For the three of you whose aim in life has solely ever been to play games on max settings at 4K with nary a drop in body fee at 60fps, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080Ti is a dream come true. A quite costly £1049 / $1150 dream, all instructed, however a dream nonetheless.
For this 4K monster beast is by far the best graphics card I’ve ever examined, and affords a compelling improve over Nvidia’s earlier 4K high canine, the GeForce GTX 1080Ti – and that’s earlier than you begin bearing in mind all the opposite new intelligent fine details Nvidia’s Turing GPU can do to probably enhance efficiency even additional. If the thought of taking part in games at 4K at max settings on a single GPU is an interesting one to you, the RTX 2080Ti may effectively be the GPU for you.
Much like my earlier Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 review, what you’ll discover beneath is one other review-in-progress that at the moment solely appears at one a part of the RTX 2080Ti pie: uncooked efficiency. That’s as a result of exterior of a few tech demos in the intervening time, there aren’t truly any games that utilise Nvidia’s fancy ray-tracing reflection tech or its performance-boosting DLSS bobbins simply but, so that you’ll have to attend a bit longer earlier than I can see whether or not these options are any good, and the way they have an effect on in-game speeds. I’ll be updating each critiques early subsequent week with some early demo impressions, however it’ll possible be subsequent month earlier than Square Enix patch of their ray-tracing Shadow of the Tomb Raider replace and DLSS Final Fantasy XV replace.
This review-in-progress additionally brings with it the identical caveat concerning my total take a look at PC specification: specifically that my Intel Core i5-8600Okay CPU – sure, one in every of right this moment’s newest processors and the perfect that Core i5 at the moment has to supply – was clearly hampering efficiency in a number of areas, notably additional down the decision scale the place my 1920×1080 outcomes have been usually nigh-on equivalent to these I obtained at 2560×1440. As a outcome, the outcomes you’ll discover right here is probably not as fast as different ones you would possibly see elsewhere across the interweb.
Fortunately, regardless of that caveat, the RTX 2080Ti nonetheless delivered considerably higher 4K speeds than each the RTX 2080 and Nvidia’s earlier technology GTX 1080Ti on this division, usually hitting at the least 60fps on max settings at each single game I threw at it. There are nonetheless a few outliers akin to Final Fantasy XV and Monster Hunter World that compelled me to drop right down to High to get a clean 60fps on my Core i5-based PC, however as a single GPU for near-flawless 4K gaming, the RTX 2080Ti is an attractive prospect certainly in the event you’ve bought sufficient spare money to get one.
A big chunk of its superior efficiency comes from having a whopping 11GB of GDDR6 reminiscence on board that may ship 616GB/s of reminiscence bandwidth – which is a heck of quite a bit increased than the RTX 2080’s bandwidth 448GB/s. You additionally get 4352 CUDA cores and a base clock pace of 1350MHz, with the enhance clock pace of the Founders Edition on take a look at right here set to 1635MHz (that’s a 90MHz enhance over the 1545MHz reference spec).
As with the Founders Edition of the RTX 2080, although, this further pace bump doesn’t essentially make the Founders Edition of the RTX 2080Ti the perfect model of the cardboard on supply. Other third occasion playing cards will even be obtainable with their very own manufacturing facility overclock speeds within the coming weeks and months, however the figures beneath ought to nonetheless give a broad concept of what the cardboard is able to total.
Enough of these spec numbers, although – let’s speak correct numbers and people beautiful frames per second. Safe to say, the RTX 2080Ti is only a teensy bit highly effective. 65-75fps on Ultra at 4K in The Witcher III? No worries. An common of 63fps in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on Ultra High, additionally at 4K? Not an issue. How a couple of 4K Ultra-fied common of 72fps in Middle-earth: Shadow of War and 89fps in Hitman? Yes please.
The most spectacular of all my take a look at games, nonetheless, was Total War: Warhammer II. Finally, we’ve got a card that doesn’t choke on 4K Ultra settings, delivering a mean of 53fps in these shoulder-to-shoulder battle scenes and a really beautiful 63fps swooping around the marketing campaign map.
That’s a full ten frames increased than the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080Ti, each of which I needed to drop to 4K High to get anyplace close to the identical type of pace, and it’s shocking how a lot of a distinction it makes. There have been nonetheless a couple of drops to 46fps when the digital camera bought up shut and private with the top of a Lizardman’s spear with the RTX 2080Ti, all instructed, however I in all probability wouldn’t have been in a position to inform if I didn’t have the help of a body fee counter ticking away within the high nook of my display.
