Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 review: Meet the new $999 graphics card king

With its slimline two-slot cooler, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Version would possibly look virtually similar to its two-grand sibling whenever you raise it out of its slender, recyclable cardboard field, however there’s a really completely different GPU below that cooler. You may mainly consider the RTX 5080 as half a 5090 – you get round half the GPU energy and half the VRAM. Maybe extra importantly, it’s additionally half the value. Regardless of all this, although, the RTX 5080 performs exceptionally effectively, and might nonetheless be considered a 4K gaming GPU.

This new Nvidia top-end sub-$1,000 GPU picks up from the place the RTX 4080 Tremendous left off, and that’s not a nasty place to begin. This GPU is already the perfect graphics card you should buy for those who can’t stretch to over a grand, and the 5080 brings help for DLSS 4 and Multi Body Gen with it, which makes use of AI to insert as much as three frames between every pair of genuinely rendered ones, massively growing the body charge, with a negligible affect on picture high quality.

I’m additionally actually glad to see that Nvidia has deserted the ludicrous $1,199 price ticket that held again the RTX 4080 when it was launched, and as an alternative gone with the $999 tag of the later 4080 Tremendous mannequin. Then again, the RTX 5080 has a really related spec to the 4080 and its Tremendous variant by way of primary numbers, which suggests it’s closely counting on new options resembling Multi Body Gen to actually give it a generational edge. Is that this sufficient? I’ve run the RTX 5080 benchmarks on our take a look at rig to seek out out.

Specs

Whereas the RTX 5080 nonetheless maintains the identical 16GB body buffer as its predecessor by way of capability, the brand new GPU makes use of quick GDDR7 VRAM to enhance efficiency. Not solely that, but it surely’s working at a super-fast velocity of 32Gbps, which is even faster than the 28Gbps reminiscence equipped with the RTX 5090.

The RTX 5080 additionally companions this reminiscence with a 256-bit large interface, which is tight for a $999 GPU in 2025. As some extent of comparability, the cheaper AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 24GB of VRAM connected to a 384-bit interface. Nonetheless, this AMD GPU solely makes use of GDDR6 reminiscence, and the massive velocity of the RTX 5080’s GDDR7 reminiscence ends in an enormous complete reminiscence bandwidth of 960GB/s. That’s not far off the 1.01TB/s bandwidth of the RTX 4090, and it means this GPU will have the ability to get knowledge to and from its reminiscence extremely rapidly.

Is 16GB sufficient? In the intervening time, sure, within the overwhelming majority of most circumstances, however as I’ll come to later, there are already some video games that demand extra if you wish to max them out. Nonetheless, there are rumors {that a} 24GB RTX 5080 can also be on the playing cards for the longer term, as the brand new Samsung 3GB GDDR7 reminiscence chips can theoretically allow graphics card makers to drop 24GB of VRAM into the identical PCB as a 16GB card, with none basic modifications needing to be made to the GPU. For the second, although, if you’d like the RTX 5080, it’s a must to make do with 16GB of reminiscence.

One other space the place the RTX 5080 has a bonus over the 5090 is its GPU clock velocity, with the smaller, much less highly effective GPU enabling Nvidia to crank extra megahertz out of the 5080, whereas utilizing the identical cooler. The RTX 5080 can enhance to as much as 2,620MHz, in comparison with 2,407MHz on the 5090 – a 213MHz distinction.

The draw back is that the brand new $999 GPU has round half the variety of inner processors because the RTX 5090. You get 10,752 CUDA cores within the RTX 5080, which the GPU makes use of for the rasterization duties utilized by most video games. That is barely any greater than the ten,240 within the 4080 Tremendous, or the 9,728 within the unique 4080, so we’re not anticipating the RTX 5080 to be a lot faster than its predecessors in video games with out ray tracing or DLSS.

These CUDA cores are unfold throughout 84 of Nvidia’s streaming multiprocessor (SM) constructing blocks, every of which has a brand new 4th-gen RT core for ray tracing and 4 Fifth-gen Tensor cores for AI work, resembling DLSS and Nvidia’s new neural rendering options. That is lower than half the variety of SMs within the RTX 5090, but it surely nonetheless offers you 84 RT cores and 336 Tensor cores, which ends up in a supremely highly effective GPU relating to body charges.

