It’s an odd time to be reviewing an Nvidia graphics card. The corporate despatched me a GeForce RTX 5080 a month and a half in the past, and in that point, I’ve performed a variety of video games and watched a variety of GPU benchmark comparability movies. But in addition in that point, Nvidia’s longtime competitor AMD (which has traditionally been the underdog of the 2) launched its new line of playing cards, together with the Radeon RX 9070 XT, which is shockingly akin to the RTX 5080 whereas being considerably cheaper (the 9070 XT retails for $599, whereas the RTX 5080 prices $999). I figured, possibly by the point I submit one thing, you’d have the ability to purchase both GPU.
Right here’s the factor, although — you may’t. Virtually as quickly as Nvidia’s new playing cards hit the market in February, they bought out in lower than an hour. The AMD playing cards are additionally in terribly brief provide. Extra troubling, each the Nvidia and AMD GPUs have ended up promoting for considerably greater than their retail value, both due to enterprising resellers, or as a result of retailers can and do make the most of the truth that individuals are all the time keen to pay fairly a bit extra for these playing cards than the record costs. However even if you happen to had been keen to pay a number of thousand {dollars} for certainly one of these playing cards, you continue to won’t have the ability to get one for months — or longer, it’s laborious to say proper now. Not that many of those playing cards exist on the planet at the moment, seemingly. [Ed note: This is not a new problem.]
I don’t have a 9070 XT to which I can evaluate the RTX 5080, and if you happen to’re studying this and also you care about that comparability, you’ve in all probability already determined which one you favor and what you hope to get. You could be the sort of one that has additionally been watching comparative benchmark movies and is keen to attend nonetheless lengthy it takes to buy the best-performing card available on the market.
Otherwise you could be someone extra like me, who purchases what’s obtainable and reasonably priced after I’m ready to improve. I truly purchased an RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous final fall with my very own cash. At the moment, rumors advised that Nvidia would launch new playing cards in early 2025, however I used to be nervous about President Trump’s impending tariffs, and I guessed that the 50-series playing cards wouldn’t truly be obtainable to buy for a very long time after their debut anyway. It’s why I truly purchased all of the components for a brand-new PC construct alongside my new GPU. (Additionally, at the moment I didn’t know Nvidia was going to ship me an RTX 5080 to overview. One can not and shouldn’t rely on such issues, even in our line of labor.) This PC, for readers’ reference, accommodates an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-core processor, a Gigabyte X670 AORUS Elite AX motherboard, 64 GB of RAM, and a 1600 W energy provide. I’ve two 1440p screens and, sadly for testing functions, no 4K shows.
Picture: GSC Sport World by way of gamexplore
Picture: GSC Sport World by way of gamexplore
Picture: GSC Sport World by way of gamexplore
Picture: GSC Sport World by way of gamexplore
Along with feeling determined to improve my PC earlier than Trump took workplace, lest I make an already costly improve even pricier, I simply needed to play STALKER 2, which didn’t run in any respect on my earlier PC (the one which contained the RTX 3070 I reviewed in 2020, a card that’s barely under the advisable STALKER 2 system necessities). I’m not saying that STALKER 2 ran poorly on my earlier machine. It didn’t run in any respect. It wouldn’t even load. Now, the PC model of STALKER 2 wasn’t precisely optimized for achievement at launch, however I stored on attempting after a number of updates, and it didn’t go effectively. It appeared like an ailing portent. Plus, the RTX 3070 was by far the most recent element in my PC at the moment.
I used to be planning to circle again to the RTX 3070 as my comparability level for this RTX 5080 overview as a result of I figured the variations between it and my RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous could be considerably negligible, or at the very least, not very thrilling to put in writing about. As a substitute, I’ve ended up realizing that my RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous — by far the costliest merchandise in my new PC construct — was not truly that nice.
I hate to even admit this as a result of I’m nonetheless sort of pissed off about it, however right here we go. I had truly realized this downside lengthy earlier than the RTX 5080 arrived on my doorstep. Most video games regarded good on my new PC construct, however Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle — and let me use a technical time period right here — regarded like dogshit. I may have, and would have, spent extra time attempting to determine the place the bottlenecking was occurring, or why the body price within the sport would plummet any time I attempted to truly flip up the graphics settings in any respect to take some good screenshots of what ought to have been a really fairly online game. Even on regular settings, it nonetheless tended to look shimmery and grainy and simply plain incorrect.
