ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER

As I said in our last graphics card review we are in a sort of launch season for graphics cards and the card we are taking a look at today will be the last card coming out as part of that launch season. The card is of course the NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super graphics card. NVIDIA’s “Super” cards are their refresh for the RTX 40 series. While some of the graphics cards that are part of this refresh will live alongside their non-Super counterparts, this card will essentially be replacing the RTX 4080 in the product stack. This card is still going to be based off NVIDIA’s AD103 silicon, but we now have 80 compute units available, giving us a total of 10240 CUDA cores, 320 Tensor cores, 80 RT cores, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. You are going to get the same 16GB of GDDR6X across a 256-bit memory bus, but it will be faster 23 Gbps memory. The great thing about this card is that NVIDIA is setting the MSRP $200 cheaper than what the original RTX 4080 launched at, so you’ll be able to pick it up a MSRP model for $999. Today we are taking a look at the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4080 Super OC, which will sit as their flagship RTX 4080 Super card. This card comes with a factory overclock of 2640 MHz for the boost clock and even an OC mode that brings that up to 2670 MHz. On top of that you have their massive triple-fan cooling solution and all of those ROG features we love! Let’s take a look!

The RTX 4080 SUPER is undoubtedly, another powerful graphics card from NVIDIA, and the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC is the slightly beefier version, especially the cooler which performs exceptionally well this time. Despite being a very capable graphics card that was priced lower than its non-SUPER counterpart at launch, the performance gain over the RTX 4080 is only by a margin of 3-5%. The result is somehow undesirable, especially for those who are expecting a big leap from the RTX 4080 because it is, after all, a SUPER variant graphics card. My take on this is very simple actually – if you’re already using an RTX 4080 or RTX 3090, just stick to what you have right now. The TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC, as well as other RTX 4080 SUPER models, are preferable options for users upgrading from previous-generation cards like the RTX 3080 Ti or lower. The substantial performance gain in these cases makes more sense, especially compared to the already powerful RTX 4080 SUPER, where the improvement is only in the single-digit range.

ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER OC is the company's second most premium custom design rendition of the RTX 4080 SUPER, positioned a notch below the ROG Strix RTX 4080 SUPER OC, which we're also reviewing today. The TUF Gaming brand has seen a sensational evolution over the years for ASUS. It started out as a niche brand focusing on products with server grade high-endurance components; to one that was relegated to mainstream or mid-range motherboards and graphics cards; but since the RTX 30-series Ampere, has evolved into a well respected graphics card brand extension, thanks to a pivot towards giving gamers enthusiast-class cooling and industrial looks at attractive prices. ASUS has two TUF Gaming products based on the RTX 4080 SUPER, the baseline TUF Gaming sticks to reference clock speeds, and can be had at MSRP pricing, but the card we're reviewing today is the TUF Gaming OC, which comes with a factory overclock to boot, but at a premium.

ike with the Founders Edition review, the Strix RTX 4080 SUPER does extremely well at 4k, handling anything I threw at it in our testing. It also stands out ahead of the competition from AMD when it comes to ray tracing performance and DLSS 3 is still the way to go as well. I said it in my original review but the RTX 4080 SUPER is the GPU that the original RTX 4080 should have been both in performance and pricing and that stands here as well. The Strix RTX 4080 SUPER has an MSRP of $1249.99 (assuming you can find one at that price), the original Strix RTX 4080 when it launched was $1550 so Nvidia’s price drop has helped bring this card down some as well. But you are still paying a big margin over the base RTX 4080 SUPER MSRP. Is it worth that premium? That is really going to depend on what you are looking for in your card. A lot of people will say you are paying an ROG tax but the reality is that you are paying for the high-end diecast shroud, backplate, and exoskeleton, top of the line components, and a huge air cooler. If you want the best possible performance but aren’t looking to throw down for an RTX 4090 then this is the way to go. Unlike with some of the other GPUs though, the price gap between the RTX 4080 SUPER and the RTX 4090 is the one area where these higher-end cards can still be a good option. But if you would be happy with the base RTX 4080 SUPER performance then there are going to be cheaper options including other options from Asus. That is why Asus and their competitors have a range of cards.

ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 Super OC is the company's top of the line custom-design graphics card based on NVIDIA's latest enthusiast-segment GPU. The new GeForce RTX 4080 Super crowns the three-part Super branded refresh of the company's RTX 40-series product stack. It is meant for maxed out gaming at 4K Ultra HD, including with ray tracing; as well as extreme refresh-rate e-sports competitive gameplay. The new GeForce RTX 4080 Super is positioned above the original RTX 4080, which is now being retired from NVIDIA's lineup. As its replacement, you are being offered better performance from a slightly better specs sheet, but more importantly, a 20% reduction in price. While the RTX 4080 launched at $1,200, the RTX 4080 Super launches at a $1,000 baseline. What this means is that premium custom design cards such as the ASUS ROG Strix that we're reviewing today, would be offered at prices comparable to some of the more close-to-baseline custom design RTX 4080 boards from a year ago.