01
Introduction
For high-end users, the best choice is to go straight for the GeForce RTX 5090. However, at this stage, the price premium for this graphics card is quite high, leaving some users hesitant. They may consider opting for the GeForce RTX 5080 instead but are unsure about the actual performance difference between the two.
This article will compare the gaming performance of the GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 for those interested.
02
Specification Comparison
The GeForce RTX 5090 was released on January 6, 2025, featuring the GB202-300-A1 GPU, manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process. It has 21,760 CUDA cores, 176 raster units, 680 texture units, 170 multi-unit stream processors, 680 Tensor cores, and 172 ray tracing cores, with an L2 cache of 96MB.
Its base clock speed is 2017 MHz, with a maximum boost clock of 2407 MHz. It comes with 32GB of GDDR7 memory, a 512-bit memory bus, a memory speed of 28Gbps, and a bandwidth of 1.8TB/s. The FP32 floating-point performance reaches 104.8 TFLOPS. The power consumption is 575W, and the suggested retail price is $1999.
The GeForce RTX 5080 was also released on January 6, 2025, featuring the GB203-400-A1 GPU based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process. It has 10,752 CUDA cores, 84 ray tracing units, 112 raster units, 336 texture units, 336 Tensor cores, and 84 multi-unit stream processors, with an L2 cache of 64MB.
Its base clock speed is 2295 MHz, with a maximum boost clock of 2617 MHz. It comes with 16GB of GDDR7 memory, a 256-bit memory bus, a memory speed of 30Gbps, and a bandwidth of 960GB/s. The FP32 floating-point performance reaches 56.28 TFLOPS. The power consumption is 360W, and the reference price is $999.
03
Test Platform Configuration
The main test setup is as follows:
- Processor: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E CARBON
- Memory: 32GB DDR5 6000 MHz
- Graphics Cards: GeForce RTX 5080 and GeForce RTX 5090
- Storage: Two Samsung 970 EVO 1TB SSDs
- Operating System: Windows 11
04
Gaming Performance Tests (GeForce RTX 5080 vs 5090: Performance Comparison Test)
The following tests compare seven games, all set to 4K resolution. In the series of images below, the left side represents the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, while the right side represents the GeForce RTX 5090 platform.
Game 1: God of War
- GeForce RTX 5080:
- Average FPS: 102
- Minimum FPS: 97
- Frame Time: 9.8ms
- CPU Usage: 27%
- CPU Power: 51W
- CPU Temp: 53°C
- RAM Usage: 12.2GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM Usage: 9.2GB
- GPU Power: 284W
- GPU Temp: 53°C
- GeForce RTX 5090:
- Average FPS: 162
- Minimum FPS: 147
- Frame Time: 6.3ms
- CPU Usage: 33%
- CPU Power: 65W
- CPU Temp: 64°C
- RAM Usage: 11.9GB
- GPU Usage: 99%
- VRAM Usage: 9.0GB
- GPU Power: 540W
- GPU Temp: 57°C
- Comparison:
- RTX 5090 achieves 60 more FPS (about 1.6x faster)
- Minimum FPS is 50 higher
- Frame time is 3ms lower
- 256W higher power draw, 4°C higher temperature
Game 2: Alan Wake 2
- GeForce RTX 5080:
- Average FPS: 35
- Minimum FPS: 30
- Frame Time: 28.8ms
- CPU Usage: 12%
- CPU Power: 48W
- CPU Temp: 48°C
- RAM Usage: 13.3GB
- GPU Usage: 98%
- VRAM Usage: 13.1GB
- GPU Power: 321W
- GPU Temp: 58°C
- GeForce RTX 5090:
- Average FPS: 61
- Minimum FPS: 50
