YESTON GeForce RTX 4080 SAKURA Sugar Graphics Card Review

Yeston RTX 4080 Sakura graphics card with beautiful graphics in and out

Today, we are reviewing a new graphics card from Yeston, which features a unique design.

The Yeston RTX 4080 Sakura graphics card is a high-end and visually stunning addition to the GeForce RTX 4080 lineup. This graphics card aims to deliver great performance for both gaming and creative endeavors. In this review, we will delve into its specifications, analyze its performance, and assess its overall value in the highly competitive graphics card market.

The RTX 4080 Sakura offers 16 GB of GDDR6X video memory, providing ample space for high-resolution textures and complex scene rendering. With a memory configuration of 256-bit bus and 22.4 GB/s bandwidth we are looking at the highest memory clock from all NVIDIA RTX 40 graphics cards currently on the market. The RTX 4080 bandwidth is only surpassed by RTX 4090, which is equipped with a wider 384-bit memory bus.

One of the standout features of the Yeston RTX 4080 Sakura is its colorful, anime-inspired shroud design. With its vibrant hues, intricate detailing, and artistic flair, this graphics card brings a refreshing aesthetic to any gaming rig. The sakura blossom motifs and bold color scheme not only make for an eye-catching visual appeal but also serve as a testament to Yeston’s commitment to blending technology and art.

In the upcoming sections of this review, we will evaluate the Yeston RTX 4080 Sakura’s performance across some benchmarks and real-world scenarios, exploring its capabilities in both gaming and professional applications. So, without further ado, let’s dive into this analysis of the Yeston RTX 4080 Sakura and determine if it lives up to the hype.

The RTX 4090 is based on 4nm Ada Lovelace architecture. This model is equipped with an AD103-300 GPU with 9728 CUDA cores. It ships with the 16GB of memory, which is an upgrade over last gen RTX 3080 series (available with either 10GB or 12GB capacity). Yeston’s card is equipped with a massive 3 slot design and measures 33 cm..

The card ships with one BIOS and there is no option to select a higher-spec config. To add to that, there is no software bundled with the card that would offer either a control over the clock speed or lighting. This is certainly a downside because the only way to disable the lighting effects is by unplugging the cables. On the other hand, the only reason anyone would buy this card is to have all the lighting enabled.

The AD103-300 GPU is located around eight GDDR6 modules developed by Micron. The quality and application of thermal was of high quality, but thermal pads will tear once moved. The card has two cables connected to the triple-fan controller and an LED illuminated and translucent panel.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Specs
VideoCardz.com	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 FE	YESTON RTX 4080 SAKURA
Founders Edition
Board-SKU	PG136-SKU330	PG136-SKU360	PG136-SKU360
Architecture	Ada (TSMC 4N)	Ada (TSMC 4N)	Ada (TSMC 4N)
GPU	AD102-300	AD103-300	AD103-300
SMs	128	76	76
CUDA Cores	16384	9728	9728
Boost Clock	2520 MHz	2505 MHz	2505 MHz
Memory	24 GB G6X	16 GB G6X	16 GB G6X
Memory Bus	384-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Speed	21 Gbps	22.4 Gbps	22.4 Gbps
Bandwidth	1008 GB/s	736 GB/s	736 GB/s
Default TGP	450W	320W	340W
Max TGP	600W (FE)	355W (FE)	340W
MSRP	1599 USD	1199 USD	1249 USD

Comparison versus NVIDIA Founders Edition

The card is actually much lighter than the Founders Edition, but the overall footprint is the same. One should notice that the card features two more phases than the NVIDIA reference design.

• WIDTH: 14.0 cm → 13.2 cm
• LENGTH: 31.0 cm → 33.0 cm
• HEIGHT: 3-slot (61mm) → 3-slot (63 mm)
• WEIGHT:  2.1 kg → 1.46 kg
• POWER (VRM): 18 → 20 

This model has a standard display output configuration of three DP1.4a, and one HDMI 2.1 output.

