Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 suddenly looks like an even more appealing GPU

Pre-launch benchmarks demonstrate that this new RTX is seriously speedy

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU
(Image credit: Nvidia)

The new Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU is still under embargo, with a launch expected later this week. But some outlets have jumped the gun and published benchmarks, and they're very impressive. Instant entry into T3's best graphics cards buying guide impressive. 

As Videocardz.com reports, Big Hardware Player (硬件大玩家) - who has form when it comes to releasing real benchmarks of Nvidia cards – has published a pre-launch review focusing on the average performance results from games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon 5 and others at 4K resolution. The results indicate 19% faster performance than the RTX 3090 Ti PGF.

Even better benchmarks

The good news continues in 3DMark test results, where the RTX 4080 appears to be 25% faster than the RTX 3090. It's still slower than the RTX 4090, by 21%, but that's expected; the 4090 beats it in the other benchmarks too.

The tests also looked at the card's power scaling, which appears to work very well; Videocardz suggests that gamers could drop to the 260W setting with negligible effect on 4K gaming performance. That backs up previous predictions that this new RTX wouldn't also mean shelling out for a new PSU to power it.

What we don't know is what specific model of card was tested here. But with the official release only days away, we won't have to wait long before there's an absolute barrage of benchmarks from multiple cards that you can use to guide your purchasing decisions. But the early indications are that the RTX 4080 is going to deliver very impressive performance for the price.

Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series. When she’s not scribbling, she’s the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR (havrmusic.com).