New ASUS PRIME GeForce RTX 5080 EVO edition GPUs drop the vapor chamber cooling

Although the current memory crisis and supply issues have led to GPU shortages and price increases in many regions, ASUS's new GeForce RTX 5080 looks set to be the company's most affordable RTX 5080 so far. At a glance, the new ASUS PRIME GeForce RTX 5080 EVO and ASUS PRIME GeForce RTX 5080 EVO OC Edition look identical to previous PRIME RTX 5080 models, except for one notable change.

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Based on the product pages, it looks like ASUS has shifted from the original ASUS PRIME GeForce RTX 5080's vapor-chamber cooling to a more traditional approach, while maintaining the same specs and overall physical design. These new EVO variants feature the same SFF-Ready 2.5 slot design with three axial-tech fans and a vented backplate for improved airflow.

Although the vapor chamber is gone, the ASUS PRIME GeForce RTX 5080 EVO OC Edition still maintains the out-of-the-box OC Mode Boost Clock speed of 2685 MHz, a notable but relatively small increase from the reference design's 2617 MHz. This means the overall performance should be virtually identical to that of the non-EVO edition, but the overall operating temperature might be higher.

However, these new EVO GPUs retain the phase-change GPU thermal pad design found in ASUS's latest graphics cards, so thermal performance shouldn't be an issue. They also retain the Dual BIOS modes from previous versions, offering Performance and Quiet fan modes. ASUS's new PRIME range is a series we've reviewed in various forms, including the PRIME GeForce RTX 5070 Ti OC Edition, which probably reflects what you can expect here in terms of cooling.

Of course, as the GeForce RTX 5080 is a flagship graphics card currently being sold for around $1,400, a notable increase over the launch MSRP, hopefully, these new EVO-edition cards from ASUS will become available at a lower price than other RTX 5080 models from the company.