ASUS ROG ASTRAL RTX 5080 OC 16GB Graphics Card Review

Introduction & Specification

ASUS ROG ASTRAL RTX 5080 OC 16GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

The ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC is a nice card to have but its extremely limited supplies coupled with its high price of entry is big limiting factor in making a sound argument for this card.

Pros

Very good performance overall

Increased power limit

GPU-powered fan headers

2x HDMI port (one more than usual)

Good OC potential

Dual BIOS

Cons

LUXURY PRICING

Very large footprint

9

Rating

ASUS has always had a predictable release cadence when it comes to their graphics cards. While they have added more sub-series into their offering with the new TUF GAMING and PRIME graphics cards joining in, in the past 10 years it was almost always an ROG Strix to be the flag carrier of the ASUS GPU offering which in itself displaced a historic run for the ASUS DirectCU series.

This sequence is capped off by the release of an ROG card. A true ROG in name, performance, features, and price. ROG family graphics cards are as exotic as they are limited, only being released in limited quantities and affording extortionate prices. They usually come during the middle of a GPU life cycle but ASUS is changing that with the RTX 50.

The release of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 series GPU saw the announcement of new cards and the crowning glory of the ASUS launch product stack is the ROG Astral graphics cards. Potentially a sub-series much like the ROG Strix, it is still marketed as a true ROG model graphics card with the ROG ASTRAL RTX 5090 and ASTRAL RTX 5080 being the flag carrier of the family.

The ROG ASTRAL follows ASUS’ newfound love for space-related names but applies to their modern ROG styling. Aside from the size, the ROG Astral is a big departure from those that are used to the look of the ROG Strix of the RTX 40-series. Its a direct successor of the ROG Matrix, the pinnacle model of all ROG models. With the RTX 50, ASUS ROG splits the seat of the head of the table in two directions: the ROG Astral featuring a massive air-cooling solution, and the ROG Astral LC which uses a similar AIO liquid cooling solution like the ROG Matrix RTX 4090.

The new ROG Astral RTX is available in a factory OC’d model and supposedly a non-OC version. Both already carry slight factory OCs with the OC mode further boosting the card to 2670Mhz and 2790Mhz for the base and OC model, respectively.

In this review, we’ll be reviewing the most polarizing card from the RTX 50 launch spawning memes and an actual gold version for the Middle East. Read on to find out more about the ASUS ROG ASTRAL RTX 5080 OC graphics card!

NVIDIA RTX 50

NVIDIA’s RTX 50-series launch was the worst-kept secret of 2024 and leading up to the first of 2025, the tech world was ready to see what NVIDIA has in-store in hopes of turning things around for the DIY PC space which has been seeing dwindling interest lately no thanks to both Intel and AMD, albeit the Ryzen 7 9800X3D was an expected exception.

Powered by Blackwell, NVIDIA’s domination over machine learning and deep learning has put ray tracing to the wayside focusing on improving the visual experience with the introduction of Neural Rendering.

NVIDIA describes neural rendering as their direction for modern graphics integrating generative AI models to assist in scenes going further than just ray reconstruction. Blackwell introduces Mega Geometry but the most notable development here amongst all is the introduction of Multi-Frame Generation. The next stage of DLSS, DLSS4 brings Multi-Frame Generation enabled by the Blackwell architecture enabling up to 3 more frames to be generated following a single rendered frame, effectively a 4x multiplier. A newer Transformer-based model for DLSS bumps up all DLSS releases benefiting not just the RTX 50 but even previous RTX cards.

All of this is built on a more conservative hardware stack on the GB203 silicon for the RTX 5080. Packing 10752 CUDA cores complemented by 16GB of GDDR7 video memory wired to a 256-bit wide bus resulting in a 960GB/s bandwidth versus the 770GB/s of the RTX 4080.

The RTX 5080 features a base clock of 2295Mhz and a turbo clock of 2617Mhz. Our review unit has a software toggle to activate OC mode to go from 2760Mhz to 2790Mhz on the ROG ASTRAL RTX 5080 OC SKU.