The opposite key space of the spec is the ability draw, which at 360W is an effective 215W decrease than the RTX 5090. Which means you’ll be able to fortunately use the RTX 5080 with an 850W PSU, or perhaps a 750W PSU for those who’re utilizing a power-efficient CPU, such because the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

The RTX 5080 Founders Version makes use of the identical cooler as its bigger sibling, and you may learn all my detailed ideas on it in our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 evaluate. In brief, it’s a improbable piece of engineering, with the GPU mounted on a small PCB in the course of the cardboard, permitting room for the 2 followers on the entrance to drag cool air from the underside of your case over the heatsink fins, after which expel it straight out the vents on the again of the cardboard.

It’s quiet, handsome, and it barely makes any noise. It additionally solely takes up two slots in your PC case, which was a spectacular achievement on the RTX 5090, and nonetheless worthy of point out on the RTX 5080. In spite of everything, the RTX 4080 used the identical huge cooler because the RTX 4090, and the RTX 5080 board accomplice playing cards are all a lot larger.

I additionally actually just like the angled 16-pin energy connector, which suggests you don’t have to show your cable at a proper angle and threat an insecure connection beginning a hearth. It additionally makes for neat cabling for those who move the 16-pin plug via a cable-routing gap in your case on the fitting of the cardboard. You get a 3 x 8-pin adapter within the field for older PSUs that don’t have a 16-pin cable too.

Options

As there’s solely a small step up within the primary spec, the principle distinction between the RTX 5080 and the 4080 playing cards is the previous’s help for Multi Body Gen, which is a part of the brand new DLSS 4 suite. As I discussed above, it is a intelligent method of utilizing AI to insert additional frames between those rendered by the GPU, to clean out the body charge.

As you’ll see within the benchmarks beneath, it could possibly have a transformative impact on body charges, enabling you to max out all of the ray tracing settings in your video games, and nonetheless get quick efficiency. It’s this tech that permits the RTX 5070 to outperform the 4090 in video games that help it.

Comparatively, the RTX 4000 playing cards solely help commonplace body era, which simply inserts one additional body between every rendered pair, whereas the RTX 5000 playing cards can insert two or three additional frames, relying your settings. You may allow this characteristic in your recreation’s graphics settings, if it helps it, however Nvidia can also be providing a option to power Multi Body Gen help into video games, so long as they already help commonplace body gen, and so long as you’re utilizing an RTX 5000-series GPU.

You are able to do this utilizing the Nvidia App, the place you’ll quickly have the ability to discover a part referred to as DLSS Override in every recreation’s settings profile. From right here, you’ll be able to power the body gen mannequin from the usual one to 2x or 3x Multi Body Gen. On the time of penning this evaluate, I used to be capable of take a look at this characteristic in Marvel Rivals, and it labored amazingly effectively, greater than doubling the body charge between commonplace body gen and Multi Body Gen, whereas the motion was nonetheless clean.

Nvidia additionally says the RTX 5000 sequence is optimized for its new neural rendering options, resembling RTX Pores and skin and Neural Radiance cache. I not too long ago tried Half-Life 2 RTX with neural rendering, and it makes a major distinction to the depth of shadows, in addition to the translucency of pores and skin, making for rather more practical graphics. Nvidia can be hoping that large video games begin to introduce these options quickly, however they’re not utilized in any video games proper now.

How we take a look at

To evaluate the efficiency of the RTX 5080, I’m working quite a few benchmarks utilizing actual video games, reasonably than artificial benchmarks. Every take a look at is run thrice, recorded with Nvidia FrameView, and we report the imply common of the outcomes, discarding any apparent anomalies. I report two figures for body charges – firstly, the typical, which provides you an concept of the overall body charge you’ll obtain. Secondly, I report the 1% low, which is a mean of the bottom one % of outcomes recorded through the benchmark.

It is a extra dependable indicator of efficiency than the minimal, because it removes outliers, resembling moments the place a Home windows system occasion causes the sport to stutter, which is unrelated to the efficiency of the GPU. The 1% low is what you’ll be able to anticipate the precise minimal body charge to be in these video games.

GPU take a look at system specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• CPU cooler: Corsair H100X RGB Elite
• Reminiscence: 32GB 6,000MHz G.Ability TridentZ RGB, CL28
• Motherboard: MSI MAG X870E Carbon WiFi
• SSD: 2TB WD Black SN850X
• PSU: Corsair RM1000X Shift

Benchmarks

Cyberpunk 2077

I’m going to begin with the sport take a look at that finest reveals off the potential of the RTX 5080, which is Cyberpunk 2077. This ageing recreation nonetheless seems wonderful, because of CD Projekt Purple’s means to maintain including the newest tech to it. I’ve examined the sport with the newest construct, which provides help for Nvidia’s new DLSS 4 transformer mannequin for upscaling, in addition to help for Multi Body Gen.

