ASUS GeForce RTX 5080 ROG Astral 16GB GDDR7

The ROG Astral RTX 5080 posts a 35,759 PassMark G3D score, putting it in the top 5% of all GPUs we've tested. It scores 99.8 out of 100 for ray tracing and runs cooler than any card in our database. The catch is the price, $2,692 to $3,000 in the US, and the massive 3.8-slot design.

The headline number is 35,759 on PassMark G3D, which puts this card in the 95th percentile for raster performance. That's not just good, it's one of the best on the market. You're getting 10,752 CUDA cores, 336 Tensor cores, and 84 RT cores running at a 2,670 MHz boost clock. The 16GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 960 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a big jump over last-gen GDDR6X cards. In practice, that means 4K gaming at high refresh rates is totally doable. One owner paired it with a Samsung G8 OLED 240Hz 4K monitor and reports it handles the resolution beautifully. Our database agrees, scoring it 99.6 out of 100 for 4K gaming.

Ray tracing is where this card really flexes. It scores 99.8 out of 100 in our ray tracing tests, landing in the 98th percentile. The fourth-gen RT cores are built for heavy geometry workloads, and DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation pushes frame rates even higher in supported titles. Compute performance is also top-tier at 56.28 FP32 TFLOPS, good for the 97th percentile. Content creation scores 99.6 out of 100, so video editors and 3D artists will be happy too. The one area that's merely good rather than great is AI LLM performance at 82.9 out of 100, which is still solid but not the reason you buy this card. Thermals are the real showstopper though. The quad-fan design with a vapor chamber and phase-change thermal pad keeps this card in the 100th percentile for cooling. That's best-in-class, full stop.

Against the Gigabyte AERO RTX 5080, the ROG Astral wins on cooling and build quality. The Astral's quad-fan design and vapor chamber put it in the 100th percentile for thermals, while the AERO is more of a standard triple-fan design. The ZOTAC APOCALYPSE RTX 5080 is another strong competitor, but it doesn't match the Astral's thermal performance or premium construction. The MSI Ventus RTX 5070 Ti is a step down in raw performance, with fewer CUDA cores and lower memory bandwidth, though it's typically cheaper. The PNY ARGB OC RTX 5080 is a solid value alternative, but it lacks the Astral's overbuilt cooling solution and premium extras like the anti-sag bracket. The Sapphire NITRO+ is an AMD card, so it's a different beast entirely, trading blows on raster but falling behind on ray tracing and DLSS 4 support. If you want the absolute best RTX 5080 variant with no compromises on cooling or build quality, the Astral is the pick. If you're more price-sensitive, the PNY or Gigabyte options will get you most of the performance for less money.

Let's talk money. US listings for this card range from $2,692 to $3,000, a $308 spread depending on where you shop. That's a meaningful difference, so it pays to check multiple vendors before pulling the trigger. Canadian buyers face an even wilder range, from CAD 2,049 to CAD 6,900 across three listings. That CAD 6,900 price is frankly absurd, and you should avoid it entirely. The CAD 2,049 listing is the obvious sweet spot if it's actually in stock. For the performance you're getting, a top-5% raster score and best-in-class ray tracing, the low end of the US range is defensible. But once you creep toward $3,000, you're getting into territory where you have to really want the ROG Astral branding and the quad-fan cooling. The card delivers, but the value proposition depends heavily on finding a listing at the lower end of that price spread.

The ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 posts a PassMark G3D score of 35,759, which lands it in the top 5% of every GPU we've tested for raw raster performance. That's a serious number, and it translates to a card that chews through 4K gaming without breaking a sweat. Our database puts it at 99.6 out of 100 for 4K gaming and 99.8 for ray tracing, so if you're chasing max settings on a high-refresh OLED, this thing delivers. The 16GB of GDDR7 on a 256-bit bus gives you 960 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which keeps those 10,752 CUDA cores fed. And the quad-fan design with a vapor chamber means thermals are literally the best we've seen, 100th percentile. It runs cool, it runs quiet, and it looks like a piece of sci-fi hardware sitting in your case.

But let's be real about the price. US listings range from $2,692 to $3,000, and Canadian listings swing wildly from CAD 2,049 to CAD 6,900. That's a huge spread, and even the low end is a lot of money for a 5080. The card is also massive at 358mm long and 3.8 slots thick, so you'll need a big case and probably the included anti-sag bracket. Customer reviews are strong at 4.7 out of 5 across 370 ratings, with owners praising the build quality and 4K performance. A few DOA reports pop up, but that's par for the course with any high-volume GPU launch. If you can stomach the price and have the physical space, this is one of the best gaming cards money can buy right now.

Skip this card if you're building in a mid-tower or smaller case. At 358mm long and 3.8 slots thick, it simply won't fit in most compact builds. Budget-conscious buyers should also look elsewhere. The US price range of $2,692 to $3,000 is steep for a 5080, and the Canadian spread of CAD 2,049 to CAD 6,900 means you could easily overpay if you're not careful. If you're primarily interested in AI workloads or LLM inference, the 82.9 out of 100 score in that category is the card's weakest area, and you'd be better served by a card with more VRAM or a different architecture. And if you're not planning to game at 4K or push ray tracing hard, you're leaving a lot of this card's potential on the table. A cheaper 5070 Ti or even a last-gen 4080 Super would serve you just as well at 1440p.

The ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 is a monster of a graphics card. It posts a 35,759 PassMark G3D score, scores 99.8 out of 100 for ray tracing, and runs cooler than anything else we've tested. The 16GB of GDDR7 with 960 GB/s of bandwidth handles 4K gaming with ease, and DLSS 4 support future-proofs it for upcoming titles. The downsides are the price, which ranges from $2,692 to $3,000 in the US, and the sheer physical size at 3.8 slots and 358mm long. If you have the space and the budget, this is one of the best gaming GPUs on the market right now. Just shop around to find a listing at the lower end of that price range.