ISSUE383|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2020 79
THEORIGINALRTX2080 wasstuckina
difficult position. Whileundeniablyavery
powerful GPU,inpractice it wasn’t sufficien
faster than the RTX2070 to justify its far
higherprice,and at thesametime, it couldn
match the outright ground-breaking
performance of theRTX 2080Ti. Flanked on
bothsides by better value and betterpower
respectively,there was little convincing
reasontochoose theRTX 2080.
The new RTX2080 Super at least seems
have theright idea on how to avoidasimila
fate.The core specs have been upgradedto
hopefully bring it closer in line with theRTX
2080 Ti.The CUDAcorecounthas risen
from2,944to3,072, andthe new GPU also
has 48 ray-tracing corestothe RTX2080’s46.
Clock speedshavereceivedaminor tune-up
too, with thereference RTX2080Super
hitting abase speed of 1,650MHz and aboost
speed of 1,815MHz; previously,these were
1,515MHz and 1,710MHz.
CHOICE CUT
Thepartner model on test here,MSI’sGeForce
RTX2080 Super Gaming XTrio,pushes things
slightly further with amodest overclock to
1,845MHz.The best newsofall is theprice:
this particular card costs £750, which is £49
less than the RTX2080Gaming XTrio we
reviewed inShopper372.That’sarefreshing
change frommost of theRTX 2060 Superand
RTX2070 Supermodels we’veseen, which
appeartouse the updatedspecs as areason
to raiseprices, not lower them or keepthem
in parity with the precedingGPUs.
£750isstill alot of money, but MSI’s
designisbefitting of it. Aclassily sleek, stronggg
backplateprotectsthe rear,RGB lighting addsss
customisation options,and the reference
design’sdual-fan cooler is turned intoa
triple-fansetup with alarger radiator.Like the
rest of the Gaming XTrio range, whichspans
all threeofthe high-end RTXGPUs, oneof
thesefansisslightly smaller than the others,
whichsome mayfind alittle goofy-looking,
butunless you’revertical-mounting, you
won’tever see it while it’s in your PC.
Be warned, however, that thisisone
seriously bulkygraphics card.Measuring
327mm long,140mm wide and56mm deep,
it’s significantlylarger than the reference
design, andalthough it takes up the standard
twoPCI slotsinacase,the cooler takes up
more space beyond that. Take care if yourPC
hasanother PCI-Edevicebelow the main
graphics cardslot, or somethinglike aPSU
NVIDIA GeForce
RTX2080Super
★★★★★
£750•From http://www.ebuyer.com
VERDICT
Abetter overall GPU than the RTX2080, bu
still not the best premium card to buy
mini-towerand small form factor cases, more
pressingly, simply won’thaveroom at all, so
check your clearances before buying.
The biggerproblem, however, is that
theRTX 2080 Super doesn’t exactlydeliver
theperformance improvementsthat were
hoped for. In Dirt Showdown, it bumps up
against a144fps barrier at both 1080pand
1440p,and while its4Kresult of 110fps is
prettygood, that’sonly 2fps faster than the
RTX2070Super.LITTLE BY LITTLE
Metro: Last Light shows aslight step up from
thestandardRTX 2080, with 118fpsat1080p,
76fpsat1440p and 34fps at 4K.Unfortunately,
these are all justsingle-digit improvements, as
the RTX2080 produced 114fps, 69fps and
30fpsrespectively.Turning off SSAAat4K
results in asmooth68fps,which is good, but
thenthat’salso onlyslightlyabove theRTX
2070Super.All of this also means the RTX
2080Super struggles to close the gap with
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visibly smootheratall three resolutions.2080 Super is behind in Tomb Raider,asit
runs fast enough –247fps at 1080p and 171fps
at 1440p–that the RTX2080 Ti’s even faster
resultsdon’t translateintoaperceptible
advantage.87fps at 4K isn’tbad, either: it’s a
decent 12fps ahead of theRTX 2070Super,
albeit 23fps behindthe RTX2080 Ti.
Allthreeofthese GPUs scored 11 in the
SteamVRPerformance Test, but the RTX2080
Superstill ends up back where the RTX2080
started: uncomfortably sandwiched between a
better-value RTX2070 (or in this case, the RTX
2070 Super)and the significantly more
muscularRTX 2080 Ti. If the added coresand
raised clock speeds had produced greater
improvements, it could have beenagenuinely
attractive alternative forthose who wantthe
best possible1440p and 4K performance
without breaking £1,000, butwhen the RTX
2070 Super so often comeswithin afew
frames persecond, it’s more sensible just to
opt forthe cheaper one.SOFT POWER
In somewaysssthat’s unfortunate, as MSI has
donefine work on theengineering side.The
Gaming XTriooocoolerisquiet and effective: we
rec r ed oreeetemperatures of 43°C at idle
der load,witharare peak of 68°C.
salsosomehowmoreefficient
X2080 GamingXTrio: that had a
W,but this card is ratedat250W,
measured it drawing between
5W during our benchmarks.
willtake more than that to beat
0 Super on value.The 2080
hnicallythe most powerfulGPU
without splashing out on the
X2080 Ti, andthe lower price is
stepinthe right direction, but it
ill feels like Nvidia’s middle child
edstobeeithermuchcheaper or
ven faster in ordertomakeita
orthwhile investment.GRAPHICSCARDS
tlyn’trt
r
at could get in theway. Alot of It