NVIDIA - GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card

NVIDIA 2080 FE- I want to start with saying this card is expensive. However, after opening the box and pulling the card from its cushioned confines, I am utterly impressed with the build quality. There is a substantial heft to the card as the shroud that encases the card is made entirely from aluminum! The packaging NVIDIA displays here reminds me of Apple products in its presentation. I can’t reiterate enough how solid this card feels! Now my skepticism is creeping up; is NVIDIA overcompensating the build quality for lackluster performance? There’s only one way to find out! After removing my old MSI 1070, I inserted the new 2080 into the PCIe slot, tightened the retaining screws, and plugged in the power connectors. With the weight of the card, I’m now worried about sag and what device I’m going to fashion to fix it... Guess what, NO SAG! The aluminum shroud is attached to the expansion slot bracket with enough screws to support the weight. Once again, very impressed with build quality! Now it’s time fire up the computer and install drivers and MSI Afterburner. I set a custom fan curve to keep temperatures in check and went straight to the new one-click overclocking utility. After 20 minutes, the card settled in at a 2044Mhz clock speed and 7875 stable memory speed. Wow. I know others out there getting higher clock and memory speeds, but this is the Founders Edition we’re talking about; it’s supposed to run hot and obnoxiously loud, but it doesn’t! My gaming temps average 68C - 72C and the fans are running around 70%. Heaven Benchmark @ 2560x1440 with all settings maxed is 2415 with FPS 95.9 Timespy graphics score- 12057 Timespy CPU score - 4579 Timespy combined score-9684 Firestrike-19247 Firestrike graphics score-29617 Firestrike CPU score-11450 Firestrike combined-7396 Rise of the Tomb Raider (all settings maxed no hairworks) 4K - 70.08 FPS 2K - 131.13 FPS Middle Earth Shadow of War (max settings and TAA) 4K - 67 FPS 2K - 107 FPS Assassin’s Creed Origins (max settings) 4K - 59FPS Frames Score-7036 2K - 77FPS Frames Score-8866 All in all, I’m very happy with the performance of the RTX 2080FE. It’s on par with or better than a GTX 1080Ti and it has extra capabilities that I hope games will incorporate in the near future: Ray Tracing and DLSS. I’m most excited about DLSS because it has the potential to increase performance at 4K, and this is the resolution I play most of my games. In conclusion, I do recommend buying this card if you have the money and a 4K monitor. It is expensive, but the build quality and 3 year warranty adds significant value. If DLSS is supported by future games, then these cards will have an incredible value! Ray Tracing is still a question mark for me because the performance hit is substantial, although it is beautiful. I know it’s the future of graphics, but now is not the future, and graphics card companies don’t have the horsepower to make games playable with Ray Tracing enabled with this generation of cards. Once again, buy if you have the money and are in need of an upgrade to play current games with settings maxed. Plus, it’s such a beautiful card!

Lets begin with a deep dive into the setup I had with this card. I purchased 2 of these Founders Edition units to run in NVLink SLI, but also did individual testing of each card. While both cards were top performers (more on that later) alone, together they were absolutely terrible. Performance was there, but stability... was a major miss, even in a single card setup. I went as far as to exchange both cards at different times, in hopes that maybe it was just a particular unit that was causing issues. Even with 4 different units having gone through my setup, each presented the same issue. I'll start with the single card notes, since most consumers will only be looking to buy one. Individual card testing was nearly perfect, given more than exception performance on my 3440x1440p 120hz monitor, but was a huge kicker was the amount of crashing and artifacts being experienced. I ran the card with a mild +150 core/+400 mem overclock, and it would immediately require a hard reset after locking up my system. Stock settings were no different, crashing a good 15mins into loading into a match of Battlefield 5. Only thing that solved my issues was underclocking the memory, sacrificing about 10fps, since im running at a higher resolution at a higher refresh rate. This leads me into my SLI experience. The reason for it being such a terrible idea to run SLI is simply that the cards are too sensitive to the type of VRAM they carry, and I do mean VRAM. There are two vendors providing the GDDR6 to Nvidia for these cards, Samsung and Micron. My first cards were running different chips, one equipped with Samsung, and the other running Micron. They would begin to artifact and crash a lot sooner than with one card installed. I had to run them at stock clocks on the core, and underclocked on the memory, -200mhz to get solid stability for longer gaming sessions. I then began to exchange them, but gave up after having each replacement card come back with Micron chips, and then needing an underclock on the memory of some kind. I was left with a single card that was equipped with Samsung memory chips, but I was unfortunate to have it be a hot unit. Even with fans at 100% fan speed all the time, the card would hit 85c in any game, including a lightweight title like League of Legends. Usually, I would take the card apart to reapply thermal paste and reseat the cooler, but I was done with needing to tweak every 2080 that came onto my test bench. I believe these cards to be amazing, but are still in the shadow of the GTX 1080 Ti, only being competitive in the long run due to better driver support, along with the whole slew of RTX features and technologies packed into the silicon itself. If you're in the market for this card, a second hand 1080 Ti is definitely a card to consider, especially if you don't care for the RTX settings like DLSS and Raytracing. If you're not picking sides/favorites, AMD's Radeon VII is no slouch either, but is a card that spends most of its time out of stock. I currently have one on my test bed, and so far it has been a delightful experience, after making minor changes to the card (fan curve, and undervolting make it shine). The launch day reviews do the Radeon VII little justice, as with most Radeon cards in the past. As it currently stands, I find it difficult to recommend the 2080 FE cards, though you may have better luck with EVGA, ASUS, or MSI versions. If you don't mind waiting a bit longer and saving up more cash, the 2080 Ti might be the card you're looking for.

