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 quite a lot of video games and watched quite a lot 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 be capable of purchase both GPU.
Right here’s the factor, although — you’ll be able to’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 worth, both due to enterprising resellers, or as a result of retailers can and do benefit from the truth that persons are all the time prepared to pay fairly a bit extra for these playing cards than the checklist costs. However even if you happen to have been prepared to pay a number of thousand {dollars} for certainly one of these playing cards, you continue to may not be capable of get one for months — or longer, it’s arduous to say proper now. Not that many of those playing cards exist on the earth right now, 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 most likely already determined which one you like and what you hope to get. You may be the type of one that has additionally been watching comparative benchmark movies and is prepared to attend nevertheless lengthy it takes to buy the best-performing card available on the market.
Otherwise you may be any person extra like me, who purchases what’s out there and reasonably priced after I’m able to improve. I really purchased an RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous final fall with my very own cash. At the moment, rumors instructed that Nvidia would launch new playing cards in early 2025, however I used to be anxious about President Trump’s impending tariffs, and I guessed that the 50-series playing cards wouldn’t really be out there to buy for a very long time after their debut anyway. It’s why I really 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 evaluation. One can’t and mustn’t rely on such issues, even in our line of labor.) This PC, for readers’ reference, comprises 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 displays and, sadly for testing functions, no 4K shows.
Picture: GSC Recreation World by way of Polygon
Picture: GSC Recreation World by way of Polygon
Picture: GSC Recreation World by way of Polygon
Picture: GSC Recreation World by way of Polygon
Along with feeling determined to improve my PC earlier than Trump took workplace, lest I make an already costly improve even pricier, I simply wished 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 beneath the really helpful 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 fulfillment at launch, however I stored on making an attempt after a number of updates, and it didn’t go nicely. It appeared like an ailing portent. Plus, the RTX 3070 was by far the latest part 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 evaluation as a result of I figured the variations between it and my RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous could be considerably negligible, or a minimum of, not very thrilling to jot down about. As an alternative, I’ve ended up realizing that my RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous — by far the most costly merchandise in my new PC construct — was not really that nice.
I hate to even admit this as a result of I’m nonetheless type of pissed off about it, however right here we go. I had really 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 making an attempt to determine the place the bottlenecking was occurring, or why the body fee within the recreation would plummet any time I attempted to really 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 mistaken.
I’m now gratified to be taught that I’m not alone on this expertise. Googling “RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle appears unhealthy” will yield tons of various discussion board threads on Steam, Reddit, and elsewhere from folks having the identical issues that I bumped into. After quite a lot of tweaking with settings, I managed to discover a candy spot the place the sport regarded fairly good and the body fee wasn’t struggling, however I felt confused and disillusioned that it didn’t look means higher — and that this a lot effort was required to really feel content material with the outcomes. In any case, I had simply upgraded my complete PC, and Nice Circle was the primary main AAA, graphically intensive recreation 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 unimaginable, no tweaks required. With each setting maxed out, I used to be nonetheless capable of common 120-125 frames per second within the recreation, even in wide-open areas with plenty of shifting property on display screen (with Nvidia’s DLSS Body Era 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 large 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 recreation with quite a lot of shiny, reflective surfaces, and I had a blast taking footage 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 recreation was first launched), and it’s enjoyable to see the enhancements. Cyberpunk 2077 has gotten an enormous makeover (together with DLSS 4 assist 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 really suppose I may need, however not for a very long time — most likely a 12 months from now, or longer, as soon as the cardboard really turns into extensively out there and reasonably priced. By that time, my private frustrations with the RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous — itself not a very massive soar 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 in the meanwhile, I might have troubleshooted no matter bizarre, unlikely bottleneck was occurring with my GPU on Nice Circle. I’ve the non-public privilege, at the moment, of not having to determine that out anymore, as a result of I’ve an RTX 5080 that makes every part look incredible proper out of the field with no work on my half in any respect. Even when I determine to improve to 4K displays down the road, I’m not too involved about whether or not the RTX 5080 can sustain.
For an everyday one that’s trying to buy a GPU proper this second, I don’t know that I can suggest the RTX 5080 since you actually can’t purchase it proper now. I imply, you’ll be able to definitely strive, and if you happen to’re as anxious about impending tariffs as I’m, then possibly you must, regardless of the resale markup you’ll most likely face. Even Nvidia’s 40-series playing cards are at the moment promoting for hefty worth tags, and it may be some time earlier than even these playing cards get cheaper. They most likely received’t till the 50-series playing cards are extra extensively out there, assuming that ever occurs.
That is a part of why your entire competitors between the Nvidia RTX 5080 and AMD RX 9070 XT is a theoretical one, a minimum of for the second. Except you’re prepared to pay prime greenback for a wallet-gouging resale on the precise new card you need, you’re most likely going to do what I did final fall, which was to buy a decently new card that occurred to be out there at a bearable worth in the course of the time interval that I used to be making stated buy. If that in some way finally ends up being an RTX 5080, I can promise you it’ll make AAA video games look incredible for the subsequent 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 available for purchase at a bearable worth.