The latter is completely the RTX 5080’s killer characteristic. Simply take a look at the 1440p ends in the graph above, and you may see that the RTX 5080 averages an enormous 228fps, and that’s with the sport totally maxed out with path tracing enabled. It seems unbelievable at these settings, significantly with Nvidia’s new transformer mannequin dealing with decision upscaling.

On this take a look at, the one setup that’s quicker is the RTX 5090 with Multi Body Gen additionally enabled. Comparatively, the RTX 4090 with commonplace body gen averages 148fps, whereas the RTX 4080 Tremendous hits 115fps and the usual 4080 averages 113fps. Principally, in video games that help Multi Body Gen, the RTX 5080 can run at double the velocity of the RTX 4080.

As some extent of comparability, with no assist in any respect from DLSS Tremendous Decision or body gen, the RTX 5080 solely averages 41fps on this take a look at, which actually goes to indicate how difficult it’s, and the way a lot work Nvidia’s AI tech is doing. Add Tremendous Decision with the transformer mannequin on the high quality setting, and the sport averages 61fps, which is an effective place to begin earlier than you begin including body gen to the combo, and the sport is clean and responsive whenever you’re taking part in.

It may well even deal with the sport at 4K utilizing these settings, averaging 128fps with a 1% low of 98fps, which is once more effectively in entrance of the 82fps from the RTX 4090 and 59fps from the 4080.

I’ve additionally included the outcomes from the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX in these graphs for reference. As you’ll be able to see, the AMD GPU actually struggles with path tracing, even with each FSR body gen and upscaling enabled. The AMD GPU averages simply 36fps at 1440p and 17fps at 4K. If you wish to play video games with all of the ray tracing eye sweet enabled, the RTX 5080 is well the only option below $1,000.

As you’ll anticipate from the specs, although, for those who don’t allow DLSS, there’s little or no to separate the RTX 5080 from its predecessors. For instance, I ran Cyberpunk 2077 on the Extremely ray tracing preset with no DLSS upscaling or body gen enabled, and the RTX 5080 averaged 70fps at 1440, whereas the 4080 tremendous hit 63fps and the usual 4080 runs at a mean of 62fps – that’s a 12.9% efficiency improve, which reveals that you really want DLSS and body gen help to get essentially the most out of this new GPU.

F1 24

Subsequent up is F1 24, which doesn’t have help for Multi Body Gen help but, however does showcase the RTX 5080’s ray tracing efficiency at Extremely settings. The early driver I used for testing additionally didn’t enable me to allow DLSS Override on this recreation to power Multi Body Gen both. Nonetheless, even utilizing commonplace body gen offers this recreation a good enhance.

At 1440p, the RTX 5080 averages 133fps at Extremely settings with out DLSS, which is already a great end result, being 20.9% faster than the RTX 4080. Add body gen and Tremendous Decision to the combo, although, and the body charge climbs to an enormous 219fps, with a 1% low of 119fps – an awesome end result for a recreation working at these settings, and I’m hoping it is going to be even quicker once more once I’m capable of change on Multi Body Gen.

This was additionally a take a look at that benefited the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX after we enabled FSR upscaling and body gen to the combo, with the AMD GPU averaging an enormous 270fps. That’s nice for efficiency, however out of the 2 choices I’d select the slower RTX 5080, just because the picture high quality is so a lot better.

In the intervening time, FSR nonetheless has quite a lot of issues with noisy shadow dithering, ghosting, and blurriness, in addition to shimmering in quick movement. These artifacts are nonetheless current with DLSS, however are a lot much less pronounced. Hopefully AMD will tackle quite a lot of this with FSR 4, however in the meanwhile it’s necessary to not be led astray by that greater body charge, because the RTX 5080 nonetheless offers a greater recreation expertise.

Equally, at 4K, the typical of 84fps is already fairly stable, being 21.7% quicker than the RTX 4080, however enabling body gen sees the body charge rise to 146fps. It’s a disgrace I’m unable to check this recreation with Multi Body Gen on the time of writing, however I’ll be going again to this benchmark with the RTX 5080. Principally, on this recreation, the RTX 5080 is already a good quantity faster than the RTX 4080 playing cards, and body gen makes it even quicker. That’s a great end result for this GPU, and it might get even higher with Multi Body Gen enabled.

Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle

The newest Indy title is supremely demanding anyway, requiring ray tracing in any respect of its settings, and being completely punishing for those who allow the complete RT mode with path tracing. This take a look at additionally noticed the bounds of this 16GB card, as working this recreation at 4K with the Supreme preset and full RT enabled maxes out the VRAM and causes efficiency to fall off a cliff, as you’ll be able to see within the graph beneath.

