Home / NVIDIA / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB: Performance and Specs

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB: A Deep Dive into the Graphics Card for Gamers and Professionals

April 2025

1. Architecture and Key Features

Ada Lovelace Next-Gen Architecture

The RTX 4080 12 GB graphics card is built on an updated version of the Ada Lovelace architecture, which represents an evolutionary step following the RTX 40 series. The chips are manufactured using TSMC's 4nm process, which ensures increased transistor density and energy efficiency.

RTX Technologies, DLSS 4 and Reflex

NVIDIA's main strengths include ray tracing (RTX) and DLSS 4. The latest version of AI scaling enhances detail and frame rate stability even at 8K. In games that support DLSS 4, FPS gains can reach 50-70% compared to native rendering. The Reflex technology reduces input lag to 10-15 ms, which is critical for esports.

Compatibility with FidelityFX Super Resolution

Despite competition from AMD, NVIDIA has integrated support for FSR 3.1 into its drivers. This allows gamers to choose between DLSS and FSR depending on the optimization of a specific game.

2. Memory: Type, Size, and Bandwidth

GDDR6X with a 192-bit Bus

RTX 4080 12 GB uses GDDR6X memory with a speed of 20 Gbps. With a 192-bit bus, the bandwidth reaches 480 GB/s. This is less than that of the RTX 4080 16 GB (512-bit/736 GB/s), which may limit performance in 4K with maximum textures.

Is 12 GB Enough?

For most games in 2025, 12 GB of VRAM is sufficient even at 4K. However, in projects with ultra textures (e.g., Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora or Starfield), there can be stuttering. For professional tasks like rendering 8K video, the memory capacity becomes a bottleneck.

3. Gaming Performance

Average FPS in Popular Titles

- Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (4K, Ultra + RT Overdrive): 48 FPS (native), 78 FPS with DLSS 4.

- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (1440p, Ultra): 144 FPS.

- Horizon Forbidden West PC Edition (4K, Ultra): 65 FPS (DLSS 4 active).

Ray Tracing: The Cost of Realism

Activating RTX reduces FPS by 30-40%, but DLSS 4 compensates for losses. For instance, in Alan Wake 3 with both RTX and DLSS enabled, the frame rate remains stable at 60 FPS in 4K.

Optimal Resolution

The card is ideal for 1440p (240+ FPS in competitive games) and 4K (60-90 FPS in AAA titles). For 1080p, it is overkill, except for streaming at 240 Hz.

4. Professional Tasks

Video Editing and 3D Rendering

With 9,728 CUDA cores, the RTX 4080 12 GB speeds up rendering in Blender by 30% compared to the RTX 3080. In Adobe Premiere Pro, rendering an 8K project takes 8-10 minutes, compared to 15-18 minutes for the previous generation.

Scientific Calculations

The card supports CUDA 9.0 and OpenCL 3.0, making it suitable for machine learning and simulations. However, 12 GB of memory limits work with large neural network models (e.g., Stable Diffusion 4).

5. Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

TDP 320W: Power Requirements

The recommended power supply is 750W with a 12VHPWR connector. For overclocking, it's better to choose an 850W model.

Cooling Systems

The reference design (Founders Edition) uses a dual-chamber cooler with a pair of fans. Under load, temperatures reach: 72-75°C (GPU), 90°C (memory). Custom models (ASUS ROG Strix, MSI Suprim) reduce heating to 65°C thanks to triple fans and larger heatsinks.

Case Recommendation

Choose cases with at least 3 fans (2 for intake, 1 for exhaust). Good options include the Lian Li Lancool III or Fractal Design Meshify 2.

6. Comparison with Competitors

AMD Radeon RX 8800 XT (16 GB GDDR6)

- Pros: More memory, supports FSR 4, priced at $749.

- Cons: Weaker in ray tracing (lagging by 25-30%), lacks a DLSS 4 equivalent.

Intel Arc Battlemage A780

- Pros: Priced at $599, good performance in DX12.

- Cons: Low driver stability, limited RTX support.

NVIDIA RTX 4080 16 GB

- Pros: +4 GB memory, +20% performance.

- Cons: Priced at $1099, overkill for most users.

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply

At least 750W with an 80+ Gold certification. Recommended models: Corsair RM750x, Seasonic Prime GX-750.

Compatibility with Platforms

The card requires PCIe 5.0 x16. There’s no performance loss on motherboards with PCIe 4.0. It supports Resizable BAR for a 5-8% FPS boost.

Drivers

Use Studio Driver for professional applications and Game Ready Driver for gaming. Avoid beta versions—there may be conflicts with DLSS 4.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- High FPS in 1440p/4K with DLSS 4.

- Effective ray tracing.

- Support for professional tasks.

Cons:

- 12 GB of memory is on the edge of comfort for 2025.

- Price of $899 (Founders Edition) is higher than competitors.

9. Final Conclusion

The RTX 4080 12 GB is a choice for those looking for a balance between gaming performance and price. It is suitable for:

- Gamers wanting to play at 4K with DLSS/RTX.

- Content creators working with rendering and editing.

- Enthusiasts upgrading their PCs without overspending for top models.

However, if you are working with 8K video or neural network projects, it’s better to consider the RTX 4090 or the professional RTX A6000 series. In all other cases, the RTX 4080 12 GB remains the optimal solution as of April 2025.

Basic

Label Name

NVIDIA

Platform

Desktop

Model Name

GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB

Generation

GeForce 40

Base Clock

2310MHz

Boost Clock

2610MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 4.0 x16

Transistors

35,800 million

RT Cores

Tensor Cores

Tensor Cores are specialized processing units designed specifically for deep learning, providing higher training and inference performance compared to FP32 training. They enable rapid computations in areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion, and personalized recommendations. The two most notable applications of Tensor Cores are DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AI Denoiser for noise reduction.

240

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

240

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

4 nm

Architecture

Ada Lovelace

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

12GB

Memory Type

GDDR6X

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

192bit

Memory Clock

1313MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

504.2 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

208.8 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

626.4 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

40.09 TFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

626.4 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

39.288 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count

Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

7680

L1 Cache

128 KB (per SM)

L2 Cache

48MB

TDP

285W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

3.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 Ultimate (12_2)

CUDA

8.9

Power Connectors

1x 16-pin

Shader Model

6.6

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

600W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

39.288 TFLOPS

3DMark Time Spy

Score

28395

Blender

Score

9369

OctaneBench

Score

914

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

GeForce RTX 4080

47.765 +21.6%

Instinct MI250

44.355 +12.9%

GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB

39.288

RTX A5500

35.404 -9.9%

RTX 5000 Max-Q Ada Generation

32.036 -18.5%

3DMark Time Spy

GeForce RTX 4090

36233 +27.6%

GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB

28395

GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Mobile

11589 -59.2%

GeForce RTX 2070

9097 -68%

GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Max Q

7333 -74.2%

Blender

GeForce RTX 5090

15026.3 +60.4%

GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB

9369

GeForce RTX 2070

2020.49 -78.4%

Radeon RX 6800S

1064 -88.6%

GeForce GTX 980 Ti

552 -94.1%

OctaneBench

GeForce RTX 4090

1328 +45.3%

GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB

914

Tesla P40

163 -82.2%

Quadro P3200 Max Q

87 -90.5%

GeForce GTX 960

47 -94.9%