Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition Review

Nvidia is two for two with the successful launch of the RTX 4070 SUPER and RTX 4070 Ti SUPER graphics cards as both cards present an excellent upgrade option for users paired with an attractive price point. We finally have the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition, the most powerful RTX 40 SUPER series card featuring a 5% core-count increase over the RTX 4080 at a way lower price point coming from Php 84,200 down to Php 69,300.

Nvidia RTX 40 SERIES SPECS

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

The RTX 4080 SUPER despite being the most powerful in the RTX 40 SUPER series, actually has the least improvements over its non-super counterpart. Compared to the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s and RTX 4070 SUPER’s 10% and 20% core count increase over their non-super counterparts, the RTX 4080 SUPER only has a 5% increase over the RTX 4080. However, the RTX 4080 SUPER sports the largest “discount” over its non-super counterpart at an 18% discount compared to the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 12.4% discount.

Nvidia RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition – Unboxing and Overview

Like the RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition, the RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition features a darker shade packaging to distinguish the card from its non-super counterpart. Apart from this color change, there’s no noticeable change in packaging design.

Again, like the RTX 4070 SUPER, the RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition has dark metallic finish on the hourglass body that accents the all-black design of the GPU. Seeing it in this large size makes it feel much more premium as opposed to the two-slot form factor of the RTX 4070 SUPER.

The side shows the same black treatment as the RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition. Like the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 FE, the RTX 4080 SUPER FE’s GEFORCE RTX logo lights up.

The full coverage backplate has a contract black-on-black design to highlight the hourglass design with a glossy finish.

The RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition sports the standard port configuration with three Display Port 1.4a ports, and one HDMI 2.1 port.

The RTX 4080 SUPER sports Founders Edition cooler found on the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 Founders Edition GPUs measuring at 304 x 137 x 61 mm.

Like the RTX 4080 FE and RTX 4090 FE, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition has lighting on the center X side of the hourglass as well as the GEFORCE RTX logo.

Benchmark Setup and Test Methodology

Gadget Pilipinas’ testing philosophy is to provide detail-oriented results as accurately as possible so that our readers can replicate our tests given that these conditions are met. Different benchmarking apps and sequences are used depending on the component or device being tested.

We use CapFrameX 1.7.2 Beta as our primary FPS capture and analysis tool for all our gaming benchmarks. The latest build version of Windows 11 Pro and WHQL-certified drivers are used for our benchmarks. Readings such as temperatures and power draws are recorded using HWINFO64, and other relevant software for cross-checking.

For more information read our Benchmark Methodology article.

Nvidia RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition Synthetic and Productivity Benchmarks

3DMark Firestrike and TimeSpy

3DMark is the go-to benchmark for gamers because of the ability to share and compare results online. We test GPUs both in DX11 Firestike and DX12 Timespy to get a gauge of the performance.

Blender

Blender is a widely used, free, open-source 3D creation suite. It supports the whole 3D pipeline process from modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, and even motion tracking. Blender has become a standard for CPU benchmarks with the BMW27 and Classroom Scene most used. This prompted the company to release Blender Open Data Benchmark in 2018, a benchmark-specific version allowing users to run a preset benchmark and share the results online like 3DMark.

VRAY 5

V-Ray Benchmark is a stand-alone version of V-Ray developed by Chaos Group. It is designed to test the CPU and GPU by rendering sample scenes at a fixed amount of time. V-Ray is a plug-in mostly utilized by 3D computer graphics software applications mainly for industrial design, product design, architecture, film, and video game production. V-Ray is not limited to 64-threads as it supports multi and mega-threading. 

GeekBench 6.2.2

Geekbench is a multi-platform benchmark used to gauge CPU performance and compare them across Windows, Mac, and Mobile. Geekbench 6 is the latest version and test are done in both OpenCL and Vulkan to gauge a CPU’s compute performance.

CINEBENCH 2024

Maxon’s Cinebench benchmark is one of the most iconic benchmark applications used by reviewers and enthusiasts. The latest Cinebench 2024 now supports GPU rendering benchmarks which is why added Cinebench 2024 in our GPU benchmark suite.

Nvidia RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition Gaming Benchmarks

RETURNAL

Returnal is one of the most technologically advanced game since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Released last April 2021 on PS5 and February 2023 on PC, it uses Unreal Engine 4 and supports multiple technologies such as Ray Tracing, DLSS, VSR, and FSR.

COUNTERSTRIKE 2

CounterStrike 2 or CS2 is a the successor to the now retired CSGO and now uses the Source 2 Engine – the same engine used on DOTA 2. CS2 is a great FPS game to test out CPU performance. Our benchmark process uses a the replay function of the game.

DOTA 2

Dota 2 is a good repesentation among F2P titles especially MOBAs and RTS as it lands on the demanding side of the spectrum. Its gameplay and quality of life updates are far more frequently than most F2P titles thanks to its vast popularity. Our benchmark sequence is based on a replay of OG vs. Gaimin Gladiators in the ESL ONE Berlin Major Finals Game 4 from the team fight that happened from 23:00 to 24:00. 

SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony is one of the most popular PC port titles last 2022. It’s one of the few modern game titles that support upscaling technologies FSR, DLSS, and XeSS making it a great title to use for benchmarks.

F1 23

F1 23 is the official video game of the 2023 Formula One and Formula 2 championships developed by Codemasters. F1 2023 is the sixteenth installment in the franchise and uses the Ego Engine 4.0. F1 233 is a good representation of racing games thanks to its realistic graphics and fairly demanding spec requirements as well as support for Ray Tracing and the latest upscaling technologies such as DLSS, XeSS, and FSR.

ASSASSIN’S CREED: MIRAGE

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the latest Assassin’s Creed game from Ubisoft making it the thirteenth major installment in the franchise. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 game engine and is the very first AC game to support the latest upscaling technology such as XeSS, FSR, and DLSS.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably the most hyped game of 2020. Developed by CD Projekt Red, the dystopian open-world, action-adventure RPG sports is one of the most demanding titles to date. Cyberpunk 2077 also supports three Ray Tracing settings as well as DLSS which makes the game a great tool to measure Ray tracing performance for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE

The latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise is a sequel to the much-loved Modern Warfare game that launched in 2019. Call of Duty Modern Warfare II is one of the most demanding titles to date, pushing the latest hardware from Intel, AMD, and Nvidia. CODMW2 is one of the few games that comes with the DLSS feature without Ray Tracing.

Far Cry 6

FarCry 6 is an FPS game published by Ubisoft and uses the Dunia engine. It heavily relies on and takes advantage of DirectX 12 to render a realistic environment that makes it taxing to both the CPU and GPU. It’s also the first game of the franchise to support Ray Tracing.

Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Seige is one of the few popular AAA games that’s still popular in 2021 due to its competitive gameplay mechanics. R6S uses the AnvilNext game engine, which the game’s publisher, Ubisoft, developed. As of writing, Rainbow Six Siege is currently the most popular Tom Clancy title beating out Wildlands, Breakpoint, and even Division 2.

Shadow of The Tomb Raider

Shadow of The Tomb Raider or SOTR is the latest installment of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider franchise. Developed by Square Enix, SOTR uses the Foundation engine and is further enhanced by Eidos Montreal. SOTR is also one of the first games to come out with Ray Tracing and DLSS support.

Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus is the third Metro game trilogy based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels. The game is a first-person shooter with survival horror and stealth elements. The post-apocalyptic game uses 4A Engine by 4A games. Released last 2019, Metro Exodus remains to be one of the most graphically pleasing and demanding games that’s popular to date.

HORIZON ZERO DAWN

Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the most popular console-port RPG developed by Guerilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action RPG, and its popularity resulted in an exclusive Complete Edition game bundle on Steam.

Nvidia RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition Temperatures and Power Draw

Nvidia’s Founders Edition flowthrough cooler proves yet again to be one of the best cooling designs in the market as our RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition only peaked at 64.5°C. Beating the much larger AERO OC model from Gigabyte and veering close to the very premium ROG Strix variant.

The RTX 4080 SUPER FE’s max power draw was recorded at 309.878 watts which is well under the 320W rated TGP.

Performance Summary Conclusion

Seeing the most powerful RTX 40 SUPER series GPU yield an almost negligible performance improvement over the RTX 4080 is somewhat disappointing, especially with the gains we’ve seen in both the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER and RTX 4070 SUPER. The performance improvements can be seen with much higher 1% framerates despite the RTX 4080 clocking in higher framerates at times though it’s worth noting that the RTX 4080 in our testbench is an OC model, the flagship variant from Aorus. There’s also Ray Tracing and DLSS where the 5% Tensor and RT cores show a more tangible improvement.

However, it’s not to say that the RTX 4080 SUPER is a bad GPU, as on paper, it still has 5% more cores with a 17% discount over the outgoing RTX 4080. At Php 69,300 you’re still technically getting more for way less but not enough for most people to upgrade to especially for those already rocking in 80 or 90-class RTX 30 series GPUs, heck even those with an RTX 4070 Ti. Moreover, at this price point, it also undercuts the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX with a more robust feature set, especially if you’re into Ray Tracing, DLSS, and DLFG.

That said, like the RTX 4080 and with what we stated in last year’s review, the RTX 4080 SUPER presents a more practical upgrade option for those not wanting to shell six digits for a top-of-the-line graphics card. The RTX 4080 SUPER enables 4K gaming at a relatively lower cost with improved RTX and AI capabilities such as Ray Tracing & DLSS compared to the RTX 4080. So, if you’re looking for a powerful graphics card that can do practically anything without paying an absurd premium like the RTX 4090 and without losing on essential RTX and AI-related features(unlike Team Red’s offering) then the RTX 4080 SUPER is a more pragmatic approach on your next GPU upgrade.

Grant Soriano

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Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.