The last word:
So, what do you think of this ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition?
One thing’s for sure, as with the RTX 5090, there’s a lot to say. Ever since NVIDIA announced its new range of RTX 5000 graphics cards at CES 2025, social networking sites have been abuzz with tension between green fans and those who are not at all keen on this new architecture. The majority are criticising the RTX 5090’s lack of gain over the previous generation and its exploding power consumption, but what about this ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition, is the situation the same?
Performance:
We’re in a similar situation to the RTX 5090; performance isn’t going through the roof, but it’s still pretty good. We’re more or less 17/18% ahead of an RTX 4080 FE and 7/8% behind the RTX 4090. As a reminder, the MSRP of the RTX 5080 FE is announced at 1,190 euros and the launch price of the RTX 4090 was 1,959 euros, later reduced to 1,779 euros. The MSRP of our ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition is €1,549.90. While the performance/price ratio is still in the ROG’s favour, it has been considerably reduced compared with the Founders Edition model. Let’s not forget that the RTX 5080 retains the advantage of the new technology that accompanies it. Now, you have to bear in mind that the RTX 4090 has 24 GB of GDDR6, compared with 16 GB of GDDR7 on the RTX 5080.
We have to admit that we were disappointed, and this is a general comment concerning the three custom models tested today and which have factory overclocking, as far as performance is concerned. Without being able to explain why, we have the impression that they are limited, with a TDP that is not fully exploited. To make matters worse, the ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition has no margin for power limit. Now that our comparative tests are over and done with, we’re going to test the overclocking of these different models.
EDIT: yesterday we received a new version of GPU Tweak III that unlocks the power limit. We’ll be testing it this weekend to give you our impressions.
The DLSS 4 :
Highlighted by NVIDIA, DLSS 4 is the big new feature of this Blackwell architecture. Here again, some people, like myself, activate DLSS in certain games and others will never do so, oh God, never, not wanting to use ‘fake’ FPS. It’s true that these are additional images created by the AI, but as the name suggests, anything created by Artificial Intelligence will always have this ‘artificial’ side. Now, we have to admit that it works well, even better than before. We’ve had the opportunity to spend a little more time in the game with this new series of tests, and our opinion remains pretty much the same. Of course, it’s possible to notice a few faults at times, but you really have to have fun looking for most of them, by making movements that you don’t really do when you’re playing. As for the games that benefit from DLSS 4, visually it’s very difficult to see any difference in quality when it’s activated.
If you want to take advantage of ray tracing and path tracing, you can activate them while still enjoying 4K definition (2160p) and retaining a more than sufficient number of FPS. You also have the option of choosing the number of extra frames with DLSS 4. We’ll be coming back to the fluidity of the game once we’ve received a 240Hz 4K screen to see what impact it has.
A word about NVIDIA’s new DLSS Override application. This will allow games that have not yet been updated to the latest DLSS models and features to activate support via a DLSS override. We’ve tested this with Dragon Age: The Veilguard and it’s very effective!
Consumption :
Where the RTX 5090 Founders Edition blew everything away, that’s not the case with the ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition! Compared to a custom RTX 4080, power consumption increases by around sixty watts, which is not insignificant. The ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition doesn’t heat up, which is a good thing given its size, but the fans can be noisy in certain situations.
The price :
ASUS has announced an MSRP of 1,549.90 euros for its ROG RTX 5080 Astral model, compared with 1,179 euros for the Founders Edition and 1,959 euros for the RTX 4090 FE when it was launched and now at 1,779 euros. That’s still a substantial budget, but it’s logical in the sense that custom cards are always more expensive than FE models. The ASUS TUF RTX 4080 Super, for example, is currently priced at 1,439 euros. We hope, though we don’t hold out much hope, that online shops will respect the prices quoted by ASUS, bearing in mind that stocks will certainly be affected by the approach of the Chinese New Year.
What’s more, the performance of this ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition further confirms that the RTX 5090 will be dedicated to a niche audience and that it is first and foremost a PRO card, particularly with its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory. As you can see, this RTX 5080 is much more interesting.
Should you sell your RTX 4080?
Not yet! Your RTX 4080 or RTX 4080 Super still have some good days ahead of them. Granted, you won’t be able to take advantage of Multi Frame Generation, but there’s nothing to suggest that NVIDIA won’t be offering it on the RTX 4000 in a few months’ time. What’s more, we could still be in for some pleasant surprises with the other two models announced, the RTX 5070 Ti at €884 and the RTX 5070 at €649. So don’t rush, and wait. Now, if you have a slightly older configuration and want to take advantage of all the NVIDIA technologies, then yes, this could be an interesting upgrade for 2160p gaming. In fact, we’re preparing a series of new articles based on older graphics cards. The other alternative is to keep an eye on the second-hand market, where you could pick up a bargain on an RTX 4080 Super, for example.
Creators will also be able to take advantage of the 9th generation encoder and a new 6th generation decoder.
While we didn’t give the RTX 5090 Founders Edition an award or a rating, we were much more excited by the performance of this RTX 5080 model, but less so by its price, which is likely to soar if stocks are low, as seems to be confirmed, at least for a few weeks. No revolution in terms of performance, but we’re getting closer to the RTX 4090.
Thanks to ASUS France for making this copy of the ROG RTX 5080 Astral OC Edition available.
