Review Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition review: Incremental gains over the previous generation

[Admin]

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition is a big step down from the 5090, at least in some cases. It's also a relatively small step up from the previous generation 4080 Super it replaces. Without multi-frame generation, it offers only minor gains, and with MFG, it's more about marketing than real performance benefits.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition review: Incremental gains over the previous generation : Read more

 

[cknobman]

Pretty darn dissapointing.
Sit back and let the impatient suckers get fleeced.
I'll happily wait for March and see if AMD can offer something worth buying at $500.

 

[LolaGT]

Wow, I am a little gob smacked that nvidia is selling that with a straight face.

 

[Gururu]

It's so cheap though, $1000 less than the 5090.

 

[spongiemaster]

Not good. Can't imagine even Nvidia engineers are proud of this product.

 

[King_V]

I initially looked at the TDP numbers, and thought: a new architecture, slightly more than 10% extra power draw for slightly less than 10% extra performance, on average, for gaming.

But, that it actually doesn't exceed the power consumption during use of the 4080 Super is nice to see.

Still, yeah, if you're in the market for a GPU with this performance, and if the price is the same, the 5080 is the way to go.

But, I feel like the odds are that, at least for a few months, the 5080 will cost more, and the 4080 Super prices MIGHT come down a little with the release of the 5000 series. If so, that situation could make the 5080 a hard sell.

 

[spongiemaster]

It's so cheap though, $1000 less than the 5090.

5090 is more than 50% faster than 5080 which is ridiculous. There's something to be said for trying to upsell, but that's way too big a gap in performance and cost between the 5080 and 5090. Also sounds like there are issues with volume production as well. Getting people to move up doesn't work if you don't have product to sell them. If you're in the market for a 5080, wait for the refresh. Will likely have more VRAM and will hopefully gain some meaningful ground in performance.

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

How is "second fastest GPU" a positive? Its not even true, the 4090 is the second fastest GPU. This is the worst 80 series release by Nvidia for a while now. Im pretty sure the last 4-5 generations of 80 series cards have outperformed the previous generation flagship (except the 2080 vs 1080ti which was also a quite disappointing generation).

 

[Elusive Ruse]

Thank you @JarredWaltonGPU for the detailed review and pointing out the flaws of this underwhelming product. The 80 class is officially dead? I wish you had the time to include the 3090 as well so we could see how 4080 performed against it and in turn highlight the fact that the 5080 doesn’t even come close to the 4090.

I was in the market for a 5080 but my excitement died down gradually with the leaks about its specs over the past few months and with the reviews out I’m definitely not planning to throw €1200+ at it.

 

[spongiemaster]

I wish you had the time to include the 3090 as well so we could see how 4080 performed against it and in turn highlight the fact that the 5080 doesn’t even come close to the 4090.

5080 is 50% faster than the 3090 at 4k. So a decent upgrade for 3090 users for less money than they spent on their 3090 though there is a memory downgrade. Still would recommend waiting for the refresh.

 

[valthuer]

I'm getting the impression that the reason behind 5080 being so disappointing, is Nvidia trying to funnel consumers into buying the extremely inflated 5090.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

5080 is 50% faster than the 3090 at 4k. So a decent upgrade for 3090 users for less money than they spent on their 3090 though there is a memory downgrade. Still would recommend waiting for the refresh.

That is not what I meant, I know that 5080 is faster than the 3090, I was referring to the fact that even though the 4080 had a lukewarm reception at best it is still considerably faster than the 3090 while the 5080 can’t even compete with the 4090.

 

[Gururu]

I can see AMD with a sigh of relief with the 9070 and Intel licking its lips with a very possible dark horse offering, the B770. These cards will probably be within 3/4 performance of the 5080 for 1/2 the price?

