Final Thoughts on the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC Launch Edition
As always with a new series of graphics cards we as gamers are expecting a lot, and most times we are let down. I think with this generation, specifically cards below the RTX 5090 many gamers are not going to be that excited. The biggest thing that gamers want to see is generational performance. You want the 80 class card to beat the 90 class card from the previous generation, the 70 class card to beat the 80 class card and so on. With the RTX 5080 in pure performance (no ray tracing or DLLS) you are not going to see that. Maybe that is NVIDIA’s fault for making the RTX 4090 such a beast at the time, but again as gamers this is what we like to see.
When it does come to pure performance in our testing we saw that the RTX 5080 is only about 12% faster in 1440p gaming and 16% faster at 4K compared to the RTX 4080 Super. Now while we did not have an RTX 4090 on hand to test, we know that these results put this card below the RTX 4090 in pure performance. Again, a bit disappointing for gamers and kills all the excitement from CES of the RTX 5070 for $549 with supposed performance of a RTX 4090.
The big thing with the RTX 50 series is going to be DLSS4 and this is likely why NVIDIA was saying the RTX 5070 will get RTX 4090 performance. Previously with DLSS3 you would essentially get double the frame rate as it would generate a single new frame. With DLSS4 you can now generate 2 or even 3 frames, which brings your frame rate to levels you’ve likely never seen before in certain titles. This is for sure a game-changer, especially if the main game you play supports it. NVIDIA has told us that there will be 75 games at launch that will support DLSS4.
We specifically took a look at the MSI’s RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC Launch Edition graphics card in this review. It is good to see a new line (actually there are few) of graphics cards from MSI. The whole idea behind Vanguard is something that is flashy and will stand out in your system. That means we have a more aggressive design compared to SUPRIM and more RGB lighting. If that is your thing you are definitely going to love this card, it looks great! On top of that this card is very quiet thanks to the design of the fans. You are going to get a factory overclock too, the GPU boost has been upped to 2730 MHz (from 2617 MHz) which should lead to a few more FPS in games.
While many people aren’t going to be that excited about the RTX 5080, sadly there is not much other competition at this performance level and NVIDIA does have very compelling software tech. We already know that the upcoming Radeon RX 9070 XT is not going to compete with this card, and even the current Radeon RX 7900 XTX falls behind in terms of performance, but it is cheaper, but not cheap enough to choose it over the RTX 5080, which has a MSRP of $1000. Now MSI told us they do not have an MSRP for their Vanguard card, which seems a bit odd a few days before launch. Leaked pricing that we’ve seen puts it at $1229.99, or a $230 premium over NVIDIA’s Founder’s Edition or other MSRP cards. To me, it just seems a bit high, but this is becoming normal and may not be MSI overcharging, but rather having to price this high to even make a profit. Not going to go into that too much, but there was a reason EVGA stopped making graphics cards.
So who is this card for? Obviously if you are running a high-end RTX 40 series graphics card there is no reason to consider upgrading. If you are on RTX 30 it is a bit more compelling as you never had frame generation before and that is going to make a massive difference in performance if the games you are playing support it, and more or more new titles will out of the box.
