NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 SUPER vs NVIDIA L4 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded data splits these two NVIDIA accelerators into entirely different performance tiers. The GeForce RTX 5080 SUPER is a consumer-facing Blackwell 2.0 part aimed at high-end desktop rendering, while the L4 is a low-power server accelerator built around Ada Lovelace. There is no direct head-to-head benchmark overlap in the database, so the comparison relies on each card's own benchmark suite and percentile placement.

The RTX 5080 SUPER shows a single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3075. That result places it at the 19th percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rivals in that test are the Intel Arc Pro B60 at 3182 (3.4% ahead) and the NVIDIA Quadro P1000 at 3163 (2.8% ahead). Below it sit the NVIDIA GeForce 820A at 2983 (3.1% behind) and the GeForce GTX 860M at 2967 (3.6% behind). The score indicates the 5080 SUPER competes in a mid-pack range for this particular DX12 workload, not at the top of the database.

The L4, by contrast, uses Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan results. Its OpenCL score is 140838, and its Vulkan score is 121306. The average of those two is 131072, which puts the L4 at the 95th percentile among all GPUs. That is a massive gap in percentile placement. The L4's nearest rivals in average score are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti at 131938 (0.7% ahead), the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada Generation at 135218 (3.1% ahead), the NVIDIA A10M at 135230 (3.1% ahead), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6800 at 135396 (3.2% ahead).

So the win split is clear: the 5080 SUPER wins in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 metric, and the L4 wins decisively in Geekbench compute workloads. The L4's 95th percentile versus the 5080 SUPER's 19th percentile is not a subtle difference. It indicates that the database ranks the L4 as a top-tier compute device while the 5080 SUPER sits much lower in the overall distribution. The 5080 SUPER's advantage would be in gaming-oriented DX12 rendering, where its score occupies a specific niche, but the L4 dominates in general-purpose compute benchmarks.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher benchmark percentile?

A: The NVIDIA L4 sits at the 95th percentile among all GPUs, while the GeForce RTX 5080 SUPER is at the 19th percentile. The L4's average benchmark score is 131072, compared to the 5080 SUPER's 3075.

Q: What benchmark tests are available for each card?

A: The RTX 5080 SUPER has one recorded result: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 with a score of 3075. The L4 has two recorded results: Geekbench OpenCL at 140838 and Geekbench Vulkan at 121306.

Q: How does the RTX 5080 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals in 3DMark?

A: The Intel Arc Pro B60 leads with 3182 (3.4% ahead), the NVIDIA Quadro P1000 scores 3163 (2.8% ahead), the NVIDIA GeForce 820A scores 2983 (3.1% behind), and the GeForce GTX 860M scores 2967 (3.6% behind). The 5080 SUPER sits between those two pairs.

Q: How does the L4 compare to the RTX 3090 Ti?

A: In the database, the L4's average score of 131072 is 0.7% behind the RTX 3090 Ti's 131938. The L4 also trails the RTX 4000 Ada Generation by 3.1% and the A10M by 3.1%.

Q: What memory configurations do the two cards use?

A: Both have 24 GB of memory, but the RTX 5080 SUPER uses GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus with 1.02 TB/s bandwidth, while the L4 uses GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 300.1 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which card has the higher power draw?

A: The RTX 5080 SUPER has a TDP of 415 W, while the L4 has a TDP of 72 W. The L4 also has no power connectors and lists a suggested PSU of 250 W.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains no direct head-to-head benchmark entries between the RTX 5080 SUPER and the L4. Instead, each card was tested with different tools. The 5080 SUPER's sole result is 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 at 3075. That score positions it 2.8% below the Quadro P1000 and 3.4% below the Arc Pro B60, while staying 3.1% above the GeForce 820A and 3.6% above the GTX 860M. On that specific DX12 workload, the 5080 SUPER is within a small band of similar performers, neither dominating nor trailing far behind.

The L4's Geekbench OpenCL result of 140838 is its strongest recorded score. Its Vulkan result of 121306 is lower by roughly 14%. The average of the two, 131072, is what the database uses for ranking. Against its nearest rivals, the L4 is 0.7% behind the RTX 3090 Ti, 3.1% behind the RTX 4000 Ada Generation, 3.1% behind the A10M, and 3.2% behind the Radeon PRO W6800. All four rivals sit within a narrow 4% band, meaning the L4 is competitive with those high-end cards despite its much lower power envelope.

The biggest numerical gap in the comparison is the average benchmark score difference: 131072 versus 3075. That is a 42.6x difference. However, those numbers come from different benchmark suites, so a direct ratio is not a valid performance comparison. The percentile placement provides the more meaningful contrast: 95th versus 19th. The L4 is ranked among the top 5% of all GPUs in the database, while the 5080 SUPER is ranked below 81% of all GPUs. The 5080 SUPER's single score of 3075 in Steel Nomad is not a weak result in absolute terms, but it places the card in a lower tier of the overall distribution.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every major specification. The RTX 5080 SUPER is built on the GB203 chip with 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die. The L4 uses the AD104 chip with 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. Transistor density is nearly identical: 120.6M per mm² for the 5080 SUPER and 121.8M per mm² for the L4.

