GeForce RTX 4080 vs GeForce RTX 4090

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce RTX 4090, which uses a 4 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 2235 MHz. The GDDR6X RAM works at a frequency of 1325 MHz on this model. It features 16384 SPUs as well as 512 Texture Address Units and 176 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce RTX 4080		320 Watts
GeForce RTX 4090		450 Watts
	Difference: 130 Watts (41%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce RTX 4090 is 42% quicker than the GeForce RTX 4080 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		1042432 MB/sec
GeForce RTX 4080		734003 MB/sec
	Difference: 308429 (42%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 4090 is quite a bit (about 71%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce RTX 4080. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		1144320 Mtexels/sec
GeForce RTX 4080		670320 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 474000 (71%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce RTX 4090 is superior to the GeForce RTX 4080, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		393360 Mpixels/sec
GeForce RTX 4080		246960 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 146400 (59%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.