With all the hype going around because of Nvidia’s new RTX Series, we finally get our hands on one of the new beasts in the market – Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming OC. To date, only a few games existing that actually support Ray Tracing and will only be  available in the upcoming Windows 10 October update.

Specifications

Specifications

Graphics Processing	GeForce RTX 2080
Core clock	1815 MHz – Gaming Mode 1830 MHz – OC Mode 1710 Mhz – Reference Card
CUDA Cores	2944
Memory Clock	14000 MHz
Memory Size	8GB
Memory Type	GDDR6
Memory Bus	256 bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)	448GB/s
Card Bus	PCI-E 3.0 x 16
Digital max resolution	7680×4320@60Hz
Multi-view	4
Card size	286.5*114.5*50.2mm
PCB Form	ATX
DirectX	12
OpenGL	4.5
Recommended PSU	650W ( With One 8-Pin and One 6-Pin EXTERNAL POWER CONNECTOR)
I/O	DisplayPort 1.4 x3, HDMI 2.0b x1, USB Type-C ™ (support VirtualLink™) x1
SLI support	2-way NVIDIA NVLINK™

DESIGN

From the early release, all we’ve seen are based on reference PCB of the Founder’s Edition launched by Nvidia. The RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8GB come with a triple fan cooler with the middle fan spinning in the opposite direction supposedly to have smoother airflow and for better cooling performance.

 

Moving to the side, we see that the card is equipped with a thicker cooler with 3 parts of Aluminum fins, which entirely makes it a 2.5 slot design as a whole with the design pipes  in direct contact with the GPU die.

With the current power requirement of 250W, you’ll need an 8-pin and a 6-pin PCIe connector for its peak performance.

Behind,  we get a fully covered metal plate that enhances the durability of the card. Definitely a simple looking backplate, but again, it uses the Nvidia reference PCB. It would be a better choice to swap it with a custom water block if you plan to go with a custom water cooling setup.

For the output, you’ll see the new type-C connection for the next generation VR headset,  as well as the usual 3 Display Port 1.4s and HDMI 2.0.

TEST SETUP

 

Toshiba M.2 SATA 256gb SSD (Ksg60zmv256g)

CPU	Intel Core i5-6600k OC 4.5GHz
Motherboard	SuperMicro C7Z270-CG
Memory	8×2 3000mhz DDR4 Kingmax
Graphics Card	Gigabyte RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8G
Power Supply	Thermaltake Smart RGB 700W
Primary Storage
CPU Cooler	ID COOLING AIO
Chassis	LianLi LanCool One
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro

Benchmark and Performance

First Impressions

Right now, we are unable to gauge the full capacity of the RTX series due to the unavailability of the Ray Tracing and with raw power alone. We have yet to test other cards with the next Windows 10 Update in October. This along with the implementation of DirectX Ray Tracing and  Machine Learning Add-on.

Without the big RTX package, all we are able to do is compare the RTX with the previous generation GTX 10 Series card. For our test here, all we are able to conclude is that if you are on a GTX 1080/ti, it would definitely be a sidegrade for you to get an RTX 2080/ti, unless you have the extra cash to burn.

Price wise, it is still too early to tell if the P49,280 premium can be justified without the RTX features. Coming from a GTX 1060/1070, we will definitely get ourselves a piece of the Gigabyte RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8GB. Unless, of course, Gigabyte decides to bring in the Aorus Windforce edition locally.