Another week, another round of RTX 4080 Super rumours and leaks, but this one has some teeth to it. On the PCI ID Repository, an independent database of hardware device info, there's a new entry listing an RTX 4080 Super with its GPU codename. The first of the Ada Lovelace refreshes looks like it will be using the AD103 and that's super disappointing.
We first spotted this bit of news at BenchLife.info (which in turn sources further details from Videocardz) but the gist of it all is that someone has got hold of the PCI ID details, probably from a beta driver, about the forthcoming RTX 4080 Super. The info was added to the PCI ID Repository and it clearly shows the updated card will still use the AD103 GPU.
The version used in the current RTX 4080 is almost the full chip, with just four Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) disabled. That's just a potential extra 512 shaders and, given the RTX 4080 already has 9,728 of them, an RTX 4080 Super based on the full AD103 die would only have 5.3% more shaders.
There's nothing else to 'unlock' in the AD103, so unless Nvidia is planning to increase the clock speeds for the Super version, then the performance improvement will hardly make it worth considering. Even if it does get launched with, say, 10% higher clock speeds, the more details we see about the RTX 4080 Super, the more it looks like it's going to be a damp squib on release.
GPU fans may well remember the RTX 2080 Super from 2019. That graphics card was only a fraction better than the RTX 2080 it replaced, as the update only had 4% more shaders, a 6% higher boost clock, and 11% faster VRAM. However, it launched with the same MSRP as the RTX 2080, so while it was a disappointing refresh, it wasn't necessarily a bad purchase.
Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD.
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest.
I don't think the same could be said of a $1200 RTX 4080 Super, because at that kind of money, you might as well go all out and get yourself an RTX 4090. The RTX 4080 hasn't sold in huge numbers, so lots of retailers will have plenty of stock they'll want to shift, especially during this year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday events.
Should that come to pass (and we won't have to wait much longer to find out) and lots of people pick up a new RTX 4080 off the back of a big discount, then sales of the RTX 4080 Super are likely to be even worse than its predecessor.
I had hoped that Nvidia would use a heavily cut-down AD102 (the chip that powers the RTX 4090) for the RTX 4080 Super, as that would have given far more scope to have a genuinely better model refresh. But that idea is looking ever more unlikely with each week that passes. I really should know better by now.