To say that Nvidia's Turing launch has been heavily criticized is an understatement. I personally had no plans to buy a 2080 or 2080ti, until it became clear that I could not get the performance I wanted out of a Vega GPU. So, when I made the decision to go back to Nvidia, I narrowed my choices down to a 1080ti or a 2080. I did my research and here at Best Buy, for example, most of the 1080ti models I looked at were more expensive than the 2080 and out of stock. I ended up getting the Nvidia Founder's Edition 2080. I am very happy with it. As evidenced by the reviews, the 2080 does perform better than the 1080ti, overall, plus it has great aesthetics, including the shroud, backplate and GEFORCE RTX lighting in the case. The 2080 also includes some nice future proofing, including a USB Type C connector for future VR headsets, as well as RTX (ray tracing) and AI anti-aliasing technologies that will emerge in the next few years. The card runs plenty cool. In short, I do not know why this card has been so heavily criticized. If you are willing to spend $800 on a graphics card, then this is definitely the better option compared to the 1080ti and its performance is on a completely different level compared to AMD's flagship, the Vega 64. Buy with confidence!

So Far so good. Installed in a Mid tower Fractal Focus G case and fits fine with room to spare. The card is silent even when throwing heavy load at it. Currently have played on max/ultra BF 1, Farcry 5, and COD Black OPS 4, and everything is great. Looking forward to the new games that introduce Ray Trace, and the DLSS performance to really see what this card can do. As of right now the card is almost identical in performance to a 1080 ti. So really, the upside is when new games that come out with Ray Trace and DLSS (which there are an abundant scheduled to release) and the cooling. ONE thing I would recommend is to get the EVGA Precision X1 software (RTX version) and turn fan speeds up at higher temps. Nvidia has the fans come stock at 41% to 43% speed during idle to high load times. Tune the Fan graphs to kick on at lower temps. Then enable "Auto" and done. Current rig setup: CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 SSD: Samsung 860 Evo 500GB SSD: Samsung 960 Evo NVMe PCIe M.2 500GB RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB - MBD: Asus PRIME X470-PRO PS: EVGA 1000 watt G3 Case: Fractal Focus G

This GPU from Nvidia is a big upgrade from the 1000 series in both looks and performance. Upgraded from a 1070ti and saw huge FPS gains. RTX features are nice but are not utilized to full potential. Raytracing in BFV has continued to improve with optimization. Paired with a Ryzen 2700X and I see 100FPS or more in AAA titles and over 144hz in MOBA’s and Fortnite. (Closer to 100 in Apex, Blackout, and PUBG). Thats at 1440p resolution. The design is much more appealing with the addition of a dual fan setup as opposed to the air blower in past gens. Stays fairly cool and gets close to 70-75c under max load after a couple hours of gaming. Not bad but not as good as some aftermarket coolers. Mounted vertically really displays the sleek and classy design that nvidia was going for. Not to mention the very nice backplate. Overall, this video card is ideal for 144hz 1440p gaming. Would like some better cooling numbers but power draw, temps, and performance are steady with continued optimization. Can find a used 1080ti with very similar performance for a little cheaper. However, with this card, you are recieving the newest and most advanced GPU capabilities (Raytracing) if you are willing to pay the price tag. $800 at time of purchase.

Before getting the 2080 I was running a 1070 and playing games like Hunt: Showdown. With the older 1070 it would require running everything on lower setting. After installing the 2080 Founders edition (Just replaced card, no other changes needed) I was able to run everything on max settings. It pairs well with another product I purchased (gaming monitor) along with Nvidia's G Synch which makes it even awesomer (yes, I know awesomer isn't a real word). I think the cost for this card and the enjoyment I've gotten conquering other players makes it totally worth it. Due to better system performance and seeing details that a lot of other miss is a must in any FPS. This, coupled with the gaming monitor designed for gaming and the G Sync technology has made me a better, faster, and even more appreciative player. Yes, even if they triumph over me, I still am a happier player. Totally recommend this card accompanied with the G Sync capable monitor (The monitor is the Acer - Predator XB272 27" LED FHD GSync Monitor - Black ).

This card is prone to heating up quickly, and its thermal solution is causing it to stay at high temperatures (averaging around 80c-85c the latter causing the fans to run at 4500 RPM.) I have had one already RMA'ed, which dealing with Nvidia was an absolute nightmare and I won't ever buy a product from them as a manufacturer again. Doing thorough testing finding the replacement is having the same issue, (a year and a half old game causing temps to reach to 80c, mid-level 3Dmark Benchmarks pushing it to 80c as well, and unable to complete the stability test Nvidia asked me to run on the first card.) Go with an EVGA or ASUS so if at least you do have issues with the GPU, you're working with a company that is willing to take care of their customers, Nvidia isn't.

I really love this video card! I moved up from a GTX980ti overclocked with water cooling, to this RTX2080, and OMG what a difference! I can finally turn on G-Sync and see my 4K 21:9 monitor working at 100HZ on all the highest settings on BF1! The detail is truly amazing. Super smooth video on everything with this card, using my i7-7700K processor running at 5ghz with 32gb of ram. No more loud fans turning on when the video display is very demanding, this new RTX2080 is very quiet. I don't think it's really necessary to spend $1200 on the Ti version right now, this RTX2080 will play all the current games at 4K with decently high frame rates. Keep in mind that the $1200 version will be on sale for $800 in a few months for sure ;)