There are just a few totally different headlines it’s best to count on to see in dialogue of Nvidia’s newest graphics card, the GeForce RTX 5080. So let me minimize to the chase and summarize.
First up: the 5080 shouldn’t be a card that has evangelism-worthy efficiency features over its predecessor. By way of the uncooked rendering energy enchancment it sits firmly within the good-not-great class. However that’s okay due to level two: the 5080 gives the very best ‘uncooked worth’ in efficiency phrases not solely of this era of playing cards thus far – however the most effective we’ve seen in a number of years.
These two ideas may appear vaguely at odds, however they actually aren’t. The efficiency features in comparison with final era’s RTX 4080 Tremendous, this card’s direct predecessor, are on common someplace between 10% and 15% – whereas retaining the identical worth level. This can be a modest achieve in comparison with what we’ve seen previously, however it’s additionally a financial bang-for-buck worth demonstrated. However moreover, the brand new era 50 collection GPUs have entry to the total suite of RTX options that make a significant distinction to video games – extra on which later.
One might dismiss this as advertising fluff, and I’m certain some will. As embargoes raise I count on some evaluations to guide with issues like ‘weaker than the 4090’, which to be honest the 5080 is. However I feel that is an improve to think about with some nuance. If you have already got a 40-series GPU, you most likely aren’t aspiring to drop close to sufficient 4 figures on an incremental improve. This card most likely isn’t for you. However should you’re the form of particular person buying in that worth vary with a card that’s a few generations previous, the 5080 turns into a robust proposition – and fairly probably the very best card available on the market in its worth bracket, at the very least with out delving into the quagmire that’s the used market.
Crucially, just about the entire upgrades as detailed in my RTX 5090 overview make their means over to the 5080 as nicely. There’s the brand new type issue, higher warmth dissipation with snazzy liquid steel and a customized cooler design, and simply typically a slick-looking design on the Founders Version playing cards that I actually reasonably love. Just like the 5090, the 5080 shrinks in comparison with the earlier era – dropping from a hefty double-thick three-slot card to a extra conventional two-slot design. This can be a small change – however I truly assume it’s reasonably essential for this card.
In actual phrases, should you’re a standard particular person, I feel the 5080 is the highest-end graphics card it’s best to think about. It’s true that the 90s are the ‘prime of the road’ – however the energy degree in these playing cards are for sickos, freaks, and individuals who have to do tremendous difficult work like 3D rendering, sophisticated video modifying or streaming setups, and so forth. The identical delineation was true for the 4080 and 4090 – however each have been heaving three-slot playing cards. On the 90, the smaller type issue is a nice-to-have. However on the 80 playing cards, I truly assume it’s essential.
To my thoughts, the ‘common gamer’ doesn’t tally with individuals who have instances and setups constructed to carry such a beast. By bringing the bodily dimension of the GPU down and by maintaining the value beneath that $1000 mark, the 5080 presents as soon as extra as one thing extra appropriate for all avid gamers who’ve a grand to burn and need the very best efficiency for that cash they will probably get.
Folks in that client bracket can as beforehand talked about count on a achieve of round 10-15% in uncooked rasterization efficiency – that’s to say, how nicely the GPU renders your video games with none extra options serving to out – when in comparison with final yr’s 4080 Tremendous, which shipped on the identical worth. To again that up, let’s discuss broadly about just a few benchmark video games.
If we hop into Cyberpunk 2077 with its settings maxed out however with no ray tracing or body era know-how, I skilled roughly a precise 15% enhance on the frames generated by the 4080 Tremendous. Jump over to Alan Wake 2 and it’s an identical story, although with barely much less efficiency, providing a lift of 10%. Star Wars Outlaws is identical. The efficiency change is sort of linear and predictable throughout all video games be that at 4K or 1440p – nearly at all times broadly the identical proportion raise, at all times matching that originally set expectation.
Every of those benchmarks underlines one different factor: regardless of that energy enhance over the 4080 Tremendous, the 5080 stays round 10% behind the 4090. This will likely disappoint some. In earlier generations, we now have regularly seen the brand new era of 1 Nvidia card match the efficiency of the final era’s subsequent card up. As an example, I beloved that the 4070 had an influence degree just like or upfront of the 3080 – that helped to make it really feel like a full ‘generational leap’. It’s plain that the 5080 doesn’t accomplish that, with the 4090 main it to the tune of as much as 10% on common – however does it matter? Second-hand 4090s are nonetheless costing nearly double what this card does on the second-hand market – so is the comparability even honest?
This energy enhance may appear modest, however as a result of the value has remained ‘frozen’ at $999, by way of worth for cash it nonetheless works out fairly nicely. Our buds at DigitalFoundry have put collectively a reasonably fascinating chart, as an example, that reveals that the 5080 is the only greatest GPU for the variety of frames it generates on common per every greenback spent – the second place being the 3080, a card that at this stage is pushing 5 years previous. Mercifully, energy consumption stays fairly near the 4080 Tremendous additionally – which means it’ll price about the identical to run and avoids the eye-watering leap in working prices we noticed within the 5090.
In comparisons like this we now have to step again from uncooked rendering and body charge proportion will increase from one era to the subsequent and soak up the entire image. That complete image is extra flattering than these first numbers would first current.
