Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super

With improvements in clock speeds we see the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super reach results above the outgoing RTX 2080 but not quite to RTX 2080 Ti levels. With the RTX 2080 Ti coming down in price since launch, the delta is a few hundred dollars to get...

With the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 Super versions making meaningful improvements over the original versions of the same cards for the same price, Nvidia adjusted their foothold in the market to address the rising competition from the likes of AMD. Mid-range...

NVIDIA's RTX 2080 Super is everything we expected: A slightly faster, but not mind blowing, upgrade over the original card. At $700, it gets you near the performance of the high-end RTX 2080 Ti. But most gamers would find more value in the cheaper 2060...

The GeForce RTX 2080 Super has the fastest clocked GDDR6 we've seen so far. It's only slightly faster than the 2080 it replaces, without the Founders Edition shenanigans.

Let's not kid ourselves, $700 is a lot of money, but options are limited: the Radeon VII is end-of-life, the RTX 2070 Super is too slow for 4K, the original RTX 2080 only has marginally better price/performance and lacks the memory OC headroom of the RTX 2080 Super, and the RTX 2080 Ti is probably too expensive for people with just $600-$800 to spend. In order to offset the cost a little bit and show off the benefits of their RTX technology, NVIDIA includes a two-game bundle with all RTX Super cards consisting of Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Control, which both support raytracing.

Nevertheless, at the same US$699 price tag, NVIDIA is still offering better value-for-money than before with the performance bump at the same price point, and if you own an older card and are looking to upgrade to a high-end Turing model, there's no reason why the GeForce RTX 2080 Super shouldn't be on your list. After all, AMD doesn't really have an answer at this price point yet.

The performance deltas separating the GeForce RTX 2080 Super from the original aren’t quite as stark as the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 Supers versus their non-Super counterparts, but it is faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 Founder’s Edition and it’s priced lower to boot. The GeForce RTX 2080 Super doesn’t shake up the line-up quite as significantly as its little brothers, but it does offer more performance per dollar, and that’s always a good thing.

The RTX 2080 Super is by no means a bad GPU or a terrible deal, but the performance bump compared to the RTX 2080 ranges from mild to non-existent in some games. Thank goodness Nvidia didn't raise the price otherwise this would be a bad launch for team green. Overall it's still a great GPU though, in that it's very powerful and runs silent and cool. Still, I think people expected more from this GPU based on the previous Super variants.

If I were on the market for a high-end graphics card, which I often am, the RTX 2080 SUPER would be second on my list. I’d be looking at the RTX 2080 Ti with puppy eyes through the shop window, crying into my wallet, and then walk right in and buy the RTX 2080 SUPER. Despite that, I would have no regrets about the SUPER once it was in my rig. It’s well made, it’s only somewhat painfully expensive compared to the flagship card, and it’s SUPER-fast when it comes to gaming; which is what we really want.

The only kicker here is that the RTX 2080 is discontinued and once the channel supply has been bought up they will be gone. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE price remains unchanged at $1199. Those with deep pockets will pay the extra $500 to step up to the RTX 2080 Ti FE, but those that actually look at their bank account balance from time to time might find the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER much more appealing.