Review – ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC Edition

Now that we have seen what the RTX 4070 SUPER and RTX 4070 Ti SUPER are capable of, it’s time to look at the final RTX 40 SUPER series card that was announced earlier this month at CES 2024, the RTX 4080 SUPER. While the lower retail price of $999 is one of the major selling points of the RTX 4080 SUPER, most users are more interested to know just how it fares against the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090.

For our test this time, we put the ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC Edition to the test against the RTX 4080, RTX 4080 SUPER, and RTX 4090 Founders Edition for a quick performance gauge.

Specifications

Overview

The TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC ships in the packaging that we’re very familiar with – that signature hexagonal-shaped box and the same somewhat difficult-to-open inner box. Inside the box, you’ll find the paper documents such as the user’s guide, warranty card, and a mini fold-up cardboard model, a TUF Gaming velcro strap, a TUF Gaming trading card(?), a GPU holder, a 12VHPWR adapter.

In terms of design, the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER closely resembles the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition, featuring an expansive triple-fan cooler enclosed in a shroud that adopts an industrial metal frame aesthetic.

This 3.65-slot card measures 348.2mm in length and weighs approximately 1.9kg. To accommodate its heft, ASUS has thoughtfully included a GPU holder with the card for users who opt to mount it horizontally. Notably, at the card’s end, three screw holes are discernible, suggesting their potential use for a specialized retention bracket designed to support the card’s weight.

On the back of the card, there’s a switch for changing between performance mode and quiet mode. I suggest using performance mode because the fan noise is hardly noticeable, especially up close. However, if you’re sensitive to fan noise, the quiet mode could be handy for you.

Regarding power requirements, the official product page recommends a 750W power supply. Since all RTX 40 series cards utilize the new 12VHPWR connector, users must employ either the provided adapter – a 3 x 8-pin PCIe to 1 x 12VHPWR or opt for a modern power supply equipped with the 12VHPWR cable.

The display outputs are a bit different from the usual 3 DisplayPort and 1 HDMI setup; there’s an extra HDMI port.

Test System Setup

We used this list of hardware to benchmark the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC and we’re comparing it against 3 different Founders Edition cards – the RTX 4080, RTX 4080 SUPER, and RTX 4090 so we can have a better idea of the positioning of the card. For our games benchmark test, we’ve selected several AAA titles to run at their highest possible settings using the following setup under an ambient temperature of 28°C:

Games benchmark – Raster

In terms of raster performance, all the tested cards demonstrate strong 4K gaming capabilities, consistently achieving 60fps or higher across the evaluated titles. However, similar to our observations with the RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition, we’re noticing a comparable behavior with the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC.

At 4K resolution, while the RTX 4080 SUPER generally outperforms the RTX 4080, the observed performance gain is not particularly remarkable, showing an approximate 3-6% increase across tested titles. There are instances where the RTX 4080 SUPER matches or falls behind the RTX 4080 in terms of performance. Moreover, we observe almost no noticeable differences between the RTX 4080 Founders Edition and the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC.

The performance improvement becomes more apparent at 1440p resolution. However, certain titles, like The Division 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, display peculiar behaviors where the RTX 4080 SUPER exhibits lower performance than the RTX 4080. This issue may be attributed to the beta driver used in this test, and it’s important to note that this behavior might not persist with the official Day-1 driver.

Regarding the 1080p resolution, we gathered the data out of curiosity. However, not all titles fully leverage the GPU’s capabilities, and interestingly, even the RTX 4090 occasionally performs worse than both the RTX 4080 and TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC in various scenarios.

Games benchmark – RT

Moving on to the evaluation of ray tracing performance, DLSS 3 is excluded to ensure a precise assessment of the base ray tracing capabilities without the frame generation advantage.

There’s a modest improvement in ray tracing performance, with the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC generally outperforming the RTX 4080 in almost every tested title, demonstrating an average increase of 3-5%. However, Metro Exodus stands out, performing 5% worse than the RTX 4080. Additionally, we observe nearly no differences between the RTX 4080 Founders Edition and the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC.

At 1440p and 1080p resolutions, the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC matches the performance of the RTX 4080 but occasionally lags behind in games like Far Cry 6, Watch Dogs Legion, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, and Cyberpunk 2077. The TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC exhibits slightly better performance than the RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition, albeit by a marginal 2-3%.

Thermals & Power Draw

Moving on to the thermals, the colossal cooler on the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC has finally redeemed itself. Unlike what we have observed back then, the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC cooler performs exceptionally well and it’s 4.4°C cooler than the Founders Edition on load. Other sensors that report the GPU memory junction temperature and hotspot temperature also show similar or if not, lower temperature readings.

In real gaming situations, the power consumption typically hovers around 270W. In stress tests, especially during the 3DMark stress test using the Time Spy Extreme preset, the power draw experiences a temporary peak at 373W, though only for a brief duration. This behavior is consistently observed in both the RTX 4080 Founders Edition and the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC throughout the tests.

Final thoughts

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, where the improvement is only in the single-digit range.

There are OC and non-OC models for the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER which retailed at RM 6,229 and RM 5,829 respectively. It is a lot cheaper than the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 OC which was priced at RM 7,299 at launch but it is still quite expensive compared to what other AIB partners have. Do I recommend the TUF Gaming RTX 4080 SUPER OC? Honestly, not for the Malaysian market right now because of the price.