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RTX-2080Ti

Today, Nvidia launched its new RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 GPUs and at that place are a few different ways to look at the overall results now coming in from multiple sites. We'll have our own review of the cards in the not-likewise-distant future. But with the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti at present in-market, has Nvidia delivered on its hype?

That's going to depend entirely on the price bracket you play in. Simply in my stance, based on the reviews that have come in thus far, no, it hasn't.

Earlier fanboys sharpen their knives, hear me out. There is no denying that the RTX 2080 Ti, in particular, is a damn fast GPU. It's fast before yous talk near capabilities similar DLSS. It's damn powerful. If the GTX 1080 Ti looked like a 4K GPU in 2022, well, the RTX 2080 Ti blows the doors off it in 2022. There is no arguing whether the new RTX 2080 Ti is fast or not. It is. And if you've got $ane,200 to drop on a new GPU, and then y'all are cordially invited to become basics with this new, ultra-fast, crazy-expensive hardware.

Uh. Simply what if you don't?

They're well beneath $500 now. Oops. Wrong carte du jour.

You know why Nvidia launched the RTX 2080 Ti today? Because they demand that halo part to impact everyone'southward opinion of the production stack. Because, without the 2080 TiSEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce, the only thing the RTX 2080 offers today is slightly-ameliorate-than-GTX-1080-Ti operation for a $100 price increase. Our prediction that the GTX 1080 Ti would be the appropriate indicate of comparison for the RTX 2080 has proven right.

We're supposed to testify you lot this one. It'southward a "swell value" if by "bully value" you hateful "Non a great value."

So, aye. If you can afford a $ane,200 GPU, you too tin can savor some incredible performance. If you can't, you're out of this game. And to that end, while reviews are full of praise for the visual effects potentially offered by DLSS and ray tracing, the actual conclusions of reviews are peppered with comments like this:

Ars Technica: "I'one thousand not exactly sure how to feel about the electric current country of the RTX 2080 and the RTX 2080 Ti. $1,200 is a lot of money to guarantee locked 4K/60fps performance at almost-highest settings in your favorite PC games, while the expect and boosted cost of the RTX 2080 feels like a lot to ask for when the above benchmarks tell the states that the 1080 Ti still pretty much packs the same punch."

Tom's Hardware: "But we fancy ourselves advocates for enthusiasts, and nosotros nevertheless can't recommend placing $1200 on the altar of progress to create an audition for game developers to target. If you cull to buy GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, practise then for its performance today, not based on the potential of its halo feature."

All of the strong praise, all of the recommendations come up in for the 2080 Ti. The RTX 2080? Oh that's…. well, I mean, it'south here. Sure, it costs more a 1080 Ti, and sure it doesn't really offer much in the fashion of operation improvements. Merely information technology'due south here. And information technology has all these future features! Let'due south permit the Verge and PCMag say it, since they reviewed the cards:

The Verge: "Based on our testing, Nvidia's big promise of 4K gaming at 60fps with the RTX 2080 is one that simply doesn't hold up correct now."

No, it doesn't. Because Nvidia presaged that messaging on the enablement of features like DLSS, which information technology rolled out with two game demos and no current back up in any aircraft titles. And ExtremeTech does not and will never recommend buying hardware on the ground of future promised features, regardless of which company it comes from. We never recommended you buy an AMD GPU because of future hoped-for performance in Mantle and DirectX 12, and we'll never recommend you lot buy an Nvidia card on the strength of zero ray tracing titles in market, two game demos with DLSS, and a lot of promised future support.

Here's PCMag:

PCMag: "Nvidia's marketing materials played up the RTX 2080 hitting 60fps or greater in many popular titles but didn't disembalm the settings. Beyond vi games tested that were released in the last three years, PC Labs saw an average of 56fps at 4K, the lowest coming from Shadow of the Tomb Raider (45fps). That's using the maximum in-game presets for the benchmarks, mind you. Impressive functioning from a single GPU, but it emphasizes that you lot yet may accept to dabble with the visual-quality sliders to get consequent 60fps-plus performance at 4K…

[T]he $100 actress you're paying for the RTX 2080 Founders Edition may not exist money well spent unless y'all plan to take advantage of the Founders Edition'south overclocking-focused characteristic set and boost its functioning further." (Emphasis added).

As for features like DLSS or ray tracing, yous know what the value of a promise of future support is worth? Just well-nigh zilch. Not literally nothing, no, merely information technology's not something I'd put weight on. It's certainly not a reason to make a purchasing conclusion.

This is why you may call back seeing stories in the by few months about Nvidia's new draconian NDA, its crackdown on GPU sampling, and its control of the unabridged review process. All GPU launches are tightly orchestrated affairs. Just this 1 was tighter than most, because Nvidia needs gamers to care for the RTX 2080 Ti equally the realistic archway point for this kind of performance rather than an overpriced geegaw that only a scattering of gamers can possibly afford. It's aspirational marketing at its finest and it'south cynical as hell.

If y'all are one of the scattering of well-heeled gamers who tin beget a GPU like the RTX 2080 Ti, we sincerely wish yous a neat bargain of enjoyment. It is, hands downwards, unquestionably the fastest GPU you lot can buy today. But keep in mind that you're paying an enormous premium considering Nvidia is in a position to charge 1.

Every bit for the RTX 2080, what Nvidia has delivered today is a GPU that's $100 more the previous summit-end 1080 Ti, performs nearly identically against it, but comes with a lot of unproven promises behind it that volition, supposedly, one day justify its price. This is a song and trip the light fantastic we've heard before. Nosotros heard it with tessellation and DirectX 11. We heard it with PhysX. We've heard it time and time again, and every singletime, by the time the new feature is ever adopted — if it ever is — the prices on the GPUs that characteristic information technology have come up down to the point that the people who paid a premium for the capability got screwed out of ever actually taking advantage of it. We recommend keeping that in mind when you consider how much value you'll always probable extract from ray tracing or DLSS.

Nvidia has done an incredible chore launching new features that, as of today, literally not one title can take advantage of. The company has done astonishing work pulling a bait-and-switch by promising performance for the RTX 2080 that you'll need an RTX 2080 Ti to get. If you love paying Nvidia a lot of money, you're going to love the 2080 Ti. Otherwise, your best bet is to hope that AMD or Intel put something into market in the adjacent 12-18 months to convince Nvidia that it doesn't have a license to care for gamers similar the apples you feed into a cider press. Considering with no contest in the market, hey, they've got the unilateral correct to dictate marketplace pricing. Based on this launch, nosotros can see exactly how Nvidia wants to utilise that position.

Happy gaming.

Now Read: Nvidia Claims Turing Much Faster Than Pascal By Deliberately Comparing the Wrong Cards, Nvidia Will Go on Pascal GPUs on Store Shelves Later on RTX Launches, and New Data Proves RTX 2080 Only Slightly Faster Than GTX 1080 Ti