Expert’s Rating
Pros
- DLSS Multi Frame Generation is a game-changer in suitable titles, driving snappy new ranges of smoothness by growing body charges fourfold, tightly paced.
- Great 4K and 1440p efficiency
- Tightly engineered Founders Edition mannequin someway squeezes into a reasonably quiet two-slot design
Cons
- Very small efficiency improve over present RTX 4080 Super outdoors of DLSS 4 video games with Multi Frame Generation
- Much slower than RTX 4090, a lot much less the RTX 5090
- Higher energy draw requires a extra succesful energy provide
- 16GB reminiscence capability underwhelms in a $1,000 GPU
Our Verdict
The GeForce RTX 5080 affords negligible enchancment over the 4080 Super’s efficiency, which is a large bummer — but in addition affords a very game-changing function in DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation, which supercharges body charges and visible smoothness. It’s certain to be controversial.
Price When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$999
“Oh, so that’s why the GeForce RTX 5080 costs less than everyone expected.”
That thought struck my thoughts the moment I noticed the place Nvidia’s new $999 graphics card fell in our gaming benchmarks. The extravagant $1,999 GeForce RTX 5090 managed to make use of a tantalizing mixture of brute power and DLSS 4 innovation to bully its approach to the highest of the efficiency charts. The nonetheless costly, but extra attainable RTX 5080 takes a extra reserved method, and delivers disappointing efficiency positive aspects because of this. It’s barely beats the 4080 Super it’s changing, a lot much less the still-ferocious RTX 4090.
That makes DLSS 4, the brand new technology of Nvidia tech that may insert as much as three AI-generated frames between each historically rendered body, much more essential to the RTX 5080. It’s a very magical function to mess around with, sending body charges and visible smoothness hovering, however is it sufficient to make up for a GPU that, frankly, delivers a poor generational efficiency uplift?
Yes, consider it or not — DLSS 4’s new capabilities supercharge how your video games really feel, imbuing even janky performers with stunning pace and snappiness.
Woof. This one’s going to be difficult. Watch Adam and Will’s video under for a benchmark-by-benchmark evaluation of all of the exams we’ve run. Here, we’ll deal with the important thing particulars that would-be RTX 5080 consumers have to know earlier than dropping a cool grand on Nvidia’s newest — and certain to be controversial — fanatic graphics card.
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5080 isn’t a lot sooner than the 4080 Super
When we analyzed the RTX 50-series’ tech specs after their reveal, I identified that the RTX 5080 solely has about 10 % extra CUDA cores than the 4080. Architecture enhancements, the next energy draw, and the transfer to cutting-edge GDDR7 reminiscence may additionally assist improve efficiency, however the RTX 5080 wasn’t prone to be a humongous leap ahead.
Unfortunately, it solely supplied an ungainly foot-shuffle ahead in our gaming benchmarks.
Across our suite — which makes use of a mixture of totally different sport engines, genres, and ray tracing ranges — the GeForce RTX 5080 finally ends up simply 15 % sooner at 4K decision than the $999 RTX 4080 Super. (The vanilla 4080 launched at $1,200 earlier than flopping and being changed by the cheaper Super.) That’s deeply disappointing. You hope to see a 25 to 30 % efficiency enchancment in a brand new graphics card technology.
Some video games carry out higher or worse. In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla the uplift was solely 10 %. In Cyberpunk 2077, a sport developed with deep Nvidia collaboration, the RTX 5080 ran 32 % sooner than the 4080 Super. But typically, anticipate to see a couple of 15 % uplift in most video games.
The GeForce RTX 5080’s uncooked efficiency is much more disappointing if you happen to’re trying to pair it with a excessive refresh-rate 1440p monitor. At that decision, the 5080 is simply 11.5 % sooner than the 4080 Super on common.
From a uncooked rendering perspective, the GeForce RTX 5080 is among the worst generational upgrades in current reminiscence. This graphics card is barely sooner than its predecessor, and the RTX 5080 falls properly behind final technology’s RTX 4090. That growing old behemoth runs 15 % sooner than the 5080 at 4K.
Sigh. And due to that…
DLSS 4 will make or break the RTX 5080
Watch the Full Nerd gang talk about their DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Gen expertise within the time-stamped video above.
The GeForce RTX 5080 has an ace up its sleeve, although: Nvidia’s flat-out awesome new DLSS 4 technology.
More particularly, the brand new Multi Frame Gen function unique to GeForce RTX 50-series graphics playing cards. It builds atop the Frame Generation function launched within the 40-series. While the older Frame Generation inserts a single AI-generated body between two “traditionally” rendered frames to extend body charge, Multi Frame Gen inserts as much as three AI generated photos between frames to ship body charges hovering even larger. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s mandatory-for-Frame-Gen Reflex expertise helps to drive down the latency launched by the AI frames.
