Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Review: A Step Forward, But Not a Giant Leap

Nvidia's RTX 5080 offers good 4K gaming and a sleek design, but falls short of the RTX 4090. Worth it at $999?
Matilda
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Review: A Step Forward, But Not a Giant Leap
The anticipation surrounding Nvidia's RTX 5080 was palpable. Would it redefine 4K gaming? Would it deliver a knockout punch to the competition? The answer, after extensive testing, is a bit more nuanced. The RTX 5080 is a solid card, offering improved performance and a sleek redesign, but it doesn't quite live up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessors. While it bests its direct competitor, the AMD RX Radeon 9700 XTX, and provides a noticeable upgrade for users of older RTX 30 series cards, it falls short of dethroning the reigning champion, the RTX 4090. This leaves us with a card that occupies a somewhat awkward middle ground, offering a taste of next-gen performance without fully delivering the transformative leap we've come to expect. A Smaller Footprint, Familiar Performance One of the most striking features of the RTX 5080 is its significantly reduced size. Nvidia has clearly focused on miniaturization with this generation's Founders Edition card. Com…