Conclusion Continued
The Audience
The question then is, who is the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER for? It is certainly not for people who already own a GeForce RTX 2080. Rather, it is for people looking to upgrade from the last generation or older. It is for gamers and hardware enthusiasts looking for a high-end GPU but cannot afford the $1,000+ price tag of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. At $699 it offers the best performance you can get besides the RTX 2080 Ti, it’s the second down on the list of cards that give the best gameplay experience. It provides a new entry level to RTX high-end GPU performance.
Ray Tracing
We also found that when enabling Ray Tracing in games the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER provides a larger advantage in performance over the RTX 2080 FE. This is because it has more RT Cores and Tensor Cores. If you are at all interested in Ray Tracing in games, and want the best performance you can get without breaking the bank, then this video card offers that. It actually allows playable Ray Tracing at a decent resolution. As more and more games adopt Ray Tracing this faster RTX 2080 SUPER is going to make more and more of a larger impact versus the original RTX 2080 in those games.
Overclocking
There seems to be some headroom and overclocking potential with the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER. Even without overvoltage we managed to get the core up to 2055MHz, and averaging 2020-2025MHz giving it a solid boost in performance. With some voltage and better cooling, we see 2050MHz+ clock speeds. The memory overclock was also extremely impressive. It already runs incredibly fast at 15.5GHz, but we got ours up to 17GHz which is just mind blowing. We think enthusiasts are going to love playing with this video card to improve its performance.
Best Resolution
The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is still the king for the best 4K gaming experience. Nothing gets better than that card, and that’s the card you want for enjoying 4K gaming at high settings. It is truly in a league of its own. Up until now we would not have recommended a GeForce RTX 2080 GPU for 4K gaming. Overall it was just too slow for 4K.
However, with the new GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (especially overclocked) it just might be the new entry level for 4K gaming. It has enough of a performance upgrade that games are playable at 4K. Depending on the game some play well at highest settings, and others you will have to lower settings quite a bit. It all depends on the game, naturally.
However, the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER seems to be that card that could allow you to dabble in 4K gameplay. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is still going to be loads better, but if you cannot afford it then the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER could be an alternative. Just understand you’ll have to lower settings in the more demanding games.
Final Points
Once you understand the place that the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is trying to fill then it makes more sense. It isn’t meant to perform miracles. It isn’t meant to crush the RTX 2080 and it isn’t meant to walk all over the RTX 2080 Ti. The RTX 2080 Ti is in a completely different class, and price.
Instead, the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is supposed to allow an upgrade path from older GPUs, or video cards like the older TITAN series. It offers faster performance than a GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition at a price that is $100 cheaper. That’s where its strength lies. If you want SUPER video cards that pack a larger punch over their counterparts, then look toward the RTX 2060 SUPER and RTX 2070 SUPER which brought large upgrades from the original releases.
Did NVIDIA need this card? Absolutely not, the AMD Radeon VII isn’t much competition, and could be disappearing soon. NVIDIA now has what the GeForce RTX 2080 should have been, and priced at, all along, and it’s great to have that. NVIDIA is also offering a game bundle with these video cards which sweetens the deal right now. Personally, I’m looking forward to the next Wolfenstein: Youngblood, I’ve enjoyed all the new Wolfenstein games immensely.
