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Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5080 Xtreme WaterForce specifications and in-depth review

Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5080 Xtreme WaterForce

Manufacturer: Gigabyte

The Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5080 Xtreme WaterForce is a high-specification graphics card from Gigabyte's Aorus lineup, designed around Nvidia's Blackwell GPU architecture. It features an integrated air-water cooling solution and RGB lighting, with a compact form factor measuring 220 mm wide and 130 mm tall. The card carries a 4-year warranty, which stands out among typical graphics card offerings in this category.

On the technical side, the RTX 5080 Xtreme WaterForce runs at a base clock of 2295 MHz with a turbo frequency of 2805 MHz, delivering 60.32 TFLOPS of floating-point performance and a texture rate of 942.5 GTexels/s. It is equipped with 16GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, reaching an effective memory speed of 30,000 MHz and a maximum bandwidth of 960 GB/s. The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, ray tracing, DLSS, and Intel Resizable BAR, with connectivity provided through one HDMI 2.1b port and three DisplayPort outputs, supporting up to four displays simultaneously. Its TDP is rated at 360W over a PCIe 5.0 interface, and the GPU is manufactured on a 5 nm process with 45,600 million transistors.

Pros
  • Integrated air-water cooling helps manage the thermal output of a 360W TDP card without requiring a separate cooling solution
  • A 4-year warranty period offers longer coverage than is typical for graphics cards in this category
  • 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM running at an effective 30,000 MHz with 960 GB/s bandwidth suits memory-intensive workloads
  • ECC memory support adds a layer of data integrity protection useful for compute-oriented tasks
  • Supports up to four simultaneous displays through a combination of one HDMI 2.1b and three DisplayPort outputs
  • DLSS and ray tracing support are both present, broadening compatibility with modern rendering techniques
Cons
  • A 360W TDP places significant demands on system power delivery and case airflow even with the included cooling
  • No USB-C video output is available, limiting compatibility with certain modern monitors and display adapters
  • The card does not support XeSS, which may matter for users working within workflows that rely on that upscaling technology
  • With only a 256-bit memory bus, bandwidth scaling is constrained relative to wider-bus configurations at this performance tier
Who is this for?

This card is well-suited to users running demanding rendering and compute workloads that benefit from 60.32 TFLOPS of floating-point performance, 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, and ECC memory support for data integrity. The inclusion of an integrated air-water cooling system makes it a practical fit for single-slot workstation builds where managing a 360W TDP without separate cooling hardware is a priority. Users who need to drive up to four displays simultaneously via HDMI 2.1b and DisplayPort will also find the output configuration accommodating for multi-monitor setups.

Who is this NOT for?

The card's 360W TDP makes it a poor match for compact or low-power system builds where power delivery and airflow are constrained, as the thermal and electrical demands are substantial. Users who rely on USB-C display connectivity or XeSS-based upscaling in their workflows will find those options absent here. Additionally, the 256-bit memory bus, while capable, means this card is less ideal for workloads that require extremely high memory bandwidth scaling beyond what the current configuration provides, such as large-scale data-parallel compute tasks that would benefit from a wider bus architecture.

Performance:

GPU clock speed 2295 MHz
GPU turbo 2805 MHz
pixel rate 314.2 GPixel/s
floating-point performance 60.32 TFLOPS
texture rate 942.5 GTexels/s
GPU memory speed 1875 MHz
shading units 10752
texture mapping units (TMUs) 336
render output units (ROPs) 112
Has Double Precision Floating Point (DPFP) ✓

The Performance section of this card centers on a GPU base clock of 2295 MHz that boosts up to a turbo frequency of 2805 MHz, supporting a floating-point output of 60.32 TFLOPS. Rasterization throughput is handled by 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units delivering a texture rate of 942.5 GTexels/s, and 112 render output units producing a pixel rate of 314.2 GPixel/s. The GPU memory operates at 1875 MHz, and the card also supports Double Precision Floating Point (DPFP), making it capable of handling workloads that require 64-bit floating-point computation.

Memory:

effective memory speed 30000 MHz
maximum memory bandwidth 960 GB/s
VRAM 16GB
GDDR version GDDR7
memory bus width 256-bit
Supports ECC memory ✓

This card is equipped with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM running across a 256-bit memory bus, reaching an effective memory speed of 30,000 MHz and a maximum memory bandwidth of 960 GB/s. ECC memory support is also present, which helps detect and correct memory errors during operation — a useful capability for workloads where data integrity is a priority.

Features:

DirectX version DirectX 12 Ultimate
OpenGL version 4.6
OpenCL version 3
Supports multi-display technology ✓
supports ray tracing ✓
Supports 3D ✓
supports DLSS ✓
has XeSS (XMX) ✕
AMD SAM / Intel Resizable BAR Intel Resizable BAR
has LHR ✕
has RGB lighting ✓
supported displays 4

The card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and OpenCL 3, covering a broad range of graphics and compute APIs. Ray tracing and DLSS are both supported, alongside stereoscopic 3D and multi-display technology allowing up to four displays to be connected simultaneously. Intel Resizable BAR is enabled for improved CPU-to-GPU data throughput, while RGB lighting is present for visual customization. XeSS (XMX) and LHR are not featured on this card.

Ports:

has an HDMI output ✓
HDMI ports 1
HDMI version HDMI 2.1b
DisplayPort outputs 3
USB-C ports 0
DVI outputs 0
mini DisplayPort outputs 0

The card's output configuration consists of one HDMI 2.1b port and three DisplayPort outputs, providing a total of four video connections. There are no USB-C, DVI, or mini DisplayPort outputs on this model.

General info:

GPU architecture Blackwell
Thermal Design Power (TDP) 360W
PCI Express (PCIe) version 5
semiconductor size 5 nm
number of transistors 45600 million
warranty period 4 years
Has air-water cooling ✓
width 220 mm
height 130 mm

Built on the Blackwell architecture and manufactured using a 5 nm process, this card integrates 45,600 million transistors and connects via a PCIe 5.0 interface. It carries a thermal design power of 360W and includes an air-water cooling solution to manage heat output. Physical dimensions come in at 220 mm wide and 130 mm tall, and the card is backed by a 4-year warranty.

Final Verdict

The Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 5080 Xtreme WaterForce is a technically dense graphics card built around Nvidia's Blackwell architecture, combining 60.32 TFLOPS of compute throughput with 16GB of GDDR7 memory and an integrated air-water cooling system — all within a relatively compact 220 x 130 mm footprint. Its support for ray tracing, DLSS, ECC memory, and a four-display output configuration makes it a capable option for users with both graphics-intensive and compute-oriented demands. That said, its 360W TDP and the absence of USB-C video output mean it suits well-provisioned systems rather than constrained or portable builds. Overall, this card positions itself as a substantive workstation and enthusiast-grade option for users whose environments can meet its power and cooling requirements.

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