Cyberpunk 2077 Benchmark (4K – Ray Tracing: OverDrive)
CD PROJEKT RED released an update (v2.2) for Cyberpunk 2077 which includes their Ray Tracing: Overdrive option with RTX on and DLSS3 enabled. It’s incredibly demanding on your hardware.
Verdict and Conclusion
When Nvidia announced their latest next-Gen GPU (codenamed Blackwell) at CES 2025, it received much fanfare and a rapturous reception. The new top-end RTX 50 series come in two flavors at launch. The enthusiast-grade GeForce RTX 5090 boasting a massive 21,760 CUDA cores and 32GB of VRam. While the other GPU, the high end consumer-grade RTX 5080 will feature 10,752 CUA cores and 16GB of VRam. Both comes with 5th Gen Tensor cores and 4th Gen RT cores, along with GDDR7 VRam. These new GPUs from Nvidia offer a significant boost in performance over its previous gen RTX 40 series cards.
Since we’re reviewing the GeForce RTX 5080, let’s see what this new GPU has to offer. As I mentioned above, the new GPU now comes with 16GB of VRam using the lastet GDDR7 memory technology, running at 30Gbps on a 256-bit memory bus. What’s more you also get the power of Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture with a massive 10,752 CUDA cores, 84 RT cores (4th Gen), 336 Tensor cores (5th Gen), and support for latest DLSS 4.
For all those who didn’t know, MSI is one of Nvidia’s many AIB (all-in-board) partners. And with that said … they usually produce GPUs that offer a little more in terms of features over your bog standard Founders Edition from Nvidia. First of all, you usually get better cooling, better aesthetics and in most occasions, an overclocked GPU that will offer a slightly better performance, hence the extra cooling.
This bring us to the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC Launch Edition, which offers great aesthetics with carbon fiber accents, aerodynamic edges, fractured lines, and futuristic RGB lights. But the real show stealer, is its performance.
During our tests, we used an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, along with a Gigabyet Z890 AORUS Elite X ICE motherboard and 48GB of Viper Gaming Xtreme 5 DDR5-8000 memory. We got excellent scores in all of our benchmarks, including an impressive score of 12,608 for Basemark’s Relic of Life, and a Geekbench GPU score of 252,518. For Unigine’s Valley benchmark, we got a score of 8.994, and a Final Fantasy benchmark score of 22,395. Passmark 11 GPU score was 33,856.
Before we continue, I have to mention this. One thing I did notice with our test system, is that the performance of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor (although Intel’s latest) is slightly below that of their previous 14th Gen Core i9-14900K in some tests. Intel I am MOST disappointed with you!
Next, we have Superposition 1080p extreme and optimized 4K benchmarks. We got excellent scores of 19,667 and 27,357 respectively. For 3DMark Steel Nomad and Speed Way, we got amazing scores of 8,366 and 9,131 respectively. For Port Royal, and Time Spy, it produced an impressive scores of 22,025 and 29,626 respectively. And lastly, we got a DirectX Raytracing score of 54.09 fps and a DLSS score of 182.58 fps.
For our Cyberpunk 2077 tests, CD PROJEKT RED released their new update (v2.2), which includes a new benchmark mode. It features their Ray Tracing: Overdrive option with RTX on and DLSS4 enabled. It’s incredibly demanding on your hardware, so we added it to our benchmark tests (see above). The MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Vanguard produced an score of 59.0 fps at 4K It’s the highest score we’ve seen so far.
To cool the graphics card, MSI have included their Hyper FROZR thermal design, which combines cooling fans with claw-textured blades, core heat pipes, and vapor chamber to give you excellent cooling efficiency, optimal heat dissipation and silent performance. All of these great cooling features helps to bring the GPU temperature to a low 52 degrees Celsius at full load. Now looking at this extremely low temperature, I think there maybe an issue with HW Monitor not reading the temperature correctly. We shall revisit once the drivers and software have been updated.
Power consumption was also very low at full load, with the total graphics power draw of only 250.46W. I was expecting well above 300W. According to Nvidia, the total graphics power (TGP) for the GeForce RTX 5080 is around 360W. So I’m pretty than happy with this, but mind you I only tested it with one application at 100% load. The power draw may increase further with other more GPU intensive applications. Again, we shall revisit once the drivers and software have been updated.
Video outputs include 3 x DisplayPort 2.1b and 1 x HDMI 2.1b, allowing you to display up to 4K @ 480Hz or 8K 120Hz with DSC, Gaming VRR, HDR. On the top right side of the card, you’ll find a MSI logo that lights up with RGB, which is great as I love a little bit of RGB onmy graphics card. LOL!
The package includes a compact graphics card holder which helps to prevent sag, and you also get a 3 x 8-pin PCIE to 16-pin 12VHPWR adapter with the package. Oh, you also get an exclusive limited-edition Lucky figurine with the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC Launch Edition. There are 9 to collect in total with 1 secret edition.
Although the card is already boosted to 2,730 Mhz (by default), you can further overclocked it using MSI Center to 2,745 Mhz. I usually leave it at default … trust me, it’s fast enough 😉
We were unable to get a price for the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC Launch Edition graphics card
Final Thoughts
The MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VANGUARD SOC Launch Edition is an absolutely phenomenal graphics card, both in terms of performance and features. You also get excellent cooling and great aesthetics, as well as the latest graphics technologies. If you’re after a next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series GPU, then there’s no better graphics card out there. But be prepared to pay a premium due to limited stocks (and scalpers).
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