No quantity of body gen may also help if the GPU doesn’t have sufficient VRAM to render the fundamental frames within the first place, and this take a look at already reveals the bounds of the 16GB reminiscence allocation. That’s a disgrace, because the GPU itself seems as if it could have the ability to run the sport at these settings at a playable body charge, if solely it had the VRAM for it. Hopefully, there’ll certainly be a 24GB RTX 5080 card sooner or later to assist out right here, as the one different option to run the sport at these settings is with a 24GB RTX 4090 or 32GB RTX 5090, and these playing cards price much more cash.

And, earlier than you ask, no, a 24GB AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX received’t work right here. Not solely are AMD GPUs horrible at path tracing, however they’re additionally unsupported by this recreation within the full RT mode. Fireplace up the sport with an AMD GPU, and also you received’t even see the choices to allow path tracing.

On the plus facet, you’ll be able to at the very least max out this recreation at 1440p, the place enabling body gen and setting DLSS Tremendous Decision to the High quality setting allows the RTX 5080 to common 98fps with a 1% low of 75fps – that’s a great 21% efficiency improve over the RTX 4080. This recreation can also be on the record of 64 Multi Body Gen video games that Nvidia has listed for the January 30 launch date, so it ought to have the ability to go even quicker with the brand new tech enabled.

Run this recreation at these settings with out DLSS Tremendous Decision and body gen, and the typical body charge drops proper right down to 41fps, which reveals simply how a lot of a problem it’s to run on in the present day’s GPUs with out AI tech. Add Tremendous Decision on the high quality setting and the typical goes as much as 61fps which, as with Cyberpunk 2077, is a stable place to begin earlier than you add body gen.

As with different video games, although, for those who don’t allow DLSS, the efficiency distinction between this GPU and its predecessors shrinks on this recreation. The RTX 5080’s common of 90fps at 4K continues to be a improbable end result on this recreation at Extremely settings with out DLSS, but it surely’s an 11.1% enchancment, reasonably than a 21% enchancment.

Equally, working the sport on the similar settings at 1440p ends in a 131fps common, which is simply 7.4% faster than the 4080. That’s nonetheless an awesome end result, and it’s effectively in entrance of the 111fps from the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but it surely’s clear that you simply actually must be working your video games at excessive decision with DLSS to get essentially the most out of the RTX 5080.

Name of Obligation Black Ops 6

Now, the not so excellent news. With barely any change to the CUDA cores within the RTX 5080 in comparison with its predecessors, you don’t get a lot of a efficiency enhance in video games that don’t help ray tracing, particularly for those who don’t allow DLSS.

Name of Obligation Black Ops 6 is a working example. Operating this recreation on the Excessive preset confirmed solely a tiny distinction between the RTX 5080 and the 4080, climbing from a mean of 89fps at 4K to 93fps – a distinction of simply 4.5%.

On the plus facet, this recreation’s help for body gen allows you to improve this to 128fps on the RTX 5080, however you can too allow this characteristic on the RTX 4080 playing cards, and even that solely offers you a 37.6% efficiency improve. As soon as this recreation both helps Multi Body Gen natively, or you’ll be able to power it on with DLSS Override, nevertheless, the RTX 5080 ought to pull forward, and I look ahead to retesting this recreation when it’s potential.

That is one other take a look at the place the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is ostensibly quicker than the RTX 5080 whenever you allow FSR and body gen, however once more, the superior picture high quality of DLSS makes for a sharper picture and a greater total gaming expertise.

Multi Body Gen could also be an awesome tech, however this take a look at actually reveals that you simply don’t get a lot of a lift in primary rendering efficiency by upgrading from the RTX 4080 to the 5080 for those who can’t allow it. The outcomes are even starker at 1440p, the place the typical body charge solely will increase from 138fps to 142fps between the RTX 4080 and 5080 – a tiny enchancment of simply 2.9%. This take a look at additionally marks the one uncommon event the place the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is barely faster than the RTX 5080, although not by an enormous margin.

Doom Everlasting

Equally to Name of Obligation Black Ops 6, Doom Everlasting doesn’t scale to new heights with the additional energy of the RTX 5080 both. This ageing recreation nonetheless runs like a dream on the brand new GPU, in fact, however the efficiency profit is negligible in comparison with the 4080 playing cards. At 4K with out ray tracing, for instance, the RTX 5080 averages 342fps, whereas the 4080 averages 325fps – a lift of simply 5.2%. Add ray tracing to the combo, and the distinction continues to be slim at simply 6.25%.

