In-Game Benchmarks

Now we finally get into the in game performance and that is the main reason people pick up a new video card. To test things out I ran through our new benchmark suite that tests 8 games at three different resolutions (1080p, 1440p, and 4k). Most of the games tested have been run at the highest detail setting and a mid-range detail setting to get a look at how turning things up hurts performance and to give an idea of whether turning detail down from max will be beneficial for frame rates. Cyberpunk 2077 is also tested with Super Sampling (DLSS/FSR/XeSS). In total, each video card is tested 60 times and that makes for a huge mess of results when you put them all together. To help with that I like to start with these overall playability graphs that take all of the results and give an easier-to-read result. I have one for each of the three resolutions and each is broken up into four FPS ranges. Under 30 FPS is considered unplayable, over 30 is playable but not ideal, over 60 is the sweet spot, over 120 FPS is for high refresh rate monitors, and 240 helps show the performance ideal for the latest higher refresh displays.

So how did the RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC do? Well at 1080p all of the results were over 120 FPS with 14 of the 18 coming in over 240 FPS. For comparison, in the same tests, the Founders Edition came in at 12 and 6, so the performance improvement for the Vanguard was enough to bump the two up into new categories. At 1440p, which is the targeted resolution for the RTX 5080, the RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC had all results up over 120 FPS with half of those over 240. This was one result better than the Founders Edition which had 8 over 240 to the 9 here. Then at 4k, performance was still solid but there is a noticeable difference here with some of the results dropping down into the 60-119 FPS range. In the end, the RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC had 4 in that range, 12 in the 120-239 range, and 2 over 240 FPS, the same as the Founders Edition.

To get a better look at some of the cards that are the closest competition to the RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC including the RTX 4080, 4080 SUPER, 4090, and 7900 XTX. I didn’t miss the Founders Edition 5080 as well, it is there also. This gives us a better look at how the cards compare. The RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC improved on the stock RTX 5080 performance by 8.7 FPS at 1080p, 6.2 at 1440p, and 2.9 at 4k. That is an improvement of 2.9% at 1080p, 2.5% at 1440p, and 1.8% at 4k, more than I expected given the small clock speed improvement. This wasn’t enough to change the order of any of the other cards. Like in our Founders Edition review, this does highlight how the RTX 5080 outperforms the RTX 4090 at 1080p and 1440p but falls behind it at 4k. Like I said earlier, the 5080 is targeted at 1440p according to Nvidia and the VRAM for the RTX 5080 shows that. But even still 4k gaming is still very possible as you can see.

Of course, I have all of the actual in game results as well for anyone who wants to sort through the wall of graphs below. The RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC did improve on the performance of the RTX 5080, but there was only one result that pushed the 5080 up above any other card. One was in Ghost Recon Breakpoint high detail where it jumped over the 7900 XTX.

Another new addition to my testing was a few additional tests using Cyberpunk 2077. This is one of only a few games that support most of the tech from all three of the GPU companies. So I did tests at medium and ultra detail while having Super Sampling on for all of the cards. Using whatever the latest and greatest is supported. In this case, I tested with DLSS and I also have included a second batch of results with frame generation x4 on the cards that support it. Just a note here, the AMD cards only allowed FSR when running windowed mode whereas Nvidia only performed well in fullscreen mode. The performance improvements that the RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC got over the Founders Edition 5080 are seen here as well. Without frame generation x4 AMD edged out in front of both of the RTX 5080s at 1440p and 1080p but when you figure in the new DLSS 4 frame generation 4 (which the game adds in today) the performance difference is so significant that it isn’t even close. With ultra detail, the RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC comes in at 512 FPS at 1440p and 343 FPS at 4k.

• video card
• Nvidia
• MSI
• RTX 5080
• Vanguard