Introduction

Zotac GeForce RTX 4080 Super AMP Extreme AIRO is the top custom-design graphics card by Zotac Gaming to be based on the RTX 4080 Super, the newest kid on the block for those seeking an enthusiast-segment GPU for maxed out gameplay at 4K Ultra HD, with ray tracing. The RTX 4080 Super is the fastest of the three-part Super series mid-lifecycle refresh of the GeForce RTX Ada Lovelace generation. The three are designed to be considered for Spring-Summer gaming PC builds; since the next generation won’t come out until the end of 2024. A recurring theme with the three RTX 40-series Super graphics cards has been improvements in the value proposition. For the RTX 4070 Super, this meant a massive 21% increase in shaders. For the RTX 4070 Ti Super, it meant an increase in memory size from 12 GB to 16 GB, and a few more shaders. The RTX 4080 Super is a slightly different beast. You get a few more shaders than the original RTX 4080, but at a 20% lower price. What this means is that premium factory overclocked custom-designs such as the Zotac AMP Extreme AIRO we’re reviewing today, will come in at prices comparable to the baseline of the RTX 4080, if not less.

To create the GeForce RTX 4080 Super, NVIDIA simply maxed out the AD103 silicon that the original RTX 4080 was based on, and gave it slight increases in clock speeds. It didn’t take the expensive route of vastly increasing the shader count or memory size by tapping into the larger AD102 silicon powering the RTX 4090. The RTX 4080 finds itself embattled with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which is often found listed around the $900-mark. So rather than carving out a bigger AD102-based SKU, NVIDIA decided to design a fully unlocked AD103-based SKU, but with an attractive $1,000 baseline price, compared to the $1,200 original MSRP of the RTX 4080. The AD103 silicon is mighty large, featuring 80 streaming multiprocessors (SM), all of which are enabled on the RTX 4080 Super, compared to the 76 on the RTX 4080. Besides this, the RTX 4080 Super gets 23 Gbps memory speeds, compared to the 22.4 Gbps speeds of the RTX 4080.

With 80 SM on tap, the RTX 4080 Super specs sheet looks eye-pleasing, with 10,240 CUDA cores, 320 Tensor cores, 80 RT cores, 320 TMUs, and the chip’s full complement of 112 ROPs, along with 64 MB of on-die L2 cache that lubricates the memory pipeline. Thanks to this, the AD103 can make do with a 256-bit wide memory bus, driving 16 GB of memory. The GPU frequency is slightly increased to 2550 MHz boost from the 2505 MHz of the original RTX 4080. Zotac has further overclocked this to 2610 MHz on the AMP Extreme. The power limit is unchanged from the RTX 4080—it remains at 320 W. The Ada Lovelace graphics architecture is at the helm of things with the RTX 4080 Super. Its CUDA cores, besides generational performance uplifts, introduce shader execution reordering, which positively impacts ray tracing performance; the 3rd generation RT core introduces displaced micro-meshes, a feature that allows game developers to increase the geometric complexity of ray traced objects; and the new optical flow accelerator that enables DLSS 3 Frame Generation, allowing the GPU to draw entire alternate frames using AI, without involving the graphics pipeline.

The Zotac GeForce RTX 4080 Super AMP Extreme AIRO features the heaviest variant of the company’s IceStorm 2.0 cooling solution designed along the AIRO (air-optimized) airflow design. The fins in the heatsink are designed to guide airflow from the fans in a way that maximizes heat dissipation, allowing fan speeds to be lowered. The design also incorporates Zotac’s latest Spectra 2.0 RGB LED lighting, with an elaborate RGB diffuser along the top of the card, as well as illuminated logos along the backplate and the tail-end of the card. The card also features a 3-pin ARGB header, so you can sync its lighting with the rest of your setup. Zotac is pricing the RTX 4080 Super AMP Extreme AIRO at $1100.