Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Review: High-Res Gaming at a Premium Price
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Conclusion
In the space beyond GeForce RTX 2070 Super’s performance, Nvidia lives in its own world. The GeForce RTX 2080 Super and 2080 Ti are simply uncontested by anything in AMD’s portfolio. We’re reminded of this by their price tags: $700 and $1,200, respectively.
The GeForce RTX 2080 Super is 13% faster than GeForce RTX 2070 Super through our benchmark suite at 2560 x 1440, yet 40% more expensive. Meanwhile the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is 28% faster than 2070 Super at the same resolution, and 140% pricier. But if you’re a gamer with a high-refresh QHD display or a 4K monitor, these two cards are your best options for high frame rates with the nicest-looking quality settings enabled.
Although GeForce RTX 2080 Ti lives on at $1,200, Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 2080 Super improves upon the 2080 Founders Edition’s price and performance by posting average frame rates 6% higher for $100 less. The result is a 21% improvement in performance per dollar. Of course, less expensive 2080s make the 2080 Super a more modest proposition; they already sell for as little as $700, leaving you with just the 6% speed-up to speak of.
Beyond the numbers, GeForce RTX 2080 Super is interesting for its use of a complete TU104 processor and Samsung’s 16 Gb/s GDDR6 memory modules.
According to Nvidia, the 2080 Super’s similarities to its GeForce RTX 2080 are deliberate. By leveraging the same PCB, power supply, and thermal solution, the company’s partners can ramp up supply of the new card more easily. And that’s a good thing because once Nvidia sells out of its own Founders Edition cards, there may not be another batch to take its place; third-party boards will be the only game in town. Tangentially, it’s worth noting that the out-of-stock GeForce RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super card’s on Nvidia’s own web store will be replenished.
The downsides to creating a more power-hungry product without upgrading its cooler include warmer operating temperatures, higher fan speeds to cope with the thermals, and more noise. Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 Super isn’t loud by any definition. But it certainly loses some of its elegance compared to the other two Supers, which maintain lower temperatures despite slower-spinning fans.
As with its 2060 Super and 2070 Super cards, Nvidia does bolster the value of GeForce RTX 2080 Super by including copies of Control (coming late-August) and Wolfenstein: Youngblood (launching in just a few days). While we don’t give out bonus points for temporary game bundles, they’re certainly worth calling out for the gamers who would have purchased those titles anyway. Naturally, both games feature ray tracing support.
In the end, GeForce RTX 2080 Super represents a slight performance improvement over GeForce RTX 2080. It’s quite a bit less expensive than GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition but matches the price of third-party 2080s already available. The 2080 Super was designed in a way that allows Nvidia’s partners to repurpose their existing efforts. Its power consumption is 25-35W higher though, so expect warmer GPU temperatures, faster fan speeds, and slightly elevated acoustics. Although the GeForce RTX 2080 Super isn’t perfect, enthusiasts who crave more performance than what GeForce RTX 2070 Super or Radeon RX 5700 XT offer only have one option under the opulent GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, and that’s the 2080 Super. If you need the frame rates it offers, this is your only choice short of Nvidia's flagship.
Image Credits: Nvidia, Tom's Hardware
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shmoochie "Even more so than GeForce RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super, the 2080 Super looks very, very similar to its predecessor"Reply
TLDR It's basically just a price drop. You could overclock your founder's edition for the same performance increase. -
Aspiring techie I don't understand why this card got a 4/5 star rating, which ties with the RX 5700. This card is way overpriced. Technically, both cards are, but at least the Navi card is a much better value than competing Nvidia cards.Reply -
redgarl It scored higher than the 5700XT...? Toms... these reviews are useless if they don't make sense... you know?!!!Reply
There is no way this product can be recommended... NO WAY in hell.
Score should be 2.5/5 -
TCA_ChinChin The least exciting of the Super refreshes that weren't that exciting in the first place. I'll say it again, screws early adopters (this time only a little bit) and new customers still don't get a good value since the RTX-2080 range price/performance is garbage anyways. The least improvement for the least worth it product in Nvidia's lineup.Reply -
jimmysmitty shmoochie said:"Even more so than GeForce RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super, the 2080 Super looks very, very similar to its predecessor"
TLDR It's basically just a price drop. You could overclock your founder's edition for the same performance increase.
Not quite? The 2060 Super includes more memory and more memory bandwidth along with more shaders.
