I. Introduction
When it comes to the GeForce RTX 5080, two important comparison models come to mind: the GeForce RTX 4090 and the GeForce RTX 4080.
For the first comparison, the current answer is already clear. The performance of the GeForce RTX 5080 is still slightly behind the GeForce RTX 4090, but the difference is not large. It can be considered a “small GeForce RTX 4090.”
This article will share the second comparison, the GeForce RTX 5080 vs. the GeForce RTX 4080, to evaluate and verify how much the performance of the new product has improved compared to the previous generation. The answer will be revealed in this article.
II. Parameter Comparison
The GeForce RTX 5080 was released on January 6, 2025, featuring the GB203-400-A1 GPU chip, based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, with TSMC’s 5nm process. It has 10,752 CUDA cores, 84 ray-tracing units, 128 raster units, 336 texture units, 336 tensor cores, 76 multi-unit stream processors, and an L2 cache of 64MB.
The standard operating frequency is 2295 MHz, with a maximum frequency of 2617 MHz. It is equipped with 16GB of GDDR7 memory, with a memory bus width of 256-bit, a memory speed of 30 Gbps, and a memory bandwidth of 960 GB/s. The FP32 floating-point performance is 56.28 T FLOPS, with a power consumption of 360W, and a reference price of $999.
The GeForce RTX 4080 16GB version was released on September 20, 2022, featuring the AD103 GPU (Figure 4), based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, also built on TSMC’s 5nm process. It has 9728 CUDA cores, 76 ray-tracing units, 112 raster units, 304 texture units, 304 tensor cores, 76 multi-unit stream processors, and an L2 cache of 64MB.
The standard operating frequency is 2205 MHz, with a maximum frequency of 2505 MHz. It is equipped with 16GB of GDDR6X memory, with a memory bus width of 256-bit, a memory speed of 22.4 Gbps, and a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. The FP32 floating-point performance is 48.74 TFLOPS, with a power consumption of 320W, and a suggested retail price of $1199.
III. Test Platform Configuration
The main configuration is as follows:
Processor: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Motherboard: MSI MPG X670E CARBON
Memory: G.Skill
Graphics Cards: GeForce RTX 5080 16GB and GeForce RTX 4080
Storage: Two Samsung 970 EVO 1TB drives
Operating System: Windows 11
IV. Game Testing between GeForce RTX 5080 and 4080
The following tests were conducted on seven games, all using 4K graphics settings. In the images below, the platform on the left represents the GeForce RTX 5080, and the platform on the right represents the GeForce RTX 4080.
The first game is Ghostwire: Tokyo.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 74 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 65 FPS, the frame time is 13.0ms, CPU usage is 13%, power consumption is 44W, temperature is 43°C, memory usage is 10.3GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 8.2GB, power consumption is 289W, and temperature is 52°C.
On the GeForce RTX 4080 platform, the average frame rate is 66 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 50 FPS, the frame time is 14.6ms, CPU usage is 9%, power consumption is 43W, temperature is 44°C, memory usage is 10.8GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 8.1GB, power consumption is 262W, and temperature is 53°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform has 4% higher CPU usage, 0.5GB less memory usage, and similar GPU and VRAM usage compared to the GeForce RTX 4080 platform.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform is 8 FPS higher than the GeForce RTX 4080, with a 15 FPS higher minimum instant frame rate, and frame time is roughly 1ms lower. The power consumption is 27W higher, and temperatures are similar.
The second game is God of War.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 104 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 95 FPS, the frame time is 9.7ms, CPU usage is 28%, power consumption is 63W, temperature is 54°C, memory usage is 11.9GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 8.7GB, power consumption is 280W, and temperature is 52°C.
On the GeForce RTX 4080 platform, the average frame rate is 91 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 72 FPS, the frame time is 11.1ms, CPU usage is 20%, power consumption is 59W, temperature is 58°C, memory usage is 11.6GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 8.7GB, power consumption is 280W, and temperature is 53°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform has 8% higher CPU usage, 0.3GB less memory usage, and similar GPU and VRAM usage.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform is 13 FPS higher than the GeForce RTX 4080, with a 23 FPS higher minimum instant frame rate, and frame time is roughly 1ms lower. Power consumption and temperatures are similar.
The third game is STALKER 2.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 58 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 50 FPS, the frame time is 17.4ms, CPU usage is 24%, power consumption is 67W, temperature is 56°C, memory usage is 16.4GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 9.9GB, power consumption is 252W, and temperature is 51°C.
