ASUS ROG RTX 5080 Astral Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Introduction

Following the launch of the cards which are considered MSRP, today is the day when the rest of the RTX 5080 cards get unleashed upon the world. Unsurprisingly we have all the big hitters showing up to the party. Building a card down to the MSRP and still having it attractive is really difficult. Take the top off the budget and it’s easy.

ASUS, and especially their Republic of Gamers brand, are famous for taking the cap off budgets. Before it arrived in the office we thought this would be another in the long storied line of Strix products. Not so. ASUS have, instead named their newest RTX 5080 the Astral.

As you would expect from a product under the famous ROG umbrella, the Astral has more to offer than merely a steep price and some good looks. ASUS looked at the backplate air vent idea and they saw that it was good. So the Astral raises the stakes by including a fan to help suck the air out of the card and push it towards your processor. Additionally the Astral eschews the standard triple DisplayPort and single HDMI designs of the other cards, and instead gives us three DisplayPorts and two HDMIs.

Naturally you’re as curious as we are as to whether the ROG Astral can bridge the gap between the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 cards. Certainly the ~£1300 price tag indicates it can. Let’s find out.

Technical Specifications