NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB | GeForce RTX 5070 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 12GB GDDR6X | 12GB GDDR7 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 912.4 GB/s | 672 GB/s |
| Shaders | 8960 | 6144 |
| Boost Clock | 1845 MHz | 2512 MHz |
| TDP | 350W | 250W |
| Architecture | Ampere | Blackwell 2.0 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 4,797 | 5,256 |
| Best Price | $799 | $549 |
| Value Score | 38/100 | 69/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the clear winner — it offers both better performance and better value.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070: Which Should You Buy?
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is 11% faster at 1440p ultra (114 fps against 102.3 fps). That is roughly one settings notch — enough to matter if you are chasing a specific refresh rate, not enough to rescue a bad price.
Pricing settles it: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is both faster and 46% cheaper at $549 versus $799. There is no scenario in this pairing where the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is the better buy at these prices.
Two things beyond raw speed: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 draws 100W less (250W versus 350W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is 3 years newer (2025 versus 2022), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.