Clock speeds diverge sharply. The 5080 SUPER has a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2617 MHz. The L4 has a base clock of 795 MHz and a boost clock of 2040 MHz. Memory clocks also differ: the 5080 SUPER runs at 2000 MHz with 32 Gbps effective, while the L4 runs at 1563 MHz with 12.5 Gbps effective.

Memory bandwidth is a major separator. The 5080 SUPER delivers 1.02 TB/s on a 256-bit bus with GDDR7. The L4 delivers 300.1 GB/s on a 192-bit bus with GDDR6. Both have 24 GB capacity, but the interface and technology differ.

Compute resources are higher on the 5080 SUPER: 10752 shading units, 336 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 84 RT cores, and 336 tensor cores. The L4 has 7424 shading units, 240 TMUs, 80 ROPs, 60 RT cores, and 240 tensor cores. Pixel rate is 293.1 GPixel/s versus 163.2 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 879.3 GTexel/s versus 489.6 GTexel/s. FP32 and FP16 performance are both 56.28 TFLOPS on the 5080 SUPER versus 30.29 TFLOPS on the L4.

Power and physical design differ completely. The 5080 SUPER draws 415 W, uses a dual-slot form factor, a 16-pin connector, and measures 304 mm by 137 mm by 40 mm. The L4 draws 72 W, is single-slot, has no power connectors, lists a 250 W suggested PSU, and measures 169 mm by 56 mm with no recorded width. The 5080 SUPER uses PCIe 5.0 x16; the L4 uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs: the 5080 SUPER has one HDMI 2.1b and three DisplayPort 2.1b; the L4 has none.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 5080 SUPER is based on Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm TSMC process. The L4 is based on Ada Lovelace, also on a 5 nm TSMC process. Both use the same foundry and node, but the chip designs diverge. The 5080 SUPER uses the GB203 chip, while the L4 uses the AD104 chip. The transistor counts differ by 9,800 million in favor of the 5080 SUPER, and the die area differs by 84 mm².

Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RT core counts differ: 84 on the 5080 SUPER versus 60 on the L4. Tensor core counts differ: 336 versus 240. The 5080 SUPER has a 1:1 FP16 to FP32 ratio, as does the L4, but the absolute throughput is higher on the 5080 SUPER: 56.28 TFLOPS versus 30.29 TFLOPS.

The L4 belongs to the Server Ada generation, with a predecessor of Server Ampere and a successor of Server Hopper. The 5080 SUPER belongs to the GeForce 50 generation with no predecessor or successor listed. The L4 has no display outputs, which aligns with its server role. The 5080 SUPER is a desktop part with full display connectivity.

Memory architecture also differs: GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus for the 5080 SUPER versus GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus for the L4. The bandwidth gap of 1.02 TB/s versus 300.1 GB/s is a direct result of the bus width and memory generation. The L4's lower clock speeds and narrower bus are consistent with its 72 W power target.

The Verdict

The data points to two different use cases. The RTX 5080 SUPER is a high-power desktop GPU with a 415 W TDP, a 16-pin connector, and a dual-slot design. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 3075 places it at the 19th percentile, indicating it competes with mid-range cards in that specific DX12 test. Its 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth make it a strong candidate for rendering workloads that benefit from high memory throughput and large compute resources.

The L4 is a low-power server accelerator with a 72 W TDP, no power connectors, a 250 W suggested PSU, and a single-slot design. Its Geekbench scores of 140838 (OpenCL) and 121306 (Vulkan) average to 131072, placing it at the 95th percentile. That percentile ranking puts it among the top GPUs in the database, close to the RTX 3090 Ti (0.7% behind) and the RTX 4000 Ada Generation (3.1% behind). The L4 has no display outputs, confirming its role as a compute-only device.

For a user prioritizing compute performance in Geekbench-style workloads, the L4 is the clear choice based on percentile rank. For a user prioritizing DX12 rendering in 3DMark Steel Nomad, the 5080 SUPER is the only one of the two with a recorded result in that test. The 5080 SUPER's launch MSRP is 999 USD, stated once here. The L4 has no recorded launch MSRP.

The database does not provide a direct head-to-head comparison, so the verdict rests on the separate benchmark suites. The L4's 95th percentile versus the 5080 SUPER's 19th percentile is the strongest signal. Within their respective test sets, the L4 is far more competitive against top-tier GPUs, while the 5080 SUPER sits in a lower tier. The 5080 SUPER offers more raw compute throughput (56.28 TFLOPS versus 30.29 TFLOPS), more memory bandwidth (1.02 TB/s versus 300.1 GB/s), and more shading units, but its benchmark placement does not reflect dominance in the database. The L4, despite lower absolute specs, achieves a much higher percentile ranking.

The choice depends on workload type. The 5080 SUPER is designed for desktop rendering with display outputs. The L4 is designed for server compute with no display outputs. The data confirms that the L4 performs at a high level in compute benchmarks, while the 5080 SUPER performs at a mid-range level in a DX12 rendering benchmark. Each card wins in its own domain, but the L4's percentile advantage is substantial.