When it comes to NVIDIA’s RTX 50 series ASUS decided to do something a bit different. Previously their most premium or flagship graphics card (that was not water-cooled) was their Strix of course. They are changing that up to match their other product lines like motherboards. In motherboards of course you have Strix, but above that sits the ultra-premium Maximus on the Intel side and Crosshair on the AMD side. So to match that ASUS is introducing the Astral series with their graphics cards. This series will sit above Strix and be their ultra-premium offering. So today we are checking out the ROG Astral RTX 5080. As a quick recap the RTX 5080 is based on the NVIDIA GB203 silicon and brings with it 10752 CUDA cores, 84 RT cores, 336 Tensor cores, 336 TMUs, and 84 ROPs. With 16GB of GDDR7 memory that runs across a 256-bit bus. The ROG Astral RTX 5080 has a factory overclock bringing the GPU boost up to 2760 MHz, on top of that you get a pretty hefty cooling solution with 4 fans, some sleek RGB lighting, and so much more! Is this the best RTX 5080 out there? Read on as we find out!
Special thanks to ASUS for providing us with the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 OC Edition to review.
Features of the ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080
• Overall Thermal Performance improved by 10%
• Quad-fan design boosts air flow and pressure by up to 20%
• Patented vapor chamber with milled heatspreader for lower GPU temperatures
• Phase-change GPU thermal pad ensures optimal heat transfer, lowering GPU temperatures for enhanced performance and reliability
• 3.8-slot design: massive heatsink and fin array optimized for airflow from the four Axial-tech fans
• Secure GPU protection with GPU Guard technology securing four corners of the GPU and GPU bracket ensures stable mounting.
• Full metal diecast shroud, frame backplate, and rear I/O bracket brace the PCB for rigidity.
• Powerful 80-amp MOSFETs help ensure enhanced performance, stability and higher overclocking potential
• Protective PCB coating guards against moisture, dust, and extreme temperatures.
• Auto-Extreme manufacturing process for precision and reliability
• GPU Tweak III software provides intuitive performance tweaking, advanced thermal controls and system monitoring
Packaging of the ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080
The ROG Astral RTX 5080 comes in a pretty standard ASUS graphics card box. On the front there is a picture of the card itself and some of the main features are listed.
Flipping the box over many of these features are detailed and we get a run-down of the ports on the back of the card.
Getting everything out of the box as far as accessories go you get a 12VHPWR to triple 8-pin PCIe adapter, a GPU support, ROG PCB ruler, ROG Magnet, ROG velcro hook, ROG graphics card keycap, and a quick start guide.
