ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition Review

TweakTown's Rating: 91%

The Bottom Line

ASUS has a powerful GPU for your gaming heading into 2023 and beyond with its ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition. 2.9GHz+ GPU boost out of the box, great thermals, and so much more.

Pros

• + Faster than the RTX 3090 Ti, and cooler!
• + 2.9GHz+ GPU boost clock out of the box
• + ASUS ROG Strix style, 2022 refresh look

Cons

• - No DisplayPort 2.1 connectivity... why!
• - $1500 pricing is STEEP

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon

Introduction

The new ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition graphics card is the latest GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card that we're looking at today, after a few days off recovering from the all-nighters that I was pulling to benchmark, taking photos, editing, writing, and the trillion other things required for reviews.

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ASUS impressed with its flagship ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition graphics card, but if you don't quite have the coins for the higher-end RTX 4090, the new ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 is here for you. It rolls out with the same design -- chunky, and huge -- so if you're a fan, you'll love the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080.

Underneath, ASUS is using a new patented vapor chamber cooling system with a milled heat spreader that provides some wicked low GPU temperatures, but it'll fill up your motherboard and gaming PC with its chunky 3.5-slot design. ASUS is tapping a diecast shroud, frame, and a beautiful backplate that not just add more ventilation for maximum airflow, it looks great, too.

• Read more: ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition Review

Just like with the rest of the flock of GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards, ASUS has 16GB of GDDR6X memory on the new ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition -- knocked down from the chunky 24GB of GDDR6X memory on the RTX 4090. This is more than enough for 4K gaming depending on the situation, but it rocks far more power than the GeForce RTX 3080 that it "replaces".

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ASUS is boosting AD103 GPU clocks up to 2.62GHz over the 2.5GHz GPU clocks of there reference GeForce RTX 4080, while providing a beautiful look and style that you get with the higher-end ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090.

ASUS is commanding a pricey $1500 for its new ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition... so let's dive right into the review.

ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX® 4090 OC Edition

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$1799.99	$1799.99	$1819.99	$1869.95	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 9/28/2023 at 7:27 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Ada Lovelace

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Detailed Look

ASUS keeps things the same between its new ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition retail packaging, lining up with the packaging of the bigger brother ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition.

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You'll either love or hate the aesthetic of the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition, with a triple-fan cooler that will ensure your card stays nice and chill. The cooling design is virtually identical to the bigger brother RTX 4090 version of the card, but with a little less grunt under its hood.

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ASUS hasn't changed anything on the backplate of the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition over the ROG Strix RTX 4090 OC Edition, and that's not a bad thing. There's no RGB lighting on the back here, either.

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Be prepared to have room for this sucker in your gaming PC, as it is truly thick... almost comically thick. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition is a triple-slot card, this is far thicker... keep that in mind.

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ASUS does its usual step up on the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition as it does with its ROG Strix GPUs... providing an additional HDMI 2.1 port on the back for multiple 4K 120Hz+ ready TVs or gaming monitors. You've also got the usual 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, too.

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It's a chunky boi, that's for sure.

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I do love the "Republic of Gamers" styling on the top.

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The end of the card is my favorite part, to be honest... beautiful design work there, ASUS.

Test System Specs

I've recently upgraded my major GPU test bed for 2022, but I will be upgrading again soon, now that Intel has launched its new 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" CPUs and Z790 motherboards, and AMD with its new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs and X670E motherboards.

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The new upgrades include the shift to the Intel Core i9-12900K processor, ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme motherboard, 64GB of Sabrent Rocket DDR5-4800 memory, and 8TB of Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD goodness. Intel's flagship Core i9-12900K is a beast, with the Alder Lake CPU packing 8 Performance cores (P-cores) and 8 Efficient cores (E-cores) at up to 5.2GHz.

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme

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I've got that installed into the bigger-than-life ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme motherboard, which is absolutely loaded to the brim with technologies and features that it houses everything you need. We're talking about one of the best-looking designs on a motherboard yet, PCIe 5.0 support, enthusiast-grade 10GbE networking, and oh-so-much more.

RAM: 64GB Sabrent Rocket DDR5-4800

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Sabrent helped out in a huge way by sending over 64GB of DDR5-4800 memory in the form of 4 x 16GB DDR5-4800 modules of its new Sabrent Rocket DDR5 memory. The company also helped out in an even bigger way, supplying us with a gigantic and super-fast 8TB model of its Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD.

SSD: 8TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus M.2

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We're talking about 7.5GB/sec+ (7500MB/sec) from a single M.2 SSD, along with a gigantic 8TB of capacity. The 2TB drives aren't big enough for all of our game installs for GPU testing... the 4TB is much better, but the 8TB gives us room to move into 2023 without worrying about installing multiple games that are 200GB+ in size.