Doom and Wolfenstein II, in the meantime, have been having a whale of a time, hitting as much as 130-140fps in each games on their respective Ultra and Mein Leben settings, with the body fee by no means dipping beneath 90fps in Doom and 110fps in Wolfenstein. Of course, none of this may make the slightest little bit of distinction to you in the event you don’t have a excessive refresh fee monitor to benefit from all these further frames, however for individuals who demand absolute perfection and have the proper equipment, the RTX 2080Ti can positively go the gap to take advantage of it.
That stated, there are nonetheless some games on the market that even the RTX 2080Ti can’t tame (at the least not when it’s paired with a Core i5 CPU, that’s). Rise of the Tomb Raider‘s mad anti-aliasing settings, for instance, still only produced an average frame rate of 37fps in its trio of internal benchmarks (the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080Ti can only manage 29fps by comparison), but knock that down one rung to SMAA x2 and you’ll see a a lot smoother common of 54fps.
The identical image emerged in Rise’s apocalyptic sequel, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as effectively. On Highest at 4K with the anti-aliasing set to its most SMAA x4, the RTX 2080Ti hit a mean of 40-45fps within the bustling sq. of Cozumel, which is infinitely extra playable than the RTX 2080’s 33-35fps, however nonetheless not fairly as beautiful because the 60-65fps you will get by choosing the subsequent choice down, SMAAT x2.
Final Fantasy XV and Monster Hunter: World’s Highest settings additionally proved robust prospects for the RTX 2080Ti at 4K, though at the least right here you’ll be able to whack on all of Nvidia’s further results within the former and nonetheless get a really playable body fee of 40-45fps to your hassle, which is greater than might be stated for every other graphics card obtainable proper now. Monster Hunter: World, in the meantime, settled someplace across the 40-50fps area on max settings at 4K, however accept High and also you’re away, the body fee hardly ever dipping a lot beneath 53fps out within the area with highs of round 65fps.
Compared to the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080Ti, then, this beefed up card basically offers you an identical 60fps-level efficiency however on the subsequent graphics organising, supplying you with larger leeway to benefit from increased body charges when its siblings can already do max settings, and providing smoother speeds nearer to, if not higher than, 60fps after they can’t. It is the perfection’s 4K graphics card, and is palms down the quickest GPU I’ve ever laid my human eyes on.
That’s to not say everybody can buy an RTX 2080Ti, in fact. That can be insanity. Indeed, in case your present monitor solely has a decision of 2560×1440, the RTX 2080Ti will in fact produce some very good speeds that look beautiful on a excessive refresh fee monitor, however so does Nvidia’s considerably cheaper GTX 1070 and GTX 1070Ti. Indeed, if my apparently tiddly Core i5 has taught me something benchmarking these playing cards, it’s that 1000’s extra CUDA cores and jumbo reminiscence bandwidths make naff all distinction in the event you don’t even have the bestest greatest CPU to take advantage of them.
To give only one instance of the type of speeds I bought from the RTX 2080Ti at 1440p, Hitman produced a mean of 93fps once I ran its inside benchmark on Ultra. The £400 / $400 GTX 1070Ti? An common of 85fps. There are, in fact, loads of different games the place the efficiency hole is far bigger between the RTX 2080Ti and GTX 1070Ti, however pairing the RTX with a Core i5 is clearly not letting it pump out as many frames because it should be doing.
Still, in the event you’re actually adamant about having every thing wanting excellent at 1440p at 60fps, each the GTX 1070 and GTX 1070Ti are nonetheless greater than ample to satisfy these necessities. It’s merely not essential to blow north of a grand on this sort of graphics card for this sort of 1440p setup. Got a 1440p monitor with a excessive refresh fee? Then get a GTX 1080 or GTX 1080Ti as a substitute and save your self at the least £400 / $400. The RTX 2080Ti is admittedly for 4K and 4K solely.
I’ll, in fact, be updating each this evaluate and my RTX 2080 evaluate early subsequent week with some extra ideas on the present ray-tracing and DLSS demos obtainable to see how rather more Nvidia’s Turing GPU may probably have to supply as soon as stated ray-tracing and DLSS games begin showing, however for now, let’s say this. If you do occur to be a kind of 4K-ers who desires absolutely the bestest greatest frames cash should purchase, then the RTX 2080Ti is definitely a lot simpler to advocate than its non-Ti sibling.
There’s a clearly identifiable soar in efficiency in comparison with Nvidia’s final technology of 4K graphics playing cards, and that’s even earlier than you begin factoring in any of its potential speed-boosting Turing tech. If you’ve bought a spare £1049 / $1150 and wish the quickest 4K graphics card on the planet, go for it. For everybody else, let’s hope the common RTX 2080’s outcomes handle to enhance a bit over the GTX 1080Ti as soon as I get my palms on a greater CPU.
