Conclusion
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition is the second video card launching under NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series family of GPUs based on the new Blackwell architecture. At the very top, the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition exists at $1,999 MSRP, and then for exactly half that MSRP, the GeForce RTX 5080 slots in at $999 MSRP. The GeForce RTX 5080 is geared as a high-end graphics gaming card and brings in some new abilities, such as DLSS 4 with improved Transformer model Upscaling and Multi-Framegen support, among many other forward-looking technologies for gaming.
The GeForce RTX 5080 can be considered the successor to the GeForce RTX 4080 and GeForce RTX 4080 Super refresh video cards that came before it. There wasn’t actually much difference between the GeForce RTX 4080 and GeForce RTX 4080 Super, in our testing, we showed that performance was nearly the same. The GeForce RTX 4080 Super corrected the pricing of the GeForce RTX 4080 and brought it down to the $999 price point when it launched. In-kind, the GeForce RTX 5080 launching now is also aiming at this same $999 price point. Therefore, the comparison to the previous generation is the GeForce RTX 4080 Super.
In our review today, we looked at 4K gaming performance, 1440p Ray Tracing performance, and Upscaling performance,e comparing both of those video cards. We also put the GeForce RTX 4090 FE in the mix to find out if the new GeForce RTX 5080 would match the RTX 4090’s performance in any way. Don’t miss our GeForce RTX 5090 Overclocking Review also. Also, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX was the GeForce RTX 4080/Super’s main competition, and so we wanted to see where that slots in considering the new generation with the GeForce RTX 5080.
Performance Summary
Raster
Starting in Alan Wake 2 at 4K, the GeForce RTX 5080 FE was just 11% faster than the previous generation GeForce RTX 4080 Super. The GeForce RTX 5080 FE barely allowed a playable gameplay experience at 4K, not able to achieve a 60FPS average, however, with Upscaling enabled, performance was very smooth at 90FPS. Black Myth: Wukong was not playable at 4K at the Cinematic quality setting, it was only 37FPS so we had to drop it to 1440p. At 1440p, the GeForce RTX 5080 FE was playable, but just at 60FPS and it ended up being 23% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super at this resolution and game setting, which was better than Alan Wake 2.
In Cyberpunk 2077 the GeForce RTX 5080 FE allowed a playable experience at 4K Ultra, and it ended up being 28% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super, this was one of the best results in our testing. In Dying Light 2 the GeForce RTX 5080 FE was also playable very well at 4K and was 23% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super.
In F1 24 we kind of start the downfall of performance that we experienced, much like Alan Wake 2, apparently the outlier games for better performance were Black Myth: Wukong and Cyberpunk 2077. In F1 24 while the GeForce RTX 5080 FE was very playable at 4K, it was just 7% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super. Horizon Forbidden West was playable at 4K, but also just 9% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super.
Even some newer games, weren’t all that exciting. In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the GeForce RTX 5080 FE was playable at 4K very well at Supreme, but it was just 12% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super. In Stalker 2 the GeForce RTX 5080 FE was barely playable at just 60FPS at 4K, you’ll definitely want to enable Upscaling at 4K in this game with this video card. The GeForce RTX 5080 FE was 14% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super. Finally, in Star Wars Outlaws the GeForce RTX 5080 FE was sadly not playable without Upscaling at 4K, and it was 12% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super.
Ray Tracing
Things weren’t that much better with Ray Tracing performance, either. Sadly, we did not see Ray Tracing performance improve as much as you would expect from a new architecture and new generation compared to the previous one. We pretty much received the same kind of raster performance uplift with Ray Tracing. We aren’t sure what’s holding it back, but there did not seem to be a generational uplift in Ray Tracing performance as we have experienced in previous generations.
In Alan Wake 2 it was not playable at 4K with the new “Ultra” Ray Tracing preset, we had to drop to 1440p and even then it wasn’t playable without Upscaling. The GeForce RTX 5080 FE had about a 13% uplift over the GeForce RTX 4080 Super at the same Ray Tracing settings. Black Myth: Wukong was also not playable at 1440p without Upscaling, and even then it was only just at the 60FPS mark at 1440p with Upscaling and Ray Tracing enabled. The GeForce RTX 5080 FE was 16% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super, but in reality, this only meant it was 5FPS faster since it was at low framerates to begin with.
Cyberpunk 2077 was playable at 1440p with Ultra Ray Tracing, so this was good, and it was also playable at 4K with Upscaling and Ray Tracing. The GeForce RTX 5080 FE was 12% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super with the same Ray Tracing settings. Dying Light 2 could not achieve 60FPS at 4K with Ray Tracing, you would want to enable Upscaling in this game at 4K as well. The GeForce RTX 5080 FE was 16% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super. F1 24 was playable at 4K with the highest Ray Tracing and the GeForce RTX 5080 FE was only 10% faster than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super.
Sadly, Star Wars Outlaws was very demanding for the GeForce RTX 5080 FE, and it was not even playable at 1440p without Upscaling using the “Ultra” Ray Tracing preset. The weird part and this goes for some other games as well, is that the performance uplift over the GeForce RTX 4080 Super was only 8% in this game with Ray Tracing enabled.
Final Points
GeForce RTX 5080 performance makes us go hmmm. That’s an interesting way for us to start this paragraph, but the performance of the GeForce RTX 5080 is indeed all over the place. There are some games where the generational uplift looks exciting, and then there are others that make us scratch our head. It generally gives us a feeling of “hmmm.”
There are some good cases where the GeForce RTX 5080 is a nice uplift from the previous generation. We did see some 23%+ performance improvements, but those seemed to be outliers, more than the norm. Overall, it has somewhere between a 10%-20% performance uplift depending on the game and settings, Ray Tracing wasn’t that big. This isn’t enough to reach or match the GeForce RTX 4090 in performance. The GeForce RTX 4090 remains the performance leader in this regard. If you thought the GeForce RTX 5080 would be as fast as the GeForce RTX 4090, it isn’t.
Some of the results we have experienced make sense, after all, the raw specifications of the GeForce RTX 5080 are not that much upgraded from the GeForce RTX 4080 Super. The GeForce RTX 5080 is a GPU that is essentially a GeForce RTX 5090 cut in half, and the price reflects that as well. The GeForce RTX 5080 seems to consume about 17% more power than the GeForce RTX 4080 Super, and we get a performance increase that is close to that, some cases better, some cases worse.
Overall this means that the GeForce RTX 5080 at times follows a little too closely to the previous generation it is supposed to be supplanting. Often times we are left with a sense of a less-than-desirable gameplay experience improvement that one would expect from a new generation.
One could even call the GeForce RTX 5080 more akin to a theoretical ‘GeForce RTX 4080 Super Ti” or “GeForce RTX 4080 Super Super”, at least that is what it feels like. Keep in mind that the MSRP is $999, and that IS the same MSRP that the GeForce RTX 4080 Super was as well. Therefore, technically, it is a price for performance improvement, if pricing is at $999. It’s just that… it isn’t that exciting really.
As the GeForce RTX 4080 Super’s dry up in the market and the GeForce RTX 5080’s replace it, you will be getting a better gameplay experience with the GeForce RTX 5080. At the $999 MSRP, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition would be a solid upgrade from prior generations, such as GeForce RTX 3080 or GeForce RTX 2080 or even earlier.
If you are moving from an older generation prior to the RTX 40 series, the GeForce RTX 5080 will offer a good substantial upgrade path to modern features and gameplay performance at the $999 MSRP, but if you currently own a GeForce RTX 40 Series, unless you are moving from low-end to high-end, it is not going to be worth the upgrade.