NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition review: Meet the new mainstream graphics card for 4K gaming

Note: This review was first published on 30 January 2025.

NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series is not only the start of a new cycle of generational GPUs, but it also ushers in the era of AI rendering. We have already covered the key technologies – namely Neural Rendering and DLSS 4 – powering the Blackwell architecture cards as well as the engineering feats of Team Green’s new Founders Edition (FE) cards. We have also reviewed the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 FE, which we said represents a shift in focus for NVIDIA; it’s no longer just about sheer horsepower but also about using AI to redefine what’s possible in gaming.

Needless to say, the RTX 5090s with its eye-searing US$1,999 price tag (and AIB partners’ cards will cost more) means it’s not going to be the most accessible card for most gamers. Well, fret not because there’s the second GeForce RTX 5080 that sits just below the RTX 5090 and costs US$999 – half the price of the RTX 5090. It’s also worth pointing out that while the RTX 5090 FE saw a jump in price from its RTX 4090 FE predecessor (US$1,599), the RTX 5080 FE’s price tag decreased from the US$1,199 that NVIDIA launched with the non-Super RTX 4080 FE. Of course, AIB partners’ cards pricings are a whole different matter but that’s another discussion altogether.

As far as aesthetics go, the RTX 5090 FE is a strikingly good-looking card, and the RTX 5080 FE mimics its more powerful sibling in shape and form – including the dual-slot design. The only distinguishing feature being the “5080” marking on the card. As the second card in NVIDIA’s Blackwell generation, the RTX 5080 comes with a significantly cut down GPU, with half the number of transistors and CUDA cores than on the RTX 5090. For memory count, NVIDIA has stuck with 16GB but with the faster GDDR7 memory. It also has a smaller 256-bit memory bus. Unsurprisingly, the lower core counts and memory have a significant impact in performance differences when compared to the RTX 5090, which we shall see below.

Our Test Rig

We are using the updated same test rig that was used to benchmark the GeForce RTX 5090 FE and comes with the following specifications:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
• ROG Maximus Z890 Hero
• Samsung 990 Pro 1TB SSD
• Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5
• Windows 11 Home 64-bit
• ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM 4K Gaming Monitor

For this review, I’ll be comparing the RTX 5080 FE not only with the RTX 4080 FE but also the RTX 4090 and 5090 FE cards. I’ve also included all the Founders Edition cards from the GeForce RTX 40 Series just for good measures.

Gaming performance

My game list includes a mixture of old and recent games to test the RTX 5080 FE’s performance, and while the list isn’t exhaustive by any measure there are enough different game engines and APIs variety to give us an idea of broader performance trends.

As with the RTX 5090 FE, we want to focus on the 4K performance numbers. For gaming at lower resolutions, you'd really want to wait and get the RTX 5070 Ti / 5070 instead. While the RTX 5080's starting price of US$999 is lower than its RTX 4080, both cards are aimed at the 4K gaming segment. But just for our own reference, I've included results from 1080p and 1440p benchmarks anyway.

Unsurprisingly, the RTX 5080 FE pulled ahead of both the non-Super and Super variants of the RTX 4080 FE in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. But like the RTX 5090 over the RTX 4090, the generational uplift in performance isn't remarkably wide. But we have already kind of expected as much because NVIDIA already pre-empted us (read about it here).

With Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the RTX 5080 FE manages to outpaced the RTX 4090 FE and the 4080 FEs, but at 4K it loses steam against the RTX 4090.

Horizon Zero Dawn is an expansive open-world game and here we see the gap between the RTX 5080 FE and both RTX 4080 FE cards narrower than the previous games.

Sega's Total War: Warhammer III is a great example of a game that doesn't feature or depends on visual visual wizardry like DLSS. To run it well, you need good old-fashion raw GPU power. There's a compelling reason to make that the RTX 4090 still has plenty of life left in it.

With more modern games like Cyberpunk 2077 that are continuously optimised for GPUs, we see a wider gap in performance between the RTX 5080 FE and both RTX 4080 FE cards. It's also impressively not very far off from the RTX 4090.

Like the Cyberpunk 2077 results, we see a similar case in Returnal.

DLSS 4.0 & Multi-Frame Generation

Like the RTX 5090, and by extension all GPUs in the RTX 50 Series, the true power of the RTX 5080 lies in its Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) feature. In case you're unaware (or have not read our NVIDIA RTX 50 Series architecture breakdown), MFG is an evolution of the original Frame Generation that was first launched with the RTX 40 Series. It is what elevates DLSS to the next level and is a game changer. Exclusive to the RTX 50 Series, MFG is a fundamental shift in how games are rendered, using AI to generate most of the pixels on screen thanks to a new hardware piece in the GPU called Flip Metering. It effectively means that for every two traditional frames rendered, DLSS 4 can now generate three AI-created frames. The result is a rendering process that’s not only faster but also less resource-intensive, freeing up headroom for additional graphical effects or higher frame rates.

Play

This, of course, requires the game to support the new DLSS 4 too. But when it works, the results are amazing. Take a look at the Cyberpunk 2077 results below, which is one of the few titles right now that will work with the RTX 50 Series cards and DLSS 4.

Even without DLSS switched on, the RTX 5080 FE is already holding on its own pretty well. But turn on DLSS 4 and the frames gained is astounding, even going as far as outpacing the RTX 4090. Of course, if you're after the new holy grail of 4K gaming at 240fps, the RTX 5090 still is the way to go but for double the price of the RTX 5080. I've said it before but I have to say it again: What NVIDIA has done here with using AI to elevate framerates, and not just brute force, is nothing short of incredible.

AI and Content Creation

While the RTX 5080 is more than capable of performing AI-related workloads, it's more geared towards 4K gaming unlike the beastly RTX 5090 and even the RTX 4090. These flagship cards' superior memory and core count make them more suitable for heavy duty stuff such as AI text generation and even video encoding.

Power and Temperature

Unlike the RTX 5090 FE that sees a huge increase in power demand over its RTX 4090 FE predecessor, the RTX 5080 FE sports a more modest 40W increase over the RTX 4080 Super and non-Super cards. But NVIDIA still recommends an 850W power supply for the RTX 5080, which is 100W more than for the RTX 4080 and 4080 Super.

Final thoughts

While the Founders Edition cards are the stars of the RTX 50 Series, it's DLSS 4 that really shines in this new generation of GPUs. Although there aren't a lot of games to test the latest evolution of this AI-powered super sampling technology, Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) looks like a precursor to how NVIDIA (and perhaps even AMD and Intel) might develop future GPUs. Instead of simply adding extra silicon and more video memory to pump up gaming and rendering performance – which will only become prohibitively expensive, tech like MFG has allowed a new card like the RTX 5080 to be released for the same US$999 as the RTX 4080 Super FE but with the kind of uplift in performance unseen in past generations.

The big caveat here is, of course, that games do need to support the feature. But with NVIDIA's dominance in the gaming segment, both at the budget and high-end spectrums, you can bet that contemporary games (like Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars: Outlaw) and future titles of significance will very likely have built-in support for it. Plus, we won't rule out more popular existing titles getting an update to better spur users to gun for an upgrade.

In the end, the RTX 5080 is the new mainstream GPU you're going to get for the 4K gaming experience in place of the outgoing RTX 4080 and the extreme level of performance it can offer in the games that support DLSS 4 and MFG.

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