Nvidia Geforce Rtx 5080 Review: Big Expectations, Small Gains

Nvidia’s caller RTX 5080 graphics insubstantial isn’t arsenic breathtaking arsenic I was hoping it would be. While nan sleek caller Founders Edition redesign dramatically shrinks nan size of nan insubstantial compared to nan RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super, you’re getting nan aforesaid 16GB of VRAM and only mini capacity improvements complete nan erstwhile procreation of cards.

The RTX 5080, which arrives January 30th for $999, is astir 15 percent faster than nan RTX 4080 astatine 4K without nan usage of immoderate AI-powered upscaling tricks. While nan RTX 4080 managed to deed nan RTX 3090, and nan RTX 3080 dethroned nan RTX 2080 Ti, nan RTX 5080 isn’t tin to topple nan RTX 4090. Nvidia has built up an anticipation that nan 80-series insubstantial will surpass nan erstwhile generation’s flagship, and that’s simply not nan suit this clip around.

The RTX 5080 does comfortably deed its only title astatine this worth point: nan $999 AMD RX Radeon 9700 XTX. That makes nan RTX 5080 a bully insubstantial for 4K if you’re consenting to driblet settings successful immoderate games and overmuch GPU than you astir apt petition for 1440p. For meaningfully amended 4K performance, you’ll personification to locomotion $2,000 connected nan RTX 5090.

If you’re upgrading to nan RTX 5080 from nan RTX 3080 aliases RTX 3080 Ti, expect to spot mean capacity gains of overmuch than 50 percent astatine 1440p and 4K. If you want overmuch than that, you’ll personification to spot connected Nvidia’s caller DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Gen to create overmuch frames pinch AI models. As we activity our measurement down nan RTX 50-series lineup, it progressively feels for illustration Multi Frame Gen is going to beryllium nan main talking point.

The RTX 5080 Founders Edition exemplary looks identical to nan RTX 5090. It’s dramatically thinner than nan RTX 4080 it succeeds, shrinking from a three-slot creation down to 2 slots. I really for illustration this redesign, which includes double flowthrough fans that exhaust aerial supra nan RTX 5080 into nan suit alternatively of retired of nan apical and backmost of nan card.

Just for illustration nan RTX 5090, Nvidia has somewhat angled nan powerfulness connector connected nan RTX 5080 truthful it’s easier to caller into a assortment of cases. The included dongle, which converts 3 eight-pin PCIe powerfulness cables to caller nan card’s 12VHPWR connector, has somewhat overmuch elastic cables than nan 1 that shipped pinch nan 40-series cards. You tin too ditch nan dongle and get a 12V-2x6 aliases 12VHPWR cablegram that connects consecutive to your powerfulness supply.

It’s disappointing to spot Nvidia has stuck pinch 16GB of VRAM connected nan RTX 5080. AMD’s RX 7900 XTX offers 24GB, and while nan RTX 5080 delivers amended capacity for now, it whitethorn bully deed video practice limits successful 4K gaming successful nan future.

For immoderate my 4K and 1440p testing, I’ve paired Nvidia’s RTX 5080 pinch AMD’s latest Ryzen 9 9800X3D processor and Asus’ 32-inch 4K OLED PG32UCDP monitor. I’ve put nan RTX 5080 up against nan RTX 5090 — Nvidia’s existent flagship — arsenic bully arsenic nan RTX 4090, RTX 4080 and 4080 Super, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and nan RTX 3080 Ti from 2021.

Without DLSS aliases ray tracing enabled, nan results are mostly accordant crossed immoderate 4K and 1440p: nan RTX 5080 is astir 15 percent faster connected mean than nan 4080 astatine 4K and 12 percent faster astatine 1440p. It’s 12 percent faster than nan Radeon RX 7900 XTX astatine 4K and 11 percent astatine 1440p, and it thumps nan RTX 4080 Super by 11 and 10 percent, respectively.

That’s tin to make this nan champion $999 graphics card, but by humanities standards, it’s disappointing. I really wanted to spot nan RTX 5080 deed nan RTX 4090, but it lags nan older insubstantial by astir 18 percent. Maybe it was a ample inquire for a $999 GPU to deed a $1,599 last-gen flagship. The $1,199 RTX 4080 was faster than nan $1,499 RTX 3090, but location was only a $300 dispersed there, not $600. Still, it’s nan first clip successful a agelong clip we’ve had specified a paltry summation successful an 80-series card.

Nvidia’s apical GPU, nan RTX 5090, is 50 percent faster than nan RTX 5080 astatine 4K resolution, but it’s too double nan price. That surely leaves nan doorway unfastened for an RTX 5080 Ti, priced betwixt nan 5080 and 5090, that tin deed nan RTX 4090.

The RTX 5080 makes nan astir consciousness if you’re upgrading from nan RTX 30 bid aliases earlier. At 4K, without DLSS aliases ray tracing, it’s astir 54 percent faster than nan RTX 3080 Ti (56 percent astatine 1440p), and you’ll too beryllium tin to make afloat usage of DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Gen if you upgrade.

Nvidia claimed nan RTX 5080 would beryllium doubly arsenic accelerated arsenic nan RTX 4080. For those kinds of numbers, you’ll petition to move to DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Gen.

Nvidia’s caller Multi Frame Generation tech uses nan latest AI graphics models, powered by an updated transformer architecture, to dress up to 3 further frames per traditionally rendered frame, pushing nan RTX 5080’s model rates beyond what it’s usually tin of astatine 4K.

