CONCLUSION

   The GeForce RTX 4080 by NVIDIA is the 2^nd most powerful graphics card in the market today only surpassed by its larger brother the GeForce RTX 4090. Indeed, even 4k gaming is possible with one such card and even though this doesn’t include RT heavy titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Chernobylite if you choose to enable DLSS 3 even that's not a problem. Power consumption is also rather low, always compared to the direct competitor of the GeForce RTX 4080, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The same more or less applies for noise levels and temperatures although there both the Gainward and Sapphire cards perform roughly the same. The almost all-black color theme of the Phantom is something some will like quite a bit while others will probably avoid due to the lack of rich ARGB lighting like the Phoenix model again by Gainward. My sole issue with the GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom is the exact same one I had with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ by Sapphire, size. To be more precise size and weight something which manufacturers are already aware and thus provide holders with their cards. These holders do a relatively good job for the most part (certainly not excellent) but nothing can be done about size and so even in large cases you may have a hard time mounting them (especially if you have fans, a radiator or both mounted at the front of your case).

   The GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom 16GB graphics card by Gainward currently retails for 1389.47Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is obviously just a tad inflated compared to the official MSRP when the card was launched (nothing new with everything happening). The sole question is just how much its direct competition costs and so since currently most Radeon RX 7900 XTX cards like the Sapphire Nitro+ are just a tad less expensive it all comes down to whether or not you play RT games or just how much NVIDIA exclusive technologies like DLSS 3 are worth to you. Personally, I think that both the Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ and the Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom are great cards (they do exchange blows a lot in my tests after all) and so the Platinum Award is once again in order.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality (Materials / Backplate)
- Top Of The Charts Performance
- Good Overclocking Headroom
- Power Consumption, Noise Levels & Temperatures
- ARGB Zone
- Supported Technologies

CONS

- Size (For Some)
- USA Availability