I’m now gratified to study that I’m not alone on this expertise. Googling “RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle seems to be unhealthy” will yield tons of various discussion board threads on Steam, Reddit, and elsewhere from individuals having the identical issues that I bumped into. After a variety of tweaking with settings, I managed to discover a candy spot the place the sport regarded fairly good and the body price wasn’t struggling, however I felt confused and disillusioned that it didn’t look approach higher — and that this a lot effort was required to really feel content material with the outcomes. In spite of everything, I had simply upgraded my total PC, and Nice Circle was the primary main AAA, graphically intensive sport that was launched after my massive improve. It felt unhealthy.
I now really feel extraordinarily spoiled by how good my video games have regarded and carried out in 1440p with the RTX 5080. As quickly as I plugged it in and put in the brand new Nvidia drivers, Nice Circle regarded unbelievable, no tweaks required. With each setting maxed out, I used to be nonetheless in a position to common 120-125 frames per second within the sport, even in wide-open areas with plenty of shifting property on display screen (with Nvidia’s DLSS Body Technology know-how on the 4x setting). STALKER 2 fared even higher, averaging 160 fps on all “Epic” settings and solely dropping to 120 fps after I bumped into these huge anomaly areas with tons of stuff floating round within the air.
Maybe essentially the most satisfying level of comparability for me was Cyberpunk 2077. It is a sport with a variety of shiny, reflective surfaces, and I had a blast taking photos of all of them. I in contrast them to a few of my previous screenshots after I first performed the sport, on my earlier PC with the RTX 3070 (which was a brand-new card for me when that sport was first launched), and it’s enjoyable to see the enhancements. Cyberpunk 2077 has gotten an enormous makeover (together with DLSS 4 help and path tracing) because it was first launched, and now, my PC has, too, and I get to reap the advantages.
All of this stated, would I’ve tried to buy an RTX 5080 by myself, had I not been despatched one by Nvidia final month? I truly suppose I may need, however not for a very long time — in all probability a 12 months from now, or longer, as soon as the cardboard truly turns into broadly obtainable and reasonably priced. By that time, my private frustrations with the RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous — itself not a very massive bounce in energy in comparison with the RTX 4070 Ti and the RTX 4070 Tremendous (sure, these are literally two different playing cards with extraordinarily comparable names) — may need motivated me to resell and commerce up my GPU. Or maybe at the moment, I’d have troubleshooted no matter bizarre, unlikely bottleneck was occurring with my GPU on Nice Circle. I’ve the private privilege, at present, of not having to determine that out anymore, as a result of I’ve an RTX 5080 that makes all the pieces look unbelievable proper out of the field with no work on my half in any respect. Even when I determine to improve to 4K screens down the road, I’m not too involved about whether or not the RTX 5080 can sustain.
For a daily one that’s seeking to buy a GPU proper this second, I don’t know that I can advocate the RTX 5080 since you actually can’t purchase it proper now. I imply, you may actually strive, and if you happen to’re as anxious about impending tariffs as I’m, then possibly you need to, regardless of the resale markup you’ll in all probability face. Even Nvidia’s 40-series playing cards are at present promoting for hefty value tags, and it could be some time earlier than even these playing cards get cheaper. They in all probability gained’t till the 50-series playing cards are extra broadly obtainable, assuming that ever occurs.
That is a part of why your complete competitors between the Nvidia RTX 5080 and AMD RX 9070 XT is a theoretical one, at the very least for the second. Except you’re keen to pay high greenback for a wallet-gouging resale on the precise new card you need, you’re in all probability going to do what I did final fall, which was to buy a decently new card that occurred to be obtainable at a bearable value throughout the time interval that I used to be making stated buy. If that someway finally ends up being an RTX 5080, I can promise you it’ll make AAA video games look unbelievable for the following couple of years. Additionally, I hope you’re surviving no matter is occurring to you within the far future the place that RTX 5080 was in the stores at a bearable value.
