Hot on the heels of the RTX 5090, today we can present our full review of Nvidia's RTX 5080. While still hugely expensive at £979/$999, this GPU is at least slightly more accessible than the RTX 50 series flagship given it comes in at roughly half the price. But does that mean the RTX 5080 is only half as fast? Today we assess raw performance, ray tracing, DLSS 4, power draw, efficiency and more in this in-depth analysis.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro
00:48 RTX 5080 specs
02:01 Test setup
03:49 Alan Wake 2
04:30 Black Myth: Wukong
05:01 Cyberpunk 2077
05:33 Final Fantasy XVI
06:06 Forza Horizon 5
06:38 Ghost of Tsushima
07:02 Horizon Forbidden West
07:26 The Last of Us Part 1
08:01 Plague Tale: Requiem
08:27 Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
08:52 Starfield
09:21 Total War: Warhammer III
09:45 12-game average results
11:03 Cost per frame analysis
12:21 RT Alan Wake II
12:50 RT Black Myth: Wukong
13:15 RT Cyberpunk 2077
13:39 RT F1 24
14:03 RT Ratchet & Clank
14:28 RT Returnal
14:53 RT Shadow of the Tomb Raider
15:22 RT Star Wars Outlaws
15:44 RT 8-game average
17:13 DLSS 4 – Multi Frame Generation
19:46 AI & productivity benchmarks
21:02 Founders Edition design, thermals & acoustics
22:33 Power draw and efficiency
24:23 Closing thoughts

Launching at retail on January 30th, we're hearing that there will be slightly wider availability of the RTX 5080 than the RTX 5090, though it will certainly take at least a few weeks for supply to stabilise. But before you rush to try and buy one, you’ll want to know exactly what you're getting for the £979 asking price—so without further ado, let’s dive into the review.

	RTX 5090	RTX 5080	RTX 4090	RTX 4080 Super	RTX 4080
Process	TSMC N4	TSMC N4	TSMC N4	TSMC N4	TSMC N4
SMs	170	84	128	80	76
CUDA Cores	21760	10752	16384	10240	9728
Tensor Cores	680	336	512	320	304
RT Cores	170	84	128	80	76
Texture Units	680	336	512	320	304
ROPs	176	112	176	112	112
GPU Boost Clock	2407 MHz	2617 MHz	2520 MHz	2550 MHz	2505 MHz
Memory Data Rate	28 Gbps	30 Gbps	21 Gbps	23 Gbps	22.4 Gbps
L2 Cache	98304 KB	65536 KB	73729 KB	65536 KB	65536 KB
Total Video Memory	32GB GDDR7	16GB GDDR7	24GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X
Memory Interface	512-bit	256-bit	384-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	1792 GB/Sec	960 GB/Sec	1008 GB/Sec	736 GB/Sec	716.8 GB/Sec
TGP	575W	360W	450W	320W	320W

First, a quick spec recap. Unlike the RTX 5090, which is built on the GB202 die, RTX 5080 uses smaller silicon as it is a full implementation of the GB203 die, measuring 378mm². Comprised of 7 Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), each holds up to eight Texture Processing Clusters (TPC), with a total of 42. Each TPC is home to two Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), giving us 84, and each SM still holds 256 CUDA Cores, meaning the RTX 5080 has a total of 10752 shaders. We also find 84 RT cores, 336 Tensor cores, 336 Texture Units, and 112 ROPs.

This time around, however, there's no node-shrink, and GB203 remains fabricated on TSMC's N4 node, as per the RTX 40-series. As such, rated clock speed is barely changed this generation, with the RTX 5080 rated at 2617MHz, compared to the RTX 4080 Super's 2550MHz boost.

The memory configuration is also fairly similar, but sports one key upgrade – GDDR7 memory. The RTX 5080 comes equipped with 16GB, running at 30Gbps, and that puts total memory bandwidth at 960 GB/s, a 30% increase over the RTX 4080 Super. L2 cache remains at 65MB.

Power draw has also increased, with the RTX 5080 sporting a 360W TGP. This is something we focus on closely in this review, using our enhanced GPU power testing methodology, so read on for our most detailed power and efficiency testing yet.

The post Nvidia RTX 5080 Review: Efficiency Gains, Performance Letdown first appeared on KitGuru.

