Previously, he exposed the massive surveillance by the NSA, now Edward Snowden is criticizing Nvidia. In his eyes, the new RTX 5080 offers far too little for what it costs.
How much does the graphics card cost? The company itself offers the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 starting at €1,169 on nvidia.com, but most GPUs are offered at prices between €1,300 and €2,000 (via idealo.com). For that money, you get among others:
- DLSS 4
- enhanced ray tracing performance compared to the RTX 4080
- 16 GB of GDDR7 graphics memory
The Switch 2 will not use the RTX 5080, but it is supposed to offer something technically:
Nvidia demands “S-tier prices” for “F-tier value”
What problem does Snowden have with the graphics card? In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Snowden criticizes the amount of graphics memory, that is, the VRAM. According to Snowden, 16 GB would have been acceptable as a minimum for the 5070, but the 5080 must start at 24.
“Endless thinking about the next quarter has reduced the Nvidia brand to ‘F-tier value for S-tier prices'” writes Snowden, calling “the release of a GPU worth $1,000+ in 2025 with debilitating 16 GB” a “monopolistic crime against the consumer”. At such prices, Nvidia just has to offer more.
Does Nvidia really have a monopoly? When it comes to powerful gaming GPUs, Intel and AMD do provide competition to the company. However, Nvidia clearly dominates the market. According to annual surveys by Steam, one of the largest gaming platforms on PC, currently three-quarters of players have an Nvidia GPU installed.
Nvidia is aware of its market power and exploits it to drive GPU prices up, says Snowden. What is certainly true is that with each new generation, prices continue to rise – and this, even though CEO Jensen Huang claims Nvidia has reduced computer costs by millions.
What do you think about it? Do you believe the performance of the RTX 5080 justifies its high price? Which brand do you rely on for the graphics card? Feel free to let us know in the comments. In this article, you can find out how important it is to choose Nvidia or AMD when buying a graphics card.
