The wait is over! As soon as the first RTX 5000 series cards arrived in Morocco, we were excited to get our hands on them. With NVIDIA’s promises of groundbreaking performance and AI-driven graphics, the hype was real. Now, we’re kicking off our reviews with the ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 OC, a premium card packed with cutting-edge tech and stunning design. Let’s dive in and see if it lives up to the buzz!
ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 OC: Overview and Design
The ASUS GeForce RTX 5080 Astral OC is positioned above ASUS’s ROG Strix series, aiming to deliver unmatched aesthetics and performance in the air-cooled GPU market. Its textured metal alloy surfaces and subtle RGB lighting complement premium ROG Maximus and Crosshair motherboards. ASUS’s highest factory overclock sees the GPU pushing up to 2760 MHz, making it the fastest RTX 5080 variant available.
- Score: 9/10
- Pros: Premium build quality, sleek design, highest factory overclock.
- Cons: Bulky quad-slot design limits case compatibility.
Packaging
ASUS delivers premium packaging for the Astral OC, with a robust box that features an elegant design, keeping the GPU secure during shipping. The unboxing experience reflects the card’s premium status, though it lacks some of the flashiness seen in competitors’ offerings.
- Score: 8/10
- Pros: Secure, premium feel, professional presentation.
- Cons: Less flashy compared to other high-end GPUs.
Cooling Performance and Form Factor Comparison
ASUS introduces the Quad Fan Force cooling solution with three front-mounted fans and a unique fourth fan on the backplate, enhancing airflow and keeping temperatures impressively low.
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- Score: 9/10
- Pros: Extremely quiet in quiet BIOS mode (26 dBA), efficient cooling, low temps.
- Cons: Physically massive, occupying four slots.
Temperatures & Fan Noise
The card maintains very low temperatures under load, with the quiet BIOS offering whisper-quiet performance. However, in performance mode, noise levels rise slightly to 36 dBA.
- Score: 9/10
- Pros: Whisper-quiet in silent mode, excellent thermal management.
- Cons: Slightly noisier in default performance mode.
| Temperature & Noise Comparison | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idle | Gaming | |||||||
| GPU | Noise | GPU | Memory | Noise | RPM | |||
| ASUS RTX 5080 Astral OC | 35°C | Fan Stop | 62°C | 66°C | 36.3 dBA | 1684 RPM | ||
| ASUS RTX 5080 Astral OC (Quiet BIOS) | 35°C | Fan Stop | 70°C | 76°C | 25.8 dBA | 897 RPM | ||
| Colorful RTX 5080 Vulcan | 40°C | Fan Stop | 61°C | 66°C | 34.4 dBA | 1876 RPM | ||
| Colorful RTX 5080 Vulcan (Quiet BIOS) | 40°C | Fan Stop | 63°C | 66°C | 33.1 dBA | 1626 RPM | ||
| Gainward RTX 5080 Phoenix | 43°C | Fan Stop | 68°C | 76°C | 37.4 dBA | 1793 RPM | ||
| Gainward RTX 5080 Phoenix (Quiet BIOS) | 43°C | Fan Stop | 70°C | 78°C | 35.4 dBA | 1628 RPM | ||
| Galax RTX 5080 1-Click | 38°C | Fan Stop | 69°C | 76°C | 35.6 dBA | 1870 RPM | ||
| Gigabyte RTX 5080 Gaming OC | 38°C | Fan Stop | 64°C | 66°C | 38.4 dBA | 1786 RPM | ||
| Gigabyte RTX 5080 Gaming OC (Quiet BIOS) | 39°C | Fan Stop | 66°C | 70°C | 31.6 dBA | 1290 RPM | ||
| MSI RTX 5080 Suprim SOC | 40°C | Fan Stop | 60°C | 62°C | 25.5 dBA | 1133 RPM | ||
| MSI RTX 5080 Suprim SOC (Performance BIOS) | 36°C | Fan Stop | 58°C | 58°C | 31.4 dBA | 1400 RPM | ||
| MSI RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC | 36°C | Fan Stop | 60°C | 62°C | 35.0 dBA | 1568 RPM | ||
| MSI RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC (Quiet BIOS) | 37°C | Fan Stop | 64°C | 68°C | 30.2 dBA | 1276 RPM | ||
| Palit RTX 5080 GameRock | 43°C | Fan Stop | 64°C | 68°C | 37.3 dBA | 1679 RPM | ||
| Palit RTX 5080 GameRock (Quiet BIOS) | 43°C | Fan Stop | 67°C | 70°C | 32.6 dBA | 1458 RPM | ||
| Zotac RTX 5080 Amp Extreme Infinity | 40°C | Fan Stop | 66°C | 66°C | 38.6 dBA | 1638 RPM | ||
| Zotac RTX 5080 Amp Extreme Infinity (Quiet BIOS) | 40°C | Fan Stop | 68°C | 70°C | 33.8 dBA | 1384 RPM | ||
| NVIDIA RTX 5080 FE | 38°C | Fan Stop | 67°C | 74°C | 36.8 dBA | 1493 RPM | ||
Performance
In real-world testing, the Astral OC delivers a 16% uplift over the RTX 4080 Super and a 6% boost over the standard RTX 5080 due to its factory overclock. It shines in 4K Ultra HD gaming with ray tracing enabled.
