Nvidia's RTX 5080 might be only slightly faster than the RTX 4080 Super without DLSS, if this leaked review is genuine

The Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU on a green background.

(Image credit: Nvidia)

An early review from Igor'sLAB suggests the RTX 5080 might be slightly faster than the RTX 4080 Super
Results stem from tests at a 1440p resolution max settings, with no RT or DLSS
Reviews will go live today

We're just hours away from the review embargo lifting on Nvidia's RTX 5080 Founders Edition GPU, and a leaked review may have just given us an eleventh-hour look at what to expect from the card - and it's not quite what many have anticipated.

As reported by VideoCardz, multiple Redditors spotted an early review of the RTX 5080 from Igor'sLAB, that reveals only a slight performance boost for the GPU against the previous generation's RTX 4080 Super - it's reportedly only 8.3% faster on average without using ray tracing (which is very demanding on hardware) or DLSS based on performance tests in several games, including Cyberpunk 2077.

It's important to note that most of these performance analyses were done at 1440p (or at least, that’s what Redditors managed to screenshot before the review was taken down), which won't give us a true idea of the new GPU's performance capabilities compared to running tests at 4K resolution. In other words, it's a little early to pass significant judgment on Team Green's efforts here.

These suspected minor performance improvements over the RTX 4080 Super are most prominently on display in Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered - at a 1440p resolution on ultra graphics settings with DLSS disabled, the RTX 5080 maintained an average of 156.3 fps against the RTX 4080 Super's 154.3 fps, a truly measly 1.3% performance increase.

If these results are accurate and consistent with other real-world tests once the review embargo officially drops later today, there may be little reason to make the jump from an RTX 4080 Super to an RTX 5080.

Let's wait for more real-world performance tests...

Now, it would be naive of me to draw conclusions about the RTX 5080 without having seen more performance tests (especially at resolutions above 1440p), and this whoopsie from Igor’s also doesn’t show what impact the newly-upgraded DLSS 4 has on both GPUs. I won't consider Frame Generation to be a major factor in judging any significant differences, as the new Multi-Frame Generation feature is exclusive to RTX 5000 series GPUs, so chances are frame rates will be much higher than the RTX 4080 Super's anyway once Nvidia’s AI-powered tools are factored in.

What I can say is that if DLSS 4 pushes the 5080’s frame rates above and beyond the RTX 4080 Super's, especially if it does a better job of handling additional graphics settings like ray tracing, then it will be a different narrative. The close frame rate averages based on the leaked review aren't necessarily pleasing for many to see, and considering the $999 / £979 / AU$2,019 MSRP, it could be hard to justify since the RTX 4080 Super’s MSRP is the same - and it’ll likely get cheaper once the 5080 arrives.

Personally (as an RTX 4080 Super user), I'm planning to be very patient to see exactly what benefits this potential upgrade path could offer me - hopefully, it's worth justifying at my beloved ultrawide resolutions.