It’s that time of the year again, and Nvidia launched its new “budget” graphics card: GeForce RTX 4080. With the “Ada-Lovelace” architecture, Nvidia promises that gamers and creators will experience up to 2x the performance of its last predecessor. This is the second graphics card that comes with the Ada-Lovelace architecture apart from the “world’s fastest graphics card” title holder: GeForce RTX 4090. Yeah, the hype is real, and can the 4080 cards dethrone its last predecessor, GeForce RTX 3080 and even 3080ti? Let’s take a look at the new kid in the “graphics” town and see what it offers! Related Reads:
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Performance! Performance! of Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080:
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 packing with specs, which you can find it below: In their keynote, Nvidia said that RTX 4080 is performing 2x of RTX 3080ti with the gameplay performance of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Warhammer 40k: Darktide, and last but not least, Cyberpunk 2077. They said the performance data was captured at 4K, the highest game setting with Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) performance mode. Now the card is out to end-users, is the Nvidia 4080 card creating that much difference between the new-gen and the “last” gen 30-series cards? Various reviewers at the time of writing this blog gave their thoughts on the actual performance of the card. What Nvidia said is true. It does perform well on said settings, but the issue here is that the difference between the “last” gen cards and the “new” gen card is very thin. So, what if you decided to buy one for your gaming rig? What are all the things that you need to look for?
Things to Look for if You Are in the Market for GPU Upgrade:
First, the card is big. I mean big with a capital B! The card length is 340 mm, and the width is 137 mm. If you are an ITX PC user, then you are out of luck, or you have to go for the bigger PC housing. That is the first thing to note. The high-end card comes with a new 12-pin PCIe Gen 5 power connector, which can receive 600 W power from your Power Supply Unit (PSU) over a single connector. So, the second thing to note is that if you are upgrading from the last-gen card to an Nvidia 4080 card, you should look for a new PSU with a 6+2 configuration or get a cable with the same configuration. But, going with the new PSU with more power capacity, like the 850W Gold rating, is the best choice since the 40-series card likes to drink a lot of juice. The third thing you need to look for is the models. There are about 14 models from manufacturers such as Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, Zotac, and PNY. These models come in various sizes and have certain functions, such as cooling infrastructure, several fans, and over-clocking status (whether the card is overclocked or not). You can check it by seeing the “OC” word in the card’s name. If OC is present, then it is overclocked. The fourth factor is the motherboard. Even though the latest and greatest 40-series card comes with PCIe 4.0, it is better to check if your motherboard has the capacity to draw most of the power from the 4080 cards. If you are upgrading from a 30 series card, then you are on the safer side. But if you are from 20, or even 10-series cards, it is a no-brainer to go for the best motherboard that supports PCIe. Our choice would be either:
ASROCK Z690 PG Riptide Socket LGA1700/ Motherboard (Cheaper) (Intel) MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK Gaming Motherboard (Cheaper) (AMD)
The final factor is CPU. You might know why I would change my CPU. There is a reason for that. Nvidia put out one of the most powerful graphics cards ever made. If you have a low-performance CPU that simply cannot catch up to the 4080 cards, it will start to bottleneck. This can lead to some serious issues, such as low performance, considerable frame rate drops during gameplay, and even making a small video in full HD, or even 2K, can take a long time to load. So, if you have money saved from motherboard purchases, investing in a CPU is a good idea. Choosing the CPU for the right motherboard is another whole new topic. But for now, the best option suitable for the 4080 series are these below:
Intel i5- 13600k (Best Budget-friendly CPU) (14 cores and 20 threads) AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (8 cores and 16 threads)
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Cost to Performance Ratio:
At launch, the MSRP of the GeForce RTX 3080 was USD 699. At that price-to-performance ratio, users were baffled by how Nvidia achieved this. It’s all thanks to its Ampere architecture and DLSS technology. Nvidia said that the MSRP of GeForce RTX 4080 was twice the amount of the original MSRP of 3080, which is a whopping USD 1199. Don’t get me wrong. Nvidia’s new RTX 4080 is truly a “piece of art,” but it is very difficult to move from 30 series cards at that price point. Also, we have to consider the DLSS 3 effect on the performance. Even though there are not a lot of game titles that support DLSS 3, eventually, all will. Enabling it gives a great boost to the performance at the base clock speed at 30-series cards.
Final Thoughts
Yes, the RTX 40-series is the best in the class, and the 4080 is the second-fastest card in the world right now, but it is not necessary to jump to the 40-series train yet. Considering the cost-to-performance ratio, the generational leap you are looking for is simply not worth the price. For 4K gaming, 3080 and 3080ti will DLSS is still perfect. If you want to experience the “next-gen,” it is better to go with GeForce RTX 4090 or wait until there is a big sale or price drop. Suggested Reads:
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