We additionally noticed this similar restricted good thing about the brand new architectures when evaluating the RTX 5090 to the 4090 on this recreation, however the comparatively decrease outcomes of the 5080 and 4080 counsel this isn’t right down to the sport being CPU restricted. Principally, older video games don’t seem to reply significantly effectively to the advantages of the brand new Blackwell structure, particularly with out DLSS. Actually, you want quite a lot of ray tracing within the scene, resembling path tracing, and Multi Body Gen, to actually reap the advantages of the RTX 5080.

Energy draw

After the massive shock of the RTX 5090 energy draw, I used to be delighted to see that the RTX 5080’s energy consumption is far tamer. With the RTX 5080 put in, our AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D take a look at rig drew 454W from the mains at peak load, whereas taking part in F1 24. That’s solely 2W greater than with the RTX 4080 Tremendous fitted, and 32W greater than with the RTX 4080.

Principally, the RTX 5080’s energy draw is in the identical league because the 4080 playing cards, and a great distance off the 524W of the RTX 4090 and the large 682W of the RTX 5090. A 750W PSU can be nice for this card for those who’re utilizing an eight-core CPU, and an 850W unit is advisable for those who’re working a power-hungry chip such because the Intel Core i9 14900K. If you happen to’re already utilizing an RTX 4080 in your PC, and your PSU isn’t proper as much as its restrict, you’ll have the ability to use the identical PSU to energy the RTX 5080.

Worth

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 worth is $999, which is $200 decrease than the unique MSRP of the RTX 4080, and the identical worth because the newer RTX 4080 Tremendous. That is nonetheless a excessive worth – comparatively, the RTX 3080 launched at simply $649 – however with little competitors on this space, Nvidia has management over pricing, and fortunately it’s realized a lesson from the RTX 4080 worth.

$999 isn’t a discount, but it surely’s a no brainer over the RTX 4080 playing cards – it could solely be slightly quicker in rasterization, but it surely handles superior ray tracing effectively, it doesn’t price any extra money, and Multi Body Gen makes an outstanding distinction to efficiency in video games that help it.

Verdict

In some ways, it’s a disgrace that Nvidia hasn’t but opened up DLSS Override for testing, as having the ability to allow Multi Body Gen in Indiana Jones, Black Ops 6, and F1 24 would have had a big effect on body charges, assuming it labored correctly. As it’s, although, Cyberpunk 2077 reveals the potential for this tech, with the RTX 5080 having the ability to utterly max out this demanding recreation at 4K and nonetheless common 128fps – an outstanding end result for a $999 card, and for those who run the sport at 1440p and it runs at a fair smoother 228fps.

It stays to be seen how the opposite video games in our take a look at suite will profit from the brand new tech, but when there’s one firm that has the funds and sources wanted to influence recreation builders to implement its new options, it’s Nvidia. I’ll be retesting the RTX 5080 as soon as Multi Body Gen is out there to benchmark in additional titles, which can end result on this evaluate being revised, however whilst it’s, the RTX 5080 is well the perfect sub-$999 gaming GPU.

It annihilates the competitors in practically each take a look at, and whereas some video games aren’t massively faster on the RTX 5080 than they’re on the 4080 playing cards, the truth that the 5080 has the identical worth offers it a right away benefit. Whether or not you’ll really have the ability to purchase this card at MSRP, in fact, is one other query, and also you’ll must examine our RTX 5080 inventory web page often if you wish to purchase one. Assuming the provision scenario settles down from present predictions, although, and the RTX 5080 does certainly grow to be accessible for $999, it’s the perfect card in its league.

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT isn’t anticipated to problem it, and the RTX 5090 is twice the value. It’s slightly disappointing that the fundamental rendering efficiency isn’t a lot better on the 5090 than the 4080 Tremendous in some video games, however that’s outweighed by the very fact it has the identical worth and in addition has Multi Body Gen below its belt. The latter wants extra recreation help to make it worthwhile proper now, but when it actually takes off then RTX 5080 can be even higher.

The elephant within the room, in fact, is the inventory scenario. RTX 4080 and 4080 Tremendous playing cards are unimaginable to seek out at MSRP in the meanwhile, usually going for at the very least $1,500, and if RTX 5080 provide is certainly low, then that $999 worth is simply nominal. My recommendation right here is to attend it out for a number of months till the inventory scenario settles, and also you’ll then hopefully have the ability to choose up an RTX 5080 for a traditional worth. If you happen to can genuinely get it for $999, then it’s an awesome GPU.