Last year, NVIDIA introduced their latest Turing based GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards, which made a complete departure from traditional GPU design and created a hybrid GPU architecture that would include a range of new technologies to power the next-generation immersive gaming experiences.
The GeForce RTX 20 series was the enablement of real-time raytracing which is the holy grail of graphics and something NVIDIA took 10 years to perfect. In addition to raytracing, NVIDIA also aimed to place bets on AI which would go on to play a key role in powering features such as DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling.
While the GeForce RTX 20 series was generally well-received in the tech industry, the launch didn't go without a few issues. The first and foremost problem with the new cards was the heavily taxing RTX features and a few key titles that supported it. Since the technology was new, it needed time to deliver results and it felt kind of rushed on NVIDIA's part. The second was the pricing with each tier getting a bump in price over its predecessor.
But all of that changed in July when NVIDIA brought forth their new RTX SUPER lineup. Think of it as the original Turing lineup but supercharged with better performance & more sensible prices. The lineup includes three cards, the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER, and GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER. Termed in our original review as what Turing should've been in the first place, the GeForce RTX SUPER is to bring more gamers over the RTX bandwagon.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER Pricing Per Segment
When it comes to prices, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is going to retail at $699 US, the RTX 2070 SUPER is going to retail at $499 US and the RTX 2060 SUPER is going to retail at $399 US. One would ask the question that if the prices are the same as they were before, what has changed?
Well, everything aside from the prices has been upgraded. When it comes to specifications, the RTX 2080 SUPER is going to offer around 10% better performance than the Titan XP for $699 US. The RTX 2070 SUPER is said to offer 16% better performance than the RTX 2070 for $499US, putting it right under the current RTX 2080 and the RTX 2060 SUPER is said to be 15% faster than the RTX 2060 for $399 US which puts it at 1% slower than the existing RTX 2070 for a much lower price.
What happens to the existing cards? The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2070 are entirely replaced by their SUPER equivalents so NVIDIA and their AIBs would no longer be making more of those. There might be heavy promotions and discounts on the existing stock to clear up an inventory. As for the RTX 2060, it would exist because of the $349 US price point which makes it the perfect step up to RTX performance and feature set in this category. All cards below that fall in the GTX 16 series portfolio which offer the Turing architecture but exclude RTX features. Following is what the latest pricing chart for NVIDIA GeForce lineup looks like.
NVIDIA GeForce GPU Segment/Tier Prices
| Graphics Segment | 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titan Tier | Titan X (Maxwell) | Titan X (Pascal) | Titan Xp (Pascal) | Titan V (Volta) | Titan RTX (Turing) |
| Price | $999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $2999 US | $2499 US |
| Ultra Enthusiast Tier | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
| Price | $649 US | $649 US | $699 US | $999 US | $999 US |
| Enthusiast Tier | GeForce GTX 980 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER |
| Price | $549 US | $549 US | $549 US | $699 US | $699 US |
| High-End Tier | GeForce GTX 970 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER |
| Price | $329 US | $379 US | $379 US | $499 US | $499 US |
| Mainstream Tier | GeForce GTX 960 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER GeForce RTX 2060 GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GeForce GTX 1660 |
| Price | $199 US | $249 US | $249 US | $249 US | $399 US $349 US $279 US $229 US $219 US |
| Entry Tier | GTX 750 Ti GTX 750 |
GTX 950 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 |
GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 |
GTX 1650 |
| Price | $149 US $119 US |
$149 US | $139 US $109 US |
$139 US $109 US |
$149 US |
In addition to the specs/price update, NVIDIA's RTX technologies are being widely adopted major game engines and APIs such as Microsft DirectX (DXR), Vulkan, Unreal Engine, Unity and Frostbite. While there were only three RTX titles around the launch of the RTX 20 series cards, NVIDIA claims that they have at least 13 new titles coming soon which would utilize their RTX feature set to offer real-time ray tracing. These titles include the hugely anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, DOOM Eternal, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Watch Dogs Legion, Wolfenstein Youngblood, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. In addition to that, with the upcoming consoles confirmed to feature ray tracing, developers can also make use of the RTX technology to fine-tune future games for the GeForce RTX hardware.