Official product page – ROG ASTRAL RTX 5080 OC

ROG ASTRAL Editions

AIR-COOLED	DHAHAB Edition (EMEA Exclusive)	LIQUID-COOLED
RTX 5090 / RTX 5080	RTX 5090 / RTX 5080 (TBD)	RTX 5090

Closer Look

The ROG Astral comes in a surprisingly larger-than-average packaging with the other shipping sleeve sporting a full-colored print featuring the signature ROG packaging style. Instead of red sides, the ROG Astral has white and it opens up to a heavily EVA foam padded main box that reveals the GPU.

A top insert also contains the accessories included witht he ROG Astral with an 8″ rule, an ROG Astral keycap (Shift key), a magnetiic support stand, ROG magnetic badge, single velctro strap and an 3 x 8pin to 12VHPWR power cable.

I stopped weighing cards and measuring them because this thing broke my scale. The AORUS was around 2.4kg but the ROG Astral is 3kg despite having a smaller 4.06 ltr volume versus the 4.44ltr of the last-gen AORUS. If you need help imagining that, that’s as heavy as 3kg of feathers or 3 kilograms of steel.

The ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080/5090 cooler shroud is flat on all sides as it maxes out the slot and length allowance while staying a bit tighter on the its width. The card actually looks very subdued when viewed from the side with no structural support on the long ends, keeping its corners as the major support struts that hold the shroud to the backplate.

The ROG Astral RTX 5080 features two HDMI ports and a tripo of DisplayPorts for output. On the other end are the heatpipe tips and a fully black, powder coated fin stack leading to the vapor chamber of the Astral’s coldplate.

The narrower width of the GPU offsets the need to have an indented power plug. Here we can see the 12VHPWR power port of the ROG Astral. All the user interaction on this card is relagated to this spot.

From another viewpoint we see the 4-pin fan headers covered by ROG branded header covers. These are fan connectors you can connect directly to the GPU so they sync with the GPU. Next to that is the switch to toggle between Quiet and Performance mode which switches the fan behavior of the ROG Astral. We set it to Turbo for our tests.

From the side, we can see the fins lined up with the edge of the card for maximum use of its footprint for cooling.

The ROG Astral is obviously aimed for use as a display piece on a vertical GPU mount and its main physical display is seen on its shroud on the triple fan side. Its Axialtech fans are done in steelgrey and feature ROG’s signature tech styling with chromed trim of rightmost fan  Some words and things (most likely their HQ map coordinates) are etched on the chrome trim.

While the fans themselves are expectedly polymer plastic, the rest of the shroud is metal, hence the weight.

The most noticeable feature of the ROG Astral card is the fourth fan located on the back of the card. Serving as a blowthrough an auxiliary to further cooler the far edge. Usually manufacturers will just put a vent here but this generation, some brands are using a blow through design to further increase cooling potential. is it necessary? Not so much but does it work, we’ll see.

Above is the promotional animation for the fan blowthrough design.

The previous generation ROG Strix featured an edge RGB trim which served as the only lighting on that card. The ROG Astral has similar minimal RGB lighting found on the side of the shroud. It’s minimal and serves as a subtle highlight rather than a flashy decor which is a nice direction for such a serious-looking card.

A Word on Power

By this point, concerns regarding power delivery to these high-value graphics cards are very rampant. For the most part, the incidents may appear exaggerated but one incident is too much. The community has made it a point to not relent on NVIDIA on this matter and 3 years later we’re still trying to decipher the issue.

For the time being, users are advised to be extra observant of how they plug the 12VHPWR cable, how it sits inside the case, and if any obstruction on the case causes movement that may loosen the connection. This is precautionary and the issue is still undetermined. The 12VHPWR is a very important concern as the lifeblood of the PSU and it starts melting, you’re going to wish only the 12VHPWR  connector’s melted because if it damages anything else its going to be a nightmare.

With that bit of background, ASUS includes a Thor III Platinum PSU with their review unit featuring an inline power monitoring option for the 12VHPWR. The ROG Astral cards feature parallel input circuitry designed to even out power distribution amongst the pins.