It feels great. Enabling MFG makes supported video games (like Cyberpunk and Alan Wake 2) feel and appear a lot smoother. Consider this testimonial from our 5090 evaluate:
“PCWorld contributor Will Smith, who’s engaged on a deeper dive into DLSS 4, delivers even stronger reward: He studies that turning on DLSS 4 makes Star Wars Outlaws, a enjoyable third-person sport susceptible to efficiency issues, really feel simply pretty much as good because the legendary Doom 2016, which many avid gamers take into account the paragon of fast-action shooters. “It’s like an entire new sport,” he mentioned.”
I’ve hung out tooling across the streets of Night City with MFG lively in Cyberpunk 2077. It’s astonishing how rather more {smooth} and quick the whole lot feels, particularly in a sport that runs damned {smooth} and quick to start with. It’s revolutionary.
From a uncooked rendering perspective, the GeForce RTX 5080 is among the worst generational upgrades in current reminiscence.
Multi Frame Gen isn’t free, nonetheless, as the superb evaluation by Hardware Unboxed above drives house. Your inputs don’t have an effect on the AI frames, solely the historically rendered ones. Nvidia Reflex does an admirable job of retaining latency — responsiveness — round native ranges even when churning out most AI frames. The full 4x MFG mode solely provides a handful of milliseconds of latency in comparison with native rendering, in trade for DLSS 4’s pleasant visible smoothness. But the way in which the sport feels nonetheless depends on these historically rendered frames.
That perception unlocks a number of others. But the important thing one is that this: You want a excessive base body charge — 60fps or extra, ideally 80fps or extra — earlier than turning on MFG to maintain your video games feeling “right.” If you go an excessive amount of under that, the enter lag turns into rather more noticeable.
Fortunately, whereas the RTX 5080 affords solely a mediocre improve over the 4080 Super in uncooked efficiency, the efficiency on supply continues to be greater than sufficient to drive that 60- to 80fps “base rate” that’s so essential for affordable latency with Multi Frame Gen. Yes, Cyberpunk 2077 working at 60fps however augmented to run at 240fps with MFG/Reflex nonetheless feels prefer it’s working round 60fps, however fixed body pacing that comes with working a sport so quick simply appears to be like and feels gooooood, man.
Frame Generation isn’t for everybody. That mentioned, I’m delicate to latency. I’m a monitor collector who has a 360Hz 1080p panel solely to play aggressive shooters. I’m a freak who can inform {that a} sport working at 240fps with MFG doesn’t really feel like a sport working at native 240fps, and due to that I’d by no means use Frame Generation in multiplayer video games. But the tight body pacing and smoother visuals MFG supplies makes attractive single-player video games feel and appear so a lot better that I unabashedly advocate utilizing it when out there, even when it feels minimally “off” at first. It’s that good.
Better but, DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Gen might be out there in 75 video games and apps when the RTX 50-series launches on January 30. Some of them might be precise sport updates, whilst you’ll have to power DLSS 4 by way of the Nvidia app in others. But you’ll have loads of video games to mess around in.
That’s nice, as a result of DLSS 4 is the defining function of the RTX 5080. If you’re not enthusiastic about AI frames in anyway, the outdated 4080 Super would most likely be a greater buy for you, weirdly sufficient.
The RTX 5080 and 5090 are remarkably skinny graphics card contemplating their efficiency ranges.
Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry
The RTX 5080 is not any RTX 4090 rival
…properly, except you’re working a DLSS 4 sport with Multi Frame Generation lively.
But aside from that, the RTX 4090 nonetheless demolishes the RTX 5080. It winds up being 15 % sooner than the RTX 5080 on common at 4K decision. Usually, the xx80 card of a technology clearly beats the xx80 Ti or xx90 tier from the earlier technology, however that’s very a lot not the case right here.
The newer card’s 16GB of GDDR7 reminiscence doesn’t maintain a candle to the RTX 4090’s huge 24GB reminiscence buffer both. The 4090’s mondo capability makes it beloved by content material creators and AI execs alike. If you will get by with 16GB, the RTX 5080’s next-gen Blackwell GPU structure managed to come back shut to the RTX 4090 in our Procyon AI textual content technology and Adobe Premiere Pro exams, for considerably much less cash. But 16GB simply isn’t sufficient for a lot of execs engaged on essentially the most strenuous duties nowadays — and whereas our gaming testing didn’t stress the capability, 16GB appears awfully skimpy for a $1,000 graphics card in 2025.
Damn, Nvidia’s RTX 5080 Founders Edition is good
If you’re fortunate sufficient to snag an RTX 5080 Founders Edition, you gained’t be disillusioned. Like the RTX 5090 Founders Edition, the RTX 5080 FE wields delightfully superior engineering tips to squeeze the GPU’s may right into a svelte true two-slot bundle. That means you possibly can cram it into tiny small form-factor builds. Drooooool.
Watch GeForce’s product supervisor clarify its intricacies in our video from CES 2025 under.
You’ll little question discover a slew of monstrous, triple-slot customized RTX 5080s from Nvidia’s regular board companions. Their expansive heft and cooling setups will certainly hold the 5080 frostier and quieter than Nvidia’s space-constrained Founders Edition, however anticipate to pay significantly extra in return.
