Nvidia RTX 5090 vs RTX 5080: Which GPU Should You Buy?

This is a comparison of two powerful GPUs in the RTX 50 series: Nvidia RTX 5090 and RTX 5080. Which one should you choose? Let’s find out.

The RTX 5090 is the most powerful GPU in the world, at least as of this writing, while the RTX 5080 is the second most powerful GPU in the RTX 50 series. It’s clear that the former is the better GPU, but it costs 2.3 times more than the latter, which is a significant difference.

This begs the question: If the RTX 5090 is more than twice the price of the RTX 5080, will it also deliver twice the performance? That’s precisely what we intend to find in this article, with a thorough comparison of the two cards.

Note: Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinions.

Nvidia RTX 5090 vs RTX 5080: Detailed Comparison

Both the RTX 5090 and 5080 are designed on the same Nvidia Blackwell architecture, so neither GPU has an architectural difference. However, there’s a significant difference in terms of shader cores, TMUs, ROPs, memory capacity, memory bandwidth, and more. Let’s look at the specs of the two GPUs before we begin comparing them in-game benchmarks.

Specs Comparison

Here are the specs of the Nvidia RTX 5090 and RTX 5080:

Specifications	Nvidia RTX 5090	Nvidia RTX 5080
Architecture	Blackwell	Blackwell
Shader cores	21760	10752
RT cores	170	84
TMUs	680	336
ROPs	176	112
Base core clock speeds	2017 MHz	2295 MHz
Boost core clock speeds	2407 MHz	2617 MHz
Memory capacity	32GB GDDR7	16GB GDDR7
Memory bus width	512-bit	256-bit
Memory bandwidth	1.79 TB/s	960.0 GB/s
Manufacturing node	5nm	5nm
Thermal design power (TDPs)	575W	360W

According to the specs table above, the RTX 5090 has double the shader cores, TMUs, memory bus, memory capacity, and memory bandwidth compared to the RTX 5080. The former also has a higher ROP count, but it is not as much as we expected. Therefore, it is evident that the RTX 5090 will deliver higher performance, but it remains to be seen by how much.

Performance Comparison

Here’s how the Nvidia RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 perform in popular games:

Games	Nvidia RTX 5090	Nvidia RTX 5080
Alan Wake 2 (RT Medium)	60 FPS	35 FPS
God of War: Ragnarok	171 FPS	108 FPS
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024	93 FPS	58 FPS
Hogwarts Legacy (RT Ultra)	66 FPS	42 FPS
Ghost of Tsushima	123 FPS	74 FPS
Forza Horizon 5	180 FPS	126 FPS
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2	91 FPS	72 FPS
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2	103 FPS	63 FPS
Star Wars Outlaws (RT High)	103 FPS	67 FPS
Horizon Forbidden West	127 FPS	81 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra)	100 FPS	63 FPS

Note: The two GPUs tested here were evaluated at a 4K resolution with High/Ultra Settings, unless otherwise specified. All the FPS numbers were sourced from the Testing Games channel on YouTube. For the tests, the two graphics cards were paired with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU.

On average, the Nvidia RTX 5090 is around 54.2% faster than the RTX 5080. However, the performance difference can be as large as 71% in select games, such as Alan Wake 2, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and Ghost of Tsushima. In ray tracing tests, the RTX 5090 has a similar advantage.

Price Comparison

The Nvidia RTX 5090 can be purchased for around $2,249.99 on Amazon. On the RTX 5080 is available for as low as $979.99 on Amazon. Therefore, the former is more than double the cost of the latter. To be precise, the RTX 5090 is 230% more expensive, which is a substantial pricing difference. However, it also has double the memory, but this pricing is still not justified.

Final Verdict on Nvidia RTX 5090 vs RTX 5080

The RTX 5090 is around 54.2% better than the RTX 5080. Therefore, the RTX 5090 is the ultimate GPU, and there’s no doubt about that. However, it is also 230% more expensive, which degrades its value. Therefore, even though the RTX 5090 is the better GPU, we recommend users buy the RTX 5080. It offers far better value.

The only caveat with the RTX 5080 is its 16GB VRAM. It is not limited by any means as of this writing, but it’s hard to say what the future may bring. However, if you don’t care about value and want the best possible performance, you should buy the RTX 5090.

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