Average FPS: Strong 4K performance, with over 100 FPS in most AAA titles.
Relative Performance: Outperforms AMD’s RX 7900 XTX by 19% in raster and 61% in ray tracing.
Performance per Dollar: Lower due to the $1500 price tag.
Score: 8/10
Pros: Top-tier 4K gaming, excellent ray tracing capabilities.
Cons: Incremental gains don’t justify the 50% price hike.
DLSS 4 and Ray Tracing
DLSS 4 introduces Multi Frame Generation (MFG), capable of generating up to four AI-driven frames per rendered frame, significantly boosting frame rates without compromising image quality. Ray tracing performance is also solid, though the gains over the previous generation are modest.
- Score: 9/10
- Pros: DLSS 4 transforms visual fidelity, superior ray tracing.
- Cons: Ray tracing performance gains are less than expected.
| Upscaling & Frame Generation Cyberpunk 2077 RT |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card | Upscaling | Framegen | FPS | Latency | VRAM | |||
| RTX 5080 | Native | Off | 35 FPS | 55 ms | 13565 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Transformer / DLAA | Off | 34 FPS | 56 ms | 14478 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Transformer / Quality | Off | 62 FPS | 36 ms | 1223 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Transformer / Balanced | Off | 74 FPS | 32 ms | 11917 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Transformer / Performance | Off | 86 FPS | 29 ms | 11832 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Transformer / Ultra Performance | Off | 135 FPS | 23 ms | 11262 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | CNN / DLAA | Off | 35 FPS | 54 ms | 15050 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | CNN / Quality | Off | 66 FPS | 34 ms | 12832 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | CNN / Balanced | Off | 78 FPS | 29 ms | 12544 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | CNN / Performance | Off | 93 FPS | 29 ms | 12387 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | CNN / Ultra Performance | Off | 135 FPS | 23 ms | 11957 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Native | x2 | 64 FPS | 71 ms | 14606 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Native | x3 | 91 FPS | 74 ms | 14885 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Native | x4 | 120 FPS | 74 ms | 15147 MB | |||
| RTX 5080 | Native | AMD FSR | 61 FPS | N/A | 14703 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Native | Off | 54 FPS | 38 ms | 13916 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Transformer / DLAA | Off | 54 FPS | 38 ms | 14891 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Transformer / Quality | Off | 92 FPS | 29 ms | 12434 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Transformer / Balanced | Off | 106 FPS | 28 ms | 12167 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Transformer / Performance | Off | 124 FPS | 26 ms | 12130 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Transformer / Ultra Performance | Off | 129 FPS | 22 ms | 11588 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | CNN / DLAA | Off | 57 FPS | 40 ms | 15994 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | CNN / Quality | Off | 96 FPS | 27 ms | 13699 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | CNN / Balanced | Off | 113 FPS | 27 ms | 13367 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | CNN / Performance | Off | 128 FPS | 25 ms | 13307 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | CNN / Ultra Performance | Off | 126 FPS | 23 ms | 12842 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Native | x2 | 105 FPS | 45 ms | 14734 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Native | x3 | 151 FPS | 51 ms | 14896 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Native | x4 | 196 FPS | 48 ms | 15164 MB | |||
