Those lucky enough to have pre-ordered the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti or RTX 2080 back when they were announced should have received their graphics card(s) by now. However, if you were (intelligently) waiting for benchmark results to come in from reputable technology review outlets, your wait is over.
We’ve thoroughly tested both of these new graphics cards in some of the latest games and performance benchmarks, and the results are both exciting and interesting. As you can see by the tests, these cards are for some reason stronger in 4K and HDR game performance than in straight 1080p.
For instance, the below chart shows that the RTX 2080 Ti has seen a 21% increase in average frame rate over the previously top-of-the-line Titan Xp while playing Total War: Warhammer 2 at UHD (3,840 x 2,160) resolution – yet in the same game at 1080p resolution shows a much more variable frame rate with a minimum of 19 frames per second (fps). According to Nvidia, this may have to do with your processor, not the hyper-expensive graphics card you just bought.
We see a similar situation in Middle Earth: Shadow of War: the RTX 2080 Ti produces an average UHD frame rate of 74 fps compared to the Titan Xp’s 56 fps – a gain of 32%! However, at 1080p the the 2080 Ti’s minimum fps is lower than the Titan Xp’s.
“In many cases, the GeForce RTX 2080 is so powerful that the CPU is the bottleneck, according to Nvidia. “To prevent this from occurring, we highly recommend you conduct your testing on a 4K display or higher with HDR. We also suggest you use maximum graphics settings and high AA levels in most games. The Turing GPU architecture improves High Dynamic Range (HDR) gaming performance and input latency using hardware-based compositing, tone mapping, and chroma filtering with HDR surfaces.”
High-end gear for high-end gaming
In short, these graphics cards are clearly aimed at users with supporting high-end hardware and components, such as an equally high-end processor and 4K gaming monitor with HDR.
Using less than apparently absolutely optimal hardware may actually work against these new graphics cards, so it’s something worth considering before buying.
Regardless, you’re looking at a 20% to 30% increase in gaming performance from the RTX 2080 Ti over the highest-end Nvidia graphics card of the previous generation. So, if you were already in that camp that follows the latest and most powerful PC gaming hardware, then either of these options would be worth your cash.
If not, then it’s going to cost you a lot more money to draw out the true value of these parts.
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