GeForce RTX 5080 CPU case design leaked, showing minimal changes compared to RTX 40 Series

The box packaging for NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080 "Blackwell" commercial GPU has just appeared online, giving us a glimpse at the actual specifications of the product line.

Specifically, this is said to be the packaging of the RTX 5080 "Blackwell" variant manufactured by GALAX. The image is not high resolution and is upside down. However, according to analysis from Videocardz experts, the content on the back of the packaging shows that this is indeed the specifications of the new product line.

Before diving into the details, it's important to note that GALAX has publicly confirmed that the newly leaked images are indeed the packaging the company plans to use for the GeForce RTX 5080 lineup, so it's safe to assume that the information we've been given will be in line with what we'll see when NVIDIA's RTX 5080 officially launches. Overall, GALAX's packaging design for the RTX 5080 doesn't seem to be much different from its predecessors, save for the GPU name and specs.

It's hard to make out much of the information on such a low-resolution image. We'd expect GALAX to mention some new tech, like Inno3D or neural rendering and "enhanced DLSS". However, comparing the details on the back to the old packaging, it's clear that not much has changed. This leaves us with two possibilities: Either we won't see much of a difference in terms of newer tech on this new line, or GALAX may not mention the upcoming tech on its packaging.

RTX 5080 is said to have only 16GB VRAM, is Nvidia 'ignoring' gamers?

While being lauded for its numerous advances in ray tracing performance and AI upscaling, Nvidia has also recently faced heavy criticism for the low amount of VRAM, or in other words, the lack of VRAM in its recently released GeForce gaming GPUs.

In traditional games, textures and decals are often the most VRAM-intensive aspects. However, for some games released in recent years, the emergence of a host of modern features like ray tracing or frame generation/interpolation will also require a significant amount of video memory.

In that context, many Nvidia GPUs are said to offer too modest a VRAM amount, which is not enough for real-world use. For example, in the current 40-series Ada Lovelace GPUs, the RTX 4060 only has 8GB of VRAM, which is actually less than the previous RTX 3060. The 4060 Ti also launched with 8GB, but the company later released a variant with 16GB of memory - only worth buying if you really have a deep pocket.

Likewise, the RTX 4070 also has too little VRAM, or even the 4070 Super only has the same amount of VRAM at 12GB, despite being much improved in other aspects. It's only until the RTX 4080 (Super) and 4090 that VRAM levels of 16GB and 24GB respectively are considered adequate.

However, it looks like Nvidia is about to make the same mistake again, this time with the RTX 5080, as the upcoming Blackwell GPU is rumored to have only 16GB of VRAM. This report comes from tech blogger kopite7kimi, who is known for his accurate predictions about upcoming tech products.

To be clear, the RTX 5080 only has 16GB on a 256-bit wide memory bus, complementing the 10,752 CUDA cores on the GPU. While 16Gigs was plenty for an x80 card in the past, it’s probably safe to say that the same capacity on a successor isn’t a good choice for gamers or creators who might want to upgrade from a 4080 or even a 4070.

Kopite7kimi has also previously claimed that the 5080 will have a TGP (total graphics power) of 400 watts, which is lower than the 5090's estimated 200 watts.

Similarly, Kopite7kimi has also published the alleged specifications of the RTX 5090:

The RTX 5090's 32GB VRAM is said to be in line with previous speculation based on rumors that the GPU would feature a 512-bit bus.

Since things are still not official, we shouldn't jump to conclusions just yet, but we should expect big announcements from NVIDIA regarding the "Blackwell" consumer GPU line, which is scheduled to launch on January 6.