So for this review, I will be taking a look at the GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER WTF (Work The Frames) graphics card. The Work The Frames series is a completely new lineup based around NVIDIA's GeForce RTX graphics cards, featuring triple-fan coolers on the RTX 2080 SUPER and GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER. GALAX has positioned the new lineup in the $500 US+ category which sits right below the HOF series which include GALAX's top of the line graphics cards with a key focus towards overclocking enthusiasts. The GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER WTF has a retail pricing suggested around $750 US.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER Family
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER series is currently composed of three cards, the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER, and GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER. Nothing has changed in terms of architecture and the cards feature the same 12nm FinFET process node. Only the assigned GPU config has changed on all three cards along with a new shroud design. But before we get into the visual changes, let's talk specs.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER - Full TU104 GPU, 15.5 Gbps Memory
The NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER utilizes the TU104-450 GPU with 3072 CUDA cores, 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and would be clocked in at 15.5 Gbps along with a 256-bit bus interface. This would boost the total bandwidth to 496 GB/s which is just shy of that sweet 500 GB/s figures which could now easily be achieved with a slight overclock.
The core clocks are maintained at 1650 MHz base and 1815 MHz boost. The card would have a TDP of 250W and would feature 8 Giga Rays/second worth of ray tracing horsepower. The card officially launched on 23rd of July, 2019.
In terms of performance, the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER has been around 10-15% faster on average than the Titan XP which makes it a lot faster than the GTX 1080 Ti, a card that the RTX 2080 was only able to match. The card is rated to deliver 11 TFLOPs of FP32 and 11 TFLOPs of INT32 Compute power and the tensor operations are rated at 89 TOPs which are clearly faster than RTX 2080s 10.1 TFLOPs FP32 and around 81 TOPs worth of horsepower. Those who have been saving up to buy a graphics card would find this a great high-end card compared to the original RTX 2080 or the Radeon VII.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Official Photo Gallery:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER - The Navi Killer For $499 US
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the replacement for the RTX 2070 and while the RTX 2070 was not as popular as its predecessors, the GTX 1070 or the GTX 970, the RTX 2070 SUPER might actually change that. For $499 US, the existing RTX 2070 was clearly priced a bit too high. Even if it was faster than the RTX 1080 ($649 US), the price point was higher for the card to get attention from the mainstream audience who had previously seen the **70 tier cards under $400 US. The RTX 2070 SUPER doesn't change the price point but it changes the specs and now it's no longer faster than the GTX 1080, it's faster than the GTX 1080 Ti and just around the same performance of a reference RTX 2080.
In terms of specifications, the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is everything that the rumors have told us. The GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER would be utilizing the Turing TU104-410 GPU with 2560 CUDA Cores, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It would also feature 320 Tensor Cores and 40 RT cores. The clock speeds would be maintained at 1605 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost with the TGP (Total Graphics Power) being set at 215W. The chip will be accompanied by 8 GB of GDDR6 memory operating at 14Gbps along with a 256-bit wide bus interface, delivering a total bandwidth of 448 GB/s.
When it comes to competition, the card would compete against AMD's recently announced, 7nm RDNA based Radeon RX 5700 XT which does cost $100 US less but doesn't have the RTX feature set that GeForce cards do support. In addition to that, while the Radeon RX 5700 XT was shown to be about 10% faster than the RTX 2070 on average, the RTX 2070 SUPER is about 16% faster average and up to 24% faster. It also has a maximum compute power of 9.1 TFLOPs FP32 / 9.1 TFLOPs INT 32 and 72 Tensor OPs. Another surprising fact about this card is that it has 10W lower power than the Radeon offering and the reference design offers two axial tech-based fans compared to just one on AMD's reference design. So in an all reference battle, you know who the real winner would turn out to be.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Official Photo Gallery:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER - More VRAM, More Cores, Higher Clocks For $399
Out of all the cards, the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER has received one of the major upgrades. The GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER would be utilizing the full Turing TU106-410 GPU die with 2176 CUDA Cores, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. It would also feature 272 Tensor Cores and 32 RT cores. The clock speeds would be maintained at 1470 MHz base and 1650 MHz boost with the TGP (Total Graphics Power) being set at 175W. The chip will be accompanied with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory operating at 14Gbps along with a 256-bit wide bus interface, delivering a total bandwidth of 448 GB/s. The Vram would be the biggest upgrade over the 6 GB RTX 2060 which also featured a cut down 192-bit bus interface.
