Leaked RTX 4080 12GB benchmarks seemingly vindicate Nvidia’s withdrawal

According to a publication in Chiphell Forums, one of its users was able to benchmark Nvidia’s now-cancelled RTX 4080 12GB graphics cards. Unfortunately, performance was very poor for an RTX 4080-class GPU, with 3DMak Fire Strike and TimeSpy results only matching Nvidia’s Ampere-based RTX 3080 12GB. This performance is disappointing considering that the RTX 4080 12GB was technically supposed to replace the RTX 3080 12GB.

The original source never revealed the exact RTX 4080 12GB model that was tested. However, the poster still showed us the full GPU monitoring data, including core frequencies, thermal parameters and power, so we have a good idea of ​​how these cards behave.

To refresh your memory, the RTX 4080 12GB was Nvidia’s lowest-end Ada Lovelace GPU, originally announced during GTC, alongside the 4080 16B and 4090. The 4080 12GB was armed with an AD103 die running on 9728 CUDA cores, 256 -bit width bus and 22.6 Gbps GDDR6X memory, for a total of 717 GB/s bandwidth.

But after heavy criticism from the community, Nvidia canceled the RTX 4080 12GB model due to a very confusing name compared to the RTX 4080 16GB. The 4080 12GB features significantly changed core specs compared to the 16GB version despite the names only suggesting there will be a capacity difference between the cards.

However, Nvidia’s “relaunch” came after the RTX 4080 12GB cards started rolling off the production lines; here’s how chiphell user was able to get a card.

According to the GPU-Z image from Chiphell’s forum post, this unnamed RTX 4080 12GB model runs at a maximum real clock of 2820 MHz and a memory clock of 1313 MHz. Heat values ​​ranged from 72.3C at their maximums, with hotspot temperatures reaching 91.2C. Maximum fan speeds were 43%, but RPMs are unknown. It can be seen that the power consumption reaches 261 W at its peak.

This monitoring data proves to us that the RTX 4080 12GB is significantly reduced compared to the RTX 4080 16GB and RTX 4090. The clocks remain similar to the 4090, but the power consumption is significantly reduced to only 262W. The card does not throttle power due to power limiting, as evidenced by GPU-Z’s peak TDP of just 91.8% of total target power.

But the performance of the 4080 12GB in 3DMark says it all. According to Chiphell’s post, the tested RTX 4080 12GB managed a GPU score of just 13,472 points in 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra and 10,794 points in TimeSpy Extreme.

By comparison, these numbers equate to slightly better performance than the RTX 3080 12GB in the exact same benchmarks, according to The 3DMark benchmark browser. It’s worth noting that the 30-series GPUs in the browser results were manually overclocked, but that still means the RTX 4080 12GB sits right between the standard RTX 3080 12GB and the RTX 3080 Ti.

It’s easy to see why Nvidia canceled the RTX 4080 12GB when it did, the RTX 4080 12GB originally had an MSRP of $900 when it was announced. But with the performance figures we’re seeing here, the GPU wouldn’t even be an upgrade over Nvidia’s older RTX 3080 12GB or RTX 3080 TI, which can be found for well under $900 right now.