NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
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 4080 | GeForce RTX 5090 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 16GB GDDR6 | 32GB GDDR7 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 717 GB/s | 1792 GB/s |
| Shaders | 9728 | 21760 |
| Boost Clock | 2505 MHz | 2407 MHz |
| TDP | 320W | 575W |
| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | Blackwell 2.0 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 6,585 | 14,480 |
| Best Price | $1,199 | $1,999 |
| Value Score | 33/100 | 28/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is faster but costs more. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 offers better value for money. Your choice depends on budget vs. performance priority.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090: Which Should You Buy?
This is not a close race. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers 170.5 fps at 1440p ultra to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080's 130.4 fps, a 31% gap. Only pick the slower card if it is dramatically cheaper or you need it for a lower resolution.
You pay a 67% premium for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ($1,999 against $1,199) to get 31% more frames. The extra frames do not keep up with the extra cost — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the better value here.
Two things beyond raw speed: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 carries 32GB against 16GB — the deciding factor at 1440p and above with ray tracing or texture packs, and the reason 16GB cards age badly; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 draws 255W less (320W versus 575W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is 3 years newer (2025 versus 2022), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.