Cyberpunk 2077 is nan only crippled pinch charismatic support for DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Gen earlier nan RTX 5080’s charismatic motorboat connected January 30th. In my testing, I’ve recovered ample model title increases astatine 4K pinch afloat ray tracing enabled, pinch little graphical glitches than Nvidia’s erstwhile frame-generation tech acknowledgment to nan caller transformer model. Without DLSS 4, Cyberpunk runs astatine an unplayable 19fps mean pinch ultra settings and afloat ray tracing. DLSS 4 Multi Frame Gen x4 brings that up to a acold overmuch playable 128fps, but it isn’t nan aforesaid arsenic a existent 128fps.

DLSS Super Resolution — which renders nan crippled astatine a small solution and past uses AI to upscale it — bumps nan model title up to 38fps. Multi Frame Gen creates nan 3 different frames to get to that 128fps mark. While mobility does look smoother, successful position of input latency, it still feels for illustration a 38fps game. Multi Frame Gen is acold small noticeable erstwhile nan guidelines model title pinch DLSS Super Resolution is higher than 60fps, truthful astatine 4K, you mightiness petition to small nan worth settings to really spot nan benefits.

It’s this Multi Frame Gen that lets Nvidia opportunity nan RTX 5080 is doubly arsenic accelerated arsenic nan RTX 4080, pinch nan previous-gen insubstantial managing 62fps connected mean successful Cyberpunk 2077 pinch afloat ray tracing and Frame Gen x2. The RTX 5080 overmuch than doubles this pinch x4 enabled.

It’s a amended communicative astatine 1440p acknowledgment to higher guidelines model rates. Without DLSS 4, Cyberpunk 2077 averages 39fps astatine 1440p pinch afloat ray tracing and ultra settings. DLSS 4 Multi Frame Gen x4 brings that each nan measurement up to 225fps. While it’s still not a existent 225fps, it feels a batch amended than nan 4K balanced because DLSS Super Resolution gets nan guidelines model title up to 73fps earlier Multi Frame Gen kicks in.

This is nan cleanable business for Multi Frame Gen because you’re getting nan mobility clarity benefits and nan crippled still feels overmuch responsive. It’s evidently not arsenic responsive arsenic 225fps would beryllium without Multi Frame Gen if you really dropped nan settings, but successful a crippled for illustration Cyberpunk 2077, I deliberation group are going to announcement nan mobility clarity improvements overmuch than nan input latency.

When nan RTX 5080 launches connected January 30th, there’ll beryllium a caller DLSS override characteristic incorrect nan Nvidia app that lets you portion games to usage its caller Multi Frame Gen and transformer models. I haven’t been tin to proceedings this yet, since it’s not available, but if it works, it could beryllium a awesome measurement to amended DLSS image worth and Frame Gen successful games earlier developers tin officially spot them.

I attraction astir of my GPU testing connected gaming — because that’s what GeForce cards are designed for — but nan RTX 5080 is too very tin of video editing aliases AI workloads. I recovered that nan RTX 5080 was astir 10 percent faster than nan RTX 4080 successful PugetBench’s DaVinci Resolve test, and successful Procyon’s AI XL (FP16) test, it was astir 28 percent faster.

Nvidia recommends an 850-watt powerfulness proviso for nan RTX 5080, which is 100 watts overmuch than for nan RTX 4080 and 4080 Super. The RTX 5080’s afloat graphics powerfulness is 40 watts overmuch than nan RTX 4080; it maxes retired astatine 360 watts alternatively of nan monolithic 575-watt powerfulness necktie of nan RTX 5090.

I’m gladsome to spot that nan RTX 5080 doesn’t importantly summation nan powerfulness necktie complete nan erstwhile generation. I only saw it deed 360W once, successful nan Metro Exodus utmost benchmark. Even successful Cyberpunk 2077 moving afloat measurement tracing and nary DLSS, it only sewage up to 348 watts.

More impressively, connected average, nan RTX 5080 drew 278 watts of powerfulness crossed nan 9 games tested without DLSS aliases ray tracing. That’s somewhat small than nan 281-watt mean I recovered connected nan RTX 4080 but 12 watts overmuch than nan RTX 4080 Super.

The RTX 5080 didn’t powerfulness up excessively successful my unfastened chair testing. The highest somesthesia I recorded was successful Metro Exodus, wherever it reached 71 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Fahrenheit). The RTX 4080 reached 68C successful this aforesaid test, and nan RTX 4080 Super deed a maximum of 63C.

DLSS 4 is really nan prima of nan show truthful acold pinch nan RTX 50 series, but location still aren’t tin games to proceedings it with. Multi Frame Gen has shown early promise, and it makes a batch overmuch consciousness astatine 1440p successful Cyberpunk 2077 connected nan RTX 5080 than it does astatine 4K. I’m waiting to proceedings overmuch games pinch DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Gen aliases moreover nan expertise to portion these options connected pinch nan Nvidia app.

The RTX 5080 is nan champion $999 insubstantial connected nan marketplace correct now, beating AMD’s Radeon RX 9700 XTX by an mean of 11 aliases 12 percent crossed nan games I tested, without DLSS aliases ray tracing. It’s a important upgrade complete an RTX 30 bid aliases earlier, pinch complete 50 percent higher model rates than nan RTX 3080 Ti, affirmative entree to nan latest Multi Frame Generation technique. The 5080 offers astir two-thirds nan capacity of nan RTX 5090 for half nan worth and a mini overmuch than half nan powerfulness draw.

But Nvidia hasn’t delivered nan axenic capacity gains I was expecting. The RTX 5080 isn’t nan cheaper RTX 4090 galore were hoping for. I wanted to spot a overmuch meaningful bump to 4K capacity than conscionable 15 percent complete nan RTX 4080 without DLSS. I’m adjacent wondering whether Nvidia will coming an RTX 5080 Ti down nan connection and really adjacent nan upcoming $749 RTX 5070 Ti will get to nan RTX 5080.