Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

When you follow at the big businessman , you best not miss . Fortunately , it ’s almost a pass on that Nvidia ’s XX80 GPU would shell the XX90 graphics card that preceded it . That ’s just how it tends to go . But we ’ve been hear rumblings of the RTX 5080 underperforming expectations since itsoriginal unveiling and Nvidia ’s praise sweetenedwith such a heavy venereal infection of AI . OurRTX 5080 reviewdidn’t do much to change that story .

So , how does the RTX 5080 liken to the RTX 4090 ? Can it compete ? Does it proffer a value upgrade for 30 - serial and 20 - serial owners looking for thebest graphic cardthey can afford ? countenance ’s find out .

Pricing and availability

The RTX 4090 debuted in October 2022 with an at - the - time record book price for a top - consumer graphics carte of $ 1,600 . That Mary Leontyne Price bounced around a lot during GPU shortages but ultimately remain relatively constant over the retiring few years . gillyflower of the card has all but disappear at the time of written material , but used models have skyrocketed in price after the mediocre improvements ofthe RTX 5090 . The 4090 is now priced between $ 1,500 and $ 2,500 even on 2d - hand mart .

The RTX 5080 is on sale now , but stock is exceedingly limited . Its indicate retail price is $ 1,000 , but third - company posting are already up to $ 1,500 , and shortages and scalpers may drive the Leontyne Price up further in the shortsighted condition .

Specifications

The RTX 5080 is , on newspaper , a weaker card than the RTX 4090 , with around 50 % few CUDA magnetic core , fewer RT and Tensor cores ( albeit from a late genesis ) , 50 % less computer memory , and a narrower store jalopy . The RTX 5080 does have a higher cost increase clock and much faster memory , but we ’d be hope that the new Blackwell architecture does more of the intemperate lifting of bridging the interruption between these two cards .

The RTX 5080 is more efficient than the last - gen mogul , too , demanding just 360W , whereas the RTX 4090 could easily pull 450W when press hard .

Specs rarely separate the whole story , though , and they certainly do n’t cover the novel DLSS sport that the RTX 5080 supports . Its next - propagation Tensor cores rent it utilizemulti - frame genesis , which has the potential to artificially boost physique pace in compatible games by quite some leeway .

Performance

Real - earthly concern performance testing is always where the GPU rubber meet the gaming route , and unfortunately despite all its potential , the RTX 5080 really does n’t impress . Its intermediate performance across our suite of games at 4 K and 1440p showed it as a very fast wit , and 10 - 15 % quicker than the RTX 4080 Super that it ’s replacing , but precipitate far short of the RTX 4090 when we do n’t make consumption of the new multi - frame contemporaries feature .

In 1440p the col between the 5080 and 4090 is lessened , but the 4090 still agree careen , particularly in slightly older games .

Although we did n’t endure into any VRAM issues during testing , it ’s worth noting that tops - demanding game likeAlan Wake 2have been shown to fill as much as 15 GB of VRAM when lam at full specification , so we ’re already figure the 5080 potentially miss out on next gaming features because it just does n’t have the VRAM room as the 4090 does .

Ray tracing carrying out does see the 5080 almost catch up with the 4090 , and pull further ahead of the 4080 Super ( as well as obliterating AMD ’s alternatives ) , but the additional RT cores in the 4090 keep it more than relevant as the second - best RT graphics card out there — albeit at length from the 5090 .

The physical body generation characteristic is the only real standout for the RTX 5080 , and arguably its only big selling point for any 4080 or 4080 Super owners consider an upgrade . In compatible games , it can double or triple flesh rate when enable , though not all gamers will be unforced to make the visual fidelity forfeit that such a encouragement to FPS demands . The few tensor cores on the RTX 5080 ( versus the 5090 ) means that its carrying out shoot from enabling multi - frame gen is more marked , too , so you ’re more potential to see the artifacts and other issuing chassis generation can cause .

Overall , the RTX 5080 is a better placard than the 4080 Super , but it ca n’t quite dominate the 4090 without its AI - augmented frame generation .

Thermals and sizing

At this degree of art card with these sort of tycoon demand , you experience they are going to course hard and maybe raging , but with the coolers on these cards , they do n’t in reality get too toasty . The RTX 4090 ’s cooler is gigantic and still work out really well at chill down that toasty GPU , but the RTX 5080 ’s is far slender ( dual slot ! ) , make it a card that ’s easy to accommodate into smaller form factor builds . That ’s not nothing , but it ’s a very minor selling point for an otherwise underwhelming GPU .

Begrudgingly, the 5080 is the “better” option

I wish there were enough RTX 4090s out there for everyone to buy at an affordable price because then I ’d probably just recommend you buy that or else . It ’s still unbelievably fast , and though it does require more tycoon , it has boatload of VRAM with no signs of saturation on the horizon . But I ca n’t . Because the RTX 4090 is n’t on sale anymore , and the second - hand option are massively overpriced .

So , where does that go out gamers with around $ 1,000 burning a hole in their pocket , look for a GPU upgrade : The RTX 5080 — if you could retrieve it at a near price . If you could’t , one of these might be better . It ’s still an improvement over anything besides the 4090 and 5090 ( and does get close to the former ) , and multi - frame multiplication might not be the biz changer Nvidia wants it to be , but in the correct mise en scene , it makes a huge conflict . There ’s a reason we’veall been using Lossless Scalingso much .

The RTX 5080 is n’t the big , new - gen identity card we ’d desire it would be , and it is utterly not worth it if you ’re already gaming on a 4080 or 4080 Super . For anyone else though , eh ? It ’s fine . It might be worth waiting to see whether theRX 9070 XT from AMDgets closelipped at a fairer Leontyne Price , but that ’s still a duet of months away . At the very least , do n’t pay scalper prices for the 5080 . It is n’t deserving that .