When it comes to performance, you are paying $100 US lower for the same performance as the GeForce RTX 2070. This places the card ideally against AMD's Radeon RX 5700 (non-XT) which has been priced at $349 US. The GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is 15% faster on average than the existing RTX 2060 in 1440p.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Official Photo Gallery:
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 SUPER Lineup Specifications:
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Architecture | Turing GPU (TU106) | Turing GPU (TU106) | Turing GPU (TU106) | Turing GPU (TU104) | Turing GPU (TU104) | Turing GPU (TU104) | Turing GPU (TU102) |
| Process | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN |
| Die Size | 445mm2 | 445mm2 | 445mm2 | 545mm2 | 545mm2 | 545mm2 | 754mm2 |
| Transistors | 10.6 Billion | 10.6 Billion | 10.6 Billion | 13.6 Billion | 13.6 Billion | 13.6 Billion | 18.6 Billion |
| CUDA Cores | 1920 Cores | 2176 Cores | 2304 Cores | 2560 Cores | 2944 Cores | 3072 Cores | 4352 Cores |
| TMUs/ROPs | 120/48 | 136/64 | 144/64 | 184/64 | 192/64 | 192/64 | 288/96 |
| GigaRays | 5 Giga Rays/s | 6 Giga Rays/s | 6 Giga Rays/s | 7 Giga Rays/s | 8 Giga Rays/s | 8 Giga Rays/s | 10 Giga Rays/s |
| Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 6 MB L2 Cache |
| Base Clock | 1365 MHz | 1470 MHz | 1410 MHz | 1605 MHz | 1515 MHz | 1650 MHz | 1350 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1680 MHz | 1650 MHz | 1620 MHz 1710 MHz OC |
1770 MHz | 1710 MHz 1800 MHz OC |
1815 MHz | 1545 MHz 1635 MHz OC |
| Compute | 6.5 TFLOPs | 7.5 TFLOPs | 7.5 TFLOPs | 9.1 TFLOPs | 10.1 TFLOPs | 11.1 TFLOPs | 13.4 TFLOPs |
| Memory | Up To 6 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 11 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Speed | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 15.50 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps |
| Memory Interface | 192-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 352-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 336 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 496 GB/s | 616 GB/s |
| Power Connectors | 8 Pin | 8 Pin | 8 Pin | 8+6 Pin | 8+8 Pin | 8+8 Pin | 8+8 Pin |
| TDP | 160W | 175W | 185W (Founders) 175W (Reference) |
215W | 225W (Founders) 215W (Reference) |
250W | 260W (Founders) 250W (Reference) |
| Starting Price | $349 US | $399 US | $499 US | $499 US | $699 US | $699 US | $999 US |
| Price (Founders Edition) | $349 US | $399 US | $599 US | $499 US | $699 US | $699 US | $1,199 US |
| Launch | January 2019 | July 2019 | October 2018 | July 2019 | September 2018 | July 2019 | September 2018 |
In case you want to read our full NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture deep dive and GeForce RTX 2080 & GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition review, head over to this link.
The GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER WTF is the flagship variant in the Work The Frames RTX SUPER family. Yeah, that's what GALAX decided to name the card but as a product, the card is pretty good, in fact, there are some unique elements to the design which have been used that look great. The card is super long, packing a 2.7 slot design and a triple-fan cooling solution. There's also RGB, a non-reference PCB, a factory overclock which is expected of custom RTX 20 SUPER series cards, however at a premium price of around $750 US.
In addition to the custom design, the RTX 2080 SUPER Work The Frames comes with a non-reference PCB, featuring an 8+2 phase DrMOS design that features higher quality components than the reference variant which is already a really good design by itself. In terms of clock speeds, the graphics card features the same base frequency of 1650 MHz but the boost clock is rated at 1860 MHz over the Founders boost of 1815 MHz.
