Is Nvidia's RTX 5080 really faster than the RTX 4090? See how this new card performs and whether it's worth upgrading from older models

It’s disappointing to see Nvidia has stuck with 16GB of VRAM on the RTX 5080. AMD’s RX 7900 XTX offers 24GB, and while the RTX 5080 delivers better performance for now, it may well hit video memory limits in 4K gaming in the future.

Positioned as a 4K card at an MSRP of $999, the RTX 5080 Founders Edition aims to be a viable 4K upgrade for those who can't necessarily plunk down the $2K it costs for the more expensive 90-class card.

Digital Foundry tests the GeForce RTX 5080. On this page: we introduce our test system, benchmarking methodology and initial impressions.

That's not the case with the new $999 RTX 5080, which beats the previous-generation RTX 4080 Super by a little bit and the older RTX 4080 by a slightly larger bit but doesn't come close to beating or even replicating the performance of the outgoing 4090.

At a glance Expert's Rating Pros ・DLSS Multi Frame Generation is a game-changer in compatible titles, driving snappy new levels of smoothness by increasing frame rates fourfold, tightly paced. ・Great 4K and 1440p performance ・Tightly engineered Founders Edition model somehow squeezes into a fairly quiet two-slot design Cons ・Very small performance