MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC Review: A Cut Above
Even though it's already hot-clocked from the factory, we still spent some time manually overclocking the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC to see what kind of additional performance it had lurking under its hood. We've had good luck overclocking the RTX 5080 Founders Edition, so we were eager to see what MSI's custom card could do...
Overclocking The MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC
As we've already mentioned in numerous articles at this point, Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series cards feature GPU Boost, which scales frequencies and voltages up and down, based on the GPU's workload at the time -- power and temperatures permitting. Should a temperature or power limit be reached, GPU Boost will drop down to the previous boost frequency and voltage stepping, in an attempt to bring power and temperatures down gradually and not cause any significant swings in performance.
To overclock an RTX 50 series card, the maximum boost clock, the memory clock, and power limit can be tweaked to increase performance. Altering the fan speed curve and GPU voltage (when applicable) can allow for further tuning when supported. Fan speeds could be tweaked on the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC, but not voltages -- at least not through Afterburner.
Like most other GeForces, the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC is usually voltage or power limited to prevent damage and ensure longevity, and it's those limits that will usually determine your success when overclocking. You can see the card hitting those limits in its stock configuration in the data captured above. With the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC, the power target can be increased by up to 11%, but the GPU voltage could not be altered, unfortunately. That said, we were able to increase the GPU and memory clocks quite a bit over their default values, in addition to cranking up that power limit.
We upped the power target to its maximum and used the GPU and memory frequency offsets in Afterburner to manually alter the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC's frequencies. We increased the GPU and memory clock offsets incrementally until the test system was no longer stable, showed on-screen artifacts, or performance peaked due to hitting a power or other limit.
In its stock configuration, the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC hit a 2,857MHz boost clock and peaked at 70°C, while maintaining its 30Gbps memory data rate (effective 15,000MHz). While overclocked, however, we were able to take its GPU clock all the way up to 3,180MHz with a 30.7Gbps memory speed.
We should also mention, that while overclocked the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC remained relatively cool for such a powerful GPU. We saw temperatures peak at 70°C, which was on-par with stock and the fan speed maxed out at only 48%.
Total System Power Consumption
Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we also monitored noise output and tracked how much power the GPUs were consuming in our test system. Our goal here is to give you an idea as to how much power each GPU used while idle and also while under a heavy workload.
Not surprisingly, the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC consumed somewhat more power than NVIDIA's Founders Edition. It's higher clocks and custom build boost performance, but at the expense of some additional power. Still, it's not too far off the Founders Edition model and is right in-line with the Radeon RX 9070 XT.
In terms of noise, there's not much to talk about. The MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC's fans spin down completely at idle or when under light workloads, so the card is effectively silent if you're not gaming, rending, or running and AI workload. Under load, even while overclocked, the 120mm fans on the card topped out at under 50% with the stock fan curve. At those speeds, the fans are barely audible and generate only a dull whir.
MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC Review Summary & Conclusion
The MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC has an MSRP of $1,299 and is currently available and in-stock at that price on MSI’s US website (as of this writing). That’s a significant 30% increase over the originally launch $999 MSRP of NVIDIA’s Founders Edition card, but MSRP’s on high-end GPUs are essentially a fantasy in this day and age. There’s 13 Founders Edition cards in-stock on NVIDIA’s Amazon store at this moment – which aggregates from third-party sellers – and the lowest price is currently $1,322. Loop in all sellers and the lowest price we found was $1,199. Obviously, the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC commands a premium, but in light of current market conditions, it’s in-line with the competition.
While we wish high-end GPUs were more affordable, all told, we really like the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC. It’s a good-looking, excellent performing card, that runs relatively cool and quiet. That said, the card is also kind of big and is bland looking from some angles, so it would be best to install it in the right kind of chassis / mount to show off its classier lines. If your rig is set up for a card like this and it’s within your budget, we think the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Expert OC is a solid choice.
