NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060
Side-by-side benchmark comparison, specs, pricing, and value analysis.
Benchmark Comparison
Gaming figures are average frames per second, measured by Tom's Hardware GPU hierarchy. Geometric mean of 15 games, ultra settings, no upscaling. Ray tracing figures are DXR-enabled at 1440p. A dash means the card was not tested at that resolution. Productivity and Steel Nomad are synthetic scores on their own scales and are not comparable to the fps columns.
Specifications
| Spec | GeForce RTX 3080 | GeForce RTX 5060 |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM | 10GB GDDR6X | 8GB GDDR7 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 760 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Shaders | 8704 | 3840 |
| Boost Clock | 1710 MHz | 2497 MHz |
| TDP | 320W | 145W |
| Architecture | Ampere | Blackwell 2.0 |
| 3DMark Steel Nomad | 4,427 | 3,149 |
| Best Price | $699 | $299 |
| Value Score | 35/100 | 85/100 |
Verdict
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is faster but costs more. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 offers better value for money. Your choice depends on budget vs. performance priority.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060: Which Should You Buy?
This is not a close race. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers 96.4 fps at 1440p ultra to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060's 76.3 fps, a 26% gap. Only pick the slower card if it is dramatically cheaper or you need it for a lower resolution.
You pay a 134% premium for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 ($699 against $299) to get 26% more frames. The extra frames do not keep up with the extra cost — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is the better value here.
Two things beyond raw speed: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 draws 175W less (145W versus 320W), which can mean a smaller PSU and a quieter case; and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is 5 years newer (2025 versus 2020), so it gets longer driver support and newer upscaling and frame generation features.