According to a post by chifel forum, One of its users successfully benchmarked Nvidia’s now-canceled RTX 4080 12GB graphics card. Unfortunately, his GPU performance in the RTX 4080 class was very poor, with 3DMak Fire Strike and TimeSpy scores only matching his RTX 3080 12GB based on Nvidia’s Ampere. That performance is disappointing considering the RTX 4080 12GB was technically supposed to replace his RTX 3080 12GB.
The original source did not reveal the exact RTX 4080 12GB model tested. However, the poster shows full GPU monitoring data, including core clocks, temperatures and power, so we have a good idea of how these cards perform.
To refresh memory, the RTX 4080 12GB was Nvidia’s lowest-end Ada Lovelace GPU announced at GTC first alongside the 4080 16B and 4090. The bus and 22.6Gbps of GDDR6X memory deliver a total bandwidth of 717GB/s.
However, following heavy criticism from the community, Nvidia canceled the RTX 4080 12GB model due to its very confusing name compared to the RTX 4080 16GB. The 4080 12GB features significantly changed core specs compared to the 16GB version, despite the name only suggesting there are capacity differences between the cards.
However, Nvidia’s “undisclosed” came after the RTX 4080 12GB cards started rolling off the production line. This is how Chiphell users managed to get their hands on the card.
According to a GPU-Z image from a post on the Chiphell forums, this unnamed RTX 4080 12GB model was running at a maximum real-world boost clock of 2,820 MHz and a memory clock of 1,313 MHz. Thermals maxed him out in the 72.3C range, with hotspot temperatures reaching 91.2C. The maximum fan speed was 43%, but the RPM is unknown. We can see that the power consumption peaks at 261W.
This monitoring data proves a significant reduction for the RTX 4080 12GB compared to the RTX 4080 16GB and RTX 4090. The clock remains similar to the 4090, but the power consumption has been significantly reduced to just 262W. The card was not power throttling due to power capping, as evidenced by GPU-Z’s peak TDP being only 91.8% of its total power target.
But the 4080 12GB performance in 3DMark says it all. According to Chiphell’s post, the tested RTX 4080 12GB managed GPU scores of just 13,472 points in 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra and 10,794 points in TimeSpy Extreme.
For comparison, these numbers equate to slightly better performance than the RTX 3080 12GB in the exact same benchmarks. 3DMark benchmark browser. It’s worth noting that the 30-series GPU was manually overclocked in the browser results, but that still means the RTX 4080 12GB sits exactly in between the standard RTX 3080 12GB and the RTX 3080 Ti.
It’s easy to see why Nvidia canceled the RTX 4080 12GB. The RTX 4080 12GB had a suggested retail price of $900 when announced. But with the performance numbers you’re seeing here, the GPU doesn’t outperform Nvidia’s older RTX 3080 12GB or RTX 3080 TI, which are currently well under $900.
