Nvidia’s RTX 4080 graphics card offers big improvements compared to the older 3080 and
3090, but at $1200 USD, the 4080 is not cheap.
I’ve compared all three GPUs in 20 games at 4K, 1440p and 1080p resolutions to find
out if the 4080 is worth it!
I’m using the original RTX 3080 with 10 gigs of VRAM, not the newer 12 gig version.
The 4080 has 16 gigs of vram, while the 3090 has the most at 24 gigs, and despite the 3090
having the biggest memory bus and most bandwidth, the 4080’s memory is clocked higher.
The 4080’s GPU clock speed is also highest, but it has fewer CUDA cores compared to the
3090, which has 8% more.
Both the RTX 3080 and 4080 have a 320 watt TGP, while the 3090’s is higher at 350 watts.
We’re expecting the newer 4080 to be more efficient though, as it’s based on TSMC’s
4nm process compared to the older Samsung 8nm used with the 30 series.
Right now the cheapest brand new 10 gig RTX 3080 on Newegg goes for $740 USD, so a little
more compared to its $700 MSRP, while the cheapest RTX 3090 at the moment is available
from $1250, lower than its $1500 MSRP.
The 4080 is launching with a MSRP of $1200, and while there will definitely be more expensive
4080’s available, technically this means it should be possible to get a 4080 for less
money than a 3090.
That’s the main reason why I wanted to compare these three GPUs.
The 4080 and 3090 are priced similarly, but I also wanted to find out what sort of a performance
boost we get with the 80 series going from the 3080 to the 4080.
To find out the differences I’ve compared all three graphics cards in this test system.
It’s got Intel’s Core i9-13900K CPU and 32 gigs of DDR5-6000 CL30 memory.
The latest version of Windows 11 22H2 was used with core isolation off, and the same
Nvidia drivers were used with resizable BAR enabled.
Alright let’s get straight into the 20 game comparison at 3 different resolutions!
After the game benchmarks we’ll check out things like thermals, clock speeds, power
draw, performance per watt and cost per frame to find out which GPU offers the best value.
Let’s start out with Cyberpunk 2077, no ray tracing or DLSS here, but we’ll check
those out next.
I’ve got the 1080p results down the bottom, 1440p in the middle, and 4K up the top, with
three GPUs tested from lowest down the bottom to highest up the top within each resolution.
Despite the RTX 3090 costing more money, the newer 4080 had a clear lead at all three resolutions,
and was 50% faster compared to the 3080 in all cases.
Performance lowers a bit with the ray tracing ultra preset enabled, even with DLSS set to
quality mode.
Frame rates could of course be further improved by running with a lower DLSS mode though.
The 4080 was 32% ahead of the 3090 at 4K, 41% ahead at 1440p, and 35% ahead at 1080p.
Compared to the 3080 though, the 4080 had a larger 53% lead.
Speaking of Ray Tracing, Metro Exodus Enhanced enables ray tracing with the extreme setting
preset.
This might in part be why this game had some of the biggest gains with the RTX 4080 out
of all 20 games tested, coming out 36% ahead of the 3090 at 4K, and 62% ahead of the 3080.
Apex Legends was hitting the 300 FPS frame cap at the lower 1080p resolution with the
RTX 4080, even with all settings maxed out, so although it’s 49% ahead of the 3080 and
29% ahead of the 3090 here, it probably could have been more if the game didn’t have this
limit.
The 4080 would even do well with a 4K high refresh screen here, though the 22% FPS boost
over the 3090 is actually one of the smaller differences out of all 20 games tested.
It’s not all big gains for the RTX 4080.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered was reaching about the same frame rates on all three graphics
cards at the lower 1080p resolution.
Even with our top-end i9-13900K we’re CPU limited at this lower resolution.
1440p and above are better able to put the GPUs to work, though again the differences
we’re seeing here are some of the lowest out of our 20 game selection.
Microsoft Flight Simulator also saw basically no difference between the three GPUs at the
lower 1080p resolution, and even at 1440p the 3090 and 4080 were still very close together.
At 4K though the 4080 had a large 58% lead over the 3080, and a 35% lead over the 3090,
which was the third biggest improvement out of the 20 games tested.
Basically in these more CPU heavy games, you really need to be running at higher resolutions
for the higher tier GPUs to stretch their legs.
DOOM Eternal on the other hand had huge differences with the 4080 at 1080p.
The 4080 was 40% faster compared to the 3090 here, which was the biggest increase at this
resolution out of all 20 games tested.