| RTX 5090 | Native | AMD FSR | 99 FPS | N/A | 15046 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | Native | Off | 43 FPS | 59 ms | 14714 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | CNN / DLAA | Off | 42 FPS | 50 ms | 14813 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | CNN / Quality | Off | 78 FPS | 30 ms | 12560 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | CNN / Balanced | Off | 93 FPS | 28 ms | 12267 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | CNN / Performance | Off | 114 FPS | 25 ms | 12206 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | CNN / Ultra Performance | Off | 155 FPS | 20 ms | 11687 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | Transformer / DLAA | Off | 40 FPS | 47 ms | 14054 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | Transformer / Quality | Off | 67 FPS | 33 ms | 11908 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | Transformer / Balanced | Off | 80 FPS | 30 ms | 11643 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | Transformer / Performance | Off | 97 FPS | 26 ms | 11570 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | Transformer / Ultra Performance | Off | 153 FPS | 20 ms | 10967 MB | |||
| RTX 4090 | Native | DLSS | 74 FPS | 57 ms | 13714 MB | |||
| RX 7900 XTX | Native | Off | 21 FPS | N/A | 12635 MB | |||
| RX 7900 XTX | FSR 3 / Performance | Off | 59 FPS | N/A | 9250 MB | |||
| RX 7900 XTX | Native | FSR 3 | 39 FPS | N/A | 13360 MB | |||
Power Consumption, Efficiency & Clock Speeds
| Clock Frequencies & Voltage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Clock | Memory Clock | GPU Voltage | |
| Idle | 255 MHz | 51 MHz | 0.800 V |
| Multi-Monitor | 258 MHz 255 to 300 MHz |
51 MHz | 0.800 V |
| Video Playback | 328 MHz 322 to 345 MHz |
51 MHz | 0.800 V |
| Furmark | 2617 MHz 2580 to 2962 MHz |
1875 MHz | 0.939 V 0.935 to 0.970 V |
| Gaming (Cyberpunk 2077) |
2917 MHz | 1875 MHz | 1.060 V |
| Ray Tracing (Cyberpunk 2077) |
2783 MHz 2737 to 2827 MHz |
1875 MHz | 1.003 V 0.975 to 1.015 V |
| V-Sync (Cyberpunk 2077) |
1744 MHz 1702 to 1770 MHz |
875 MHz | 0.880 V 0.880 to 0.885 V |
| Gaming (25 Games) |
2882 MHz 2055 to 2962 MHz |
1875 MHz | 1.029 V 0.805 to 1.070 V |
The card’s default power limit is increased to 400W, offering excellent performance without compromising efficiency. However, ASUS doesn’t allow manual increases beyond this, which is a limitation compared to competitors like Gigabyte.
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- Score: 8/10
- Pros: Efficient despite higher power draw, solid performance-to-watt ratio.
- Cons: No manual power limit increase, high idle power consumption.
Overclocking & Power Limits
The Astral OC has impressive overclocking potential, achieving +11% performance on top of the factory overclock. However, memory overclocking is artificially limited by the driver, restricting full potential.
- Score: 7/10
- Pros: Strong overclocking headroom, highest factory OC in class.
- Cons: Memory OC limitations, no manual power limit increase.
Pros and Cons Summary
Pros:
- Highest factory overclock on the market.
- Superior cooling with Quad Fan Force technology.
- Whisper-quiet performance in silent BIOS mode.
- DLSS 4 and Neural Rendering deliver cutting-edge graphics.
- Efficient despite high power demands.
Cons:
- $1500 price tag is a significant markup over MSRP.
- Bulky form factor may not fit smaller cases.
- Memory overclocking restrictions limit customization.
- High idle/multi-monitor power consumption.
ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 OC: The Final Verdict
The ASUS GeForce RTX 5080 Astral OC is a premium GPU that delivers top-notch performance with innovative features like DLSS 4 and Neural Rendering. However, its $1500 price tag makes it a hard sell unless you’re committed to having the best of the best. While it’s whisper-quiet, highly efficient, and visually stunning, the modest performance gains over other RTX 5080 models might not justify the steep premium.
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- Final Score: 8.5/10
If you’re an enthusiast seeking premium aesthetics and peak performance, the Astral OC won’t disappoint—but for most gamers, more affordable RTX 5080 models will offer better value.
