RTX 5090 vs RTX 5080
Short answer: which is best?
RTX 5090 is 72.9 % stronger than RTX 5080. RTX 5090 ranks #1 of 67 measured graphics cards at WhatFPS (28,389 GPU score over 6 verified runs). RTX 5080 ranks #3 of 67 measured graphics cards at WhatFPS (16,422 GPU score over 4 verified runs). The numbers are measured in 10 verified WhatFPS runs — not estimated, not self-reported.
Measured comparison
| Metric | RTX 5090 | RTX 5080 |
|---|---|---|
| GPU score (the card's own performance) | 28,389 | 16,422 |
| Best rig (GAMING — whole PC) | 21,848 | 15,624 |
| Earth II (Vulkan) | 134.1 FPS | 72.7 FPS |
| Mission to Earth II (DX12) | 174.4 FPS | 87.2 FPS |
| Earth II Landing (DX12 Ultimate) | 113.8 FPS | 75.9 FPS |
| Supernova (DX11) | 115.2 FPS | 128.9 FPS |
| Memory bandwidth | 698 GB/s | 326 GB/s |
| VRAM | 31 GB | 16 GB |
| Ray tracing | Yes | Yes |
Fragz' verdict
The RTX 5090 secures a dominant victory, outperforming the RTX 5080 by 68% in raw GPU score. This translates to substantially higher frame rates, with the RTX 5090 hitting 132.8 FPS in Earth II Vulkan, 171.4 FPS in Mission to Earth II DX12, and 113 FPS in Earth II Landing DX12U, compared to the RTX 5080's 73.6, 91.7, and 75.7 FPS respectively. Its superior performance is driven by a higher ALU index of 1020560, double the memory bandwidth at 660 GB/s, and nearly double the VRAM with 31 GB, providing considerable future-proofing. While the RTX 5090 is undeniably the top performer, the RTX 5080, despite a thin sample of just two verified runs, still ranks highly at 3rd overall and delivers strong gaming performance with its 16 GB of VRAM and 330 GB/s bandwidth.
Generated September 19, 2026 from the 10 verified runs available then. The verdict is never silently rewritten — new numbers get a new verdict.
What the numbers mean
The GPU score is the graphics card's own performance — that is what we rank on. GAMING is the whole rig's score in the best PC we measured the card in, and depends on processor, memory and storage. We show both and never mix them.
All numbers come from our benchmark suite: four hand-built 3D scenes written directly against the graphics APIs in Rust, the same load on every PC. The methodology is open at https://whatfps.com/metodik
All measurements for RTX 5090 · All measurements for RTX 5080