In case there was any doubt about the name of the cooling solution, it really is called “Sugar”. The company claims to offer a larger 10cm cooling fans compared to the last-gen model, with cooler upgrade to eight copper heatpipes. The shroud uses a new technology called in-mold injection molding to make sure the colorful graphics underneath are of high quality.

Bundle

In terms of bundle, we are getting a fancy packaging with pink ribbons and a comic book which is sadly only in Chinese. The card ships with a 3×8-pin to one 12VHWPR (16-pin) power adapter.

Testing platform

Clocks and thermals

The graphics card produces no noise when not used. It took nearly 20 minutes for the GPU to heat to 55°C. Running a light workload should not immediately force the fans to spin, this only happens once the GPU reaches 60°C. With three 4K monitors attached we are looking at 48W of idle board power and a clock speed of 210 MHz.

Under load (3DMark Speed Way Stress Test) the GPU temperature will eventually stable at 66-67°C with fans reaching 1510 RPM. The card produces audible noise (going up to 50 dBA) in an open chassis. The GPU clock speed reaches 2.7 GHz on average.

Performance

We have put the RTX 4080 Sakura through the most popular 3DMark tests. The card scores just about as expected, leaving a 30-32% gap to RTX 4090. The card only looses to Radeon RX 7900 XTX in TimeSpy Extreme, but due to higher raytracing performance it gets a higher score in Speed Way and Port Royal benchmarks.

Games

Now, it will be interesting to see how the card works in with games. It does not make sense to run hundreds of gamers at this point because the RTX 4080 performance is no secret to anyone. Instead, we ran just a few games to see how the card actually performs in more advanced workloads at high resolution.

	Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Extraction Very High Quality Preset (FPS)
VideoCardz.com	2560×1440 ↓	3840×2160
GeForce RTX 4090	347 (100%)	187 (100%)
	278 (80%)	147 (79%)
YESTON RTX 4080 SAKURA	279 (80%)	156 (83%)
	214 (62%)	109 (58%)
Radeon RX 7900 XTX	278 (80%)	143 (76%)
	214 (62%)	111 (59%)
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti	221 (64%)	124 (66%)
	169 (49%)	90 (48%)
GeForce RTX 3090	207 (60%)	114 (61%)
	153 (44%)	83 (44%)
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti	198 (57%)	108 (58%)
	147 (42%)	79 (42%)
GeForce RTX 3080	189 (54%)	101 (54%)
	139 (40%)	69 (37%)

	Cyberpunk 2077 High Quality Preset, No Upscaling (FPS)
VideoCardz.com	2560×1440 ↓	3840×2160
GeForce RTX 4090	168 (100%)	82 (100%)
	149 (89%)	74 (90%)
Radeon RX 7900 XTX	134 (80%)	69 (84%)
	119 (71%)	61 (74%)
YESTON RTX 4080 SAKURA	126 (75%)	65 (79%)
	109 (65%)	56 (68%)
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti	106 (63%)	54 (66%)
	89 (53%)	49 (60%)
GeForce RTX 3090	95 (57%)	47 (57%)
	79 (47%)	44 (54%)
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti	93 (55%)	47 (57%)
	78 (46%)	42 (51%)
GeForce RTX 3080	85 (51%)	42 (51%)
	73 (43%)	38 (46%)

	Shadow of the Tomb Raider Highest Quality Preset, TAA (FPS)
VideoCardz.com	2560×1440 ↓	3840×2160
GeForce RTX 4090	236 (100%)	159 (100%)
	194 (82%)	147 (92%)
YESTON RTX 4080 SAKURA	205 (87%)	115 (72%)
	183 (78%)	107 (67%)
Radeon RX 7900 XTX	179 (76%)	108 (68%)
	163 (69%)	99 (62%)
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti	149 (63%)	95 (60%)
	125 (53%)	82 (52%)
GeForce RTX 3090	137 (58%)	84 (53%)
	114 (48%)	75 (47%)
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti	133 (56%)	83 (52%)
	113 (48%)	73 (46%)
GeForce RTX 3080	127 (54%)	74 (47%)
	105 (44%)	66 (42%)

