With their heavy reliance on AI frame generation to get their big frame rate boosts, Nvidia’s latest RTX 5000 GPUs have proved divisive among commentators, and renowned tech privacy whistleblower Edward Snowden has waded into the discussion, describing the release of the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 as a “monopolistic crime” on social media.
While you do indeed need to enable Multi Frame Gen to get the most out of the new Nvidia GPU, as we found in our recent RTX 5080 review, we liked its $999 price tag (assuming you can find any RTX 5080 stock), especially after Nvidia priced the RTX 4080 at $1,199 when it first came out. The lack of competition is undoubtedly a factor here, though, with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT only expected to challenge the RTX 5070, rather than the 5080.
It’s specifically the amount of VRAM on the 5080 and 5070 that appears to have pushed Snowden’s buttons, however. “Endless next-quarter thinking has reduced the Nvidia brand to ‘F-tier value for S-tier prices,’” said Snowden in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He added that the RTX “5070 should have had 16GB VRAM minimum,” and that the 5080 should have come in 24GB and 32GB options, with the RTX 5090 available in 32GB and 48GB models. “Releasing a $1,000+ GPU in 2025 with a crippling 16GB is a monopolistic crime against the consumer,” says Snowden.
While we don’t think there’s any need for a 48GB version of the RTX 5090 for gaming, or indeed a 32GB 5080, we did find that the lack of VRAM was already holding back the RTX 5080 in demanding tests. For example, performance in our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle benchmark at 4K with Supreme settings and Full RT crashed right down to 6fps, not because the GPU couldn’t cope, but because there wasn’t enough VRAM. There’s no way Multi Frame Gen can help you out if your graphics card doesn’t have enough memory to render the original frames in the first place. It doesn’t need 32GB, but 24GB or even just a 20GB design with a different bus, would have helped here.
Edward Snowden made a name for himself as a digital rights whistleblower in 2013, after leaking details of global surveillance programs run by the US National Security Agency. He’s since become a Russian citizen. While there’s no reason gamers should particularly care what Snowden thinks about the new RTX 5000 series, he has a big platform with 5.8 million followers on X, and his views appear to chime with those of lots of other PC gamers online.
For more detail on the latest Nvidia GPUs, check out our GeForce RTX 5090 review, as well as our where to buy 5090 page, for regular updates on stock and prices of the new flagship graphics card. You can also read our best graphics card guide to find the right gaming GPU for your needs and budget.
