Although it’s released alongside the RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super, the RTX 2080 Super arrived 2 weeks later after the official announcement. As you may have already known, the RTX 2080 Super is basically a buffed up version of the RTX 2080.

In this review, we’ll be taking a look at the RTX 2080 Super and see how does it fare against an RTX 2080 Ti in terms of performance. Just so you know, the GPU used is a TU104-450-A1, which is still a TU104 variant instead of the TU102-400-A1 used on the RTX 2080 Ti.

Specifications

GPUGeForce RTX 2080 SuperGeForce RTX 2080
SMs4846
CUDA Cores30722944
Tensor Cores384368
Tensor FLOPS (FP16)8981
RT Cores4846
Texture Units192184
ROPs6464
Ray Cast8 Giga Rays8 Giga Rays
GPU Boost Clock1815 MHz1710 MHz
Memory Data Rate15.5 Gbps14 Gbps
Total Video Memory Size8G GDDR68G GDDR6
Memory Interface256-bit256-bit
Memory Bandwidth496.1 GB/sec448 GB/sec
TDP250W215W

 

Unboxing

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition (1)

As you already know, the RTX 2080 Super is released together with the RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super early this month as a refresh for the RTX 20 series lineup. The packaging is almost the same as the previous RTX 20 series cards, except that it now has the ‘Super’ label next to the model name.

Inside the box, you’ll find the RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition in its anti-static wrap and an accessories box containing a quick start guide, support guide, and a DVI-D to DisplayPort converter.

The GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition

Appearance-wise, the RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition is basically a standard RTX 20 series Founders Edition. The only difference here is that it has a glossy finish plate for the model name instead of matte black.

Just like the RTX 20 series Founders Edition cards, you’ll be getting the same full-coverage design with the full aluminum shroud and backplate for the cooler. The advantage of this design is that it gives the card some extra structural integrity as compared to some of the custom coolers from the board partners. It might be heavy, but such design makes it less prone to the infamous PCB sagging issue for cards with heavy coolers.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition (9)

According to the technical specifications from NVIDIA, a 650W power supply with a 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connector is recommended. Just like the RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition, the PCIe power connectors are in the same dimension even though it has a different type of pins just to keep things neat and tidy.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition (10)

The metal backplate we’re seeing here is pretty much the same as the one we’ve seen on the rest of the RTX 20 series Founders Edition cards – with an extra ‘Super’ label next to the model name.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition (11)

At the back of the card, you’ll find 3 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, 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:

CPUIntel Core i7 8700K @5GHz
MotherboardASUS ROG Maximus X Apex
MemoryG.Skill TridentZ RGB 16GB @3200MHz
Graphics CardNVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition
Power SupplyEnermax MaxTytan 1250W
Primary StorageGigabyte UD Pro 512GB SSD
Secondary StorageWD Black 6TB
CPU CoolerThermaltake Floe Riing 360 RGB
ChassisCooler Master Test Bench V1
Operating SystemWindows 10 64bit

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 2080 Super Founders Edition against one the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti we have in our test lab.

Games Benchmark

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition Games Benchmark 1080p

Based on the results above, we can see that it’s pretty obvious that gaming in 1080p is nothing to the RTX 2080 Super. Since both RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2080 Ti are using a different GPU, the performance gap is very clear, especially for the DXR performance.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition Games Benchmark 1440p

Scaling up the game to 1440p won’t give much trouble to the RTX 2080 Super. Getting an average 60fps is a piece of cake, but you can notice the limit there with more demanding games like Metro Exodus and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition Games Benchmark 4K

Even at 4K resolution, the RTX 2080 Super did fairly well for most of the selected titles. It’s not exactly the ’60fps’ standard for the so-called smooth gameplay, but do note that we’re using the highest settings for the test in order to see how far the card can perform. If you lower the settings to high, you can definitely enjoy the game at 60fps or above without sacrificing too much on the graphics quality.

In case if you wonder, here’s a quick performance comparison across the current RTX 20 series lineup with Metro Exodus. At 1080p and 1440p, the performance gap between RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super isn’t that much, really. In short, gaming in 4K resolution is where the RTX 2080 Super shine the most.

Temperature

The GPU idle temperature is around 48°C and hovers around 77°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 at 77°C only. Of course, you can definitely see better temperatures on the board partner’s cards with their custom coolers.

Final Thoughts

Just like the RTX 2070 Super, the RTX 2080 Super is technically a buffed up RTX 2080 but the selling price still remains the same at $699. It’s definitely good news to those of you who are planning to upgrade to an RTX 2080, but it’s indirectly hurting sellers who still have the previous non-Super RTX 2080 in stock. It’s not going to be better than the RTX 2080 Ti anytime soon, so if you want more raw performance, you’ll have to spend more to get the top of the line RTX 2080 Ti to satisfy that need of yours.

Now, despite being a high-end tier card in the 80 class, we did notice that the RTX 2070 Super performs really close to it in 1080p and 1440p gaming, which is rather questionable for its position in the RTX 20 series lineup. If we look into its gaming performance beyond the mainstream resolutions, the RTX 2080 Super feels more like an entry-level card for 4K gaming on ultra or very high settings.

With its reasonable performance in 4K gaming, you won’t have to break your bank to go for an RTX 2080 Ti for the sake of gaming in 4K resolution at very high or ultra settings as the RTX 2080 Super can get the job done as well – with a minimal sacrifice on the graphical settings for higher frame rate in games. For those of you who only game on 1080p or 1440p, we’d say that the RTX 2060 Super and RT 2070 Super is more than enough to get the job done.

Pros

  • Solid, full coverage Aluminum shroud for enhanced rigidity
  • Support the latest RTX games
  • Support for NVLink
  • Reasonable performance in 4K gaming
  • Price is lower than the previous RTX 2080 Founders Edition
  • Bundled with two free games 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
  • Performance isn’t too far away from the RTX 2070 Super if you don’t game in 4K

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