Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super review: the 4K GPU shoot-out

RT benchmarks: Dying Light 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Control.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on 31 Jan 2024

Since the arrival of Intel Arc and RTX 40-series GPUs, we've adopted a revised test suite that aims to better reflect the future of gaming technology. That means we're zeroing in on titles using key engines and low-level gaming APIs, while we've beefed up representation for ray tracing and image reconstruction. Our primary focus in on GPUs starting at a thousand dollars going up, so we're prioritising 4K performance here.

Ray tracing is no longer a second-class citizen with the latest generation of GPUs, and we're seeing some of the most intensive GPU workloads you can get delivered at really decent frame-rates - even before we factor in image reconstruction technologies like DLSS and FSR2.

Our benchmarking system below offers a number of ways to get to the data you want, the presentation varying according to the device you're looking at right now. You'll get a basic overview of our findings on mobile, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Dying Light 2

First things first - the RTX 4080 and 4080 Super are essentially interchangeable from a performance standpoint, despite the spec boost delivered by the Super 'upgrade' - but what's surprising here is that the RTX 4090 is streets ahead with a 43.5 percent boost over the 4080 Super. At least with the price cut to $999, the Super presents a marginally better balance of cost vs performance.

With a similar price-point, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX looks to be roundly beaten by the RTX 4080 Super, with the Nvidia product delivering circa 25 percent more performance. As we shall see though, Team Red does have rasterisation advantages - and it would be no surprise to see an official price adjustment from AMD in due course.

Dying Light 2, High RT, TAA

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 - operating in pure RT mode here at ultra settings with no upscaling - is an absolutely punishing work-out for any GPU, up to and including the RTX 4090 which only brings home a 47fps average. Similar to Dying Light, the top-end card still dominates with a 38 percentage point lead - problematic in terms of price vs performance for the vanilla 4080 at its $1200 launch cost, but less so for a $999 4080 Super.

This game is a close collaboration between Nvidia and CD Projekt RED, so there's little surprise in seeing how optimal the GeForce cards perform relatively to Radeon. The 39 percent performance advantage is palpable and it remains in the same ballpark no matter which resolution you look at.

Cyberpunk 2077, Ultra RT, TAA

Control

Remedy's Control has proven problematic multiple times over for the RTX 40-series, as it seems to perform disproportionately poorly compared to 4090 performance. Here, the flagship is 46 percent faster than RTX 4080 Super and 49 points to the better over the RTX 4080 non-Super.

It's results like this that hammered the relatively poor value offered by the RTX 4080 at launch - 49 percent more performance for 33 percent of extra cost made the 4090 look like the better deal. With the RTX 4080 Super's arrival at $999, the 4090 is basically 46 points clear but you need to pay 60 percent extra cash money to enjoy those extra frames.

Still, this is a big win for the RTX 4090 and in turn, the relatively lacklustre 4080 Super showing means that the its lead over RX 7900 XTX is just 18 percent.