X memory technology further accelerates data transfer speeds, enhancing overall responsiveness. Additionally, NVIDIA's DLSS 3 (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology takes centre stage, leveraging artificial intelligence to upscale lower-resolution images in real-time, delivering crisper visuals without compromising performance.

All in all, you’ll be getting a GPU with a performance closer to the RTX 4090, but at a fraction of the price (and even cheaper than the standard 4080 that came before).

Gaming performance comparison to other cards

When taking a look at its specs, however, it’s clear that this is a card that Nvidia is pushing more towards those with RTX 3080 Ti’s or lower who may be thinking of making an upgrade. 

This is because the jump in performance between the standard 4080 and the 4080 Super is only roughly between 1-5%. So even though it’s an extremely powerful GPU, those already using an RTX 4080 won’t see much of a difference. 

If you are in the 3080 Ti category of users though, it is definitely worth a look. Especially if you are wanting to make the upgrade to 4K gaming.

The 4080 Super has 52 shader cores against the 3080 Ti's 34; double the amount of RT cores with 121 compared to 67; and has over 3x the number of tensor cores at 836 compared to 273.

It’s this boost in tensor cores that Nvidia claims makes the RTX 4080 Super twice as fast as an RTX 3080 Ti when it comes to gaming performance utilising their DLSS Frame Generation technology. And even without Frame Generation, Nvidia says its gameplay performance is still 1.4x faster than the 3080 Ti when playing with fully ray-traced visuals and with all settings set to max.

You can see this in the benchmark graph by Nvidia below, with the 4080 Super providing a good chunk more FPS in a wide range of games compared to its previous generation counterparts.

 

RTX 4080 Super for productivity

Not only a powerhouse for gaming, the 4080 Super has specialized AI Tensor Cores that deliver transformative capabilities for AI in gaming, creating and everyday productivity.

In AI workloads, the GeForce RTX 4080 Super generates video over 1.5x faster and images over 1.7x faster than the RTX 3080 Ti. And 3D apps like Blender run up to 70% faster than previous generations.

For games, AI-powered DLSS provides greater in-game immersion. Meanwhile, generative AI applications like Adobe Photoshop take advantage of Tensor Cores to speed up productivity and keep creative workflows moving. Plus, when it comes to working from home, NVIDIA Broadcast can remove background noise and provide seamless virtual backgrounds during work calls.

Conclusion

Overall, the Nvidia RTX 4080 Super looks to be a very promising card, raising performance levels dramatically from its counterparts in previous generations.

Those looking for a 4K gaming upgrade who may still be using a 3080 or even a 2080 will definitely find good value for money in this card. However, if 4K feels like overkill for your needs, then focusing more on the 4070 range of Supers will suit you best.

If you still aren’t sure, don’t hesitate to get in contact with our experts who can help steer you in the right direction.