I expect between between $1200 and $1400 for the 5080, but we'll see.

I agree that the amount of VRAM is surprisingly low. I read on another discussion that this could be an intentional move from Nvidia because 24GB seem to be the sweet spot for AI training right now, and by limiting the 5080 to just 16GB, they could avoid getting the card trapped in the AI craze that's going on right now.

But I don't know how legit that may be.

I did take a look at the 5090 specs and thought for sure this card seemed to be aimed at the generative AI crowd and why it will be priced at a hefty premium but I think a 16GB 5080 is the same situation of when the 3070 launched with it's 8GB and whilst most games still fit in the 8-12GB vram range there has been more pushing to 14-16GB without RT enabled.

Indeed, the 5080 would have been a bit more appealing with 24GB of VRAM, but Nvidia always goes for the min. amount of it possible. If there' one area where AMD is better than Nvidia is that one, the amount of VRAM in its cards (at least as of late). That's why the 6700XT/6500XT are still a better proposition than the 4060Ti.

With that said, I hope AMD ups their game a bit more with the next ones and the 8600 comes with 12GB, with 16GB for the 8700 and 24GB for the 8800.

In any case, and to be fair, looking at the game performance reviews Techpowerup does, most games still work well with 16GB even at 4K, outsiders likt SW Outlaws appart.

Yeah I think if you upgrade to each new card the vram on Nvidia cards is enough but I think the general consumer wants to skip the following card after a purchase so every 4 years is the real minimum lifespan but some of the vram usage ramps is greatly when you enable the feature sets like RT, RR and DLSS+frame gen.

Whilst 24GB would be cool I think if they had 20GB on the 5080 it would offer the comfort of having headroom to enable more stuff over the next few years.