Following are some of the features of the GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Work The Frames before we go in detail:
- CUDA Cores 3072
- Boost Clock (MHz) 1845
- 1-Click OC Clock (MHz) 1860 (by installing Xtreme Tuner Plus Software and using 1-Click OC)
- Memory Specs:
- Memory Speed 15.5 Gbps
- Standard Memory Config 8GB
- Memory Interface Width 256-bit GDDR6
- Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 496
- Feature Support:
- PCI-E 3.0
- Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 10 64-bit, Linux 64-bit
- Display Support:
- DisplayPort 1.4 x 3, HDMI 2.0b
- Dimensions(with Bracket): 328*150*53mm
- Dimensions(without Bracket): 314*132*53mm
The GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER WTF graphics card comes inside a standard cardboard box. The front of both packages has a large "GeForce RTX" brand logo along with the "GALAX" logo on the top left corner and the card branding on the lower-left corner. A large picture of the graphics card itself is depicted on the front along with the whole hooded gamer vibes that GALAX has been using to market their gaming cards for a while now.
The packaging has put a large emphasis on the RTX side of things as the first feature enlisted by AIBs will be Ray Tracing, followed by GDDR6, DirectX 12 and Ansel support. NVIDIA has bet the future of their gaming GPUs on Ray Tracing support as these are the first cards to offer support for the new feature.
The back of the box is very typical, highlighting the main features and specifications of the cards. There's also a focus towards GeForce.com on each AIB card through which users can download the latest drivers and GeForce Experience application which are a must for gamers to access all feature sets of the new cards.
The sides of the box once again greet us with the large GeForce RTX branding. There's also the mention of 8 GB GDDR6 (RTX 2080) memory available on the card. The higher memory bandwidth delivered through the new GDDR6 interface would help improve performance in gaming titles at higher resolution over GDDR5 and GDDR5X based graphics cards.
Outside of the box, the graphics card and the accessory package are held firmly by foam packaging. The graphics card comes with a few accessories and manuals which might not be of much use for hardcore enthusiasts but can be useful for the mainstream gaming audience.
The card is nicely wrapped within an anti-static cover which is useful to prevent any unwanted static discharges on various surfaces that might harm the graphics card. The card accessories include a Molex power connector which isn't of much use in high-end systems since the PSUs already have the required cables. There's also a quick installation guide that is handy for new users who are building their PC for the very first time.
After the package is taken care of, I can finally start talking about the card itself. This thing is a beast. Just like all other RTX 2080's I have tested so far, this has the premium feel to it which is something great to see as a first impression.
The graphics card is really big but not the biggest from the ones I have tested. The card measures at 314 x 132 x 53 mm and takes up 2.7 slots worth of space for installation. You would have to keep in mind the height when going for a dual card solution as your case or motherboard PCIe slot combination may not allow such setup. The cooling shroud extends all the way to the back of the PCB and it requires a casing with good interior space for proper installation.
The back of the card features a backplate which comes with a unique Galaxy picture etched on it. The backplate offers a lot more functionality than just looks which I will get back to in a bit.
In terms of design, the graphics card rocks a dual-tone color scheme which is black and silver along with some blue linings on the front. The card is a mid-way between the EX Gamer and HOF series but has a more premium feel compared to the EX Gamer which is expected because of the higher pricing of the card.
GALAX is going fully on-board the RGB bandwagon with their Work The Frame series, offering multiple light zones on the front and back of the card. The shroud itself extends beyond the PCB.
Coming to the fans, the card rocks triple 90mm fans. Each fan is comprised of 11 blades which have a very angular shape that is made to disperse hot air out of the card faster than standard designs.
While all three fans have an acrylic finish to really shine with all the embedded RGB LEDs, the fan in the middle has an RGB ring etched around the shroud which offers an even more glorious display of this card's RGB capabilities.
GALAX also features a 0db fan technology on the fans which isn't explicitly mentioned. This feature won’t spin the fans on the card unless they reach a certain threshold. In the case of the GALAX heatsink, that limit is set to 60C. If the card is operating under 60C, the fans won’t spin which means no extra noise would be generated.
I am back at talking about the full-coverage backplate which the card uses. Do note that we are looking at a plastic backplate which does come with heat pads on the back. The backplate offers both protection and cooling to the card itself.
