Gameplay Performance
Alan Wake 2
In Alan Wake 2, we are running a beta developer build, which NVIDIA provided us access to, which supports DLSS 4. We are running at the highest quality settings at 4K, and we find that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE does provide a playable gameplay experience, but just barely. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is just 11% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE, and the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is 17% slower than the GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
Black Myth: Wukong
Black Myth: Wukong was very demanding at 4K in the Cinematic quality preset, so we lowered the game to 1440p, which did provide a playable experience on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE was 23% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE, and much closer to the GeForce RTX 4090 FE here at 4% slower. However, at 4K the results were much closer between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE and the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE in the 30’s, and not playable on either card at 4K at Cinematic quality (37FPS on the 5080 FE and 32FPS on the 4080S FE).
Cyberpunk 2077
In Cyberpunk 2077 we are running at 4K at “Ultra” settings, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE does provide a playable experience at 4K Ultra. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is 28% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE, which is a pretty good improvement in this particular game. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is only 4% behind the GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
Dying Light 2
In Dying Light 2 at 4K the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE provides a playable experience over 100FPS. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is 23% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE and 15% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is 13% slower than the GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
F1 24
In F1 24 the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE provides a very playable experience. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is a small 7% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE. It is possible there is a CPU bottleneck in this game. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is 21% slower than the GeForce RTX 4090 FE, however.
Horizon Forbidden West
In Horizon Forbidden West the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE does provide a playable experience at 4K without needing upscaling, at 80FPS. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is only 9% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE, however. This is very close to what we also saw in F1 24. It could be a CPU bottleneck, or it could just be due to the fact that these two games rely less on intense shaders, and more on texture or raster performance? At any rate, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is 16% slower than the GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
In Indiana Jones the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE allows a playable experience at 4K with the Supreme image quality setting. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is only 12% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE however, again not as big as some other games, and this is at the highest Supreme image quality preset at 4K as well. This puts the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE 13% slower than the GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
In Stalker 2, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE does allow a playable experience, but just at the 60FPS mark at 4K at Epic settings. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is once again only 14% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE, and that is with this game at Epic quality preset at 4K. This puts the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE 11% below the GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
Star Wars Outlaws
In Star Wars Outlaws the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE cannot hit 60FPS at 4K with the highest quality settings. In order to enjoy a playable experience at 4K you will have to enable DLSS Upscaling at 4K to get a smooth experience. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE is only 12% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super FE, again, not as big as some other games, and that is at the highest game settings at 4K as well. This puts the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 FE 21% slower than the GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →Long story short get an RTX4080 while you can.
No surprise here, given the specs, I didn't expect the RTX 5080 to do any better.
The RTX5070Ti hopefully will be a much better option as it's supposed to be right behind the RTX4080.
I'm very disappointed, I can't remember the last time a next gen x80 card wouldn't beat or at least meet the next up tier.
I remember when I got my 1070 that it was supposed to be on par with the 980ti
Looks like 5080 is a dud. I hope people read reviews before buying them on ebay for hundreds more. Maybe holding on to the 4090 is a good idea. But, the 4090 just increased in resale value!
So why is the 5090 not anywhere twice as fast as the 5080? what's holding it back?
Honestly, I'd love to see some deep dive on if the 5090 is being constrained by CPU. I've seen some side mentions on a couple sources saying it seems that way but no deep dive.
Reminds me of the 1000 series to 2000 series jump, only without the DLSS carrot there to give you a reason to bite.
On a side note, I've seen a few posts claiming that the new transformer DLSS mode is much more improved quality than the old one. So much as DLSS balanced mode being indistinguishable from quality mode and even performance mode being much better than before.
That should be pretty easy to test with time available.
System 1: Ryzen 9700X Down clocked, or even just set to 65w
System 2: Ryzen 9800X3D pushed as high as you can go with clock
run both systems at 4k and see if there is any significant difference
I mean it's a BIT more than that. You might want to use Intel's monitoring tools to see how things are working and better project where there is a bottleneck between the platforms for differences.
That's an interesting idea, give me some ideas (examples) of what to test to accomplish this. I also think it is true that the 5090 is being held back by the CPU, I said as much in my review.
Thanks for that suggestion, as I said above, I personally think that is a great idea to test. Right now, something like that wont be soon, but I've got it written down in my potential reviews doc.
It would need to be basic. at 4k whatever refresh is the GPU at 100% while the CPU is running at max ghz high utilization across cores? That's how I would logically think a held back device would look.
But it would need to be a slim test.. like perhaps raster only... I'm not sure on that.
Jay has a video on how to use the intel tool to track and see if the CPU or GPU is throttling. *shrugs*. It seems kind of esoteric to me. All the info I've seen calling out CPU throttling has been at higher res where NORMALLY that would be at lower rests... so it's interesting.
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Presentmon is the tool that you can use... just a idea. Jays video has some info on how to use it but there are better tutorials online.
Gotta wonder if a cutdown GB202 die is on the table for a $1499 5080 Ti w/ 24 GB VRAM.
It appears the 5080 is a good overclocker. If that is consistent across a bunch of samples then it's a great candidate for water cooling to open up some possible additional headroom.
Good point. A lot of folks are complaining about how close this is to a 4080 SUPER but things could get really interesting when OC'd and liquid cooled since you don't have to worry about hitting a 600W power limit for the cable.