I. Introduction
A few days ago, we shared a gaming performance comparison between the GeForce RTX 5080 and GeForce RTX 4090. The final result showed that the GeForce RTX 5080 was slightly inferior, but the gap wasn’t significant.
Today, we will compare the gaming performance of the GeForce RTX 5080 and GeForce RTX 3090. Of course, the victory of the GeForce RTX 5080 is beyond doubt. However, two key questions are worth attention: 1. How much has the performance improvement been? 2. How much has power consumption decreased? This article will reveal the answers through testing.
II. Parameter Comparison
The GeForce RTX 5080 was released on January 6, 2025. It uses the GB203-400-A1 GPU chip, based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process. It has 10,752 CUDA cores, 84 ray tracing cores, 128 raster cores, 336 texture cores, 336 tensor cores, and 76 multi-unit stream processors, with an L2 cache of 64MB.
Its base clock is 2295MHz, with a boost clock of up to 2617MHz. It is equipped with 16GB of GDDR7 memory, a memory bus width of 256 bits, a memory speed of 30Gbps, and a memory bandwidth of 960GB/s. Its FP32 floating-point performance is 56.28 T FLOPS, and its power consumption is 360W, with a reference price of $999.
The GeForce RTX 3090 was released on September 1, 2020. It uses the GA 102 GPU, based on the Ampere architecture, manufactured using Samsung’s 8nm process. It has 10,496 CUDA cores, 328 texture cores, 112 raster cores, 82 ray tracing cores, 82 multi-unit stream processors, and 328 tensor cores, with an L2 cache of 6MB.
Its base clock is 1395MHz, with a boost clock of up to 1695MHz. It is equipped with 24GB of GDDR6X memory, a memory speed of 19.5Gbps, a memory bus width of 384 bits, and a memory bandwidth of 936.2GB/s. Its power consumption is 350W, with a suggested retail price of $1499.
III. Test Platform Configuration
The main configuration is as follows:
Processor: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Motherboard: ASRock X670E PG Lightning
Memory: 32GB DDR5 6200MHz
Graphics cards: GeForce RTX 5080 and GeForce RTX 3090
Storage: ADATA XPG 1TB GAMMIX S70 Blade
Operating system: Windows 10 22H2
IV. Game Testing (GeForce RTX 5080 vs RTX 3090)
The following tests will cover seven games, all at 1080P with maximum graphics settings. In the images below, the left side represents the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, and the right side represents the GeForce RTX 5080 platform.
The first game is “Assassin’s Creed Mirage.”
On the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, the average frame rate is 72 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 44 FPS, the frame time is 12.8ms, the CPU usage is 22%, power consumption is 53W, temperature is 59°C, memory usage is 10.1GB, GPU usage is 97%, and VRAM usage is 10.6GB. Power consumption is 376W, with a temperature of 66°C.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 111 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 69 FPS, the frame time is 7.7ms, the CPU usage is 28%, power consumption is 62W, temperature is 61°C, memory usage is 9.9GB, GPU usage is 97%, and VRAM usage is 10.6GB. Power consumption is 264W, with a temperature of 59°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform’s CPU usage is 6% higher than the RTX 3090, with 0.2GB less memory usage. GPU usage and VRAM usage are identical.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform performs 39 FPS higher than the RTX 3090, about 1.5 times faster. The lowest instant frame rate is 25 FPS higher, frame time is reduced by about 5ms, power consumption is 112W lower, and temperature is 7°C lower.
The second game is “Alan Wake 2.”
On the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, the average frame rate is 36 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 28 FPS, the frame time is 26.6ms, CPU usage is 14%, power consumption is 51W, temperature is 56°C, memory usage is 11.1GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 11.7GB, power consumption is 381W, with a temperature of 64°C.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 51 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 42 FPS, the frame time is 20.8ms, CPU usage is 16%, power consumption is 55W, temperature is 55°C, memory usage is 12.4GB, GPU usage is 97%, VRAM usage is 12.0GB, power consumption is 316W, with a temperature of 60°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform’s CPU usage is 2% higher, memory usage is 1.3GB higher, GPU usage is almost the same, and VRAM usage is 0.3GB higher.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform performs 15 FPS higher than the RTX 3090, about 1.4 times faster. The lowest instant frame rate is 14 FPS higher, frame time is reduced by about 5ms, power consumption is 65W lower, and temperature is 4°C lower.
The third game is “Spider-Man Remastered.”