- Frame Time: 16.9ms
- CPU Usage: 13%
- CPU Power: 48W
- CPU Temp: 47°C
- RAM Usage: 12.6GB
- GPU Usage: 98%
- VRAM Usage: 13.2GB
- GPU Power: 575W
- GPU Temp: 54°C
- Comparison:
- RTX 5090 achieves 26 more FPS (about 1.7x faster)
- Minimum FPS is 20 higher
- Frame time is 11ms lower
- 254W higher power draw, 4°C lower temperature
Game 3: Cyberpunk 2077
- GeForce RTX 5080:
- Average FPS: 61
- Minimum FPS: 49
- Frame Time: 17.3ms
- CPU Usage: 47%
- GPU Usage: 98%
- GPU Power: 277W
- GPU Temp: 52°C
- GeForce RTX 5090:
- Average FPS: 101
- Minimum FPS: 73
- Frame Time: 8.7ms
- CPU Usage: 69%
- GPU Usage: 96%
- GPU Power: 477W
- GPU Temp: 50°C
- Comparison:
- RTX 5090 achieves 40 more FPS (about 1.7x faster)
- Minimum FPS is 24 higher
- Frame time is 9ms lower
- 200W higher power draw, 2°C lower temperature
Game 4: Horizon Forbidden West
- GeForce RTX 5080:
- Average FPS: 79
- Minimum FPS: 71
- Frame Time: 12.3ms
- CPU Usage: 30%
- GPU Usage: 98%
- GPU Power: 265W
- GPU Temp: 49°C
- GeForce RTX 5090:
- Average FPS: 126
- Minimum FPS: 105
- Frame Time: 7.9ms
- CPU Usage: 47%
- GPU Usage: 98%
- GPU Power: 476W
- GPU Temp: 47°C
- Comparison:
- RTX 5090 achieves 47 more FPS (about 1.6x faster)
- Minimum FPS is 39 higher
- Frame time is 4ms lower
- 211W higher power draw, 2°C lower temperature
Game 5: STALKER 2
- GeForce RTX 5080:
- Average FPS: 74
- Minimum FPS: 55
- Frame Time: 11.1ms
- CPU Usage: 41%
- GPU Usage: 98%
- GPU Power: 228W
- GPU Temp: 49°C
- GeForce RTX 5090:
- Average FPS: 94
- Minimum FPS: 59
- Frame Time: 10.3ms
- CPU Usage: 64%
- GPU Usage: 93%
- GPU Power: 361W
- GPU Temp: 47°C
- Comparison:
- RTX 5090 achieves 20 more FPS (about 1.3x faster)
- Minimum FPS is 4 higher
- Frame time is 1ms lower
- 133W higher power draw, 2°C lower temperature
Game 6: Hogwarts Legacy
- GeForce RTX 5080:
- Average FPS: 45
- Minimum FPS: 39
- Frame Time: 22.9ms
- CPU Usage: 16%
- GPU Usage: 99%
- GPU Power: 233W
- GPU Temp: 49°C
- GeForce RTX 5090:
- Average FPS: 67
- Minimum FPS: 50
- Frame Time: 14.9ms
- CPU Usage: 24%
- GPU Usage: 98%
- GPU Power: 409W
- GPU Temp: 47°C
- Comparison:
- RTX 5090 achieves 22 more FPS (about 1.5x faster)
- Minimum FPS is 11 higher
- Frame time is 8ms lower
- 176W higher power draw, 2°C lower temperature
Game 7: Star Wars Outlaws
- GeForce RTX 5080:
- Average FPS: 71
- Minimum FPS: 58
- Frame Time: 14.7ms
- CPU Usage: 29%
- GPU Usage: 98%
- GPU Power: 283W
- GPU Temp: 54°C
- GeForce RTX 5090:
- Average FPS: 105
- Minimum FPS: 87
- Frame Time: 11.1ms
- CPU Usage: 46%
- GPU Usage: 97%
- GPU Power: 531W
- GPU Temp: 56°C
- Comparison:
- RTX 5090 achieves 34 more FPS (about 1.5x faster)
- Minimum FPS is 29 higher
- Frame time is 3ms lower
- 248W higher power draw, 2°C higher temperature
05
Conclusion
Overall, the comparison results are clear: the performance difference between the GeForce RTX 5090 and GeForce RTX 5080 is as significant as their price and power consumption differences. Based on calculations, the overall performance of the GeForce RTX 5090 is approximately 1.6× (1.55×) that of the GeForce RTX 5080, and this estimate is still conservative.
Given this, for high-end users, the GeForce RTX 5080 is not worth considering. The best choice is to go straight for the GeForce RTX 5090 for the ultimate experience.
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