Even the dips in performance, as measured by the 1% lows, were higher than the average
FPS coming out of the 3090 at all three resolutions.
Compared to the 3080, the 4080 was 60% faster, the second biggest difference at this resolution
between these two 80 series GPUs.
The 4080 was 44% faster than the 3080 at 1440p in Fortnite at max settings, and 27% ahead
of the more expensive 3090, though all three GPUs could boost frame rates even higher simply
by turning on DLSS.
Halo Infinite typically had above average gains with the 4080 compared to the rest of
the 19 games, with the 4080 reaching a 55% higher average frame rate compared to the
3080 at 4K, and 33% higher compared to the 3090.
Don’t forget that the 3090 actually costs more money at the time of the 4080's launch,
so it will be interesting to see if 3090 prices drop accordingly.
You can check current prices with the links below the video.
Forza Horizon 5 was also around 33% faster at 4K with the 4080 when compared to the 3090,
while the 4080 was 51% ahead of the 3080.
Although a 50% performance boost with the 4080 sounds great compared to the older 3080,
you’ve got to pay 62% more money to get it.
F1 2021 is another racing game, and the 4080 was even further ahead of the 3080 at 4K in
this one with a larger 55% lead in average FPS, and a 31% lead when compared to the more
expensive 3090.
Red Dead Redemption 2 also had nice improvements with the 4080.
The 3080 and 3090 results look much closer together with the 4080 notably in the lead.
Despite how things look, at 1440p the 4080 was just 40% ahead of the 3080, a below average
lead out of the 20 games tested.
Dying Light 2 seems to be quite GPU heavy, even at the lower 1080p resolution the 4080
had a 55% lead over the 3080, and was 33% ahead of the 3090, above average gains.
Borderlands 3 was still around 60 FPS at max settings 4K on the RTX 3080, but the 4080
was reaching a 45% higher average frame rate, though interestingly it had a higher 55% lead
at the lower 1080p resolution.
In most games, the differences at lower resolutions is lower, but that’s not the case here.
The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla results just made me want to stop testing for this video
and play the game, I still haven’t finished the last DLC, and playing at 4K max settings
would still get me 100 FPS, a 46% lead over the 3080 I’ve been playing on.
God of War had a slightly higher 1% low on the 3090 at 1440p for some reason.
I retested both the 3090 and 4080 to double check this but got the same result, so not
too sure what the deal was there as this is the only game out of the 20 where it was happening.
In Rainbow Six Extraction the 3090 was only 15% faster compared to the 3080 at 1440p,
not so nice when you consider that it costs around 69% more money.
The 4080 on the other hand was 46% faster while costing around 62% more money, a somewhat
better deal.
Watch Dogs Legion was still around 60 FPS at max settings 4K on both 30 series GPUs,
but even the 4080’s 1% lows were higher than the average FPS from the older cards,
so a much more stable experience with the 4080.
Far Cry 6 was another of those games that only had small differences at the lower 1080p
resolution, but it’s not as if these GPUs are designed for 1080p gaming.
At 4K the 4080 was 22% ahead of the 3090, and 39% ahead of the 3080, which were still
well below average differences as this game seems more CPU dependent.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the game’s benchmark, which is free if you
want to compare to your own setup.
The 4080 was 39% ahead of the 3090 at 1440p, and 59% ahead of the 3080, one of the bigger
differences out of all games tested.
Last game before we get into the good stuff, so it's time to wake up if you've been falling
asleep.
The Witcher 3 was tested with the highest ultra setting preset, and as another older
game these modern GPUs are able to run very well.
Even the 3080 was well above 100 FPS at 4K max settings, though the 4080 was 46% faster.
On average over all 20 games tested, at 4K the RTX 4080 was 48% faster compared to the
RTX 3080 from last gen.
As we can see results really vary and depend on the specific game.
Games like Red Dead Redemption 2 had some of the smallest improvements with the 4080,
while others like Doom Eternal and Metro Exodus Enhanced did the best on the 4080.
Stepping down to the lower 1440p resolution and the RTX 4080 still had a similar 47% lead
over the RTX 3080.
Usually we start seeing smaller differences at lower resolutions, as higher resolutions
tend to be more GPU bound, so I thought it was interesting that the 4080 was a similar
amount better than the 3080 in our 20 game test at 1440p as well.
The performance gap does get a bit smaller at the lower 1080p resolution for this reason
though, with the 4080 now around 39% faster compared to the 3080.
Some of the CPU heavy games like Flight Simulator and Spiderman had basically no real improvements
with the 4080, but then again I doubt most people are looking to buy these expensive
GPUs for 1080p gaming anyway.