On the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, the average frame rate is 86 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 63 FPS, the frame time is 13.8ms, CPU usage is 39%, power consumption is 66W, temperature is 62°C, memory usage is 10.3GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 8.7GB, power consumption is 390W, with a temperature of 67°C.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 135 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 101 FPS, the frame time is 7.4ms, CPU usage is 56%, power consumption is 80W, temperature is 62°C, memory usage is 10.5GB, GPU usage is 96%, VRAM usage is 9.1GB, power consumption is 317W, with a temperature of 61°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform’s CPU usage is 17% higher, memory usage is 0.2GB higher, GPU usage is 2% lower, and VRAM usage is 0.4GB higher.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform performs 49 FPS higher than the RTX 3090, about 1.6 times faster. The lowest instant frame rate is 38 FPS higher, frame time is reduced by about 6ms, power consumption is 73W lower, and temperature is 6°C lower.
The fourth game is “Silent Hill 2.”
On the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, the average frame rate is 40 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 27 FPS, the frame time is 23.7ms, CPU usage is 11%, power consumption is 50W, temperature is 59°C, memory usage is 12.5GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 11.5GB, power consumption is 383W, with a temperature of 67°C.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 49 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 40 FPS, the frame time is 19.9ms, CPU usage is 12%, power consumption is 55W, temperature is 61°C, memory usage is 11.7GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 10.5GB, power consumption is 341W, with a temperature of 65°C.
In this game, CPU usage between the two platforms is nearly identical, but the GeForce RTX 5080 platform has 0.8GB less memory usage, and VRAM usage is 1GB lower.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform performs 9 FPS higher than the RTX 3090, about 1.2 times faster. The lowest instant frame rate is 13 FPS higher, frame time is reduced by about 3ms, power consumption is 42W lower, and temperature is 2°C lower.
The fifth game is “Cyberpunk 2077.”
On the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, the average frame rate is 28 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 24 FPS, the frame time is 33.7ms, CPU usage is 13%, power consumption is 51W, temperature is 60°C, memory usage is 11.2GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 9.1GB, power consumption is 389W, with a temperature of 66°C.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 44 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 37 FPS, the frame time is 22.3ms, CPU usage is 20%, power consumption is 59W, temperature is 64°C, memory usage is 12.4GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 9.0GB, power consumption is 357W, with a temperature of 63°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform’s CPU usage is 7% higher, memory usage is 1.2GB higher, GPU usage and VRAM usage are almost the same.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform performs 16 FPS higher than the RTX 3090, about 1.6 times faster. The lowest instant frame rate is 13 FPS higher, frame time is reduced by about 11ms, power consumption is 32W lower, and temperature is 3°C lower.
The sixth game is “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.”
On the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, the average frame rate is 35 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 29 FPS, the frame time is 26.5ms, CPU usage is 34%, power consumption is 70W, temperature is 65°C, memory usage is 16.9GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 10.1GB, power consumption is 382W, with a temperature of 67°C.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 50 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 27 FPS, the frame time is 18.5ms, CPU usage is 36%, power consumption is 74W, temperature is 65°C, memory usage is 16.9GB, GPU usage is 94%, VRAM usage is 10.0GB, power consumption is 298W, with a temperature of 61°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform’s CPU usage is 2% higher, memory usage is identical, GPU usage is 4% lower, and VRAM usage is almost the same.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform performs 15 FPS higher than the RTX 3090, about 1.4 times faster. The lowest instant frame rate is 2 FPS lower, frame time is reduced by about 8ms, power consumption is 84W lower, and temperature is 6°C lower.
The seventh game is “The Last of Us Part I.”
On the GeForce RTX 3090 platform, the average frame rate is 45 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 38 FPS, the frame time is 20.1ms, CPU usage is 28%, power consumption is 61W, temperature is 60°C, memory usage is 15.1GB, GPU usage is 97%, VRAM usage is 12.8GB, power consumption is 389W, with a temperature of 63°C.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 69 FPS, the lowest instant frame rate is 61 FPS, the frame time is 13.8ms, CPU usage is 39%, power consumption is 74W, temperature is 67°C, memory usage is 15.1GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 13.1GB, power consumption is 302W, with a temperature of 60°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform’s CPU usage is 11% higher, memory usage is identical, GPU usage is 2% higher, and VRAM usage is 0.3GB higher.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform performs 24 FPS higher than the RTX 3090, about 1.5 times faster. The lowest instant frame rate is 23 FPS higher, frame time is reduced by about 7ms, power consumption is 87W lower, and temperature is 3°C lower.
V. Conclusion
Overall, compared to the GeForce RTX 3090, the performance increase of the GeForce RTX 5080 is significant, but not overwhelming.
In terms of overall performance, the GeForce RTX 5080 is approximately 1.5 times faster than the GeForce RTX 3090. Objectively speaking, this performance gap is neither very high nor very low.
Additionally, the GeForce RTX 5080 shows a clear advantage in power consumption and thermal management, mainly due to improvements in architecture and manufacturing process.
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