RTX 2080 Ti vs RTX 4080 in 2023: The DLSS 3 Difference!

Many of you will know that I love a good GPU revisit, simply to see how technology from prior generations stacks up today. So when Nvidia got in touch about a sponsored video looking at how the RTX 2080 Ti compares to the latest-generation RTX 4080 in 2023, you can bet I was keen to get started.

In this piece of content, we are pitting the 20-series flagship against the RTX 4080 over a total of six games, though we're only using titles that support DLSS 3 so we can show both the hardware and software improvements that have been made since the launch of the Turing architecture in 2018. We’ve got side by side game capture, performance figures, image quality and more, so we can really see exactly how far things have come. This project has been primarily designed around the video content, so we encourage you to check that out above – but we've also included the benchmarks charts in this written article.

Test System:

We test using a custom built system from PCSpecialist, based on Intel’s Raptor Lake platform. You can read more about this system HERE and configure your own PCSpecialist system HERE.

CPU	Intel Core i9-13900KS
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX
Memory	32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5 6000MHz
Graphics Card	Varies
SSD	4TB Seagate Firecuda 530 Gen 4 PCIe NVMe
Chassis	Corsair 5000D Airflow Tempered Glass Gaming Case
CPU Cooler	Corsair iCUE H150i Elite RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Power Supply	Corsair 1600W Pro Series Titanium AX1600i Digital Modular PSU
Operating System	Windows 11 22H2
Monitor	MSI Optix MPG321UR-QD
Resizable BAR	Enabled for all supported GPUs

Both GPUs were tested with the Nvidia 531.68 driver, the latest at the time of starting this project.

Benchmarks

Closing thoughts

As mentioned, for the full analysis be sure to check out the video at the top of this page. It’s safe to say, however, that the RTX 4080 is significantly faster than the RTX 2080 Ti – that may sound obvious, but when comparing both GPUs using DLSS 2 Quality mode, the RTX 4080 came in on average 2.2 times faster at 4K.

DLSS 3 makes a real difference however, as frame rates get taken to the next level and the upgrade becomes even more significant. We’re now talking, on average, a 3x boost – or 300% uplift for the RTX 4080 versus the RTX 2080 Ti, which of course cannot leverage DLSS 3 due to its older architecture.

The RTX 2080 Ti isn't a completely lost cause though, the GPU still has some gas in the tank for certain games like F1 22, but it is really starting to show its age in more demanding titles. That's especially the case in games where ray tracing is heavily leveraged, just as we saw in the new Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive mode, and in the new Witcher 3 update – those are the titles where the RTX 4080 delivered its biggest victories over the 20-series GPU.

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KitGuru says: Thanks to Nvidia for sponsoring this content – it's always interesting to see how technology from prior generations stacks up today!

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