NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Benchmarks: Stunning 1440p Performance with 8K Stability

Written by Sean Mekinda

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 launches today, and to go along with our build guide and announcement breakdown, we got to spend some time benchmarking the GeForce RTX 4080 and pushing it to its limits. Just like its RTX 4090 older sibling, it's an incredibly capable card that's absolutely capable of some amazing things. Check out our results below:

Our System:

• MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Suprim X Overclocked Triple Fan 16GB GDDR6X PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card, stock settings, NVIDIA Graphics Driver v526.98
• Intel Core i9-13900K Raptor Lake 3.0GHz Twenty Four-Core LGA 1700 Boxed Processor
• ASUS Z790-E ROG Strix Gaming WiFi Intel LGA 1700 ATX Motherboard
• Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR5-4800 PC5-38400 CL40
• SilverStone SX1000 1000 Watt 80 Plus Platinum SFX-L Fully Modular Power Supply
• Lian Li O11D Mini

Synthetic Benchmarks:

3DMark (v2.25.8043):

3DMark's GPU tests push graphics cards to their limits. Time Spy uses DirectX12 to really test every bit of power and Time Spy Extreme takes it even further with more graphically intense processes. Port Royal is 3DMark's ray tracing test, designed for real-time ray tracing. The GeForce RTX 4080 produces incredibly respectable numbers, indicating a high capability of gaming at some intense settings, including high-intensity ray tracing.

PassMark (v10.2):

Similar to 3DMark, PassMark is designed to push GPUs to their limits. However, unlink 3DMark, PassMark tests both 2D and 3D graphics operations, all the way from DirectX9 to DirectX12 in 4K. Our PassMark results put it pretty much neck and neck with the RTX 4090 (shown below in purple) and actually just slightly beat it in 2D tests!

UNIGINE Superposition (v1.1):

Superposition is a staple benchmark, pushing cards for both performance and stability with intense ray tracing. We put the NVIDIA GeForce 4090 through the three hardest tests available, 1080P Extreme, 4K Optimized, and 8K Optimized. While the RTX 4090 maintains an (understandable) lead, the GeForce RTX 4080 still puts up some incredible numbers, even maintaining a 63.77 FPS average for the 8K test, confirming that this card is, in fact, 8K ready and stable.

Gaming Benchmarks

New to our launch day benchmarks, we ran the GeForce RTX 4080 through three graphically intensive games - Horizon Zero Dawn, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Cyberpunk 2077 - at a variety of display settings. Unsurprisingly for the 40 Series, it did stellar. We'll let the benchmarks speak for themselves!

Horizon Zero Dawn v181

Shadow of the Tomb Raider v1.0 build 488.0_64

Cyberpunk 2077 v1.6

While the GeForce RTX 4080 is obviously not going to hit the highs of the GeForce RTX 4090, its clearly shown itself to be a more than capable card for gaming, from 1080p all the way to high-end 4K! So, if you're looking for a new GPU that won't require a new monitor to get the most out of it, the GeForce RTX 4080 is absolutely the way to go.

NVIDIA's brand new GeForce RTX 4090 is available now at Micro Center! Be sure to check out our GeForce RTX 4080 Overview for all the new specs and our GeForce RTX 4080 Build Guide for ideas for your next rig!