The hierarchy of GPUs is forever changing, as today’s flagships give way to the future. Yes, even the mighty GeForce RTX 4090 will eventually be knocked down a peg or two by upcoming RTX 50 series graphics cards. With this succession certain, the question turns to how large of a shadow will these new models cast over the old? One leaker may know the answer as far as GeForce RTX 5080 is concerned.
While GeForce RTX 5090 should be the best graphics card Nvidia has in its Blackwell arsenal, GeForce RTX 5080 should be no slouch. If these rumoured estimations prove true, the Nvidia RTX 50 series could make for an exciting launch. However, power consumption could spoil the performance party.
Shortly after alluding to a potentially higher RTX 50 series power consumption, leaker kopite7kimi provided further clarification. According to the X user, GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 will boast respective TDPs of 600W and 400W. However, they’ve also gone one step further and provided performance estimations for the latter.
Speaking to Videocardz, kopite7kimi claims that Nvidia projects GeForce RTX 5080 to offer 1.1x the performance of GeForce RTX 4090. Naturally, this suggests the gap between GeForce RTX 5090 and its predecessor will be even larger.
Below, you’ll find a table that combines kopite7kimi’s numbers (in bold) with figures from the previous Seasonic’s leak for other SKUs.
| SKU | TDP | vs. RTX 40 series |
|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 5090 | 600W | +150W vs. RTX 4090 |
| GeForce RTX 5080 | 400W | +80W vs. RTX 4080 +80W vs. RTX 4080 Super |
| GeForce RTX 5070 | 220W | +20W vs. RTX 4070 +0W vs. RTX 4070 Super |
| GeForce RTX 5060 | 170W | +55W vs. RTX 4060 |
| GeForce RTX 5050 | 100W | N/A |
These potentially dramatic shifts in TDP at the high-end make the proposed 55W increase of GeForce RTX 5060 less of a standout. However, it’s entirely possible that larger TDPs await both it and GeForce RTX 5070 as Nvidia finalises its designs.
Turning back to the claims of a 10% performance delta between GeForce RTX 5080 and 4090, this could still point to a more efficient series. After all, the latter boasts a 450W TDP. Still, an 80W increase over GeForce RTX 4080 Super and vanilla will sting some systems that fall just shy of its higher power requirements. Not forgetting the likely return of the 12VHWPR cable to complicate matters.
With the above in mind, I’m hopeful that GeForce RTX 5070 will nip at the heels of GeForce RTX 4090 while pulling substantially fewer watts. Nvidia managed a similar feat with GeForce RTX 4070, but nothing’s set in stone until cards meet boards.
The RTX 50 series release date is up in the air but rumoured to fall around CES 2025. True to tradition, expect Nvidia to stagger the launch of its SKUs. GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 arriving first seems likely, so we shouldn’t have to wait long to put these claims to the test.