Gameplay Performance – Ray Tracing
Alan Wake 2
In Alan Wake 2 we dropped the resolution down to 1440p to enable the new “Ultra” Ray Tracing preset in Alan Wake 2. This new quality option is enabled in the new beta developer build provided access to by NVIDIA, which supports DLSS 4 and also a new higher “Ultra” RT option. This game is challenging with Utra RT, and even the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC struggles with a playable experience, that is until you overclock it. Overclocking improves performance by 8% and this makes the game feel much smoother at these settings.
Black Myth: Wukong
In Black Myth: Wukong we also dropped the resolution down to 1440p due to the Very High RT option in this game being very demanding. The MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC cannot provide a playable experience here, even overclocked, without Upscaling. However, enable Upscaling and the Overclocked MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC actually pulls in very playable performance for this game! The overclock improves performance by 8%. It comes very close to the GeForce RTX 4090 FE with the overclock as well.
Cyberpunk 2077
In Cyberpunk 2077 we also lowered the resolution to 1440p to enable the “Ultra” Ray Tracing preset, this is the regular RT, not Overdrive. The MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC provides a very smooth gameplay experience in this game. Overclocking improves performance by 9%, which is a very healthy improvement here.
Dying Light 2
In Dying Light 2 the is 4% faster than the GeForce RTX 5080 FE. When we overclock the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC performance improves by 6% and it is now only 7% below the GeForce RTX 4090 FE.
F1 24
In F1 24 this game is playable at 4K with the highest quality RT on the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC. Overclocking helps a good deal here, raising performance 9%.
Star Wars Outlaws
In Star Wars Outlaws, this game is very demanding, and the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC does help a little bit, but ultimately you’ll still want to enable Upscaling. With upscaling enabled the overclocked MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC can achieve 80FPS though, which is a great improvement. The overclocked MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC is 12% faster than without, so this was the highest result from overclocking.