There are cutouts along the back of the backplate and the galaxy image used on the card has a nice touch although there were many other and great options for images that GALAX could have selected. But to top it off, GALAX has embedded multiple RGB LEDs within the backplate that glow through the stars, offering a stunning display of RGB effects inside your PC. It's as if you're looking at a real-time GALAXY inside your PC.
Gone is SLI and now we have the latest NVLINK gold finger connectors. Both the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 come with a single NVLINK connector which allows for 2-Way multi-GPU functionality. The RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 are the only cards to support NVLINK connectivity so multi-GPU is only for the high-end spectrum of cards and for good reason. Only these cards have enough bandwidth that can drive another GPU of their tier as anything below wouldn't have the power to interlink to the other card.
A single x8 NVLINK channel provides 25 GB/s peak bandwidth. There are two x8 links on the TU102 GPU and a single x8 link on the Turing TU104 GPU. The TU102 GPU features 50 GB/s of bandwidth in parallel and 100 GB/s bandwidth bi-directionally. Using NVLINK on high-end cards would be beneficial in high-resolution gaming but there’s a reason NVIDIA still restricts users from doing 3 and 4 way SLI.
Multi-GPU still isn’t optimized so you won’t see many benefits unless you are running the highest-end graphics cards. That’s another reason why the RTX 2070 and below are deprived of NVLINK connectors. The NVLINK connectors cost $79 US each and are sold separately. Currently, only NVIDIA is selling them as the AIB cards don’t include any such connectors but that may change once the standard is adopted widely.
With the outsides of the card done, I will now start taking a glance at what's beneath the hood of this monster graphics card. The first thing to catch my eye is the humungous fin stack that's part of the beefy heatsink which the card utilizes.
The large fin stack runs all the way from the front and to the back of the PCB and is so thick that you can barely see through it.
Talking about the heatsink, there are two blocks of aluminum fins which are interconnected by six heat pipes running through the copper base plate and heading out towards the dual heatsink blocks.
There are several heat pads included for the VRMs and memory chips. They are full-sized, making full contact with the components to offer stable and efficient heat transfer.
I/O on the graphics card includes three Display Port 1.4a and a single HDMI 2.0b. The reference variants include the USB Type-C VirtualLink connector which is missing on this card.
GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Work The Frames Teardown:
GALAX makes use of a slightly non-reference PCB design which includes a 8+2 phase DrMOS power delivery system. The card also uses the K4Z80325BC-HC16 GDDR6 memory from Samsung that operates at 15.5 Gbps alongside a 256-bit wide memory interface. Now interestingly, these modules are rated to hit 16 Gbps but NVIDIA has toned them down by 0.5 Gbps.
The exact reason for this is not stated and DRAM yields don't seem to be the issue here as the 16 Gbps dies have been in mass production for a while. What I have heard is that since the RTX 2080 SUPER uses the same PCB designs as RTX 2080, most AIBs are not going for a PCB revision just to support 16 Gbps dies which is required for stability purposes even though the chips can handle 16 Gbps with ease on a slight overclock
The GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Work The Frames is a very power-hungry graphics card as showcased by its custom design. Being so, it uses a very power-intensive connector configuration which comprises dual 8 pin connectors. The card is rated at a TDP of 275W officially by GALAX.
We used the following test system for comparison between the different graphics cards. The latest drivers that were available at the time of testing were used from AMD and NVIDIA on an updated version of Windows 10. All games that were tested were patched to the latest version for better performance optimization for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.
GPU Test Bench 'GALAX RTX 2080 SUPER WTF':
| CPU | Intel Core i9-9900K @ 4.70 GHz |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | AORUS Z390 Master |
| Video Cards | MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER WTF Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC MSI GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming Z ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 2070 STRIX OC MSI Radeon RX 5700 Gaming X MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z |
| Memory | G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series 32GB (4 X 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz |
| Storage | Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB) |
| Power Supply | ASUS ROG THOR 1200W PSU |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit |
| Drivers | AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.10.1 NVIDIA GeForce 440.97 WHQL |
- All games were tested on 2560×1440 (2K) and 3840×2160 (4K) resolutions.
- Image Quality and graphics configurations have been provided in the screenshots below.
- The “reference” cards are the stock configs while the “overclock” cards are factory overclocked configs provided to us by various AIB partners.