 

[oofdragon]

The 5070 Ti will be basically a 4070 Ti Super which is virtually the same as a 4080/Super/5080, no one will tell them apart A B any game ever and that's a fact. Now since the 5070 Ti MSRP is supposed to be $750 that should bring the price of a 4070 Ti Super new to at least $700 and a used one for at least $650 . There is no reason, absolutely no reason at all to pay more than $700 in a new GPU this gen unless you want to 4K ray gimmick at max settings which then you must go either 4090 or 5090 because 16GB is not enough. That's it, the 5080 makes absolutely no sense at all capped at 16GB VRAM which so weak performance compared to it's asking price. The 9070 XT has even better performance than the 5070 Ti and will absolutely not sell for more than $700 either, who knows AMD may even sell it lower than that since right now you can easily find 7900s at the $600 ballpark new, the GRE MSRP is $550. Every bench of every game out right now will achieve 60fps 4K ultra resolution at any game with a GPU like the 4070 Ti Super or the 7900XT, why pay more than that?? Sad reality is the 5080 is upper mid range in 2025, as is the 5070 Ti and the 9070 XT. Mid range guys.

 

[spongiemaster]

That is not what I meant, I know that 5080 is faster than the 3090, I was referring to the fact that even though the 4080 had a lukewarm reception at best it is still considerably faster than the 3090 while the 5080 can’t even compete with the 4090.

5080 is $200 cheaper than the 4080 was. Based on the overclocking headroom Techpowerup found, it looks like Nvidia could have released a faster card at no additional cost to them. This is probably related to the China embargo. Nvidia didn't want to have to release a 5080D so the rest of the world gets stuck with this disappointment.

Also remember, the gap between the 3080 and the 3090 is MUCH smaller than the gap between the 4080 and 4090. Something that is throwing everyone off is forgetting how much faster the 4090 was than everything else which was not the case in previous generations when the 80ti was often trailing the Titan by low single digits instead of 30% faster like the 4090.

 

[btmedic04]

RDNA 4 looking better and better now. Too bad amd killed off their high end offering though

 

[spongiemaster]

I'm getting the impression that the reason behind 5080 being so disappointing, is Nvidia trying to funnel consumers into buying the extremely inflated 5090.

The gap is too big for that. You don't typically upsell someone to something that costs twice as much as what they were looking to spend. 4080 to 4090 made sense. $1200 to $1600. 5080 to 5090 doesn't.

 

[spongiemaster]

RDNA 4 looking better and better now. Too bad amd killed off their high end offering though

AMD isn't going to be competing with this. If you're in the market for this level of performance, AMD is not going to be an option.

 

[vanadiel007]

Looks like next generation AMD cards might not be a bad deal. They have a good price margin based on the RTX5000 series pricing, so lot's of opportunity to undercut Nvidia.
And I think this time around AMD will be able to sell their next generation cards cheaper without having to admit they also perform less than the Nvidia offerings.

 

[oofdragon]

The gap is too big for that. You don't typically upsell someone to something that costs twice as much as what they were looking to spend. 4080 to 4090 made sense. $1200 to $1600. 5080 to 5090 doesn't.

Problem is 16GB isn't enough at 4K, and if you want more than that which card you have to buy? Exactly

 

[oofdragon]

AMD isn't going to be competing with this. If you're in the market for this level of performance, AMD is not going to be an option.

What are you talking about? 9070XT is exactly at that level of performance, it's not going to surpass a 4080 but at 10% difference they are virtually the same

 

[spongiemaster]

Problem is 16GB isn't enough at 4K, and if you want more than that which card you have to buy? Exactly

Just because someone wants something, doesn't mean it is in their budget. Exactly.

 

[spongiemaster]

What are you talking about? 9070XT is exactly at that level of performance, it's not going to surpass a 4080 but at 10% difference they are virtually the same

It's going to be slower than a 7900XTX which the 5080 is already 15% faster than. We're likely looking at a 20% or larger gap which is not virtually the same.

 

[oofdragon]

Just because someone wants something, doesn't mean it is in their budget. Exactly.

Unless you don't live in USA $2000 isn't expensive at all, people cry over pennies lol. If you do live elsewhere in the world yeah that's definitely out of range. In Brazil for example a GPU like the 5090 costs as much as a whole year of minimum wage, there's no VRAM that justifies it even if you are rich.

 

[walrustusk]

penultimate—you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means. this wouldn't have been an issue if weren't repeatedly misused.

penultimate adjective: next to the last