Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti - buy it cheaper, specs, and other 20-series info
All the latest info on Nvidia's new Geforce ray tracing graphics cards
Demand for new generation Nvidia graphics cards is to be expected, but Nvidia’s newest flagship graphics cards boasting Turing GPU architecture may actually deserve the hype. They're known as the 20-series, and the most powerful is the Geforce RTX 2080 Ti. Here's what we know about these graphics cards, so far, and information on where you can buy them. While the 2080 Ti is available now (you're limited to two orders per customer), you can pre-order the 2080 now and it'll be shipped later in the year. There's no firm release date for the 2070 card.
It's worth noting that with the more powerful 2080 Ti now available to buy, and the collapse of certain Crypto currencies, the lower-spec (but still monstrous) 10-series cards will drop in price. Grabbing a 1080 Ti, for example, was a costly experience 3-6 months ago, but they're now more affordable. Sure, you miss out on the Turning-specific features listed below, but you could easily grab a bargain. Here is our guide to the best graphics cards for PC gaming. And below is our look at all we know about the 20-series.
Nvidia GeForce 2080 Ti performance
Claiming a revolution in gaming realism and performance, the new series of Nvidia consumer-level graphics cards are equipped with AI-enhanced graphics. Unlike previous generations, the GeForce RTX platform is capable of combining the power of real-time ray tracing and programmable shading under AI control - resulting in a highly efficient and intelligent technology. So much so, that Nvidia was forced to create an entirely new performance metric (RTX-OPS) to specifically measure workloads that use ray tracing and machine learning AI; older architectures just can’t compare to the new generation of graphics card technology.
The 20-series cards, especially the Founder’s Editions which have a 90MHz higher boost clock, all promise to deliver a noticeable improvement in experience thanks to the Turing GPU. The advanced architecture combined with the Samsung GDDR6 memory is being hailed as a major leap forward in technology designed for the premium PC consumer.
ou may have never heard of ray tracing, but you have certainly seen it in action. Ray tracing is a rendering technique that has been used in movies for years to give a photo-realistic quality to lavish digital effects, helping to blur the lines between reality and after-effects. But ray tracing has been difficult to apply in real-time applications like video games, because incredibly realistic images come at an incredibly high computing cost. Video games employ some clever tricks to create realistic graphics, but players have been mostly limited to the effects of rasterization. While rasterization techniques can be quite good, they simply don’t compare to what ray tracing can offer.
With ray tracing built in to every one of the latest the latest generation of NVIDIA graphics cards, the real leap forward is that they have established this technology as a PC computing standard.
Programmable shaders are also a critical reason why the new NVIDIA graphics cards are set to outperform their predecessors. The new mesh shaders and ‘meshlets’ allow for ultra efficient level-of-detail techniques and procedural generation, backed by the fluidity of ray tracing and a powerful memory. Some of this RTX-based shadow shading can be seen in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Combined with the incredibly fast Samsung GDDR6, some say the world’s FASTEST memory, the Turing GPU is designed to easily handle video game settings and frame rates cranked to the max. For most consumers, this will be the most notable impact of the new 20-series graphics cards , which should have no trouble pushing 60fps at 4K. For comparison, the GeForce RTX 2080 is estimated to be about 50 percent faster than the GTX 1080 and, with an impressive performance benchmark now leaked, the allure of a visually flawless gaming experience seems justify the admittedly hefty pricing.
