Asus' $10,000 ROG Astral Dhahab RTX 5090 gets a less-elite 5080 version with wider availability

Asus has created an RTX 5080 version of its most expensive GPU to date, the Astral Dhahab. Known as the RTX 5080 Astral Dhahab Core, the new GPU is a runner-up to the outgoing limited-edition RTX 5090 Astral Dhahab, sporting the same cooler design but with apparently much wider availability, possibly worldwide. That said, don't expect this GPU to be cheap. If the RTX 5090 version was anything to go by, the RTX 5080 version will most certainly still be more expensive than a regular RTX 5090.

The RTX 5080 Dhahab Edition Core is virtually a clone of its RTX 5090 counterpart, save for the massive difference in VRAM capacity and raw compute power. The RTX 5080 Dhahab Core Edition takes advantage of the same gold ROG Astral cooler as its bigger brother, sporting a girthy 3.8 slot thickness and 357.6mm length. Assuming Asus didn't cut any corners from the RTX 5090 model, the RTX 5080 Dhahab Core's cooler is plated in 24K gold, equating to $700 alone in material cost, at least for the 5090 version.

The cooler powering both versions features a unique quad-fan setup, with three on the bottom and a single fan on the top right of the card that works like a "push-pull" configuration, helping pull air through the heatsink. This fan configuration is popular on mainstream single-tower CPU air coolers and can often improve cooling performance by a couple of degrees. Though in Der8auer's review of the vanilla RTX 5080 Astral, he noted the fourth fan can be unbearably loud. The RTX 5080 and 5090 Dhahab versions replace the Astral's traditional black and silver color scheme with a gold-plated shroud and heatsink, accompanied by blue accents and Arabic writing and symbols on the side.

One small but vital difference we discovered is that the RTX 5080 Dhahab Core is accessible from Asus' US website. By contrast, due to its exclusivity to that region, the RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition is only visible from Asus' Middle Eastern website. As a result, the RTX 5080 version is likely a worldwide offering that won't be exclusive to a single region. It could still be a limited edition run though, (albeit with likely more samples this time around).

The RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition launched months ago as an exotic flagship GPU aimed squarely at buyers with deep pockets. The GPU's official "recommended" price is $3,099 MSRP, but unsurprisingly, due to its limited production run, the GPU has been seen priced at upwards of $10,600. On top of this, at least a few scalpers have gotten their hands on the RTX 5090 Dhahab Edition, with some pricing it as much as $22,900 on eBay. We would not be surprised to see something similar happen with the 5080 version.