Nvidia is reminiscent of the old Intel, before the Ryzen CPUs came along
Not much extra performance with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5000, reminiscent of the old boring Intel days, muses Mark Mantel.
(Image: Nvidia)
The RTX 5000 series shows that Nvidia is only doing the bare minimum when it comes to gaming graphics cards. The details shared in advance already raised fears of bad things to come, as there are hardly any more processing units compared to the RTX 4000 graphics cards. In the meantime, tests have shown that the Blackwell graphics architecture does not have any tricks that noticeably increase the performance per shader core.
Depending on the resolution, the GeForce RTX 5080 is just 5 to 15 percent faster than the RTX 4080 Super from the previous generation. The upcoming RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 are likely to have a similarly difficult time. Only with the top model RTX 5090 does Nvidia allow well-heeled gamers a larger plus of 25–30 percent – but with prices far beyond 2000 euros, it is simply not affordable for most people. No wonder Nvidia is focusing on exclusive AI functions.
We at c't and heise online do not yet have any test samples because we do not sign Nvidia's strict Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and no cards are available. However, there are so many consistent test reports that we have no doubts about their results.
Nvidia is reminiscent of the former Intel
Such low gains in a generation change after almost 2.5 years are unprecedented for graphics cards. On the other hand, if you look at the processor corner, bad memories come to mind: Intel – before AMD's introduction of the Ryzen CPUs – rested on its laurels and also only did the bare minimum.
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For many years, apart from expensive workstation CPUs, there were only quad-cores for gamers, whose performance increased by 15 percent at best through moderate adjustments to the architecture and more clock speed. Exciting innovations were largely absent from the Core i-3000 to the Core i-7000 (apart from the level 4 cache in the short-lived Core i-5000 as a stopgap).
Only when AMD showed signs of life again with Ryzen did the core race begin. Today, more and faster CPU cores are standard in desktop PCs and notebooks.
Nvidia lacks such competition in graphics cards. AMD does not want to launch any high-end models for the time being and the company is only too happy to match Nvidia's high prices in the mid-range. Let's hope that AMD catches up with its next architecture and Nvidia doesn't fall asleep completely.
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(mma)
