Review: ROG ASTRAL RTX 5080 OC Edition

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The ROG RTX 5080 ASTRAL:

Architecture :

As a reminder, this ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition is a custom model, in other words, a card offered by an NVIDIA partner and which benefits from a PCB and cooling system specific to the brand, in this case ASUS. NVIDIA partners offer their own models.

This RTX 5080 benefits from the Blackwell architecture and retains a 4-nanometre engraving finesse, but switches to the TSMC N4P process, enabling greater transistor density and improved energy efficiency. This architecture features new 5th generation Tensor Cores and 4th generation Ray Tracing Cores. The 5th generation Tensor Cores will provide support for the FP4 (Floating Point 4 bits) format, which will double the computational performance of neural models while halving the memory footprint. We’ll be coming back to this development during our tests, in particular with the UL Procyon software that we’ve been using for several weeks now.

Of course, DLSS 4 support cannot be overlooked. This new RTX 5080 is equipped with 10,752 CUDA Cores, compared with 21,760 for the RTX 5090 version.

There’s also something new on the memory front, with 16GB of GDDR7 memory (30 Gbps). But let’s move on to the new packaging for this ASTRAL series.

The ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition bundle:

As ASUS says, this new ROG Astral range has been inspired by the limitless expanse and beauty of the cosmos, and shows an unwavering dedication to exploring and defining new frontiers. The box therefore offers a new identity as a new series, and in the end is not as imposing as we might have thought. The front panel is fairly sober, with a visual of the graphics card on a black background. The green NVIDIA colour code is repeated, along with the model number, GeForce RTX 5080.

The bundle includes a quick start manual, a ROG graphics card holder, ROG Velcro to attach the cables together, a ROG magnet, a ROG ruler, a thank you card, a keyboard key in the shape of a graphics card and a 3 x PCIe 8-pin power adapter.

Cooling :

Let’s start with the size of our sample of the day, which is 357.6 x 149.3 x 76 mm and will therefore occupy a width of 3.8 slots. You can see straight away that ROG has pulled out all the stops to offer a card with impressive cooling. This is the first time we’ve had a graphics card from the ROG Astral series in our hands, and our initial impressions are fairly positive.

This is the first ROG model with quad fans. As you can see, this ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition is equipped with three 105mm Axial-tech fans on the front and a fourth on the rear. As we’ll see later, the PCB is actually shorter than the cooling system, which makes it possible to add this extra fan. ROG claims up to 20% more throughput and pressure.

Each fan has 7 blades that are welded to a plastic ring. The fans stop when the GPU temperature drops below 50°C and restart at 55°C with a balanced speed curve to produce as little noise as possible. The charcoal grey casing encloses the shorter PCB and is combined with the backplate that encloses the fourth fan. The card also features a dual BIOS: Pmode (performance) and Qmode (quiet).

The imposing backplate ensures the rigidity of the PCB and prevents it from bending when the card is straddled horizontally. As a reminder, the bundle also includes a support if you opt for traditional horizontal installation in your case. We often forget to mention it, and yet it’s an excellent idea, but Asus has provided two 4-pin connectors for connecting two fans to your graphics card, located next to the BIOS switch. The fans connected to these connectors will act like the fans on your graphics card: if the GPU temperature rises, they will switch on to optimise the cooling inside your case. Finally, the card has a customisable ARGB backlight that is, for once, judiciously positioned.

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The PCB of this ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition :

Due to lack of time, we didn’t dismantle our example to reveal its PCB. But we do know that it has received special treatment, with a coating applied to protect it from moisture and dust.

It also benefits from a new steam chamber where the heat pipes are inserted directly. No more thermal paste, Asus is using a thermal pad on this series, which should improve heat exchange and, above all, will not disintegrate over time. We’ve already had the opportunity to test this type of product and we were quite satisfied.

Connectors :

To power this ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition, there’s a single 12V-2×6 connector, but you can use the 3 x PCIe 8-pin adapter supplied in the bundle if your power supply doesn’t have this connector. Finally, the card has three DisplayPort 2.1b and two HDMI 2.1b video outputs.