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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB: Power for Gamers and Professionals

April 2025

The modern graphics card market demands a balance between performance, energy efficiency, and support for cutting-edge technologies. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB, introduced in late 2023, remains relevant even after a year and a half due to architectural innovations and optimizations. Let's explore who this model is suited for and what advantages it offers.

Architecture and Key Features

Ada Lovelace: Evolution of Computing

The RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured using TSMC's 4nm process. This provides a higher transistor density (45.9 billion) and energy efficiency. Key features include:

- 4th Generation CUDA Cores: 30% higher performance per watt compared to Ampere.

- Ray Tracing 3.0: Accelerated RT cores process complex lighting effects in games like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and Alan Wake 2.

- DLSS 4: AI scaling with support for frame generation and enhanced upscaling up to 8K.

- Reflex and Broadcast: Reduced latency in esports games and improved streaming quality.

Support for AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 adds flexibility for optimizing FPS in cross-platform projects.

Memory: Speed and Capacity

GDDR6X: Faster Than Ever

The card is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 256-bit bus. The bandwidth is 716.8 GB/s (23 Gbps), which is 15% higher than the RTX 3080 Ti. This enables:

- Loading high-detail textures in 4K without stuttering.

- Processing complex scenes in 3D rendering (Blender, Maya).

- Using VR applications without compromises.

For most games, 16 GB is a future-proof reserve, especially considering the rising demands of AAA titles.

Gaming Performance: 4K Without Compromises

Real Numbers (Tests from April 2025):

- Cyberpunk 2077 (4K, Ultra + RT Overdrive): 68 FPS with DLSS 4 and 24 FPS without it.

- GTA VI (1440p, Ultra): 94 FPS in Performance DLSS mode.

- Horizon Forbidden West (4K, Ultra): 82 FPS with FSR 3.

- Starfield: Shattered Space (1440p, RT High): 78 FPS.

The card manages 4K/60 FPS in most games when DLSS/FSR is activated. For 1080p, it is excessive but perfect for monitors with refresh rates of 144+ Hz.

Professional Tasks: Not Just Gaming

CUDA and OpenCL: Speeding Up Workflows

- Video Editing: In Adobe Premiere Pro, rendering an 8K project is reduced by 40% compared to the RTX 3080.

- 3D Rendering: In Blender, the rendering cycle of a BMW scene takes 2.1 minutes versus 3.8 for the previous generation.

- Machine Learning: Support for TensorFlow/PyTorch and CUDA 12.3 libraries speeds up neural network training.

16 GB of memory is sufficient for working with large datasets and 3D models, but for heavy simulations (e.g., in ANSYS), it’s better to consider the RTX 4090.

Power Consumption and Heat Generation

TDP 320W: System Requirements

- Power Supply: Minimum 750W (recommended 850W with an 80+ Gold certification).

- Cooling: Three-fan coolers (ASUS TUF, MSI Trio) keep temperatures below 70°C under load.

- Case: Choose models with ventilation on the front panel (Lian Li Lancool III, Fractal Design Meshify 2).

The card is compatible with PCIe 5.0, but also works on PCIe 4.0 without performance losses.

Comparison with Competitors

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (24 GB)

- Pros: More memory (+8 GB), lower price ($899).

- Cons: Weaker in ray tracing (25-30% lower performance in Cyberpunk 2077), no equivalent to DLSS 4.

NVIDIA RTX 4090 (24 GB)

- Pros: +35% performance in 4K.

- Cons: Price starting from $1599, TDP 450W.

The RTX 4080 occupies a niche between high-end and budget solutions, offering an optimal balance.

Practical Tips

1. Power Supply: Don’t skimp — Corsair RM850x or Be Quiet! Dark Power 13.

2. Compatibility: Check the length of the graphics card (up to 340 mm) and the availability of the 12VHPWR connector.

3. Drivers: Regularly update GeForce Experience — optimizations for new games are released monthly.

Pros and Cons

✅ Pros:

- Highest performance in 4K.

- Support for DLSS 4 and improved Ray Tracing.

- Versatility for both gaming and work.

❌ Cons:

- Price starting at $1099 (reference models).

- High power consumption.

- Limited gains in 1080p.

Final Conclusion: Who is the RTX 4080 For?

This graphics card is ideal for those who:

- Play in 4K and want maximum FPS with ultra settings.

- Engage in 3D rendering or editing but are not willing to overpay for the RTX 4090.

- Plan to upgrade in the next 3-4 years without changing the GPU.

If your budget is limited to $1000 and ray tracing is not a priority, consider the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT. However, for fans of NVIDIA technology and out-of-the-box quality, the RTX 4080 remains an uncompromising choice.

Prices are accurate as of April 2025. Check for promotions from official resellers before purchase.

Basic

Label Name

NVIDIA

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

September 2022

Model Name

GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB

Generation

GeForce 40

Base Clock

2205MHz

Boost Clock

2505MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 4.0 x16

Transistors

45,900 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.

304

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.

304

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

4 nm

Architecture

Ada Lovelace

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

16GB

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.

256bit

Memory Clock

1400MHz

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.

716.8 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.

280.6 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.

761.5 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.

48.74 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.

761.5 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.

49.715 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.

9728

L1 Cache

128 KB (per SM)

L2 Cache

64MB

TDP

320W

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.

112

Suggested PSU

700W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

49.715 TFLOPS

3DMark Time Spy

Score

28190

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

H100 PCIe 96 GB

63.322 +27.4%

RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell

53.841 +8.3%

GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB

49.715

Data Center GPU Max 1350

45.329 -8.8%

RTX 4500 Ada Generation

40.423 -18.7%

3DMark Time Spy

GeForce RTX 4090

36233 +28.5%

GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB

28190

GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Mobile

11589 -58.9%

GeForce RTX 2070

9097 -67.7%

GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Max Q

7333 -74%