Conclusion
Of the three GeForce RTX 20-series models currently available, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the one we’re most excited about. Up until Battlefield V was patched to enable real-time ray tracing, GeForce RTX 2070 was almost interchangeable with GTX 1080, while the RTX 2080 resembled a GTX 1080 Ti. At least now there’s one game able to show how the Turing-based GPUs are different from Nvidia’s previous generation.
But GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is incomparable. We didn’t mince words in our review of Nvidia’s Founders Edition version: “…if you own a 4K monitor and tire of picking quality settings to dial back in exchange for playable performance, this card is unrivaled.” RT and Tensor cores aside, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is brutally fast in today's games.
Gigabyte’s Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Xtreme 11G takes that reference board’s specs, gooses its GPU frequency, dresses it up with copious RGB LED lighting, protects it with a longer four-year warranty, and exposes no fewer than seven display outputs to accommodate multi-monitor configurations without the need for adapters. In the world of ultra-high-end graphics, it doesn’t get any more luxurious.
That’s not to say this card is perfect. We’re still partial to the Founders Edition’s dual-slot form factor. And we’d prefer a capable cooler able to exhaust hot air rather than blow it back into your case. We think the Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Extreme 11G could be quieter under load. And this is completely subjective, but we’re not sold on some of Gigabyte’s more jarring RGB lighting effects, which distract from the action on-screen.
The freedom to choose is great, though. Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion 2.0 software gives you a long list of effects to pick from, so maybe one of the subtler transitions is more appealing. An optional semi-passive mode at least keeps the card’s fans quiet at idle. Moreover, massive performance makes the three-slot cooler less of an issue in space-constrained cases—after all, you won’t want to add a second card in SLI, given the state of multi-GPU support.
Gigabyte says its Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti has an MSRP of $1,300. Demand currently exceeds supply, though, so availability is spotty. Typically, when that happens, street pricing ends up notably higher. But if Gigabyte’s Xtreme implementation of Nvidia’s TU102 processor appeals to your specific tastes and ends up inside of your budget, rest assured that it’s a beast of a graphics card.
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