A reminder that this is a monitoring solution and if you’re breaking-in your new graphics card, its going to be helpful in setting benchmarks on how your graphics card behaves. With that

ASUS makes multiple power supplies aside from the ROG Thor III but for their top-end cards, the Thor III is highly recommended.

Important: this review’s power section only measures power draw using in-line instrumentation.

Power Draw, Temperature, and Clock Speed Analysis

Given that most cards will boost all the way to their highest potential, the numbers we see here should be a good indicator of what to expect from these cards in general. Results are captured via inline power metering instruments primarily Powenetics v2 by Cybenetics/Hardware Busters for accurate card-only data capture.

Occasionally, we use PCAT v2 (or v1) for FrameView-related functionalities. Powenetics v2 is the modern iteration of our original Powenetics system licensed from Cybenetics Labs and allows more thorough read-outs for the entire system including the CPU power, GPU power (+PCIe slot), and the system power overall. This removes the guesswork from taking power readings from differing GPU APIs and provides consistent readings regardless of vendors. It integrates directly with CapFrameX hence all our capture data have inline power readings.

Clock Speed Behavior Under Load

It is possible to push workloads to a GPU to attain a fixed power consumption but real-world games and graphics applications do not operate this way. Modern GPUs can boost way past their base clock and with adequate cooling, max out their TGP budgets. The chart below exposes how the GPU behaves in relation to power and temperature. It also shows us how well the cooling keeps up.

Despite being clocked in at 2760Mhz boost standard, the ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC has massive headroom due to better cooling, the card pushes to around 2920Mhz, just a manual 2-digit OC bump to the 3Ghz mark.

Thanks to the cooling performance, the ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC is locked at 60*C, swinging 1*C from 59*C to 61*C. The test starts from a 5-minute cold start so it takes 1 minute for the GPU to heat up the card enough to cause it to rev its fans during the start but drop it to 1500RPM during load. It’s been noted that the fans on the ROG Astral can get loud and I’ve always held off on audio testing because perceived loudness and sound pressure in air are 2 different things and loudness is a very subjective matter. The fact is, it’s audible. You will hear it. Annoyingly so? It depends on how close you are to the case.

Performance Testing – Setup & Methodology

Processor: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO RGB DDR5-6000 CL30-38-38-96
Storage: Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB SSD, 8TB iSCSI LUN over USB4 Thunderbolt
PSU: FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W
Cooling: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360
Monitor: ROG PG27UQ 4K 144hz HDR1000
VGA: Listed

For a full hardware workout, visit https://benchmarks.ul.com for our system warm-up and stress test of choice. We have now switched to a full 20-minute run of Speed Way stress test to warm up our graphics cards as well as capture our clock speed chart.

For benchmarking methodology please see our game benchmarking method guide.

Test results are gathered and produced on CapFrameX. This makes it easier for use to get both line graph comparison and raw averages without extra tools. Simply the easiest tool for benchmarking and it’s available for everyone to use, free of charge. Check it out at capframex.com.

Since this is a GPU review, we benchmarked the area of the games that put a heavy load on the GPU.

All our test runs are repeatable, click the links below for area and details. Read our benchmarking methodology.

For Q1 2025 we’re using these sets of games:

• Counter-Strike 2: Mirage map custom scene
• DOTA2 – Dacha Dubai 2024: Xtreme Gaming vs. Team Liquid [56:25]
• PUBG Battlegrounds – Custom Scene
• Rainbow Six Siege: in-game benchmark
• Call of Duty Black Ops 6 – in-game benchmark
• Baldur’s Gate 3 – Lower City area custom loop
• Black Myth Wukong – Forest of Wolves loop (just past Wandering Wight, along the stream) [RT]
• Cyberpunk 2077 – in-game benchmark [RT]
• F1 2024 – Singapore, night time, wet (in-game benchmark) [RT]
• Ghost of Tsushima – Kushi Temple
• Hogwarts Legacy – Hogsmeade Square loop [RT]
• Horizon Forbidden West – Devil’s Grasp loop
• The Last of Us Part I – Game prologue, town panic area
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Remastered – Financial District ground-level
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – Melbourne discovery
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – Nefarious City loop
• Resident Evil 4 [RT]
• Starfield
• Warhammer 40K: Space Marines 2

To be added:

• God of War: Ragnarok
• Marvel Rivals
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• Delta Force

See our Youtube playlist for benchmark sequences.

