We previously reviewed the RTX 2060 Super, one of the latest SUPER graphics cards from NVIDIA. Today, it’s time to check out the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition graphics card. Unlike the RTX 2060 Super, the RTX 2080 Super will replace its predecessor the RTX 2080. It means the RTX 2080 is now discontinued and we may be seeing price drops from retailers (hopefully). So, in this review let’s find out if the new RTX 2080 Super offers a significant or reasonable performance improvement from its predecessor; like the performance improvement that we saw from the RTX 2060 to the RTX 2060 Super. We know there is a performance improvement, let’s just find out how much is the improvement. The new RTX Founders Edition graphics cards are well-built, with all-metal design and dual axial fans. And they do really feel premium compared to AIB’s graphics cards with plastic shrouds. So, should you buy an RTX 2080 Super graphics card today? Is it the right graphics card for your monitor or gaming system? Let’s find out in our NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition review below.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition Review
Basically speaking, the new SUPER graphics cards aren’t really “new”. They are a “super” variant of their predecessors with bumped up specs. The RTX 2060 Super got a somewhat significant improvement in its core specifications; with higher clock speeds, more CUDA cores and 2 more GBs of GDDR6 memory. The RTX 2070 Super also got some improvements, more SMs, CUDA cores and higher clock speeds as well. Because of those “upgrades” in specs, the performance of an RTX 2070 Super is now near an RTX 2080. Just near, not really on par or equal. The RTX 2080 is still faster than the RTX 2070 Super, but it is near and not to mention, the RTX 2070 Super is a lot cheaper at $499 USD.
Now the GeForce RTX 2080 Super also got some beefed-up specs. It is now based on the full TU104 GPU chip, with 3072 CUDA cores and 48 Streaming Multiprocessors. Its base clock speed is now 1650MHz with a boost clock speed of 1815MHz; unfortunately, its TGP went up as well to 250 watts. According to NVIDIA, the RTX 2080 Super is faster than the Pascal-based NVIDIA Titan Xp. The Titan Xp was basically faster than the famous GTX 1080 Ti, so this makes the GeForce RTX 2080 Super faster than the GTX 1080 Ti; on top of that it has ray tracing features.
Aside from the features like real-time ray tracing, DLSS, GPU Boost 4.0, GDDR6 memory, and the other features that the non-Super RTX cards have; the new RTX Super graphics cards doesn’t have anything “new” or new features that would separate them from the previous generations. They are basically an improvement version, perhaps a refinement, of their predecessors.
Moving on, below is the complete specifications of a GeForce RTX 2080 Super graphics card. Also, below you can see a specs comparison between the RTX 2080 Super vs RTX 2080 vs GTX 1080.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Specifications
NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition Packaging and Closer Look
The NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition’s packaging is pretty much the same with the RTX 2080 Founders Edition; except now it has the word / logo SUPER after the “2080” name. Slide the top portion of the box to reveal the RTX 2080 Super sitting on a thick foam padding.
There are no (major) changes in the cooler design. The only changes you can see, aesthetically speaking, are the SUPER logo and the reflective mid-section on the front portion of the cooler shroud. The middle section (between the two axial fans) on the non-Super RTX Founders Edition had a black surface. Now, you can see that the mid-section has a mirror finish; perhaps to emphasize ray-tracing? I’m not sure, but I’m okay with that change.
The NVLink connector is also protected by a metal cover and the RTX 2080 Super draws power from a 6+8 pin PCI power connector. This graphics card requires that you have at least a 650 watts power supply. And I highly recommend that you use a high quality and reliable 80 Plus certified power supply. Many (newbie) system builders tend to cheap out the PSU, and that is a huge mistake. If the PSU fails, there’s a big change that it could damage the other components as well.
Overall, in terms of build quality and design, I still like it. The NVIDIA’s RTX Founders Edition cards are well-built, premium-looking, fells premium on hand thanks to its all-metal shroud and backplate, and it feels like a solid piece of metal block.
Let’s check out the test setup I used, the noise and temperature, then we’ll proceed to the benchmark results.
For US: Available on Amazon.com here
For UK: Available on Amazon UK here