There’s extra than simply the modest enhance in uncooked energy that this era’s Blackwell structure unlocks, nonetheless. Every 5080 after all packs within the fifth era of the Tensor cores that unlock the ‘RTX’ performance, which in flip opens the door to quite a lot of software program options that may remodel video games and productiveness.
As with earlier generations, the cost on this entrance is led by Nvidia DLSS. The newest model is DLSS4, and is a key function of the 50 collection – as is the brand new Multi-Body Era (MFG) know-how. That is the comeback to any perceived shortcoming in uncooked rendering upgrades: Nvidia’s know-how past that feels fairly unassailable, and the most recent playing cards get the very best and strongest iterations of this tech.
When you’re unfamiliar, DLSS stands for Deep Studying Tremendous Sampling. It’s basically a system that makes use of AI studying with a purpose to assist the graphics card to ship a better picture high quality with out sacrificing body charge. It’s all a little bit of smoke and mirrors – however it’s a rock strong little bit of fakery that works brilliantly.
Basically, DLSS permits the GPU to render the sport at a decrease decision than no matter your show throws earlier than your gawping eyeballs. A decrease decision makes it simpler to render extra sophisticated issues, like real-time ray tracing or simply very taxing video games, at a excessive body charge. However DLSS then steps in and upscales the generated photographs – so that you may render the sport natively at one thing like 2K, however then DLSS will step in to present you a crisp 4K picture. Because the know-how has improved, indicators the picture has been upscaled have diminished to be close to imperceptible, whereas different potential pitfalls like lag have been offset by different improvements like Nvidia’s Reflex software program.
Multi-Body Era takes this to the subsequent degree. In addition to upscaling a picture, it permits the GPU to make use of AI to basically create complete new frames out of nowhere, extrapolating from the frames it’s rendering in real-time. These ‘pretend’ frames could make a sport seem smoother and simpler on the attention, although they gained’t have an effect on a sport’s responsiveness. MFG is an all-new know-how for this era, and I’d say its main utility is in serving to to get video games as much as 120 frames per second for 120hz shows.
Each applied sciences work nicely, and serve an important goal. Even at 4K this card crushes Cyberpunk with out ray tracing, providing up one thing silky and acceptable to even the extra choosy participant. However flick on extremely degree ray tracing in Cyberpunk and also you’ll see that at 4K it is a card that also struggles to hit a strong 60fps with that know-how enabled. Allow DLSS, nonetheless, and hitting 60fps with top-line ray tracing is a breeze.
MFG may even put 120fps in sight on such settings – which is simply proof that this know-how is the long run. At this stage, nonetheless, it’s exhausting to actually choose MFG – it’s spectacular, however the restricted suite of video games accessible to check (which is able to develop to round 75 at launch) leaves me eager to see it used extra. Then once more, I had the identical skepticism about DLSS years in the past – and now I take advantage of it with out query.
A whole lot of hardcore graphics nerds are utterly moderately going to tie themselves in knots over this. Do pretend frames depend? A whole lot of these persons are trapped within the custom of primarily being solely keen on uncooked processing energy – which I completely perceive. However at this level this know-how is an indelible a part of the make-up of graphics card shopping for selections. Increasingly video games are supporting this form of know-how; it’s more likely to be an important element of the console market going ahead, too. It’s right here to remain.
When you think about that, one key aspect is obvious: anybody shopping for a GPU just like the 5080 shouldn’t be solely shopping for the uncooked compute energy that Nvidia’s new Blackwell structure unlocks – they’re shopping for into the software program help the cardboard unlocks for high-end video games. Prefer it or not, that is now a core a part of Nvidia’s proposition. Typically these uncooked compute leaps are going to nonetheless be jaw-droppingly massive – however not at all times. The 5080 is an instance of that – the place a modest however cheap GPU improve in uncooked phrases is closely augmented by the opposite options the cardboard brings to the desk.
I feel, in honesty, by this level within the overview you recognize the place you stand. if the idea of a 15-20% enhance in uncooked energy is appropriate or an enormous turn-off to you, you know the way you are feeling about your present setup, and you know the way doubtless you’re to have interaction with DLSS4 and MFG. What I can say from my testing is that every one this stuff work astonishingly nicely. The brand new ‘Transformer’ mannequin for DLSS is a big improve and a specific favourite of mine – although that can also be accessible on 40-series playing cards.
That maybe sums it up, although. When you’re cruising on a 40-series GPU, most of the greatest options of the 50 collection can be found to you already through software program updates. To these, this era may show a bit disappointing, a little bit of a center step. To anybody upgrading from one thing like a 30 collection or older, the 5080 is a strong proposition at $1000 – a tantalizing improve that’ll provide way more of a noticeable efficiency enhance and new software program tech you in any other case wouldn’t have entry to.
In brief, the 5080 is a wierd graphics card. If you’d like the very best GPU accessible as much as $1000… that is the one to purchase. However in a way, within the present market, it is usually the solely one to purchase in its class. That’s one backside line. The opposite is that this doesn’t maintain the standard energy achieve you’d count on from a generational shift – however software program goes a protracted method to soften that reality. I count on it’ll be divisive – and I count on you already know if you need one or not.
