Looking back on my last few RTX GPU gen reviews, it’s pretty remarkable how quickly we’ve come in such a short amount of time. Whilst some people are pushing against AI as a way of rendering graphics, the RTX 5080 simply blew me away in terms of what is now possible whilst gaming at 4K without any compromises on the graphical side.
Right out of the box, the RTX 5080 is a masterpiece. It’s now a 2-slot GPU and so much thinner and smaller than the 4080 was. This now makes it a much more versatile card that will work in much more smaller PC builds and I can’t wait to see some of the builds that pop-up.
Whilst the Founder’s Edition isn’t available in Australia, it has a new design that is absolutely my favourite FE design yet. It’s so much cleaner due to the fact that it uses a double flowthrough fan design that pulls in air from below and exhausts it above. This makes for an extremely clean top of the card that is now totally closed off and just looks so much cleaner in the case.
The connector has also been slightly moved and is now angled, so it stays out of the way of that Geforce logo. It’s still a little in the way, but overall it’s a big improvement over the cable placement of the last few FE designs, which has really been my only gripe with them in previous times (purely from the fact that it takes away from the stunning design).
When it comes to the equipment I used to test, Mwave were kind enough to provide me with an extremely sexy case that perfectly matched the 5080 FE.
It’s this Antec case HERE (or full PC range HERE) and includes the below:
When it comes to raw performance, you’re looking at about a 20-30% increase which might not be enough to tempt you from a 4080 if you upgraded a few years ago, so I really wanted to focus on the RTX 50-series specific feature in DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation (MFG) as well as improvements to DLSS thanks to the new Transfomer model (which are also available on older RTX GPUs).
I fully understand why the most hardcore of PC gamers aren’t the biggest fan of MFG, but for me across all games tested, it’s an absolute game-changer. Being able to play the small sample of games available in early access at ~200 FPS at 4K at ultra with ray-tracing turned to the max without having to worry about frames and getting to take advantage of my 4K/240hz monitor (in this case the new 27-inch ROG Swift PG27UCDM OLED monitor) was just a step above anything else that I’ve experienced.
I’m no Digital Foundry by any stretch, but basically the reason why MFG is such a big deal is because 3 out of 4 frames (if you’re using MFG 4x) is rendered by NVIDIA’s latest transformer model, so you’re able to literally double or triple performance in some instances without a conceivable loss in graphical quality and even more clarity in some instances.
4K / Maximum Settings / DLSS: Performance
Cyberpunk 2077 is still the absolute benchmark when it comes to being a graphical showcase with the ray-tracing overdrive mode, and with the RTX 5080 it feels like you can really push the limits at 4K achieving 179 FPS at 4x MFG and the new transformer model really eliminates ghosting and those little weird artifacts you’d sometimes get with upscaling and frame gen in the past.
Compare this to just 57 FPS without any kind of frame generation and you can see why it’s such a big deal and why NVIDIA is pushing so hard in this direction.
Similarly, Hogwarts Legacy could run at 256 FPS at 4K with everything turned to ultra and ray-tracing maxed whilst utilising MFG at 4x which is a decent improvement from the 101 FPS without any frame generation turned on.
Alan Wake 2 was extremely impressive. I was impressive replaying it on the PS5 Pro late last year, but the difference here was mind-blowing. Playing the game at 4K with everything maxed out and ray-tracing blasted and getting 178 FPS with 4x MFG was just a joy.
Marvel Rivals was able to hit 315 FPS at 4K with 4x MFG, although there’s obviously going to be a little more latency and it’s these competitive titles where you might want to take the hit and just play with regular old DLSS, but for me, I didn’t notice a difference.
Rounding out the games that were available in pre-launch (there’s said to be 75 games at launch that will utilise DLSS 4) were Star Wars Outlaws which as able to achieve 255 FPS with MFG 4x turned on and Dragon Age: The Veilguard which could reach 264 FPS with MFG 4x turned on.
When 4K/240hz monitors started releasing last year, I questioned why they existed, but to be able to utilise them to their full potential is a fantastic feeling. This truly felt like the first time that I was able to max everything out in the graphics side, and also be using my monitor to its full extent as well.
For those that aren’t a fan of frame generation, the 5080 is still a really strong performer even with just DLSS, and as mentioned there’s improvements to the overall quality of the AI model as well.
For instance Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was able to achieve 151FPS, Black Myth Wukong cleared 123 FPS and God of War Ragnarok was able to achieve 175 FPS, so whilst new games might struggle a little bit more, you’ll absolutely be able to smash past 4K/60 using DLSS without frame generation.
4K / Maximum Settings / DLSS: Balanced
The RTX 5080 remained fairly quiet and cool even when pushed to the absolute limit and unlike the 5090, won’t suck too much power for the return.
Whilst the RTX 5080 provided moderate raw gains compared to the last few gens, the technology that NVIDIA has introduced in multi frame generation is incredibly impressive and adds a lot to the high-end gaming experience without little drawback.