ASUS GeForce RTX 4080

Nach Referenz- und Custom-Design-Duellen treten RX 7900 XTX und RTX 4080 mit OC-Taktraten gegeneinander an. AMDs Grafikkarte kann dabei mit großem Aufschlag auf die Leistungsaufnahme etwas mehr zulegen als Nvidias. Überraschend hoch liegt der maximale Takt von Navi 31: 3,5 GHz sind möglich, aber nicht in Spielen.

The RTX 4080 is a real beast when it comes to performance. Whether it’s pure raster performance or ray tracing performance, the RTX 4080 can easily handle these titles without a flinch. Based on the performance numbers we’ve collected, the performance per watt ratio for the RTX 4080 is truly impressive compared to the previous-gen RTX 30 series GPUs and the introduction of the new DLSS 3.0 feature just makes it even better. For the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition, it’s just a tad bit faster right out of the box with some extra performance if you don’t really want to deal with any kind of performance tweaking at all. Though my concern with this card is actually the GPU load temperature and Memory Junction temperature that is higher than the RTX 4080 Founders Edition. It’s not really the alarmingly high temperature you should worry about, but it makes me wonder what is actually going on under that heatsink, as many of us are expecting a better cooling solution on a custom design from the AIC partners. Price-wise, as much as I wanted to have this myself as a die-hard TUF fan, I find the retail price of RM 7,299 is pretty expensive if compared to models from the other AIB partners that lack the premium aesthetics. Don’t get me wrong though, for what it can deliver in both work and gaming, the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition is an excellent card, but the price is just not right at the moment.

Mit den Noctua-Editionen der bisherigen beiden Varianten setzte ASUS in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Kühler-Spezialisten neue Maßstäbe, wenn es um die Kühlung einer Grafikkarte geht. Die ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC Edition soll dies in der aktuellen Generation wiederholen. Im Test wollen wir uns nun genauer anschauen, welche Vorteile die Karte gegenüber den anderen Modellen hat und ob es auch Nachteile gibt.

Nach RTX 3070 und später auch RTX 3080 schickt Asus mit der GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC nun auch eine RTX-4000-Grafikkarte ins Rennen, die mit einem Kühler aus der Kooperation mit und Lüftern von Noctua ausgestattet ist. Das auf einen leisen Betrieb getrimmte Modell trifft auf eine Konkurrenz, die so stark ist wie nie zuvor.

The ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC variant is an outstanding graphics card that performs its duties with great precision and efficiency. One of the most noteworthy features of this card is its quiet operation, which is achieved without the need for liquid cooling systems. While many people believe that the Noctua variant is exceptionally quiet, it's worth noting that other high-end graphics cards, such as the MSI TWiNFrozer and the ASUS STRIX, offer comparable levels of noise reduction. Despite this, the Noctua card's premium pricing is justified in its overall quality and brand reputation. In silent BIOS mode, the card operates at an almost inaudible level, and including a Noctua cooler has been a long-awaited addition for many gamers. However, it's worth noting that the card's 4-slot size may surprise some users who are used to smaller form factors. Regarding game performance, the Noctua OC variant delivers a modest 0~1% improvement over the founder edition in the most GPU-intensive situations. While it is true that the card's brown and beige color scheme may not appeal to everyone, but it doesn't detract from its impressive performance. One of the card's most convenient features is its dual BIOS, which provides a failsafe option as well as the ability to switch between silent and OC modes. However, the OC BIOS mode doesn't offer any significant performance gains, so it's recommended to stick to the default silent setting. NVIDIA is placing a significant emphasis on the use of DLSS, with the inclusion of vastly improved Tensor cores that aid in the new DLSS 3.0, which currently offers a 2x performance increase. With correct implementation in future games, NVIDIA claims a 3x or 4x performance boost is possible. However, there is ongoing debate about the value of frame injections beyond higher framerates. Ultimately, the visual quality displayed on the monitor is what counts, and in this regard, the GeForce RTX 4080 delivers. One obstacle that high-end graphics cards from NVIDIA face is pricing. Starting at $1299 and likely reaching prices of 1500 EUR, these cards are becoming increasingly unaffordable for most consumers. Additionally, the new power connector may raise concerns as bending the cable too close to the connector, combined with poor quality, can lead to hazardous situations. To avoid this, it is recommended to bend the cable 3-4cm above the connector level. Despite these concerns, all cards tested to date have been checked with FLIR imaging, and no issues have been observed on our side.

