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

[Gaidax]

The 5090 real price is insane, it's even worse then the 5080.

Where I am almost the cheapest 5090 was Astral, at $3600 after taxes. I took it.

Gigabyte Aorus Master was $4k.

I'm a bit upset given Astral seems like a disappointment compared to MSI Suprim (which is MIA here), but I cope that it at least uses thermal pad instead of paste/grease, so hopefully I'll avoid the need to repaste things for the 4-6 years I intend to use it.

 

[palladin9479]

Where I am almost the cheapest 5090 was Astral, at $3600 after taxes. I took it.

Gigabyte Aorus Master was $4k.

I'm a bit upset given Astral seems like a disappointment compared to MSI Suprim (which is MIA here), but I cope that it at least uses thermal pad instead of paste/grease, so hopefully I'll avoid the need to repaste things for the 4-6 years I intend to use it.

This is why nVidia has changed to this product strategy.

 

[TeamRed2024]

Well... I finally got my 1099 and my tax refund is $11,500... which just might be enough to get me a 5090 at the current scalper price.

 

[ingtar33]

I really hate the "fake frames" comments from people, because usually it just means they don't fully understand computer graphics and are listening to loud pundits on why frame generation is the worst thing ever. As I've tried to point out in the review, framegen and MFG aren't inherently bad, but they're also not a 1-to-1 correlation with higher rendered framerates. A really good job at interpolating in between frames may be indistinguishable from actually rendering those frames, so in that sense they can be as "real" as the normally rendered frames.

...There are business reasons that Nvidia didn't go nuts with Blackwell, creating a chip on TSMC N2 or N3B with tweaks to optimize it for GPUs, etc. That will be saved for the next architecture I suspect.

They ARE fake though. and if you move your mouse fast enough it's obvious how bad they're rendered if they're fully rendered at all (not all fake frames are even full frames, they're partial). they're tricks which take advantage of how the human eye works and how your monitors work. they're counting on the brain to fill in the gaps and it works to a degree.

because the human brain does a LOT of correcting for what your eyes see.

but when you have fast moving action with fast mouse movements on the screen the frame gen falls apart pretty quickly. and the artificing and blurring and poor visual fidelity raises it's ugly head.

and your last point about NVIDIA "Sandbagging" for the next gen is some pretty wild copium. it's the same copium intel enthusiasts used to claim when they were disappointed by incremental gains in performance after sandybridge. that copium kept them going till around 12th gen, 10 generation of chips without any significant improvement in performance.

turned out intel wasn't sandbagging. they just had reached the end of the performance gains to be had from the core i structure.

 

[scottsoapbox]

Well... I finally got my 1099 and my tax refund is $11,500... which just might be enough to get me a 5090 at the current scalper price.

You should lower your withholding as you're giving the government a considerable interest free loan.

 

[Gaidax]

This is why nVidia has changed to this product strategy.

Yes, I am the monster that ruined everything.

I bought it so I can watch YouTube videos and browse interwebz while laughing at that god darned 4th fan producing more noise than my whole PC.

 

[TeamRed2024]

You should lower your withholding as you're giving the government a considerable interest free loan.

Yep... already did for 2025. Started the last 2 weeks of 2023 and wasn't sure how 2024 would look given the new job was a sizeable increase into a new tax bracket.

Ain't paying scalper prices though... that was a joke. 🤣

 

[alexvojacek]

All of this talk about being cheaper than RTX4080 makes me sick.
You people don't get it. The MSRP is officially DEAD.
No card will be sold at $999 MSRP period. Prove me wrong.

The RTX4080S is currently selling for $1799 even when the product has been discontinued. An RTX3080 Ti is selling for $1000 and a RTX4090 is selling in excess of $2400.

The GPU market is pure chaos and I don't think it will get fixed anytime soon. All of this talk about price is meaningless. NVIDIA's original price is 100% a virtual thing. Unless you live in the US and can get hold of one of these as soon as they are put in an actual store for sell... you're screwed.

 

[alexvojacek]

Where I am almost the cheapest 5090 was Astral, at $3600 after taxes. I took it.

Gigabyte Aorus Master was $4k.

I'm a bit upset given Astral seems like a disappointment compared to MSI Suprim (which is MIA here), but I cope that it at least uses thermal pad instead of paste/grease, so hopefully I'll avoid the need to repaste things for the 4-6 years I intend to use it.

More like $4000 onwards for this card. Specially after NVIDIA artificially creating scarcity even more so than the previous generation.

This card (5090) is only a card for the rich, a luxury that very few will be able to enjoy.

