ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 ROG Strix 16GB GDDR6X

A beast of a card with a price tag that makes no sense in 2025. Buy it used or don't buy it at all.

The PassMark G3D score of 34,452 puts this thing in the top tier for raster performance, landing in the 92nd percentile. That's best-in-class territory for pushing pixels. The 16GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus gives you 432 GB/s of bandwidth, which is plenty for 4K textures. What surprised us most is the thermal performance. ASUS's vapor chamber and those chunky axial-tech fans keep this 320W beast cool under load, hitting the 92nd percentile for thermals. That's impressive for a card this power hungry. Ray tracing is also a standout at the 89th percentile, so Cyberpunk with path tracing is very much on the table.

Against the newer Gigabyte AERO GV-N5080AERO OC-16GD or the MSI Ventus RTX 5070 Ti, the ROG Strix 4080 is in a weird spot. The 5070 Ti cards are likely to match or beat it in many games while costing less, and the 5080 options will outpace it outright. The Sapphire NITRO+ is an AMD card, so that's a different conversation entirely. If you're buying today, the ROG Strix 4080 only makes sense if you find it at a steep discount or you're specifically in love with the cooler design. Otherwise, a 5070 Ti or 5080 is the smarter buy.

Here's the problem. This card is listed at USD 2,200 in the US and EUR 2,557 to EUR 3,635 across European vendors. That's a massive spread, and even the low end is a lot of money for a last-gen card when RTX 50 series options are starting to appear. The best EUR deal we see is at the EUR 2,557 mark, but honestly, at this price you're paying a huge premium for the ROG Strix cooler and brand. The affordability percentile is 11th, which means almost everything else in this category is cheaper. You're not getting 11th percentile performance, but you are paying 11th percentile prices.

The ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4080 is a big, beautiful, overbuilt monster of a card that absolutely crushes 1440p and 4K gaming. The one thing to know? It's fast as hell, but you're paying a serious premium for the ROG Strix name and cooler at a time when newer cards are starting to show up. If raw frame rates at high res are your thing, this card delivers. Just don't expect it to be a value play.

If you're looking for value or you're building a compact PC, this isn't it. Go get a RTX 5070 Ti or a smaller two-slot card instead. And if you're on a budget, this card will laugh at your wallet and then eat your PCIe slots.

The ROG Strix RTX 4080 is a fantastic card that's hard to recommend at its current price. The performance is real, the thermals are excellent, and it'll chew through 4K games without breaking a sweat. But with newer cards on the market and prices this high, you're paying a collector's tax. If you can snag one used or at a serious discount, go for it. At full retail, look elsewhere.