It's all but confirmed that Nvidia is set to announce its next-gen RTX 5000 "Blackwell" graphics cards at CES 2025 when CEO Jensen Huang takes the stage. As everyone eagerly waits for the performance (and price) numbers of the RTX 5090, the latest rumors point to the RTX 5080 being the star of the show instead, with the RTX 5090 being announced at a later date.

I won't be disappointed if that turns out to be true, as I was always waiting for the relatively more affordable RTX 5080 as a potential upgrade over my existing RTX 3080. However, even the RTX 5080 is sure to be a massive investment, so I have a couple of things on my RTX 5080 wishlist to justify such an undertaking.

5 The right price

It's so bad that I'm "hoping" for $1,000

The gaming GPU market has gotten to a point where manufacturers have converted GPUs to luxury items. With the RTX 4090 launched at an MSRP of $1,599, and often selling for upwards of $2,000, the next flagship from Nvidia might even be priced at $2,000, considering its rumored 32GB of GDDR7 memory (8GB more than that on the RTX 4090), a massive CUDA core count of 21,760, a 512-bit memory bus, and 1.7 TB/s of bandwidth.

As I mentioned, however, I'm looking forward to the RTX 5080 instead, which should be more reasonably priced. Although it will still cost a fortune, its rumored 10,752 CUDA cores, 16GB VRAM, and 1.02 TB/s bandwidth should at least mean its price is also significantly cut down compared to its older brother. The RTX 4080 Super launched at $999, so I'm hoping that Nvidia maintains that price point for the RTX 5080.

The RTX 4080 was priced at $1,200, sure, but Nvidia introduced a price cut for its successor, which featured almost the same performance. It was basically a price correction for the RTX 4080, a GPU that should have launched for $999 in the first place. Hence, I'm still hopeful that Team Green somehow continues the same philosophy and doesn't mark up the price of the RTX 5080 by too much.

4 Manageable power requirements

Please spare my PSU

The worries around sky-high TGPs were already a big talking point with the launch of the RTX 4000 series, and things will probably get worse with the RTX 5000. While the RTX 3080 on my PC has a TGP of 320W, the RTX 5080 is rumored to be rated for 400W, a significant increase over the RTX 4080 as well as my 3080. While I have an 850W PSU that might still be enough for a 400W graphics card, I don't feel particularly comfortable with that.

Rumors and leaks sometimes turn out to be too far from the final specifications, so I still have hope that the architectural advancements of Blackwell somehow keep the power requirements in check. I might have to be prepared for the inevitable though — replacing my PSU, and possibly going for a full platform upgrade from AM4 to AM5. This might delay my plans to buy the RTX 5080, but then again, the stock situation at launch might do that on its own.

I don't want to do a full PC upgrade only three years after I got my existing gaming PC, but if the RTX 5000 cards feature insane TGPs, I might have to consider that option, or more realistically, give the RTX 5080 a pass and continue using my RTX 3080 for a few more years.

3 Enough VRAM for 2025 and beyond

At this point, this is just a pipe dream

With barely any time left till CES 2025, leaks from multiple sources claim that the RTX 5080 will have only 16GB of GDDR7 memory, the same as that on the RTX 4080 and 4080 Super. Nvidia is still standing firm on its stingy VRAM policy on anything but the most expensive offering, with the RTX 5090 rumored to have 32GB of GDDR7 memory.

While 16GB of VRAM doesn't bode well for an 80-class graphics card in 2025, I'm hoping (once again) that Nvidia's announcement changes this number to 20GB or 24GB. If that doesn't happen, it will be nearly impossible for me to justify shelling out over a grand on a GPU that features the same amount of VRAM found on many cheaper cards, and even the RTX 5070 Ti.

The latest games have been demanding more and more VRAM for a while now, and it's high time Nvidia ponied up enough VRAM on its most expensive graphics cards. The RTX 5080 is a 4K gaming GPU, and limiting VRAM to a mere 16GB on such a graphics card is undoubtedly a bad look for the company — not that that has prompted Nvidia from doing better in the past.

2 True generational uplift over the RTX 4080 Super

This one might turn out to be true

The RTX 4080 Super under $1,000 was on my radar for a long time, but I held firm to the oft-recommended wisdom of upgrading every other generation. Hence, I waited for the RTX 5080, and now that most of its specs are doing the rounds on the internet, it seems like it'll be around 30% faster (at least) than the RTX 4080 Super.

If the price of the RTX 5080 doesn't happen to be some insane figure, this gen-on-gen increase is still good enough for me. Spending around the same as I would have on the RTX 4080 Super and getting around 30% more FPS (hopefully) sounds like an okay deal. Of course, all of this applies only if the supply at launch doesn't push the price even further, and the RTX 5080 is actually available to purchase. We've all seen what happened with the RTX 4000 and RTX 3000 launches.

While it's true that the RTX 5080 will be a significant upgrade over my RTX 3080, I still want to feel like I'm getting a good deal. The RTX 5080 being much faster than the RTX 4080 Super will go a long way in making me feel that way.

1 No performance gulf compared to the RTX 5080 Super

Let's hope Nvidia continues the 4080 Super legacy

I have already made my peace with the fact that the RTX 5080 will be heavily nerfed compared to the monstrous RTX 5090, but what I'm wishing for is that the eventual RTX 5080 Super doesn't make the RTX 5080 redundant. This isn't a nice thing to hope for, sure, but I'm just thinking as one of the many potential RTX 5080 buyers.

The RTX 4080 Super introduced a price cut compared to the RTX 4080, but not a new performance tier, with the two cards performing virtually the same in gaming. If Nvidia maintains this trend when launching the RTX 5080 Super, I would feel a little better about my investment in the RTX 5080, which will be massive.

It's a testament to the iron grip Nvidia has on the market that we're hoping for scraps with the launch of its next-gen cards. AMD has made its exit from the high-end GPU space, at least for this generation, and Intel has no plans to compete with Nvidia right now, so Team Green has no motivation to offer reasonable price-to-performance to gamers.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

I'm aware that wishing for the RTX 5080 to improve on price-to-performance compared to the RTX 4080 Super is far-fetched, but that's exactly what I need to justify upgrading from my RTX 3080. If things don't go down that route, I'll happily delay a GPU upgrade by another year or two, as the RTX 3080 is still very capable of 1440p high-refresh gaming.

Maybe the RTX 5000 Super series will bring more VRAM and performance across the board, at which point an upgrade would make more sense. If not, I'll continue to hold out till the RTX 6000 series sees the light of day.