Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition Review: A Titan V Killer
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Fan Speeds and Noise
A dual-fan cooler gives Nvidia the freedom to deploy a fairly conservative ramp. After a brief period of constant cooling during the warm-up phase, rotational speeds increase significantly as the GPU crests 68°C. We also see that the card really is sensitive to installation in a closed case, even though our clock rate numbers showed it maintaining aggressive frequencies, regardless of environment. Maintaining those rates simply means spinning the fans faster than the same card on an open test bench, particularly when TU102 hits its target temperature.
Even with the help of a big, heavy vapor chamber, there is no headroom to make the fans spin slower. They're already tuned well, straight from Nvidia. On the other hand, though, you can crank their rotational speed up for higher GPU Boost frequencies. But do you really want that?
Row 0 - Cell 0 | GeForce RTX 2080 FE | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE |
Fan Speed (Maximum)Open Test Bench | 1907 RPM (Gaming) | 2136 RPM (Gaming) |
Fan Speed (Average)Open Test Bench | 1887 RPM (Warmed up) | 2122 RPM (Warmed up) |
Fan Speed (Maximum)Closed Case | 1959 RPM (Gaming) | 2281 RPM (Gaming) |
Fan Speed (Average)Closed Case | 1942 RPM (Warmed up) | 2274 RPM (Warmed up) |
Noise (Average) | 39.6 dB(A)Closed case | 41.9 dB(A)Closed case |
Noise (Idle) | 31.3 dB(A) | 31.8 dB(A) |
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti has to dissipate 55W more than the vanilla 2080, which you can (unfortunately) perceive more clearly. Its almost 42 dB(A) results isn't intrusive by any stretch. But the dual-fan cooler isn't the quietest we've tested, either. Nvidia can't defy physics; with two expansion slots to work with, it gets no better than this. With that said, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti certainly fares better than GeForce GTX 1080 Ti at a similar thermal design power.
MORE: Best Graphics Cards
MORE: Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table
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A Stoner Conclusion, let them hold onto these card until they can lower the price to about $700Reply -
pontiac1979 "Waste of time to write a review. "Just buy it"."Reply
Oh yeah, god forbid Tom's does an in-depth review of the latest and greatest. Keyword greatest. If you desire 4K gaming and have the funds available, why wouldn't you? -
ubercake I'm probably going to buy one... Though it's not my fault... I feel like the Russians are compelling me to do this by way of Facebook. I'm a victim in this whole Nvidia marketing scam. Don't judge.Reply
That being said, I like high-quality, high-speed graphics performance. This may also be influencing my decision.
Great review! -
AnimeMania How much of the performance increase is due to using GDDR6 memory? I know this makes the cards perform better the higher the resolution is, how does it effect other aspects of the video cards.Reply -
teknobug "Just buy it" they said...Reply
If you're in Canada, you might not want to pay the price of these. -
chaosmassive While I appreciate this very detailed and nicely written review, its kinda redundantReply
because I think Avram has already reviewed this card with his opinion on late august
with the conclusion was "just buy it" -
wiyosaya SMH I don't understand the reasoning for comparing a $3k known non-gaming card with a $1.2k gaming card. Are there really gamers our there ignorant enough, other than those with deep pockets who want bragging rights, to purchase the $3K card for gaming when they know it is not meant for gaming? Or is this to differentiate Tom's from the other tech sites in order to inspire confidence in Tom's readers?Reply
Personally, I would have rather seen the 2080 Ti compared against 1080 Ti even if it Tom's comes to the same conclusions as the other tech web sites.
The comparison in this article does not make me want to rush out and buy it because it is $1.8k cheaper than a non-gaming card. I really hate to say it, but with the premise of this review being somewhat along the lines of "lookie hereee kiddies. Heree's a gaming card for $1.2k that beets a $3k non-gaming card" turned this review into a TL;DR review for me.