ASUS Pushes ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 to 450W TGP With New BIOS Update
ASUS has officially released a new BIOS update for its high-end ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card, significantly increasing its Total Graphics Power (TGP) to 450W. This change, rolled out on March 14 via the official support page, reflects ASUS's growing commitment to pushing performance boundaries within its enthusiast GPU lineup.
The 450W TGP marks a substantial 50W increase over the ROG Astral’s previous rating, which already stood above the base TGP set for the GeForce RTX 5080 series. The move positions the Astral variant as one of the most power-hungry and performance-focused RTX 5080 models on the market—just behind or alongside limited competitors like Gigabyte’s Gaming series, which also feature a similar 450W ceiling.
ASUS ROG Astral: Chasing the High-End Segment
The exact motivations for this BIOS-level change weren’t detailed in ASUS’s documentation, but the strategy is clear. By boosting the card’s power limit, ASUS aims to further differentiate the ROG Astral from other RTX 5080 models and offer additional headroom for overclocking enthusiasts and power users looking to extract every last frame of performance.
While performance gains from the increased TGP are expected to be modest—estimated between 2% and 5%—they could offer meaningful advantages in thermally managed or benchmark-intensive scenarios, particularly where sustained boost clocks play a role in maintaining frame rate stability.
It's worth noting that changes to TGP can affect not only performance but also thermal output and overall system power consumption. Enthusiasts using the ROG Astral should ensure their cooling solutions and power supplies are ready to handle the higher thermal and power demands, especially under full load conditions.
Competition and Context
In the broader landscape, the ROG Astral joins an increasingly small pool of enthusiast-class RTX 5080 models with elevated TGP configurations. Gigabyte’s inclusion of a 450W limit on their non-flagship Gaming series card was surprising and highlights a growing willingness among vendors to experiment with power thresholds, even outside of premium SKUs.
That said, ASUS’s approach here feels more aligned with its brand positioning. The ROG Astral is already built with premium components and a robust cooling architecture, making it a fitting candidate for elevated TGP targets.
As the enthusiast GPU market continues to shrink in terms of diversity, updates like these reflect an effort by board partners to distinguish themselves through engineering tweaks rather than launching entirely new SKUs.
What are your thoughts on ASUS pushing higher TGPs on their GPUs? Would you consider this update worth the performance bump? Join the discussion below.