ASUS and Noctua are easily two of the most recognizable and respective brands in the PC component industry. Back in 2021, ASUS reached out to Noctua to start a collaboration that brought Noctua's expertise in designing high-quality cooling solutions, including fans, and the ASUS wizardry at building top-notch graphics cards together. In today's review we're covering the ASUS RTX 4080 Noctua OC, which is the company's third ASUS x Noctua graphics card after the RTX 3080 Noctua (May 2022) and RTX 3070 Noctua (Oct 2021).

Vorgestern haben wir uns die Founders Edition der GeForce RTX 4080 angeschaut und mussten unser Roundup mit dem Custom-Designs leider verschieben. Vier bzw. fünf Karten zu ausgiebig zu testen benötigt entsprechende Zeit, die wir im Vorfeld nicht hatten. Nun aber soll es soweit sein und wir schauen uns vier Modelle von ASUS, Gigabyte, INNO3D und MSI an. Die Karten werden jeweils ihre Stärken und Schwächen haben, sei es in der Leistung oder der Kühlung und eben darauf werden wir besonders achten.

ASUS has a powerful GPU for your gaming heading into 2023 and beyond with its ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition. 2.9GHz+ GPU boost out of the box, great thermals, and so much more.

The ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 STRIX OC comes overclocked out of the box, to a rated boost clock of 2625 MHz, which is a 120 MHz increase over the NVIDIA FE speeds. This is the fastest factory-overclocked RTX 4080 that we've tested today. Averaged over all the 25 games in our GPU test suite at 4K resolution we find the RTX 4080 20% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti—last generation's $2000 flagship card—very impressive. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3080, the gen-over-gen performance uplift is a a massive 54%. Compared to the RTX 2080 from two generations ago, the RTX 4080 is 2.5x as fast! The recently-launched RTX 4090 is another 21% faster yet. AMD's most high-performance offering, the Radeon RX 6950 XT is 25% behind the RTX 4080, the RX 6900 XT is 30% slower. AMD has announced the Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX a few weeks ago. While we don't have our own performance numbers yet, it is expected that the RX 7900 XTX's rasterization performance ends up somewhere between the RTX 4080 and the RTX 4090—so things will stay interesting in that segment.

The Strix RTX 4080 is 90 MHz fast than the next best at stock. The peak speed is less than this gain, with the Strix 60 MHz ahead of the next best. However, it is in the world of average clock speed where the gains are to be found. We thought the 2760 MHz the Nvidia Founders Edition obtained was impressive, and the 2800 MHz of the Gigabyte Aero was even better, the ASUS Strix achieves 2881 MHz average. This shows up time and again in our testing where the Strix wasn't just a tiny bit better, occasionally swapping places with other cards. Nope. It was to be found at the upper end of our graph and basically stayed there.

ASUS's ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition graphics card is a knockout, and the revamped design is the card's calling card. This card's striking configuration departs from the familiar appearance of prior ROG Strix products, guaranteeing that you will not be able to take your eyes off it. We're impressed and surprised to notice what STRIX brings to the table. First off though, you'll need space to fit this card in your PC; 36cm, 2.4kg and 3.5 slots thick hits a specific panic button on my end. But in the end, all values returned are right with low temps, low noise and high performance. I am, however, not amused about the coil whine we got from this card; it was pretty bad. Some will hate that; others are not bothered, I guess. From a hardware and performance point of view, the GeForce RTX 4080 is downright fantastic. However, we live in challenging times, with a war close to the EU border, and soaring energy prices, life has gotten much harder and expensive. That does make products like those shown today harder to defend; then again we can't blame NVIDIA for the state of the world in 2022. We hope to see affordable low-energy products sooner rather than later from NVIDIA. As a piece of hardware all by itself, we can only applaud the 4080. The ADA GPU architecture can perform skillfully and excellently. A good chunk of extra shader cores brings in nearly 1.5x raw shader performance and even better Raytracing and Tensor core performance. Underlying technologies like Shader Execution Reordering (SER) and DLSS 3.0 make the new product and Series 4000 shine.The GeForce RTX 4080 offers staggering numbers. Starting at $1199, however, it's very expensive. If you have the wallet leniency and play games in Ultra HD or at the very least start at a monitor resolution of 2560x1440, we can't argue that it'll be a great addition towards any enthusiast-class gaming rig. Take Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 combined with DLSS 3.0, you can fly at 100+ FPS in the highest resolutions. Cyberpunk at UHD with raytracing and DLSS3 quickly passes 100 FPS. This purebred Ultra HD card shines in that area, whether shading (regularly rendered games) or hybrid ray-tracing + DLSS3 is used. Compared to the mighty 4090, this still is a more economical product series offering massive performance.