With prices on Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards dropping back down to retail levels, prices on prebuilt gaming desktop computers have also been following suit. If you’re still rocking an RTX 30 series GPU or older, now would be a good time to upgrade. For example, Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC equipped with a powerful GeForce RTX 5080 GPU for just $1,999.99 with free delivery. Such a system would have cost closer to $3,000 earlier this year.
Alienware Aurora RTX 5080 Gaming PC From $1,999.99
This system is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F CPU, GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, 16GB of DDR5-5600MHz RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD. This is a customizable system, so you can upgrade the CPU, RAM, and storage. The processor is air-cooled, however I recommend you upgrade to a 240mm AIO liquid cooling system for just $20. The entire system is powered by a generous 1,000W 80Plus Platinum power supply.
The Core Ultra 7 265F is part of Intel’s newest Arrow Lake-S lineup released earlier this year and boasts a max turbo frequency of 5.3GHz with 20 cores and a 36MB L2 cache. This is a good all-around CPU for gaming, multi-tasking, and general workstation performance. For gaming, you won’t see much of an improvement upgrading to a Core Ultra 9, especially if you plan to play at high resolutions where the GPU makes much more of an impact. However for multi-tasking and workstation and creator tasks, the Core Ultra 9 is superior because it has significantly more cores.
I also added in a link to a more powerful preconfigured system with a liquid-cooled Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor and double the SSD storage for $2,699.99.
The GeForce RTX 5080 GPU will run any game in 4K
Performance-wise, the RTX 5080 is no slouch. It’s one of the fastest cards on the market, bested only by the $2,000 RTX 5090 and the discontinued $1,600 RTX 4090. This is a phenomenal card for playing the latest, most demanding games in 4K resolution at high settings and ray tracing enabled. The RTX 5080 supports DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation, which means you can push even more frames out of games that support the technology with minimal visual compromise. Recent games that support it include Doom: The Dark Ages, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (after a recent update), Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Stellar Blade, and upcoming titles like Borderlands 4 and Battlefield 6.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 FE Review by Jacqueline Thomas
“If you already have a high-end graphics card from the last couple of years, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 doesn’t make a lot of sense – it just doesn’t have much of a performance lead over the RTX 4080, though the extra frames from DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Generation do make things look better in games that support it. However, for gamers with an older graphics card who want a significant performance boost, the RTX 5080 absolutely provides – doubly so if you’re comfortable with Nvidia’s AI goodies.”
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
