Nvidia is known for making excellent graphics cards, but with performance comes the cost, and with each generation, the prices seem to keep reaching for the sky. In a recent leak, we saw the price for the RTX 5080, which is significantly higher than the MSRP of the RTX 3080 and the 5080.
The consumer base doesn’t seem to be too happy about this, with some of the opinions that Nvidia has become an AI hardware company first and that “Gaming GPUs are second fiddle now.”
What is the price of the RTX 5080?
According to a leak from Tomasz Gawroński on X (formerly Twitter), the RTX 5080 is priced at €1,699.95. In the picture posted, we can see that the brand is ASUS, meaning it could be a ROG Strix or TUF card, but even then, it is highly priced.
If we convert that amount to USD, it turns out to be approximately $1749.06, whereas the RTX 4080 launched at $1,199 MSRP (as did the RTX 4080 Super). This is a $550.06 difference, and the only change the RTX 5080 is bringing is possibly DLSS 4 and GDDR7 memory instead of GDDR6X.
That being said, we don’t know what the MSRP of the RTX 5080 but it is expected to release on 21st January 2025, meaning we might not have to wait too long before getting official numbers. So, the question is: Is paying around $550 worth more for a new memory type and DLSS 4, or is it overkill?
For most, it is certainly overkill, and with the RTX 5060 still rumored to have only 8GB VRAM, it only added to the fire. However, with AMD and Intel targeting the budget and mid-range GPU categories, we might see more improvements from Nvidia regarding hardware and pricing. From what we’ve seen so far, AMD’s next-gen flagship will be the RX 9070 XT – which looks to be a follow-up to the current 7700 XT or 7800 XT. In other words, not truly high-end.
The high-end GPU market segment is completely dominated by Nvidia, as AMD has backed down. This means that Nvidia has a monopoly over a certain domain, and that is never good for the consumer base. They can set their prices however they want, and those who want the best of the best will have to pay that price.
So, we can only hope that there is healthy competition between these giants moving forward, but it doesn’t look like the 5080 will get that just yet. Many more alternatives are the best scenario for consumers; good products at a reasonable cost tend to fly off the shelves, as we recently saw with the Intel Arc B580.
