NVIDIA RTX 4080 vs RTX 3080: How do the specifications and expected performance compare to last-gen?

One of the latest graphics cards to be announced as a part of the ongoing GTC 22 event, RTX 4080, is a direct successor to the successful last-gen RTX 3080 and will be available in two price variants depending on the memory capacity. The latest generation of GPUs from NVIDIA promises a lot through its powerful features.

RTX 3080, on the other hand, isn't out of the picture just yet. It is still a worthy video card for those looking for a steal deal and who aren't too enthusiastic about grabbing the best-in-class graphics cards.

The long-standing supply chain turmoil has finally come to an end, leaving NVIDIA with more graphics cards to sell than ever. While previously announced GTX and RTX cards are now readily available at a fair price, many may choose to wait for the RTX 40 series, slated to enter the market in November.

Below is an informative comparison between the RTX 3080 and RTX 4080 based on their revealed specifications, price points, and more.

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Will NVIDIA RTX 4080 deliver better performance over the much-loved last-gen RTX 3080 video card?

RTX 3080 is a clear winner on the aspect of price points. Initially released in 2020, the game-changing video card is now available at $699 (12GB) for the Founder's Edition. While it may not come with the much-hyped Ada Lovelace Architecture and DLSS 3 support, RTX 3080 is still the beast it used to be.

RTX 3080 was a revolutionary addition to the NVIDIA family at its release. Based on Ampere Architecture, it comes with a significant boost in performance over its Turing-based predecessors, especially for 4K gaming and ray tracing.

In comparison, RTX 4080's announced rate is $1199.00 for 16GB and $899 for 12GB but offers much more than the aforementioned powerhouse from NVIDIA.

RTX 4080 will run on the new Ada Lovelace Architecture, offering new streaming multi-processors, fourth-gen tensor cores, and third-gen RT cores. It promises two times the performance, including AI and ray tracing, as well as efficiency over other graphics cards. RTX 4080 is reportedly 1.5 times faster than the 'Ti' version of RTX 3080.

RTX 4080 also comes with DLSS 3, the newest version of the frame-boosting prodigy concept from NVIDIA. In simple terms, DLSS utilizes AI to boost the frames one receives while in-game.

DLSS 3 is powered by fourth-gen Tensor Cores and Optical Flow Accelerator, making it much more efficient in sampling frames from low-resolution inputs than DLSS 2.

NVIDIA took three of the most hardware-demanding video games as examples to compare the performance of RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 4080. As showcased in the video above, RTX 4080 offers more than twice the performance for Cyberpunk 2077 than RTX 3080 Ti. Similarly, Warhammer and Microsoft Flight Simulator ran almost twice as smoothly.

Here's a detailed comparison between the two video cards:

	NVIDIA RTX 3080 (10/12GB)	NVIDIA RTX 4080 (12/16GB)
Architecture	Ampere	Ada Lovelace
Price	$699 (12GB) / $649 (10GB)	$899 (12GB) / $1199 (16GB)
NVIDIA CUDA Cores	8704 / 8960	7680/9728
Ray Tracing Cores	2nd Generation	3rd Generation
Tensor Cores	3rd Generation	4th Generation
DLSS	2	3
Reflex	Yes	Yes
Broadcast	Yes	Yes
Power	320/350	285/320

NVIDIA also showcased Cyberpunk 2077's gameplay reaching 107 frames with DLSS 3 and ray tracing enabled. Hence, 4080 will definitely offer a tremendous performance boost and is worth the buy for those hungry for frames in graphics-intensive games.

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Conclusion

NVIDIA is presently delivering decent options for all kinds of gamers and creators. The RTX 40 series is yet to hit the market; hence, those looking for an immediate upgrade may find RTX 3080 (or the Ti) a better option. It is also almost $200 cheaper, and those looking for an overclocked version can also get favorable deals.

That said, ones preferring monstrous graphical performance in video games and don't mind spending the extra bucks should wait for the 4080 card to drop. It offers a great deal of advantages for livestreaming and content creation, alongside improved features like Reflex and additional tool support.