[userbinator]

But at least you know a 3080 is two generations newer than a 1080.

That's similar to what Intel was doing with the numbers following the i{3,5,7,9}:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_processors

[marak830]

I believe his point is, that the I(3/5/7/9) moniker represents the chip power relation, but which generation of the chip is hidden, unlike with say the GeForce cards with the 10xx/20xx/30xx.