DOOM
In 2016, Id finally released DOOM. My testing wouldn’t be complete without including this title. All cards were capable of delivering ample frame rates at the 1440p resolution using Nightmare settings, so my focus turned to 4K.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Wolfenstein is back in The New Colossus and features the most fast-paced, gory and brutal FPS action ever! The game once again puts us back in the Nazi-controlled world as BJ Blazkowicz. Set during an alternate future where Nazis won the World War, the game shows that it can be fun and can be brutal to the player and to the enemy too. Powering the new title is once again, id Tech 6 which is much acclaimed after the success that DOOM has become. In a way, ID has regained their glorious FPS roots and are slaying with every new title.
Ultra HQ-AF, Vulkan, Async Compute On *if available, Deferred Rendering and GPU culling off
We tested the game at Ultra settings under the Vulkan API which is standard. Async Compute was enabled for graphics cards that support it while deferred rendering and GPU culling were disabled.
Ashes of The Singularity: Escalation
NVIDIA and AMD have been tweaking the performance of their cards for Ashes of the Singularity since the title released. It was the first to make use of the DirectX 12 API and the first to leverage from the new Async compute technology that makes use of the DX12 renderer to improve performance.
Battlefield V
Battlefield V brings back the action of the World War 2 shooter genre. Using the latest Frostbite tech, the game does a good job of looking gorgeous in all ways possible. From the open-world environments to the intense and gun-blazing action, this multiplayer and single-player FPS title is one of the best looking Battlefields to date.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Humanity is at war with itself and divided into factions. On one end, we have the pure and on the other, we have the augmented. That is the world where Adam Jensen lives in and this is the world of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game uses the next generation Dawn Engine that was made by IO interactive on the foundation of their Glacier 2 engine. The game features support of DirectX 12 API and is one of the most visually intensive titles that taxes the GPU really hard.
Hitman 2 (DX12 Highest Settings)
Hitman 2 is the highly acclaimed sequel to 2016 Hitman which was a redesign and reimaging of the game from the ground up. With a focus on stealth gameplay through various missions, the game once again lets you play as Agent 47 who embarks on a mission to hunt down the mysterious Shadow Client. The game runs on IO’s Interactive’s Glacier 2 engine which has been updated to deliver amazing visuals and environments on each level while making use of DirectX 12 API.
Shadow of The Tomb Raider
Sequel to The Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of The Tomb Raider is visually enhanced with an updated Foundation Engine that delivers realistic facial animations and the most gorgeous environments ever seen in a Tomb Raider Game. The game is a technical marvel and really shows the power of its graphics engine in the latest title.
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus continues the journey of Artyom through the nuclear wasteland of Russia and its surroundings. This time, you are set over the Metro, going through various regions and different environments. The game is one of the premier titles to feature NVIDIA’s RTX technology and does well in showcasing the ray-tracing effects in all corners.
Assassins Creed: Origins
Assassins Creed Origins is built by the same team that made Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. They are known for reinventing the design and game philosophy of the Assassins Creed saga and their latest title shows that. Based in Egypt, the open-world action RPG shows its graphics strength in all corners. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 engine which boosts the draw distance range and delivers a very impressive graphics display.
We tested the game at maxed settings with TAA enabled and 16x AF. Do note that the game is one of the most demanding titles out in the market and as such tweaks and performance issues are being patched out.
Far Cry 5
Far Cry 5 is a standalone successor to its predecessor and takes place in Hope County, a fictional region of Montana. The main story revolves around doomsday cult the Project at Eden’s Gate and its charismatic leader Joseph Seed. It uses a beefed up Dunia Engine which itself is a modified version of CryEngine from Crytek.
Final Fantasy XV
Grand Theft Auto V
GTA V is the most optimized gaming title that has been made for the PC. It’s so optimized, it even runs on my crap GT 840M based laptop with a smooth FPS on a mix of medium/low settings. I mean what???
Aside from being optimized, GTA V is a great game. It was the Game of The Year for 2013. At 1440p Ultra quality, the game gave us smooth frames on all cards tested.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Using the new Anvil Next engine that was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Ghost Recon: Wildlands goes wild and grand with an open-world setting entirely in Bolivia. This game is a tactical third-person shooter which does seem an awful lot similar to Tom Clancy's: The Division. The game looks pretty and the wide-scale region of Bolivia looks lovely at all times (Day/Night Cycle).
