NVIDIA has released the first official performance figures of its RTX 4080 lineup. Unlike previous generations, the x80 Ada family is composed of two very different SKUs, misleadingly distinguished using their memory buffers. The 12GB variant is based on the AD104 die, which we all thought would power the RTX 4070, while the 16GB model features the AD103 die.
| GPU | GeForce RTX 4090 | GeForce RTX 4080 16G | RTX 4070 | GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Name | AD102 | AD103 | AD104 | AD104 | GA102 |
| SMs | 128 | 76 | 60 | 46 | 80 |
| FP32 Cores | 16384 | 9728 | 7680 | 5888 | 10240 |
| TMUs/ROPs | 512 / 176 | 320 / 112 | 240 / 80 | 184/64 | 320 / 112 |
| Tensor/RT Cores | 512 / 128 | 304 / 76 | 240 / 60 | 184/46 | 320 / 80 |
| Base Clock | 2230 MHz | 2210 MHz | 2310 MHz | 1365 MHz | |
| Boost Clock | 2520 MHz | 2510 MHz | 2610 MHz | 1665 MHz | |
| Memory Buffer | 24 GB G6X | 16 GB G6X | 12 GB G6X | 12GB G6X | 24 GB G6X |
| Bus | 384-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Speed | 21Gbps | 23Gbps | 21Gbps | 21Gbps | 19Gbps |
| Bandwidth | 1008 GB/s | 736 GB/s | 504 GB/s | 504GB/s | 912 Gbps |
| L2 Cache | 72MB | 64MB | 48MB | 36MB | 6MB |
| TBP | 450W | 320W | 285W | 250W | 350W |
| MSRP | $1599 | $1199 | $899 | $649? | $1199 |
| Launch | Oct 2022 | Nov 2022 | 5th Jan 2023 | 3rd June 2021 |
The difference in memory buffers won’t affect real-world gaming performance by much. However, the differing core counts, bus widths, and the cache will nudge the 12GB SKU closer to the RTX 3080, essentially making it the successor to the 3070. NVIDIA’s official benchmarks show the RTX 3090 Ti beating the RTX 4080 12GB at native in all three titles. And you can be sure that these are cherry-picked examples showing the average, if not peak, raster gains.
The deltas between the two variants of the RTX 4080 are also rather glaring. The 16GB model is 23-28% faster than its twin in most cases, with DLSS 3 bringing it closer to 20%. There’s also a sizable deficit between the capabilities of the RTX 4090 and 4080 16GB. In some cases like Plague Tale Requiem, the former is nearly 2x faster at native, and 37% with DLSS 3 enabled.
We’ve never seen such a large deficit between the x80 and x90 offerings of a given GeForce family. With a price tag of $1,199, this makes the RTX 4080 16GB look like an even worse deal than its 12GB sibling. At $899, the cheaper variant offers a marginal improvement over the $699 RTX 3080, while the other barely manages to beat the now roughly $1,000 RTX 3090 Ti. These figures are derived from the frame rates at native resolution without DLSS 3 but let’s face it. You don’t wanna shell out a grand for a couple dozen supported titles.