Note: Proprietary technologies that favor one brand to the other are disabled unless specified and to maintain uniformity amongst GPUs, these have been turned OFF. Ray tracing has its own dedicated performance section. Upscaling technologies are covered in separate articles e.g. game review, performance, etc.

For this test, only the out-of-box normal mode will be tested. Cards that have dual BIOSes for Quiet and Performance will be tested in Performance mode.

Notes:

• All data are gathered from exactly the same system, with exactly the configuration we list here. No data is reused from another system or from any variations. We gather data from only one system as indicated here.
• Graphics cards are allowed to heat up prior to benchmarking. Cooler graphics cards may boost higher than normal.
• Following up on the above, we try to enjoy the game and play a bit before proceeding to the actual benchmark scenario. This allows us to detect any other problems like stuttering, frame skipping, or any other problems before recording data.
• Games that receive graphical updates that affect performance like DOTA2 moving from DX9 to DX11, Rainbow Six Siege changing its detail presets, or any big patch that affect performance in genera,l etc. will be retested completely.

Counter-Strike 2

Released: 2023 | DirectX 11 | Source 2

DOTA 2

Released: 2013 | DirectX 11 | Source 2

PUBG Battlegrounds

Released: 2017 | DirectX 11 | Unreal Engine 4

Rainbow Six Siege

Released: 2015 | DirectX 11 | AnvilNext 2.0

Baldur’s Gate 3

Released: 2023 | DirectX 11 | Divinity Engine 4.0

Black Myth Wukong

Released: 2024 | DirectX 12 | Unreal Engine 5

Cyberpunk 2077

Released: 2020 | DirectX 12 | REDengine 4

F1 2024

Released: 2024 | DirectX 12 | Ego Engine 4.0

Ghost of Tsushima: DIRECTOR’S CUT

Released: 2024 | DirectX 12 | Sucker Punch Studio In-house Engine

Hogwarts Legacy

Released: 2023 | DirectX 12 | Unreal Engine 4

Horizon Forbidden West

Released: 2023 | DirectX 12 | Decima Engine

The Last of Us Part 1 Remastered

Released: 2023 | DirectX 12 | In-house Engine

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Released: 2025 | DirectX 12 | Insomniac Engine 4.0

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Released: 2024 | DirectX 12 | In-house Engine

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Released: 2023 | DirectX 12 | Insomniac Engine 4.0

Resident Evil 4

Released: 2023 | DirectX 12 | RE Engine

Starfield

Released: 2023 | DirectX 12 | Creation Engine 2

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II

Released: 2023 | DirectX 12 | Swarm Engine

Ray Tracing

Aside from a pair of games, all of our games after our esports batch are tested with ray tracing enabled. The chart below shows the overall ray tracing performance of the GPUs tested.

Ray Tracing Geomean Performance (6 Games)

DLSS4

DLSS 4 represents NVIDIA’s next major advancement in AI-assisted graphics, transitioning from convolutional neural networks to a Transformers-based model. This shift allows the technology to interpret and refine frame data more holistically, enhancing everything from resolution upscaling to texture detail and motion clarity.

Unlike previous iterations that merely supplemented rendering, DLSS 4 aligns seamlessly with the new “Multi Frame Generation” feature, letting the GPU extrapolate multiple future frames from a single rendered one—effectively multiplying framerates. Even in lower-quality modes, DLSS 4 demonstrates a marked improvement in image fidelity over earlier versions, highlighting its ability to preserve clarity in fast-paced scenes.

