Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition spotted with RTX 5090 branding

Manufacturing error creates Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition GPU with RTX 5090 branding, and Nvidia didn’t catch it

A Redditor called EssDee3D has managed to get their hands on a unique RTX 5080 (review here) graphics card. This Founder Edition GeForce RTX 5080 shipped with RTX 5090 branding, with the cooler calling the GPU an RTX 5090.

After testing (see the video below), it was uncovered that the GPU was an RTX 5080. Both Windows and GPU-Z listed the graphics card as an RTX 5080. Clearly, this GPU uses parts of an RTX 5090 heatsink. With both Nvidia’s RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 being dual-slot GPUs, it is likely that heatsink parts were mishandled during manufacturing, leading to this error. Strangely, this manufacturing issue was not spotted, allowing EssDee3D to purchase an 5090 branded GeForce 5080.

This error makes us wonder if this is the only RTX 5080 that has this manufacturing error. Is this an isolated incident, or are there other 5080/5090 hybrids out there? Could there be a matching GeForce 5090 with 5080 branding? Is EssDee3D’s a one-off? If so, they have managed to snag what may be the rarest GPU on the market. Regardless, this rarety doesn’t impact the value of this specific GPU. After all, it is still an RTX 5080, just a mislabeled one.

You can join the discussion on Nvidia mislabeled RTX 5080 on the OC3D Forums.