The Witcher 3 Game of The Year Edition
Witcher 3 is the greatest fantasy RPG of our time. It has a great story, great gameplay mechanics and gorgeous graphics. This is the only game I actually wanted to get a stable FPS at 4K. With GameWorks disabled, I gave all high-end cards the ability to demonstrate their power.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War
The successor of 2014’s epic, Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War continues the previous game’s narrative continuing the story of the ranger Talion and the spirit of the elf lord Celebrimbor, who shares Talion’s body, as they forge a new Ring of Power to amass an army to fight against Sauron. The game uses the latest Firebird Engine developed by Monolith Productions and is very intensive even for modern graphics cards.
No graphics card review is complete without evaluating its temperatures and thermal load. The GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Work The Frames graphics card comes with a triple-fan cooler with 0db fan technology, a massive heatsink that is composed of several aluminum fins and heat pipes and an extended backplate which covers the entire PCB.
Note – We tested load with Kombuster which is known as a ‘power virus’ and can permanently damage the hardware. Use such software at your own risk!
I compiled the power consumption results by testing each card under idle and full stress when the card was running games. Each graphics card manufacturer sets a default TDP for the card which can vary from vendor to vendor depending on the extra clocks or board features they plugin on their custom cards. Default TDP for the RTX 2080 is set at 250W while the GALAX custom model has a TDP of 275W.
Also, it's worth noting that the 12nm FFN process from TSMC is a refinement of their 16nm FF node. NVIDIA is cramping even larger amounts of transistors and more cores than their previous cards, making it one of the densest chips built to date. It's likely to consume a lot of power and the results are reflective of that.
GALAX has an impressive card in the form of the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Work The Frames. The naming scheme may not be the most ideal but you can call it whatever you want but naming is the least of my concerns. If the card is a great performer, then I'd take it over anything else. The GALAX RTX 2080 SUPER Work The Frames has an impressive shroud design which is part of their new WTF series. A big triple-fan cooler with a meaty heatsink and a custom PCB design. What's interesting is that GALAX doesn't have any flashy marketing or weird names (other than the card itself), for the cooling mechanism.
In terms of design, the RTX 2080 SUPER is equipped with the fastest GDDR6 memory chips which run at 15.5 Gbps. The DRAM chips are actually 16 Gbps certified so users would have a lot of head-room for overclocking them however it's disappointing that no AIBs provide an out of box OC on the memory chips. The GPU gets a nice bump in clocks by GALAX of up to 1860 MHz and the performance benefit can be seen in an instant. The extra cores and the faster memory combine to give a 5-10% performance jump over the RTX 2080.
Yes, the card comes with an 1860 MHz clock profile but you can only unlock it through GALAX's Xtreme Tuner Plus application. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the application itself, it has some intuitive features and lets you control a lot of features on the card itself e.g. RGB, Fan Speed, Temps/Clock monitoring. But AIBs (not just GALAX) could simply add a BIOS switch on their cards or if budget limits them from adding a secondary BIOS on mainstream cards, then simply ship it at the maximum frequency so that users get the rated performance out of the box because there will be many users who would proceed to use the card as it is without tinkering with any tuning software.
Most importantly, the RTX 2080 already gave the AMD Radeon VII a hard time but with the RTX 2080 SUPER, the card is most definitely a no go considering the better performance and extra features you get on the RTX SUPER 2080. Both the RTX 2080 SUPER and the RTX 2080 Ti claim the performance throne at their respective price point with no AMD Radeon powered competitor in-sight.
One more thing, while the card looks great and the RGB implementation is fantastic, GALAX could have opted for a better picture on the backplate. But hey, that's just my own personal opinion, you might like it or not but if you're not in for the looks, then the card is a very solid performer which leads us to the final verdict on the RTX 2080 SUPER Work The Frames. It is a solid performer all around, something that you can expect from a triple-fan cooled graphics card and the new RGB focused design looks very neat. The card rocks one of the highest factory-overclocks we have seen and is a definite recommendation in the large array of custom RTX 2080 SUPER series cards.
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