 

[King_V]

Is anyone really surprised? They know AMD can't compete on the high end and they aren't price competitive on the mid and low end, and they don't have the ability to generate so many fake frames, so they have absolutely zero reason to actually improve, especially when they're selling AI cards as fast as they can make them at an insane profit margin.

Though even if AMD were competitive in both performance and price, I still wouldn't buy one again until they commit to overhaul their software department, I suffered through enough of that by being loyal to them for a decade.

You should refrain from misinformation.

 

[A Stoner]

I am definitely a fan of nVidia, and I think their push towards ray tracing is where computer gaming should be headed. But this generation of cards is a total let down on so many levels. after generations of leaps and bounds of advancements, it seems the Moore's Law has met the laws of diminishing returns and until there are some significant eureka moments, we could see smaller generational gains. A couple of the things that are likely holding back the advancement is the lack of high end competition and the distraction of AI, which is why, if you really look at the new cards, AI is where all the advancement in this generation are geared towards. You cannot really blame nVidia for prioritizing AI when they are able to sell the silicone for nearly 20 times as much per square mm and in numbers that dwarf their potential gaming sales.

Intel is doing great in the entry level/mid range cards it seems and even seems reasonably competitive in ray tracing. AMD is doing the same with less emphasis on ray tracing. This poor upgrade in performance by nVidia just opens the opportunities for Intel and AMD to catch up. A while back AMD was way behind in processors, and now look how the tables have turned. The same can eventually happen in the GPU market with an innovation happening at Intel or AMD.

 

[TeamRed2024]

Ebay listings showing 5090 at $6000.

🤣 🤣 🤣

 

[alexvojacek]

Ebay listings showing 5090 at $6000.

🤣 🤣 🤣

It has reached a point where you are torn between buying the latest GPU or a car.

Obviously this is ridiculous. A GPU can't have the same price of a used car.

 

[valthuer]

Where I am almost the cheapest 5090 was Astral, at $3600 after taxes. I took it.

Gigabyte Aorus Master was $4k.

I could swear you live in Greece 🤣

 

[Gaidax]

I could swear you live in Greece 🤣

No, but close.

 

[oofdragon]

As Linus put it: the 5090 is the 4090Ti.

That would make the 5080 the 4080Ti Super.

Except that there is nothing Super about the "4080 Super", it's just a renamed 4080 OG, and that there's not enough performance uplift for the 5080 to be called a "4080 Super. 5080 is at best a a 4080 OC

 

[Eximo]

Currently 12600kf + 3080 hydro. Going to upgrade to 9800X3D + 7900 XTX + Alphacool WB and backplate.

I was looking at the Alphacool blocks. Since the 5070 Ti is the same die as the 5080, and is basically a 4070 Ti Super, that might be the way to go, to save that $250.

 

[King_V]

Ebay listings showing 5090 at $6000.

🤣 🤣 🤣

I've bought usable cars, that could pass inspection, for 10% of that price, or less.

 

[palladin9479]

I was looking at the Alphacool blocks. Since the 5070 Ti is the same die as the 5080, and is basically a 4070 Ti Super, that might be the way to go, to save that $250.

I used to do EK or Corsair for CPU blocks and EVGA Hydro series for GPU. Since EVGA went away and EK has had trouble I've been looking to switch. Corsair is too much iCUE RBG puke, like they really try to force you into their eco system and I don't like that. Alphacool seems to have all the required stuff and even makes a ton of custom AIB GPU WB's instead of just reference design boards. Going to see how they do, have heard good things about them so far.

And holy cow looks like everyone is buying up all the 7900 XTX's now. All that pent up demand was waiting on the 5080 to drop.

 

[Eximo]

I used to do EK or Corsair for CPU blocks and EVGA Hydro series for GPU. Since EVGA went away and EK has had trouble I've been looking to switch. Corsair is too much iCUE RBG puke, like they really try to force you into their eco system and I don't like that. Alphacool seems to have all the required stuff and even makes a ton of custom AIB GPU WB's instead of just reference design boards. Going to see how they do, have heard good things about them so far.

Certainly the most appealing to me at the moment. I used to be a big fan of XSPC minimalism, but they stopped making GPU blocks with the 20 series. I gave Bykski a try with the FTW3 3080 Ti, it didn't quite fit right, then switched to EK.

My pump/res/rad is from Alphacool, works pretty well.

 

[oofdragon]

We use fake frames because it is fake frames.

There is no special quantum blockchain AI crystal chemtrails happening here. It's just frame interpolation pure and simple. Render one frame, store it, render a second frame, store that, then interpolate 1~3 intermediate frames, aka motion blur, then push the whole thing to the output buffer while using the last frame as the first frame for the next set.