If we instead compare the 4080 against the 3090, at 4K we’re looking at the 4080 coming
in 28% faster in our same 20 game selection.
Again don’t forget that right now at the time of the 4080 launch, the 3090 does cost
more money, and considering the 4080 is performing better, I can only imagine that it won’t
be long before the 3090 price drops accordingly.
Again you can check current prices with the links below the video.
At 1440p the 4080 still had the same 28% lead over the 3090, just like at 4K.
Again the most CPU heavy games like Flight Simulator and Spiderman had the smallest gains
with the 4080 here, while others like DOOM were up to 40% faster.
The 4080 was 25% ahead of the 3090 at the lower 1080p resolution, again with the CPU
heavier games seeing an even smaller difference now, though best case DOOM was still 40% faster
with the 4080, with all the other results lying somewhere in between.
Here’s how frame rates look if we instead take the average of all 20 games at all resolutions.
I think this better allows us to visually see how much better the 4080 is.
The 3080 and 3090 are much closer together, while the gap between the 3090 and 4080 is
visually higher.
Once we factor in price, an important thing to do as these don't grow on the GPU tree,
the RTX 3080 actually ends up being the best in terms of value.
Yeah it performed the lowest out of these three options, but it’s also quite a bit
cheaper compared to the others too.
That said, the RTX 4080 wasn’t that far behind.
The 4080 does cost quite a bit more, but it also performs quite a bit better compared
to the 3080 too, making it more worthwhile when compared to the 3090, as the 3090 was
always performing worse than the 4080 despite costing more money.
The PC with the 3090 installed was also drawing the most power from the wall in Cyberpunk
2077 at 4K ultra settings.
The newer 4080 was using around 4% more power compared to the 3080, but the 4080 was able
to deliver a 28% higher average frame rate, which was actually the smallest difference
out of the 20 games tested.
This results in the newer RTX 4080 being best in terms of performance per watt, with the
3080 and 3090 being very close together.
The 4080 does use more power than the 3080, but the 4080 ends up being more power efficient
compared to the 3080 as the performance gap is so much bigger.
Of course the 4080 is also more efficient than the 3090, that’s no surprise as the
3090 was both using more power while also performing worse in games.
As we expected from the spec sheet, the 4080 is clocking much higher compared to the 3080
and 3090 in this game as well, which is no doubt part of what contributes to it performing
so much better.
The 3090 does have more CUDA cores, but the 4080’s clock higher and are on a smaller
process.
We can’t really fairly compare thermals because I’ve got Nvidia’s founders edition
for the 3080, MSI’s Gaming X Trio for the 3090, and MSI’s Suprim X for the 4080, so
they’ve all got different coolers, with the 4080 being far bigger than the rest.
With that in mind, here are the temperature results for completeness.
The RTX 4080 was actually running the coolest, but it’s hard to say how much of that is
due to the super massive cooler.
Don’t get me wrong, the RTX 3090 is still absolutely a great GPU for gaming, but it
just doesn’t make sense to buy at the time of the cheaper 4080 launching.
It’s going to be really interesting to see how the launch of the 4080 affects 3090 pricing,
as the 3090 is going to have to come down quite a bit in order to stay competitive against
the 4080.
Of course assuming that the 4080 stays in stock at reasonable prices, which is yet to
be seen.
Now the 3090 does of course still have other benefits, like its 50% higher VRAM capacity,
and while this might be more beneficial in non-gaming workloads, in the 20 games tested
here, it didn’t really seem to matter because the 4080 was still coming out in front in
AAA games at max settings 4K.
So basically unless the price of the 3090 drops by a few hundred dollars, the 4080 just
makes more sense.
The 3080 does still offer better value compared to both the 4080 and 3090, and it still performs
quite well in games.
So it’s really going to depend whether or not you’ve got the budget for an extra $500
or so to get a 3090 or 4080.
Now the RTX 4080 also introduces DLSS 3 support, which in theory should give a further performance
boost compared to older DLSS 2 alternatives.
Unfortunately DLSS 3 will not be supported on the RTX 30 series, so the only way to use
DLSS 3 is with RTX 40.
As DLSS 3 is still early days and it’s still rolling out in games, I haven’t tested it
for this video, but you can check out this excellent video by Hardware Unboxed where
they’ve analyzed both performance and visual quality with DLSS 3.
Otherwise you can find out how much better Nvidia’s top-end RTX 4090 graphics card
is compared to the best from last gen in this one, so I’ll see you over in one of those
videos next!