Gameplay Performance
In this review, we have chosen to run games at 4K. We did take Black Myth: Wukong down one step to 1440p. All games were benchmarked at the highest in-game quality settings. All graphics selections were in-game selections. NVIDIA App and AMD Adrenalin were left on default in-game settings. This section displays results from non-ray-traced settings, except for those games that have “always-on” ray tracing elements ( Claire Obscur: Expedition 33, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II). The companion video card in our benchmarking section is the XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT White Edition. We chose this card for its position in the current AMD line-up.
Alan Wake 2
In this game, only the overclocked card managed to hit the playable FPS, but it was otherwise pretty close. The default GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 WINDFORCE SFF 16G just missed the cutoff. There is a 14% difference from the XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT White Edition. When upscaled, both cards are more than playable; the gap shrinks to 10%. Overclocking boosts by 5%.
Black Myth: Wukong
Even at this lowered resolution, the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 WINDFORCE SFF 16G just slips into the 60FPS zone. The gap between the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 WINDFORCE SFF 16G and the XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT White Triple Fan Gaming Edition is 22% here. Upscaling is quite helpful and puts both cards into a playable position. Overclocking gains about 3% in this game.
Claire Obscur: Expedition 33
In Claire, there is some form of ray tracing at all times for light reflections; this can be taxing, combined with higher resolutions. The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 WINDFORCE SFF 16G is quite smooth and playable natively, but the ray tracing and higher resolution is rough on the XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT White Edition. We do see a big boost with upscaling and 10% gain with overclocking.
Cyberpunk 2077
Here, both cards are playable natively. The gameplay is actually very smooth. The gap between the two cards is 19%. Upscaling adds 18% to both cards. Our overclock is good for a 6% boost.
DOOM: The Dark Ages
The frantic action and graphics at 4K take their toll in this game. Only the overclock can get us to playable, but once again, it’s actually pretty close. The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 WINDFORCE SFF 16G is just off the mark by 3%, while the gap between cards is 11%. Upscaling makes all the difference here. Once done, there is only a 4% difference in FPS. Overclocking only gets you 3% here.
Horizon Forbidden West
Both cards provided us with smooth gameplay here. The difference between the two video cards is only 2%, which favors the XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT White Edition. The victory is fleeting, as when we engage in upscaling, the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 WINDFORCE SFF 16G goes up by 13%. Still, this game shows that both cards can run well. Overclocking gains only 3%.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
This game is fairly forgiving for having a component of ray tracing. The XFX Swift Radeon RX 9070 XT White Edition misses the FPS mark but just slightly. The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 WINDFORCE SFF 16G is 18% faster overall, and the gap widens to 25% upscaled. When upscaling is applied, the game plays well for both cards. Overclocking gains a mere 2%.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
This is another tough game graphically. Unless overclocked, both cards missed the playable mark here. There is a pretty big gap between the two cards, 42 and 32%, depending on upscaling. Overclocking will boost the FPS by about 6% here. The gameplay improves with upscaling, to say the least.
Star Wars Outlaws
Well, if you read the paragraph above, you can essentially copy and paste here, excepting that nothing is playable unless upscaled. It may not be the best choice to play this game at 4K with all the settings turned up, as you can clearly see. The results do improve nicely with upscaling. There is a pretty large gap between the two cards, no matter what you do. Overclocking gains 6% in this game.