I caved and bought a Asus TUF RTX 5080

Remember I made a post about getting the 4080 Super after not being able to get my hands of the new generation of GPUs from Nvidia and telling you guys that it was ok? Well, I caved. I bought the recently bought the Asus Tuf RTX 5080. I literally FOMO’ed. And I feel like my computer upgrade is complete (for now).

I was at Sim Lim Square the other day and suddenly noticed boxes of 5080s and 5090s sitting on the shelf of most of the computer shops there. More than 4 months after the new generation graphics cards were announced by Nvidia, supplies are slowly stabilising. Even the prices have decreased just a bit compared to the hay days when it was originally launched. It was just too tempting to pass up the opportunity.

I entered the store that I usually go to, and lo’ and behold, there were at least a dozen 5080s and 5090s on the top shelf behind the counter. I asked how much these were selling for, and the store owner said SGD2100. It is still high compared to the originally announced MSRP by Nvidia, but we are talking about Asus here. Any Asus products you buy always come with an ‘Asus tax’. But I don’t mind paying a premium for their products because their products are generally quite good, for me at least.

I tried really hard to walk away. But seeing those GPUs on the shelf ready to be bought, I succumbed to temptation and I walked out of the store with a brand new GPU. This is the first time in my life as a PC build enthusiast that I swapped out my current GPU in less than 6 months. I bought the 4080 Super back early in the year for about SGD1600, and now I just spent another SGD 2100 for an upgrade. An upgrade that I may never feel because the 4080 Super is still a great card, but nevertheless, an upgrade.

And here it is. In all its glory. This is a chonky card, slightly chonkier than the 4080 Super. They share the same length and it is a hair’s breadth thicker and wider. Both share the same design element, industrial, militaristic, angular and TUF. The TUF series of GPU has been my favourite. I really like the no-nonsense design, minimal RGB, highly angular and rectangular design overall that screams reliability.

Despite the price, I am very happy with my purchase. To be able to own the latest generation GPU and playing my favourite games at the highest setting at 1440p is just glorious. There is quite a bit of headroom for push more technically demanding games in the future.