The RTX 5080 offers the smallest jump in raw performance in decades
The RTX 5080 will go on sale on 30 January. First reviews of the card show an even smaller leap in performance than the RTX 5090. Can AI save the day?
The days of big performance leaps have passed. Sure, this has been obvious for some time with CPUs, but it’s now spread to GPUs. True, manufacturing improvements in recent decades have made it possible to produce more and more circuits with ever-higher clock rates in the same space. However, production is now facing physical constraints. New manufacturing costs a lot of money, but brings little progress.
As a result, manufacturers are increasingly turning to alternative ideas. Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to step into this gap. At Nvidia, the magic letter soup is called DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). In its fourth version, DLSS offers Multi Frame Generation (MFG) exclusively in the RTX-50 series. Up to three frames calculated by AI are added on to each frame calculated by actual raw power.
Having said all that, what was already apparent with the RTX 5090 is now also clear from reviews of the RTX 5080. Actual raw output has only increased slightly.
Gaming: if you have an RTX 4080, you don’t need an upgrade
Raffael Vötter from PC Games Hardware writes (article in German) that the performance increase from the RTX 4080 to RTX 5080 is historically low and doesn’t justify an update as a result. In classic rasterising games, the RTX 5080 is seven per cent ahead of the RTX 4080 Super. Still, at least the difference is 14 per cent in ray tracing titles. Despite this, the card is currently the best in the high-end sector. This is thanks to DLSS4 and above all the Multi Frame Generation feature, which works amazingly well.
W1zzard from Techpowerup comes to slightly different results, probably down to different games in his test suite. He measures an average of 14 per cent more fps with classic rasterising – ray tracing manages eleven per cent. The former flagship RTX 4090 is still 13 per cent ahead of the RTX 5080 in terms of raw performance, while the new flagship RTX 5090 is 52 per cent ahead. These values refer to classic rasterising at 2160p resolution.
Things sound similar with Wolfgang Andermahr from Computerbase (article in German). The RTX 5080 isn’t a bad card, but ultimately it’s just a further improved RTX 4080 Super. When it comes to the 80 series, the card makes the smallest leap in performance over its predecessor in over two decades. Even the GTX 580 made a bigger step forward compared to the RTX 480, despite having a virtually identical GPU.
Not cheap, but better value for money than the RTX 4080 Super
With a recommended retail price (RRP) of 1,169 euros for the Founders Edition, the card offers better value for money than the RTX 4080 Super, according to Andermahr. Only the RTX 4070 Super and the RTX 4070 Ti Super are better positioned when it comes to Nvidia models. For rasterising, AMD offers the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT.
W1zzard states the RTX 5080 is at least no more expensive than the RTX 4080 Super in RRP terms. So despite the small leap in performance, he recommends the card in his article. He even prefers it to the RX 7900 XTX from AMD. However, if you already own a high-end card from the RTX 40 series, the upgrade isn’t worth it in terms of price.
At Computerbase, things sound different depending on how you look at the situation. Although the value for money is acceptable, the RX 7900 XTX offers significantly more fps per euro in classic rasterising. However, if you rely on ray tracing, the RTX 5080 offers the best overall package at a reasonable price.
Particularly efficient
With an average of 325 watts when gaming, the RTX 5080 is currently the most efficient graphics card out there, according to W1zzard. Compared to the RTX 5090, which demanded 30 watts in idle mode, the 20 watts of the RTX 5080 are better, but still not good.
Computerbase and PC Games Hardware also praise the efficiency of the card. The RTX 5080 is also in first place for the latter, but is narrowly beaten by the RTX 4070 Super with the former reviewer.
Availability in our range: the RTX 5080 will be available from 30 January at 3 p.m. We’ll only have a limited number of the GPU in stock. This shortage is unlikely to ease in the coming months either, and we can’t provide information about restocks.
Header image: Screenshot YouTube / optimum
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Kevin Hofer
Senior Editor
kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.chFrom big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.
