it doesnt look like the right benchmark because we have seen unprecedente dincrease in transistor density this generation, the 4090 or ad102 is probably a new product segment.. and it looks like a peek into the future in how things are going to be.. i believe everyone estimated the 4090 at 55b transistor tops before nvidia actually spilled the beans..
It's about relative die size and transistor count compared to the top end.
For over a decade its been:
102/100>104>106>107
Now its:
102/100>103>104>106
The top end dies have remained quite consistently between 550MM2 to 650MM2 in area. So any jumps in transistor density don't really affect relative performance within the stack. But if the lower end dGPUs have smaller and smaller dies,they will have a lower and lower percentage of the top model's performance. This is why midrange/mainstream dGPUs are stagnating in performance,but not the top end. Just look at the relative performance jump of the top end vs mainstream. The mainstream is seeing less improvements.
Now look at the area relative to the top die,the AD104 fits into the same percentage range as the previous 106 series dies,ie, 40% to 50% of the top die. The 104 series were typically 2/3 the size of the top die,which surprise,surprise the AD103 is.
In terms of transistors the GA106 had 42.4% of the transistors of the GA102. GA104 had 61.5% of the transistors of the GA102.The AD104 has 46.96% of the transistors of the AD102. The AD103 has 60.2% of the transistors of the AD102.The GP104(GTX1080) had 61.02% of the transistors of the GP102(GTX1080TI). So even looking at transistors,the AD104(RTX4080 12GB) does not look like enthusiast level die - it looks more like a mainstream die. If you look at shaders,the AD104 only has 41.67% of the shaders of the AD102.
Plus people are getting bamboozled by the jump - remember there is a much better node too.
But what you are getting in the AD104 is less of a GPU relative to the AD102,than the GA104 was relative to the GA102. The mainstream dGPUs are going to be powered by what would be considered a 107 series sized AD106.
It's almost like they are trying to make the mainstream dGPUs relatively less performant so they can see more high end sales. Sure,Nvidia needs to ditch its Ampere stock,but why bother rebranding a GA106 successor as a AD104? Because they intend to push the real product stack up again. They did it sucessfully with Kepler. A 104 series dGPU used to power a 60 series card(GTX460TI and GTX560TI). But a relatively less performant 106 series die was used for years.
It is only because RDNA1 and RDNA2 performed well,than it forced Nvidia to use a larger 104 series die for the RTX2060 Super and RTX3060TI. We actually had cards with more than 6GB of VRAM and larger memory buses. My concern is RDNA3 might not be performing as well as expected so Nvidia feels it can do this!