Given its small efficiency improve, I’m unsure that paying a steep premium for a customized RTX 5080 makes a lot sense except you’re a fanatic about sound and temperatures. The Founders Edition isn’t particularly scorching or cranky sounding, in any case.
More energy, Captain!
The RTX 5080 has the next TGP ranking than the 4080, which implies it attracts extra energy. That additional energy can be utilized to assist juice clock speeds, however a number of the improve comes from the debut of cutting-edge GDDR7 VRAM quick sufficient to soften faces.
It’s a nothingburger in actuality. The RTX 5080 consumed about 8 % extra power than the 4080 Super in our check that logs energy all through a benchmark run. But that barely larger energy draw does pack a tangible distinction: Nvidia says an 850-watt energy provide is required to run the RTX 5080, a 100W improve over the 4080.
Should you purchase the GeForce RTX 5080?
Only take into account the RTX 5080 if you happen to purchase into Nvidia’s AI-fueled imaginative and prescient of the long run.
Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry
DLSS 4’s Multi Frame Generation function should be seen (and felt) to be believed. On PCWorld’s Full Nerd podcast, we in contrast the leap from Single Frame to Multi Frame Generation to the leap from DLSS 1 to DLSS 2. When each applied sciences first got here out, they confirmed promise however had loads of tough edges. With DLSS 2, avid gamers agreed that Nvidia nailed it. And whereas it’s not fairly excellent, Multi Frame Generation nails it. Once extra avid gamers get their Dorito-stained paws on RTX 50-series playing cards, and are capable of instrument round with MFG in 75+ video games and apps, I wouldn’t be stunned if all of the furor over “fake frames” on-line dies down fairly a bit. It’s a literal sport changer.
But Nvidia is in bother this technology if the plenty don’t embrace Multi Frame Generation. Because in relation to conventional gaming efficiency, the RTX 5080 is not any sport changer.
It’s a fairly damned horrible generational improve, really. Eking out a mere 11 to 15 extra render efficiency than the RTX 4080 Super, on the identical value, at the next energy draw, isn’t compelling in anyway. It can’t come wherever near final gen’s 4090. If you don’t like AI-generated frames — possibly you’re delicate to latency, otherwise you deal with aggressive video games, or you detest the concept of AI frames probably introducing visible glitches — I’d even go as far as to recommend choosing up a 4080 Super to get roughly comparable efficiency for much less money.
Remember: The RTX 3080 beat the RTX 2080 by 60 to 80 percent when it launched earlier this decade, and it did so for simply $700. Then Nvidia jacked the price of the vanilla RTX 4080 by $500 {dollars} for a 30 % efficiency improve, resulting in poor gross sales rectified solely by the launch of the 4080 Super at $999. With the RTX 5080 barely outpacing that, the RTX 5080 would have been immensely extra compelling at a pair hundred {dollars} cheaper. Two generations after the RTX 3080, Nvidia has actually devastated the xx80 tier’s worth in current reminiscence. Upgrading from the 3080 to a 5080 will solely get you about 40 to 45 % extra efficiency, for a price ticket that’s 42 % larger. That’s not progress.
If Nvidia didn’t have MFG in tow, this could’ve been a scathing evaluate for the RTX 5080 itself. But boyyyyy does DLSS 4’s new tips really feel nice. Multi Frame Generation makes Star Wars Outlaws, a notoriously janky sport, really feel simply pretty much as good as Doom 2016. Cyberpunk’s neon Night City feels a lot extra alive if you’re racing round at a buttery-smooth 240Hz+, or over 150fps even with the sport’s nuclear RT Overdrive Mode lively.
And that’s the promise Nvidia wants avid gamers to purchase into for the GeForce RTX 5080 — heck, maybe this complete RTX 50-series technology. Are you prepared to embrace “fake frames” and dip your toes into experiences that aren’t presently attainable with conventional rendering alone? If so, this GPU supplies sufficient grunt to gas these adventures in 4K and 1440p alike.
If not, the RTX 5080 is among the most disappointing GPU releases in a very long time. It’s most likely finest to save lots of your money.
Me? I’m into the imaginative and prescient. But I want Nvidia imbued the RTX 5080 with extra uncooked rendering firepower, so it may very well be a good improve even for “fake frame” haters. Nvidia didn’t, alas — so now the RTX 5080’s future hangs within the steadiness of these 75 DLSS 4 video games working accurately at launch.
If DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation carry out like a champ when that wider availability hits, it may usher in a brand new period of {smooth}, AI-supercharged efficiency. But if DLSS 4 winds up stricken by visible artifacts or different points as soon as the floodgates open, it may as a substitute set off an explosion of “fake frames” memes and signal a dying warrant for the in any other case ho-hum RTX 5080 — maybe even the remainder of Nvidia’s 50-series lineup.
The GeForce RTX 5090 can stand alone by itself deserves, however the RTX 5080 is all-in on DLSS 4. All that’s left us to see is the place the chips fall.