RTX 5080 Reviews Expose the Truth: Just 10% Faster, Same Price as Last Year's Flagship

With today’s embargo lift, major outlets like TechSpot, TechPowerUp, ComputerBase, and Hardware Unboxed have flooded the web with their takes on NVIDIA’s RTX 5080 — the second Blackwell GPU after the flagship RTX 5090. Despite NVIDIA’s claims of a "4K gaming revolution," early benchmarks paint a mixed picture: the card is only 5–15% faster than the RTX 4080 Super.

The RTX 5080 packs the GB203 GPU with 10,752 CUDA cores, 16GB of GDDR7 memory, and a 256-bit bus delivering 960 GB/s bandwidth — a 34% jump over the RTX 4080. However, compared to the RTX 5090, it halves the memory, bus width, and compute units. The GB203 is described as a "maximally stripped-down" chip, leaving no room for future upgrades without jumping to the flagship GB202.

The headline feature is DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation (MFG), which creates up to three frames per rendered frame. In Marvel’s Spider-Man and Cyberpunk 2077, MFG boosts FPS by 2–4x, but introduces a 10% latency hike and minor visual artifacts. Notably, core DLSS 4 features like enhanced upscaling remain backward-compatible with older RTX cards.

In traditional rendering, the RTX 5080 outpaces the RTX 4080 Super by 4–11% depending on resolution:

Ray tracing improvements are milder (5–14%), but still enough to crush AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX, trailing by up to 50% in titles like Metro Exodus. Yet reviewers note that the RTX 4080 Super offered similar value a year ago — and now sells at a discount. Despite a 360W TGP (vs. 320W for the 4080 Super), the Founders Edition cooler keeps temps at 63°C under load, with fan noise staying whisper-quiet. However, transient power spikes hit 417W — 23% higher than its predecessor.

Upgrade Verdict: Who Should Bite?

NVIDIA has crafted a polished GPU, but this isn’t a true next-gen leap. The RTX 5080 feels more like an Ada Lovelace evolution with GDDR7 and Blackwell branding. By widening the gap between the 5080 and 5090, NVIDIA leaves room for future SUPER refreshes — a reminder that marketing often outpaces silicon.