Conclusion
In our performance comparison review of the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER versus GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, we reviewed gaming benchmarks in 2024, on modern hardware, in modern games, with the latest drivers. It was worth it just to see how the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER holds up in 2024 for gaming performance.
We tested DLSS upscaling, Ray Tracing, and 1440p resolution in modern games. The GeForce RTX 20 series was the first series of GPUs to support hardware Ray Tracing acceleration, so it was good to see how that holds up in 2024. In addition, the 8GB of VRAM on the RTX 2080 SUPER is definitely showing its age for 1440p gaming in 2024.
The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER that launched in January 2024 fills out and utilizes the full AD103 die specification, with more CUDA cores and slightly faster VRAM. It ended up replacing the GeForce RTX 4080 at the same price point. The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER and GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER only share a commonality in name only, however, as they were launched at very different price points, and with different GPU die segments, TU104 in RTX 2080 SUPER and AD103 in RTX 4080 SUPER.
Performance
The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER sees a lot of gains in raster performance naturally, but Ray Tracing improves the most. The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER dominates 1440p gameplay in modern games, and the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is not able to provide that anymore in modern games. The GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER struggles at 1440p gaming today, and while DLSS can help alleviate some of that, the 8GB VRAM capacity at 1440p ultimately is a hindrance for continued gaming now and into the future.
Ray Tracing is also out, on the RTX 2080 SUPER, it just doesn’t have the horsepower for it except at maybe 1080p, with DLSS in some games. Other, more demanding Ray Tracing, is going to be too slow for it today. The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER also allows 4K gaming, something the RTX 2080 SUPER struggles with in modern games.
Final Points
If you take the $699 MSRP for the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER and run it through the CPI Inflation Calculator, that would be $854.23 in today’s dollars. At that price, it’s actually not too far off from the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER which can be found as low as $980 recently. Inherently, that’s about a $130 difference between the two, still more expensive, but our testing really shows what that price difference buys you today in 2024.
If you were looking for an upgrade from a GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, you will have to pay more, in 2024, for the “RTX xx80” class GPU today, but you will also get huge performance uplifts in gaming performance with a minimum power draw increase. The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is an incredibly efficient GPU, and for just 9-11% more power, you get 100-200% performance improvement in gaming.
What you will find, is that for your money today, you are getting a higher specification and feature set with the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER than you got with the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER. The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is based on a faster GPU die SKU, and has a higher spec sheet in all regards. You will get more SMs, more CUDA cores, more RT cores, more Tensor Cores, more ROPs, more TMUs, much faster clock speeds, and double the VRAM which matters a lot for modern gaming. The GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER was an 8GB video card, and with the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, you are doubling VRAM to 16GB which matters for today’s games, and tomorrow’s.
If you need an upgrade from your 2019 GPU, the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER provides a substantial and noticeable gameplay experience improvement in 2024.