The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super increases power but reduces energy consumption

With the launch of the GeForce RTX 4080 Super, almost all journalists around the world have dedicated themselves to details deemed most important per their reviews: a slight increase in power with a reduction in MSRP, compared to the previous generation, of $200.
However, it seems that there were those who decided to take a more in-depth look at the new RTX 4080 Super, despite the fact that it looked practically the same as the normal 4080, discovering a curious detail: a reduction in feeding phases.
The power supply phases are responsible for powering the various components present on the printed circuit board (also called PCB) and curiously, on the new RTX 4080 Super, there are fewer than the normal RTX 4080although the new version is more powerful.

A curious circumstance

As you can easily see from the screen above, the printed circuit board of the Founders Edition (the famous PCB) is practically identical except for the number of power phases.
NVIDIA has in fact reduced the power phases from 13 to 11 and has also cut the memory phases from 3 to 2: it is perfectly normal for there to be differences on details of this type between one generation and anotherwhat is certainly strangest is that an update capable of guaranteeing a (slight) increase in power like that of the RTX 4080 Super went hand in hand with a reduction of this nature.
Geekerwan, who first noticed this curious detail, shared his idea about it: cutting the phases allowed NVIDIA to slightly reduce the consumption of the card during its operation.

Lower consumption

In fact, even the NVIDIA website reports a slight drop in the average consumption of the card, which decrease by a few watts.
According to the first clues collected, it seems that this reduction actually impacts only the cards with direct NVIDIA design references: it is unthinkable to believe that the partners are willing to implement this change on their custom models, once again forcing their cards to go through the various ” approvals”.
The differences between the RTX 4080 Super and the regular 4080 are laughable and the least effort for the various manufacturers is simply to keep the structure of the current RTX 4080 unchanged by only updating the chip to the new version.
However, this cut should not scare us users: NVIDIA has no interest in producing such a complex component in the presence of structural criticalities of this magnitude, which means that the card can operate without any problem within the parameters that the technicians have identified as safe.
However, if this cut is particularly indigestible for you, simply turn to one of the countless customized solutions from partner brands.