RTX 5080 Benchmarks: Not Quite the 4090 Killer We Expected
Okay, so let's get on with the hype surrounding NVIDIA's RTX 5080. Positioning itself as the successor to the popular RTX 4080, and quite naturally, expectations were high. Would it leapfrog the mighty RTX 4090 in performance? Well, early benchmark numbers are starting to trickle in, and they might just temper those expectations a bit.
Time Spy Results: A 10% Gap
First, we have the Time Spy benchmark, a well-known synthetic test to determine gaming performance. Results leaked from the Baidu forums put the RTX 5080 at about 32,701 points. Sounds pretty impressive, right? It is until you put that against the RTX 4090. The king of the hill scores about 36,318 points in the same test. That is approximately a 10% difference in performance, with the RTX 4090 still well ahead.
| GPU | Time Spy Score |
|---|---|
| RTX 5080 (Leaked) | 32,701 |
| RTX 4090 (Typical) | 36,318 |
Geekbench: Vulkan and OpenCL Tell a Similar Story
But moving beyond Time Spy, Geekbench results paint further details where the RTX 5080 stands. While not always the most accurate for gaming workloads, Geekbench at least gives an idea of the raw compute capability. The Vulkan score on the RTX 5080 scored about 281,746 points, while OpenCL reached approximately 278,138 points. Again, respectable scores, but the RTX 4090 is in another league here.
Compared to the RTX 4090 scores of around 365,013 in Vulkan and 337,319 in OpenCL, the RTX 5080 is a good ways behind-we're talking a 23% deficit in Vulkan and around 18% in OpenCL. That's quite a big difference.
| Benchmark | RTX 5080 (Leaked) | RTX 4090 (Typical) |
|---|---|---|
| Vulkan (Geekbench) | 281,746 | 365,013 |
| OpenCL (Geekbench) | 278,138 | 337,319 |
RTX 5080 vs. RTX 4080: A More Modest Upgrade?
That said, it is not all doom and gloom for the RTX 5080. It does show performance gains over its predecessor, the RTX 4080. Against the RTX 4080-which scores around 259,403 in Vulkan and 254,007 in OpenCL with a similar test setup-the RTX 5080 seems to be offering an uplift of about 8-9%. A generational uplift, yes, but perhaps not as dramatic as some might have hoped for, especially with the gap to the RTX 4090.
The Waiting Game for Real-World Gaming Tests
Keep in mind that these are early synthetic benchmarks. The real test will be how the RTX 5080 performs in actual games. Synthetic benchmarks provide a useful data point, but they don't always perfectly translate to in-game experience. We need to see how the RTX 5080 handles the latest titles, its ray tracing capabilities, and DLSS performance before drawing definitive conclusions. So, stay tuned – the gaming benchmarks will be the ones to truly watch.
