MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC
January 2025
Type
Graphics Card
Price
$1249.99 US
It’s been two years since NVIDIA introduced its Ada Lovelace GPUs, kicking things off with the RTX 4090 and finishing up the initial lineup with the SUPER family At CES, the company unveiled its new RTX 50 “Blackwell” family which features a brand new architecture and several changes such as new cores, AI accelerators, new memory standards, and the latest video/display capabilities.
Today, NVIDIA is releasing the second fastest card within its “RTX 50” portfolio, the GeForce RTX 5080. The GeForce RTX 5080 is a top-of-the-line graphics card, designed for enthusiast gamers, and features a price point of $999 US which is the same as the RTX 4080 SUPER. Today, we will be trying out MSI’s GeForce RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC, a custom variant designed with a brand new cooler and a retail price of $1249 US, a $250 US premium over the reference MSRP.
NVIDIA GeForce GPU Segment/Tier Prices
| Graphics Segment | 2025 | 2023-2024 | 2022-2023 | 2021-2022 | 2020-2021 | 2019-2020 | 2018-2019 | 2017-2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titan Tier | GeForce RTX 5090 | GeForce RTX 4090 | GeForce RTX 4090 | GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GeForce RTX 3090 |
GeForce RTX 3090 | Titan RTX (Turing) | Titan V (Volta) | Titan Xp (Pascal) |
| Price | $1999 US | $1599 US | $1599 US | $1999 US $1499 US |
$1499 US | $2499 US | $2999 US | $1199 US |
| Ultra Enthusiast Tier | GeForce RTX 5080 | GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER | GeForce RTX 4080 | GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti |
| Price | $999 US | $999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $999 US | $999 US | $699 US |
| Enthusiast Tier | GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER | GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB | GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB | GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce GTX 1080 |
| Price | $749 US | $799 US | $799 US | $799 US | $699 US | $699 US | $699 US | $549 US |
| High-End Tier | GeForce RTX 5070 | GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER GeForce RTX 4070 |
GeForce RTX 4070 GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB |
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GeForce RTX 3070 |
GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GeForce RTX 3070 |
GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER | GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce GTX 1070 |
| Price | $549 US | $599 $549 |
$599 US $499 US |
$599 $499 |
$599 $499 |
$499 US | $499 US | $379 US |
| Mainstream Tier | GeForce RTX 5060 Ti | GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GeForce RTX 4060 |
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GeForce RTX 4060 |
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB |
GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB |
GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER GeForce RTX 2060 GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GeForce GTX 1660 |
GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 |
| Price | TBD | $449 $299 |
$399 US $299 US |
$399 US $329 US |
$399 US $329 US |
$399 US $349 US $279 US $229 US $219 US |
$249 US | $249 US |
| Entry Tier | GeForce RTX 5060 | RTX 3050 8 GB RTX 3050 6 GB |
RTX 3050 | RTX 3050 | GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 |
GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 |
GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 |
GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 |
| Price | TBD | $229 $179 |
$249 US | $249 US | $159 US $149 US |
$159 US $149 US |
$139 US $109 US |
$139 US $109 US |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Gaming Graphics Cards
With Blackwell, NVIDIA is going full-on into the AI segment with loads of optimizations & AI-specific accelerators.
The Blackwell GPU does many traditional things that we would expect from a next-generation GPU, but simultaneously breaks the barrier when it comes to untraditional GPU operations. To sum up some features:
- New Streaming Multiprocessor (SM)
- New 5th Gen Tensor Cores
- New 4th Gen RT (Ray Tracing) Cores
- AI Management Processor
- Max-Q Mode for Desktops & Laptops
- New GDDR7 High-Performance Memory Subsystem
- New DP2.1b Display Engine & Next-Gen NVENC/NVDEC
The technologies mentioned above are some of the main building blocks of the Blackwell GPU, but there’s more within the graphics core itself which we will talk about in detail so let’s get started.