On the GeForce RTX 4080 platform, the average frame rate is 50 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 33 FPS, the frame time is 19.6ms, CPU usage is 21%, power consumption is 61W, temperature is 51°C, memory usage is 17.2GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 10.2GB, power consumption is 255W, and temperature is 54°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform has 3% higher CPU usage, 0.8GB less memory usage, and 0.3GB less VRAM usage, with similar GPU usage.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform is 8 FPS higher than the GeForce RTX 4080, with a 17 FPS higher minimum instant frame rate, and frame time is roughly 2ms lower. The GeForce RTX 5080 is noticeably more stable, with 3W lower power consumption and 3°C lower temperature.
The fourth game is Forza Horizon 5.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 127 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 116 FPS, the frame time is 7.7ms, CPU usage is 31%, power consumption is 61W, temperature is 48°C, memory usage is 11.5GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 9.9GB, power consumption is 239W, and temperature is 49°C.
On the GeForce RTX 4080 platform, the average frame rate is 106 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 96 FPS, the frame time is 9.2ms, CPU usage is 16%, power consumption is 53W, temperature is 45°C, memory usage is 12.2GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 9.9GB, power consumption is 230W, and temperature is 54°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform has 15% higher CPU usage, 0.7GB less memory usage, and similar GPU and VRAM usage.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform is 21 FPS higher than the GeForce RTX 4080, with a 20 FPS higher minimum instant frame rate, and frame time is roughly 2ms lower. The GeForce RTX 5080 platform has significantly higher performance, with 9W more power consumption and 5°C lower temperature.
The fifth game is Black Myth: Wukong.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 55 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 47 FPS, the frame time is 17.8ms, CPU usage is 13%, power consumption is 48W, temperature is 50°C, memory usage is 12.1GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 10.7GB, power consumption is 279W, and temperature is 53°C.
On the GeForce RTX 4080 platform, the average frame rate is 48 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 42 FPS, the frame time is 20.9ms, CPU usage is 13%, power consumption is 43W, temperature is 45°C, memory usage is 12.2GB, GPU usage is 97%, VRAM usage is 11.3GB, power consumption is 274W, and temperature is 54°C.
In this game, both platforms have similar CPU usage and memory usage, but the GeForce RTX 5080 platform has 2% higher GPU usage and 0.6GB less VRAM usage.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform is 7 FPS higher than the GeForce RTX 4080, with a 5 FPS higher minimum instant frame rate, and frame time is roughly 3ms lower. The performance gap is small, with 5W higher power consumption and similar temperatures.
The sixth game is Microsoft Flight Simulator.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 52 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 49 FPS, the frame time is 19.4ms, CPU usage is 27%, power consumption is 61W, temperature is 49°C, memory usage is 21.1GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 13.4GB, power consumption is 273W, and temperature is 54°C.
On the GeForce RTX 4080 platform, the average frame rate is 46 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 42 FPS, the frame time is 20.2ms, CPU usage is 37%, power consumption is 78W, temperature is 57°C, memory usage is 23.9GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 12.4GB, power consumption is 274W, and temperature is 55°C.
In this game, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform has 10% lower CPU usage, 2.8GB less memory usage, similar GPU usage, and 1GB more VRAM usage.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform is 6 FPS higher than the GeForce RTX 4080, with a 7 FPS higher minimum instant frame rate, and frame time is roughly 1ms lower. The performance difference is slight, with similar power consumption and temperature.
The seventh game is Silent Hill 2.
On the GeForce RTX 5080 platform, the average frame rate is 58 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 53 FPS, the frame time is 17.0ms, CPU usage is 12%, power consumption is 50W, temperature is 48°C, memory usage is 12.1GB, GPU usage is 98%, VRAM usage is 9.0GB, power consumption is 272W, and temperature is 53°C.
On the GeForce RTX 4080 platform, the average frame rate is 49 FPS, the minimum instant frame rate is 41 FPS, the frame time is 19.7ms, CPU usage is 12%, power consumption is 45W, temperature is 44°C, memory usage is 11.3GB, GPU usage is 99%, VRAM usage is 9.1GB, power consumption is 263W, and temperature is 55°C.
In this game, both platforms have equal CPU usage, but the GeForce RTX 5080 platform has 0.8GB higher memory usage, with similar GPU and VRAM usage.
In terms of average frame rate, the GeForce RTX 5080 platform is 9 FPS higher than the GeForce RTX 4080, with a 12 FPS higher minimum instant frame rate, and frame time is roughly 2ms lower. The difference is small, with 9W higher power consumption and 2°C lower temperature.
V. Comparison Conclusion
The comparison results are quite clear: compared to the GeForce RTX 4080, the GeForce RTX 5080 does indeed offer better performance, but the lead is not substantial, and it somewhat gives the impression of “squeezing the toothpaste.”
Therefore, in this case, the GeForce RTX 4080 is still a very worthwhile option to consider at this stage.
Related:
- RTX 5080 vs 4080 SUPER: How Do They Compare in Gaming?
- RTX 5080 vs RTX 5070 Ti: Which One to Buy in 2025?
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