All the cards have more shaders and also probably will have more clocking headroom. This is not like the HD7970GHz edition that was a binned speed chip. These are binned but binned with more total shaders.
Aspiring techie said:I don't understand why this card got a 4/5 star rating, which ties with the RX 5700. This card is way overpriced. Technically, both cards are, but at least the Navi card is a much better value than competing Nvidia cards.
Because price is only one aspect of the total score for a card?
Value is also in the eye of the beholder. Why did the owner of my company dump $140K into a Mercedes that has had massive problems after his $140K Audis transmission blew and he only got $20K for the trade? I mean hell its a construction company and he could have bought two very nice Ford Raptors instead which makes more sense but he likes the other cars more.
Point being, while I agree the price is a tad too high, not everyone sees the RX 5700 XT as a good value when chasing the max FPS. Especially considering that down the road the RX 5700 XT will have to be replaced sooner than the RTX 2080 Super.
redgarl said:It scored higher than the 5700XT...? Toms... these reviews are useless if they don't make sense... you know?!!!
There is no way this product can be recommended... NO WAY in hell.
Score should be 2.5/5
It's always the same with you isn't it? Maybe both cards have their value but this one has better value for the market segment it is trying to reach.
BTW Chris is probably the best reviewer TH has, I certainly miss the days when he was running the ship. They are typically fully fledged with plenty of information to help make a good decision.
Yes the RX 5700 XT is a better "value" if price is your only concern but until AMD tosses GCN to the curb and pushes out a new uArch design that can truly push nVidia we wont see any real price war in the GPU market.
Basically AMD needs to pull a Zen. -
-Fran- Value from a top dog? Some people needs a reality check in a capitalist world.Reply
Yeah, yeah, the 2080ti is the top dog... No, the Titan V was it? I can't remember as AMD is so far behind we have to deal with this pricing nonsense from nVidia to get decent performance.
I sound* salty, because I am. I want prices to go down, but no company out there works as a charity. The only way nVidia will ever drop prices (even in the form of a re-brand / re-launch) is with competition.
You can all hope AMD gets their act together and delivers with the next gen.
Cheers! -
chickenballs
Maybe you have forgotten about the famous Tom's article about the RTX cards before they were even released:Aspiring techie said:I don't understand why this card got a 4/5 star rating, which ties with the RX 5700. This card is way overpriced. Technically, both cards are, but at least the Navi card is a much better value than competing Nvidia cards.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-rtx-gpus-worth-the-money,37689.html
Just buy it!
Qeb3IhsZSCMView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeb3IhsZSCM -
TCA_ChinChin Title changes from "Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Review: Leaving Navi In The Dust" to "Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Super Review: Leaving Navi In The Dust At Nearly 2x the price" to "Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Super Review: High-Res Gaming at a Premium Price". Maybe y'all should have just used the last title in the beginning? Even this comment thread still has the original name. If you guy's kept it as is, then it would've been the save as "Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Review: Leaving RTX 2070 In The Dust" or simply anything else in the 400$ bracket. Imagine comparing a 700$ card to a 400$ card.Reply -
jimmysmitty chickenballs said:Maybe you have forgotten about the famous Tom's article about the RTX cards before they were even released:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-rtx-gpus-worth-the-money,37689.html
Just buy it!
Qeb3IhsZSCMView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeb3IhsZSCM
That was an Op-Ed by the head of TH. Myself, and most moderators, were very much against it anyways as they are always pointless.
However that has NOTHING to do with Chris and his review. Chris has never been that way and always gives an honest opinion for the product. -
ingtar33
bingo, don't question nvidia, just buy them! I for one am all for our corperate overlords.chickenballs said:Maybe you have forgotten about the famous Tom's article about the RTX cards before they were even released:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-rtx-gpus-worth-the-money,37689.html
Just buy it!
Qeb3IhsZSCMView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeb3IhsZSCM
setting that sad social commentary aside, I love how THG ignores the fact that the 2080 super is just a 1080ti, being sold at $700+
the Rt2070 xt just tested at or just above 2070 speeds (depending on the reviewer), and sells for <400
If that isn't attractive for anyone then you'll never see lower prices from nvidia. Why? because it's people like those, waiting for the mystical nvidia price drop that allows them to NEVER drop their prices. The longer they refuse to buy team red, the more they lock in nvidia's monopolistic practices.
and the more tech journalists and publications like THG ignores NVIDIA's predatory monopolistic pricing, the worst the situation gets.