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Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 review: performance worthy of the name?

RT benchmarks: Alan Wake 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Cyberpunk 2077.

2025 sees the latest revision of our GPU test suite, with new and returning games that we've retrofitted with custom benchmarks to highlight stress points. The selection includes many titles that we've highlighted as offering the best graphics in gaming, and for a flagship-grade card like the RTX 5090 we have no qualms about choosing extremely demanding settings.

We begin with a selection of ray tracing titles, as this typically offers the toughest test of a modern graphics card and use of RT continues to ramp up as we proceed throughout the 2020s. On this page, we have three games famed for their environments - the temperate forests of Alan Wake 2, the jungles of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and the city streets of Cyberpunk 2077.

If this is the first time you're seeing a Digital Foundry graphics card review on Eurogamer, our benchmarking system deserves a short introduction. On mobile devices you'll see simple performance tables for each graphics card and resolution we tested, while on desktop-class browsers you'll get an embedded YouTube video and animated bar chart. Click play on the video to see our test scene unfold with live metrics, or mouse over the bar chart to see the various measurements. You can also click on the bar chart to change from absolute frame-rate readings to percentages.

Alan Wake 2

Alan Wake 2, High, Low RT

Frame Rate (FPS)30252015
Frame Time (ms)30.040.050.060.070.080.0
Overall frame-rate (FPS)
Resolution:
0510152025303540455055
RTX 5090 2160p
RTX 5080 2160p
RTX 4090 2160p
RTX 4080 Super 2160p
RTX 4080 2160p
RTX 3090 Ti 2160p
RTX 3090 2160p
RTX 3080 Ti 2160p
RTX 3080 2160p
RTX 2080 Ti 2160p
RTX 2080 2160p
RX 7900 XTX 2160p
RX 7900 XT 2160p
RX 6900 XT 2160p
RX 6800 XT 2160p
RX 6800 2160p
RX 6700 2160p
Hover to compare:

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Ultra Settings

Frame Rate (FPS)8070605040
Frame Time (ms)10.012.014.016.018.020.022.024.026.0
Overall frame-rate (FPS)
Resolution:
020406080100120140
RTX 5090 2160p
RTX 5080 2160p
RTX 4090 2160p
RTX 4080 Super 2160p
RTX 4080 2160p
RTX 3090 Ti 2160p
RTX 3090 2160p
RTX 3080 Ti 2160p
RTX 3080 2160p
RTX 2080 Ti 2160p
RTX 2080 2160p
RX 7900 XTX 2160p
RX 7900 XT 2160p
RX 6900 XT 2160p
RX 6800 XT 2160p
RX 6800 2160p
RX 6700 2160p
Hover to compare:

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077, Psycho RT

Frame Rate (FPS)50403020100
Frame Time (ms)0.0200.0400.0600.0800.01000.0
Overall frame-rate (FPS)
Resolution:
01020304050607080
RTX 5090 2160p
RTX 5080 2160p
RTX 4090 2160p
RTX 4080 Super 2160p
RTX 4080 2160p
RTX 3090 Ti 2160p
RTX 3090 2160p
RTX 3080 Ti 2160p
RTX 3080 2160p
RTX 2080 Ti 2160p
RTX 2080 2160p
RX 7900 XTX 2160p
RX 7900 XT 2160p
RX 6900 XT 2160p
RX 6800 XT 2160p
RX 6800 2160p
RX 6700 2160p
Hover to compare:

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Analysis