Some glory shots, of course.

Displays: ASUS ROG Strix 43-inch 4K 120Hz

ASUS has been a tight partner of TweakTown for many years, with the fine folks at ASUS Australia sending over their ROG Strix XG438Q and ROG Swift PG43UQ gaming monitors for our GPU test benches. They're both capable of 4K 120Hz+ through their DisplayPort 1.4 connectivity.

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I will be upgrading these in the near future, over to some DisplayPort 2.0-capable panels and some new HDMI 2.1-enabled 4K 165Hz panels in OLED form of course...given that next-gen GPUs are right around the corner, there has been no better time to upgrade your display or TV.

I've been working on this system for a while now, but now we're stretching its legs with the newly-released PC port of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered. Not just in 1080p or 1440p, not even in just 4K... but at 8K with a native resolution of 7680 x 4320. I've run through some of the very fastest GPU silicon on the planet.

• CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CORSAIR iCUE H150i ELITE LCD Display (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket 64GB DDR5-4800 (4 x 16GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 8TB Rocket 4 Plus PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: MSI MPG A1000G Gaming Power Supply 1000W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro x64 (buy from Amazon)
• Display: ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ (4K 120Hz) (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

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Benchmarks - 1080p

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Benchmarks - 1440p

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Benchmarks - 4K

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Temps & Power Consumption

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The custom ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition has some wicked GPU temperatures thanks to its chunky thermal system, with GPU temps sitting at around 62C while GPU hotspot temperatures were healthy at 74C or so. This is with the fans at totally stock settings: 40% (1300RPM or so).

You're going to be using around 330W of power for that, too. Not too bad at all, falling in line with the other GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

• Faster than the RTX 3090 Ti: Yep, the GeForce RTX 4080 is faster than the previous-gen Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics cards... all while running cooler, and using less power.

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• 2.9GHz GPU boost clocks out of the box: Out of the box, the custom ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition rolls out with rather impressive GPU boost clocks of 2.9GHz. You'll get that without doing anything to your card, and impressive thing to see considering Ampere struggled above 2.0GHz GPU clocks.
• ASUS ROG Strix style, love it or hate it: The second-fastest Ada Lovelace GPU from ASUS has the same aesthetics as the higher-end RTX 4090, with the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 using the same thermal system and style.
• Great thermal performance: I was seeing GPU temps of 63C under gaming and benchmark loads, so you won't be heating up your PC or room running the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition graphics card. However, just to note: all GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs run FAR cooler than GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs.

What's Not

• Premium over other RTX 4080 cards: The $1500 pricing is a big sting over the $1199 price on the GeForce RTX 4080, but you already knew that considering this is an ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4080.
• No DisplayPort 2.1 connector, WTF: NVIDIA not including the new display connector moving forward -- DP2.0 -- is a huge mistake. It means anyone buying a $1500 graphics card in the tail end of 2022 is not going to be able to use next-gen DP2.0-capable gaming monitors that we'll begin seeing debut in the coming months, probably at CES 2023 in January. WTF, NVIDIA? Even Intel's is-it-even-real Arc GPUs have a DP2.0 port.

Final Thoughts

We all know the new GeForce RTX 4080 offers a great leap over the GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, but ASUS adds its usual magic touch to the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition. Fantastic performance out of the box with 2.9GHz+ boost clocks and overclocking past 3.0GHz isn't hard (but you won't get much more performance).

ASUS has changed the style of its ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 over the previous-gen ROG Strix RTX 30 series GPUs, in a love-it-or-hate-it style. It's huge, and has a more square design that I kinda love and hate at the same time -- the same feeling I had with the flagship ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090.

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Just as I said in my review for the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080, if you're upgrading your PC and didn't want to touch the CPU -- let's say you've got a Core i7/i9 or Ryzen 7/9 processor -- this is a great upgrade. Especially if you've got an older GeForce RTX 20 series or Radeon RX 5000 series GPU.

If you're gaming on a high refresh rate 1080p or 1440p panel, you're going to max out at 120FPS+ in virtually all games, with even better visual fidelity through DLSS in Quality mode, or crazy high performance with DLSS on Performance or Ultra Performance presets.

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If you're gaming at 4K, never fret: you've got enough grunt with the AD103 GPU inside of the GeForce RTX 4080 to handle any games you throw at it, same too with the 16GB of GDDR6X memory underneath.

The below 65C GPU temperatures are fantastic to see generation over generation, with ASUS using the same thermal system as the flagship GeForce RTX 4090. You're in good hands here with the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080, if you can get over the $1500 pricing, that is.