Is RTX 4080 overkill for gaming?
If you're thinking of the next RTX card you may also wonder if the 4080 is all it needs to be
Share this article...
WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
Nvidia has unveiled the first two graphics cards in the new GeForce RTX 4000 series, two years after the release of the GeForce RTX 30-series and following severe stock shortages. The powerful GeForce RTX 4090 is in the lead, followed by the GeForce RTX 4080.
Read now: RTX 4090 stock tracker
Even while the GeForce RTX 4080 has outstanding specs and numbers, there is a case to be made that it may be too much for all but the most expensive gaming PC setups. After all, Nvidia had marketed the RTX 3090 as a professional and high-end performance graphics card, meaning more potent alternatives may be overkill for many PCs.
The vanilla RTX 3080 is great when it comes to 1440p and 4K gaming. So, for the foreseeable future at least, it might be more cost-effective and better suited for your computer to choose an RTX 30-series card rather than a more modern RTX 40-series GPU if you have a PC with a recent processor, good RAM, and a reliable power supply.
– Check for RTX 4080 stock & prices here –
| Region | RTX 4080 Founder’s Edition | Custom RTX 4080 AIBs |
|---|---|---|
| US | Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg | Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg |
| Canada | Amazon, Newegg | Amazon, Newegg |
| UK | Amazon, Scan, Ebuyer, Novatech, Overclockers, CCL, BOX | Amazon, Scan, Ebuyer, Novatech, Overclockers, CCL, BOX |
All of this suggests that the RTX 4080 series will perform poorly for rasterized games as opposed to those that extensively use complex ray-tracing effects. The majority of games, in other words.
The problem is, though, you’re in for a major letdown if you anticipate the RTX 4080 to significantly outperform the RTX 3080 in most games, much as the RTX 3080 did with the RTX 2080. And Nvidia believes the RTX 4080 is sufficient in light of this knowledge. It is overkill for gaming, yes. Unambiguously, the AD102 GPU in the 4090 is a monster chip.
This would all be quite different if the RTX 4080 were built on that chip, just as the RTX 3080 was based on the large Ampere GPU. So, Nvidia hasn’t made a technological error or been taken off guard. It could have chosen the significantly faster RTX 4080 but instead opted for a severely constrained GPU at a high cost.
If you fancy yourself one when it comes out, head to our where to buy page to find one
