NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition Review

NVIDIA officially announced the release of its new RTX Super lineup today, refreshing its current GeForce RTX lineup to deliver better performance to gamers around the globe. Among the announced RTX Super cards is the RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2070 Super, and RTX 2080 Super.

In this review, we’ll be taking a closer look at one of the newly announced RTX Super cards, the GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition. According to the specifications provided by NVIDIA, the new RTX 2070 Super is equipped with a TU104 GPU, which is technically a nerfed RTX 2080 in disguise.

Specifications

Unboxing

The packaging is pretty much the same as the previous RTX Founders Edition cards you’ve come across – it’s not bad, but we’re kind of gotten used to the design. The only thing that differentiates the packaging from the previous design is probably the ‘Super’ located behind the model number.

Inside the box, you’ll find the RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition in the usual vertical placement. However, has replaced the anti-static bag with a new type of anti-static wrap.

Inside the accessories box, you’ll find a quick start guide, support guide, and a DVI-D to DisplayPort converter. Since the converter isn’t present inside the accessories box for the lower-end model, we can assume that it’s only included for RTX 2070 or above.

The GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition

Design wise, the RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition is pretty much identical to the RTX 2070 Founders Edition. Well, except for the middle section with the RTX 2070 Super label that is. Unlike the RTX 2070 Founders Edition, the Super comes with a metallic mirrored finish.

There’s no denying that mirrored surface does look really cool, but mind you, this is a fingerprint magnet as well. People with OCD will find it annoying, especially when there are fingerprints on the mirrored surface and you just can’t help it but to wipe it away.

Minus the glossy part, this is technically the same cooler used on the previous RTX 2070 Founders Edition. You will be getting the same full coverage design with the full aluminum shroud and backplate. This adds some extra structural integrity to the card itself, making it less prone to PCB sagging issue while looking good at the same time.

A 6-pin plus 8-pin PCIe power connector is required to power up the RTX 2070 Super and a 650W power supply is recommended as according to the specifications provided by NVIDIA. One minor thing did catch my attention during the unboxing session, which is this unique looking 6-pin connector. It shares the same dimension with a standard 8-pin connector but with only 6 pin holes. NVIDIA probably did this to keep things neat by not having that small gap if they were to use a standard 6-pin connector.

The metal backplate we’re seeing here is pretty much the same as the one we’ve seen on the RTX 2070 Founders Edition. The only difference here is that it comes with the ‘RTX Super’ behind the model number.

If you haven’t noticed this already, the display output is pretty much the same across the RTX Founders Edition cards. At the back of the card, you’ll find 2 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI-D, and a type-C connector.

Test System Setup

For our games benchmark test, we’ve selected a number of AAA titles to run at its highest possible settings using the following setup under an ambient temperature of 30°C:

The test is done separately for games that support both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 at the resolution of 1920×1080, 2560×1440 and 3840×2160 using the GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition against one the GeForce RTX 2070 we have in our test lab.

Games Benchmark

Some might say it’s a bit overkill here, but if a consistent 60fps is what you’re looking for in 1080p gaming, the RTX 2070 Super here will have no problem in delivering the result that you’ve wanted. The RTX 2070 Super is getting an average 70fps on all the selected titles with ease, while the RTX 2070 struggled a little with DXR and DLSS enabled for Metro Exodus on Ultra settings.

Moving on the 1440p gaming, the RTX 2070 Super is still going strong with the majority for the selected titles. With Metro Exodus as an exception, the RTX 2070 Super can still manage the rest of the selected titles without much issue. While both RTX 2070 and RTX 2070 Super are targeted for 1440p gaming, the Super is clearly a better choice in this case.

Scaling up to 4K gaming, we can now see that the RTX 2070 is struggling a lot with pretty much all the selected titles running on high/ultra settings. The RTX 2070 Super also started to show some signs of struggle with titles like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and RTX  games such as Metro Exodus, Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It’s barely touching the bar for 4K gaming on ultra settings, but it’s still capable of handling these games at high settings, which doesn’t require too much sacrifice of the graphics quality if you’re really planning to use it for 4K gaming.

Temperature

The GPU idle temperature is around 38°C and hovers around 72°C most of the time during our games benchmark. Even after enabling the DRX feature in RTX games like Metro Exodus, Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the GPU temperature peaked only at 73°C.

A low hum can be heard coming from the fans during some heavy benchmark, but that is when I have it placed next to us on the test bench. Installing it in a proper PC chassis or one that comes with noise reduction feature will pretty much solve this issue with ease.

Final Thoughts

Instead of the rumored RTX 2070 Ti, NVIDIA actually came up with RTX 2070 Super, which is a refresh of the RTX 2070 with a Turing TU104 GPU for RTX 2080. Existing users will not be happy about it, because those who will be making their purchase after this are basically getting a nerfed RTX 2080. Though that doesn’t mean that NVIDIA is reusing down-binned RTX 2080 as RTX 2070 Super. There are reviewers who got their hands on both RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 Super for a comparison on the PCB, and it’s been confirmed that the PCB design and components used are actually different.

Despite the performance improvement by around 10% over the RTX 2070 after the refresh, there’s still no denying that the RTX 2070 Super doesn’t come cheap. Users who are looking for an upgrade with a tight budget might want to consider for the RTX 2060 Super instead. As for those who are prepared to upgrade to an RTX 2070 but stumbled across the new RTX 2070 Super that is equipped with an RTX 2080 grade Turing TU104 GPU and NVLink support while maintaining the same price at $499, this is probably the perfect timing for your upgrade.

Pros

• Solid, full coverage Aluminum shroud for enhanced rigidity
• Support the latest RTX games
• Support for NVLink
• Basically an RTX 2080 with small nerf
• Price remains the same as the previous RTX 2070 Founders Edition
• Bundled with a free game for a limited time (Control and Wolfenstein: Youngblood)

Cons

• The glossy part on the cooler shroud is prone to fingerprints
• The heat from GPU now goes inside your case