Announced back at CES 2025, Nvidia's RTX 50-series is here, built on the latest Blackwell architecture. First up for review is the new flagship, the RTX 5090, which hits the market at an eye-watering £1939/$1999. Packing in a total of 92.2 billion transistors, 21760 CUDA Cores and 32GB of GDDR7 memory, Nvidia claims that the RTX 5090 is ‘up to 2x' faster than the out-going RTX 4090, but is that really the case? And what's power consumption like given the rated 575W TGP? All that and more is covered in today's review…

Timestamps

00:00 Intro
00:49 RTX 5090 recap, pricing + specs
02:50 Test setup
04:31 Alan Wake 2
05:11 Black Myth: Wukong
05:47 Cyberpunk 2077
06:17 Final Fantasy XVI
06:42 Forza Horizon 5
07:11 Ghost of Tsushima
07:38 Horizon Forbidden West
08:05 The Last of Us Part 1
08:30 Plague Tale: Requiem
08:53 Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
09:22 Starfield
09:50 Total War: Warhammer III
10:37 12-game average results
11:41 Cost per frame analysis
12:47 RT Alan Wake II
13:19 RT Black Myth: Wukong
13:47 RT Cyberpunk 2077
14:14 RT F1 24
14:45 RT Ratchet & Clank
15:07 RT Returnal
15:34 RT Shadow of the Tomb Raider
16:07 RT Star Wars Outlaws
16:33 RT 8-game average
17:31 DLSS 4 – new Transformer model
19:59 DLSS 4 – Multi Frame Generation
27:09 AI & productivity benchmarks
28:33 Closer look at the Founders Edition
29:44 Thermals & acoustics (with soundest)
31:31 Power draw and efficiency
33:33 Closing thoughts

If you missed the announcement earlier in the month, the Nvidia RTX 5090 is arriving as the first of four 50-series GPUs. The RTX 5080 is the next cab off the rank, launching on January 30th, while the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti are set to arrive some time next month. This review is firmly focused on the flagship SKU, though, and there is plenty to cover. We look at raster performance, ray tracing, new upgrades made to DLSS 4, alongside AI benchmarks, power, efficiency and more.

	RTX 5090	RTX 4090	RTX 4080 Super	RTX 4080	RTX 4070 Ti Super
Process	TSMC N4	TSMC N4	TSMC N4	TSMC N4	TSMC N4
SMs	170	128	80	76	66
CUDA Cores	21760	16384	10240	9728	8448
Tensor Cores	680	512	320	304	264
RT Cores	170	128	80	76	66
Texture Units	680	512	320	304	264
ROPs	176	176	112	112	96
GPU Boost Clock	2407 MHz	2520 MHz	2550 MHz	2505 MHz	2610 MHz
Memory Data Rate	28 Gbps	21 Gbps	23 Gbps	22.4 Gbps	21 Gbps
L2 Cache	98304 KB	73729 KB	65536 KB	65536 KB	49152 KB
Total Video Memory	32GB GDDR7	24GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X
Memory Interface	512-bit	384-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	1792 GB/Sec	1008 GB/Sec	736 GB/Sec	716.8 GB/Sec	672 GB/Sec
TGP	575W	450W	320W	320W	285W

First, a quick spec recap. The RTX 5090 is built on the new GB202 die, measuring 750mm², though it's not quite a full implementation of the silicon. Instead we find a total of 11 Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), each holding up to eight Texture Processing Clusters (TPC), for a total of 85. Each TPC is home to two Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), giving us 170, and each SM still holds 256 CUDA Cores, meaning the RTX 5090 has an eye-watering total of 21760 shaders. We also find 170 RT cores, 680 Tensor cores, 680 Texture Units, and 176 ROPs.

This time around, however, there's no node-shrink, and GB202 remains fabricated on TSMC's N4 node, as per the RTX 40-series. As such, rated clock speed is not increased this generation and is actually touted slightly below that of the RTX 4090, with the RTX 5090 delivering a rated 2407MHz boost clock, compared to its predecessor's 2520MHz boost.

The memory configuration has seen significant upgrades, though.The RTX 5090 now comes equipped with a super-wide 512-bit memory interface, paired with 32GB GDDR7 memory running at 28Gbps, and that puts total memory bandwidth at a staggering 1792 GB/s. L2 cache is also increased to 98MB, up from the 74MB of the RTX 4090.

Considering the large increases to die size and core count, but with no node shrink, it's perhaps unsurprising to see power draw has increased, this time boasting a 575W TGP. This is something we focus on closely in this review, using our enhanced GPU power testing methodology, so read on for our most detailed power and efficiency testing yet.

The post Nvidia RTX 5090 Review: Ray Tracing, DLSS 4, and Raw Power first appeared on KitGuru.