The only reason it's even being recognized as "frame" is because the drivers are doing a screen call to render and that is what benchmarking programs look for to count as a unit of "FPS". It would be like trying to argue to treat upscaling and native rendering as "equal", they are not.

Now if we want to discuses those features as QoL enhancements for performance impaired situations, then great. Interpolation can aid in making a low FPS situation appear more "smooth". Upscaling can assist in making a low FPS situation feel "better" by rendering it lower resolution. Combining them is rending at lower resolution and interpolating the results to produce a smoother experience then what would otherwise be possible. Discussing those in the context of the Titan or high end 80 model is kinda silly. Instead those technologies mainly assist in pushing the 50, 60 and 70 models to punch above their weight class.

This! There are no actual frames in what we call "fake frames", it literally means that their are pulling some shenannigans in the software to display numbers in the COUNTER, not actual frames created from a different way than actual rendering. Multi fake frames in the 5000 will just show that, play any game that your GPU avg at 15fps and then use the 4X to see what happens, watch it side by side with an actual 60fps being rendered by the GPU next to it at another monitor. I'm not even talking about I put lag, I'm talking about "does it feel like watching a 60fps footage?". If you have 3 more times fake frames than actual frames there's no way you d watch that without noticing some MAJOR problems in IQ, so the thing is there are no 3 fakes and um real even though the counter is saying 15(60), there will hardly be more than 1:1 interpolated whatever they r interpolating there and it will actually feel like you are watching a 30fps footage

 

[palladin9479]

Certainly the most appealing to me at the moment. I used to be a big fan of XSPC minimalism, but they stopped making GPU blocks with the 20 series. I gave Bykski a try with the FTW3 3080 Ti, it didn't quite fit right, then switched to EK.

My pump/res/rad is from Alphacool, works pretty well.

I went with their 240mm distribution block + pump. Currently have a Corsair DD5 pump + reservoir combo that push's CPU, GPU, one regular corsair 240mm rad and another thick corsair 360mm rad. The distro block looks like it can vastly simply my loop.

The downside to EVGA Hydro's is that they are hard to sell on the AM or repurpose in other PC's. You need a full loop system to use them at all. Going with a third party vendor waterblock means I can save the original air cooler and just reinstall it in a few years when I upgrade.

 

[Gaidax]

This! There are no actual frames in what we call "fake frames", it literally means that their are pulling some shenannigans in the software to display numbers in the COUNTER, not actual frames created from a different way than actual rendering. Multi fake frames in the 5000 will just show that, play any game that your GPU avg at 15fps and then use the 4X to see what happens, watch it side by side with an actual 60fps being rendered by the GPU next to it at another monitor. I'm not even talking about I put lag, I'm talking about "does it feel like watching a 60fps footage?". If you have 3 more times fake frames than actual frames there's no way you d watch that without noticing some MAJOR problems in IQ, so the thing is there are no 3 fakes and um real even though the counter is saying 15(60), there will hardly be more than 1:1 interpolated whatever they r interpolating there

Sure, go find that magical GPU that will render 60FPS native in a situation 5080 renders 15FPS.

I think a lot of people here are hella disingenuous. Yes, when you turn on Framegen with base 15FPS, nothing good will come of it, but you were fudged to begin with anyway.

Framegen is great when you want to bring 40-50FPS to 100+ FPS. Yes, the input would still mostly be as if it's 40-50FPS, but at the very least the visuals you will see will be smooth. Yes, it won't be "real" 100+ FPS, but it will be better than 40-50FPS.

And it is even better when you want to bring 100 FPS to 200+ and max out your monitor refresh rate. At that base FPS, input latency will no longer matter unless you're like legit top 1% CSGO champ or something.

I think it's shortsighted to dismiss this tech - it has use cases. Yes, its best use case is making something that's already good - better, but hey, that is also nice to have as an option, isn't it?

 

[valthuer]

Ebay listings showing 5090 at $6000.

🤣 🤣 🤣

In the meantime, it looks like all the MSRP 5090s at Newegg are already out of stock:

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=rtx+5090

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

In the meantime, it looks like all the MSRP 5090s at Newegg are already out of stock:

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=rtx+5090

Not just MSRP models. Every 5090 is out of stock, everywhere, as far as I can tell. Which was basically expected. I'm still surprised by how much people are willing to pay, but then again, paying up to $4000 for a 5090 that's significantly better in just about every way than an RTX 5000 Ada Generation professional GPU might make sense for some places.