By integrating closely with the Blackwell architecture’s revised SM layout, neural shader objects, and Flip Metering display engine, DLSS 4 cements its role as a key component of the RTX 50-series’ AI-driven rendering approach. This synergy points to NVIDIA’s long-term ambition of pushing real-time graphics beyond conventional ray tracing and traditional upscaling solutions.

NVIDIA promises multiple DLSS4 title on launch day from this post on their website, but as of testing in late January after launch, many of these titles have yet to implement multi-frame generation.

That said, we use the multi-frame generation in Hogwarts’ Legacy to demonstrate the improvements that each factor brings.

Conclusion

The ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC has an ASUS PH SRP of PHP111, 280.  A massive jump from the price cut of the ROG Strix RTX 4080 SUPER.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the true top-end gaming card of the RTX 50 family with the RTX 5090 serving as a halo product that serves gamers, digital professionals, creatives, and AI/machine learning. Its introduction of neural rending is a distinct summary of what NVIDIA as a company is now: an AI juggernaut. But for the gamer majority, the RTX 5080 would be sufficient and this review focuses on the ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC, and why would one consider it.

So let’s get this out of the way: the ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC is unapologetically expensive. It is an ROG after all and this is why I opened this article by making it a point to set the distinction between an ROG and an ROG Strix. All ROG mainline products (not just GPUs) have had elite-level prices to justify their branding. In return, ASUS ROG products cram as much future tech they can onto the product which in the case of a GPU is a cherry-picked silicon backed by a robust power delivery design and an expanded power budget that ASUS can get away with without setting off alarms over at NVIDIA.

After that, the ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC gets traditional air muscle cooling featuring an extra large cooler that as we’ve seen keeps this card at very good thermal leaving enough room for you to dial the fan down if you feel it’s audible. While I do feel the quad-fan design is unnecessary, it’s not something that would really drive up the cost by itself.

With the thermal overhead and design of this card, it can allot some users to go further with a manual OC. Aside from that, its there’s really nothing that makes this card 20% better than other RTX 5080. It will perform a bit because of its higher boost clocks but that would translate to literally 10-15FPS on a 200FPS game and while all the framerate horsepower is appreciated, the increased power draw vs. other is something to keep in mind.

This is one of the most over built RTX 50 cards available right now and its online infamy amongst the enthusiast community has had everyone having very strong opinions about the ROG Astral RTX 50 series. For the most part, this is the THE card for the launch generation of the RTX 50. The only other card that’s getting the same amount of coverage is the Founders Edition but ASUS ROG has managed to turn this extortionately priced graphics card into one of the most coveted models around right now.

The ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC and its bigger brothers the ROG Astral RTX 5090 and the Astral LC version, are all luxury pieces. A good ol’ Prime RTX 5080 from ASUS will give you the same gaming experience but an ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC will play a bit harder but cooler (literally and figuratively) than the PRIME.

The ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC is a nice card to have but its extremely limited supplies coupled with its high price of entry is big limiting factor in making a sound argument for this card. As I said earlier, this is a luxury piece but there is still that distinction of a functioning component and the card has to perform and excel to justify its costs. As an upgrade, sure, but for side-by-side, class comparison, all the ASUS ROG Astral has going on for it is its exotic cooling and cherry-picked GPU.

At the end of the day, if you can afford this it is, what it is. The ROG Astral RTX 5080 may have people talking now but that will die down eventually and all you’ll have then will be memories. So just like how I treat luxury watches, buy this to celebrate an important life event that happens to coincide with your new build or upgrade. And you better be damn well winning in video games with it. Or training an industry-changing AI.

The ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC is backed by a 3+1 year warranty from ASUS Philippines. If you live outside the Philippines, check your local region for your warranty coverage. ASUS ROG gives 1-year warranty extension on registered purchases.

ASUS ROG ASTRAL RTX 5080 OC 16GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

The ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC is a nice card to have but its extremely limited supplies coupled with its high price of entry is big limiting factor in making a sound argument for this card.

Pros

Very good performance overall

Increased power limit

GPU-powered fan headers

2x HDMI port (one more than usual)

Good OC potential

Dual BIOS

Cons

LUXURY PRICING

Very large footprint

9

Rating