	Hitman 3 Ultra Quality Preset (FPS)
VideoCardz.com	2560×1440 ↓	3840×2160
GeForce RTX 4090	207 (100%)	182 (100%)
	177 (86%)	155 (85%)
Radeon RX 7900 XTX	207 (100%)	163 (90%)
	174 (84%)	146 (80%)
YESTON RTX 4080 SAKURA	205 (99%)	143 (79%)
	171 (83%)	118 (65%)
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti	188 (91%)	113 (62%)
	156 (75%)	105 (58%)
GeForce RTX 3090	162 (78%)	100 (55%)
	132 (64%)	87 (48%)
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti	155 (75%)	93 (51%)
	125 (60%)	82 (45%)
GeForce RTX 3080	139 (67%)	83 (46%)
	113 (55%)	73 (40%)

	Horizon Zero Dawn Very High Quality Preset (FPS)
VideoCardz.com	2560×1440 ↓	3840×2160
GeForce RTX 4090	218 (100%)	156 (100%)
	153 (70%)	112 (72%)
YESTON RTX 4080 SAKURA	210 (96%)	117 (75%)
	150 (69%)	92 (59%)
Radeon RX 7900 XTX	198 (91%)	117 (75%)
	141 (65%)	91 (58%)
GeForce RTX 3090 Ti	160 (73%)	101 (65%)
	111 (51%)	78 (50%)
GeForce RTX 3090	149 (68%)	91 (58%)
	103 (47%)	73 (47%)
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti	146 (67%)	89 (57%)
	102 (47%)	70 (45%)
GeForce RTX 3080	127 (58%)	78 (50%)
	88 (40%)	59 (38%)

Depending on a title and resolution, the RTX 4080 Sakura falls either below RTX 4090 or RX 7900 XTX. The card trades places with Radeon GPU depending on the optimizations. The performance difference will be higher with proprietary technologies enabled such as super resolution upscaling, but for the sake of testing we did not use such technologies.

Overclocking

The RTX 4080 Sakura has a locked TDP limit at 340W, so there is no easy way to overclock this graphics card. On the other hand, that’s already 20W above NVIDIA reference specs, so one way or the other, this graphics card is already overclocked – just not in a traditional way (with the frequency). Yeston’s GPU ships with NVIDIA stock clocks (2505 MHz boost), which gives clocks around 2.7 GHz in actual game testing.

Despite those challenges, gamers can still apply custom voltage-frequency curve through the MSI afterburner. Such optimizations can still lead to higher performance, and that’s even without lowering voltages. We had no issues adding 180 MHz to the GPU core (which results in 90-100 MHz higher frequency in testing). Furthermore, the memory clock can easily surpass 1588 MHz, which is an effective bandwidth above 25 Gbps (as a reminder, NVIDIA stock is 22.4 Gbps).

This resulted in higher performance now reaching 7400 points in 3DMark Speed Way, so in other words, 5.9% higher performance with these optimizations.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the graphics card under review from Yeston offers an impressive visual appeal with its eye-catching custom design. Its rare white PCB, previously only seen on the GALAX HOF series, adds a touch of elegance to any build. Additionally, the inclusion of the 0dB technology ensures a quiet operation by preventing the fans from spinning until the temperature exceeds 60 degrees Celsius.

While the card boasts NVIDIA reference clocks, it is worth noting that the TDP is slightly higher out of the box, which will result in higher performance out of the box compared to Founders Edition. On the other hand, there is no way to increase the power limit any further, so additional overclocking may be complicated.

One aspect that might disappoint some users is the lack of lighting control options, both through software and manual means. This omission may be a letdown for those looking to synchronize the card’s lighting with the rest of their setup or simply disable it altogether.

Nevertheless, the graphics card offers commendable performance and is a visually striking choice for enthusiasts seeking a unique and stylish build. Its robust features, such as the white PCB and 0dB technology, contribute to an overall positive experience, albeit with a few minor drawbacks. Ultimately, it’s up to the user’s preferences and priorities to determine if these trade-offs are acceptable in light of the card’s strengths.

At the time of writing, this model was listed at 8299 RMB in China and $1,249 on Newegg.