Gigabyte windforce 2080 review: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming OC Review

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming OC Review

Manufacturer: Gigabyte

UK price (as reviewed): £679.99 (inc. VAT)

US price (as reviewed): $719.99 (exc. tax)

It’s been a good four months since the RTX 2080 Super launched, but in all honesty nothing has really changed since then that affects its position in the market. While the launch of Navi successfully humbled Nvidia into significant price revisions when launching the RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2060 Super, the RTX 2080 Super remains without real competition from AMD, meaning it enjoys a much greater degree of freedom when it comes to pricing. The performance bump it offers over the RTX 2070 Super (and RX 5700 XT if you exclude ray tracing from the equation) is nowhere near enough to justify its ~£700 pricing, but the market is evidently tolerating it, and for users happy to spend substantially more than £500 but also a fair deal less than the £1,000 admission fee to RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080 Super is the only viable choice.

It’s at those lucky enthusiasts, then, that this review is aimed at. Our primary buying advice is to consider the superior value offered in the £400-£550 graphics card market, but if you’re already set on the RTX 2080 Super following the reasoning above, the next question is which one? After all, the Founders Edition is a very solid card by basically any measure, and it remains in stock for £689 at the time of writing, meaning board partners like Gigabyte need to strike a balance of adding value through worthwhile features without the price skyrocketing. We’ve already seen it do just that with the RTX 2060 Super Gaming OC, so let’s hope the same can be said of the RTX 2080 Super Gaming OC.

Below is how the card compares to the Founders Edition. Note that there are two different revisions of this product listed on Gigabyte’s website, but they share the same product number and key specifications, so we do not expect the difference, whatever it may be, to substantially alter performance in any metric. This is also true of the white version.

	Nvidia RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition	Gigabyte RTX 2080 Super Gaming OC
Base Clock	1,650MHz	1,650MHz
Boost Clock	1,815MHz	1,845MHz (+ 1.5%)
OC Mode (S/W)	N/A	N/A
Memory Data Rate	15.5Gbps	15.5Gbps
OC Mode MDR	N/A	N/A
TDP	250W	250W
Power Connectors	1 x 8-pin, 1 x 6-pin	1 x 8-pin, 1 x 6-pin
Multi-BIOS	No	No
Display Connectors	3 x DP, 1 x HDMI, 1 x USB-C VL	3 x DP, 1 x HDMI, 1 x USB-C VL
Length	267mm	287mm
Height	116mm	115mm
Slots	2	3
Power Phases	8+2	8+2
LEDs	Yes, green	Yes, RGB
Zero RPM Mode	No	Yes
Warranty (UK)	3 years	4 years (with registration)

A common method of differentiation for board partners is a factory overclock, but that’s not easy with RTX 2080 Super. Along with the Quadro RTX 5000, RTX 2080 Super is card with the highest default clock speed of any part based on the TU104 GPU. As such, while Gigabyte’s 30MHz Boost Clock increase equates to less than two percent, even the fastest versions of this card cap out at 1,875MHz on air.

The memory is left entirely at stock speed, though remember RTX 2080 Super still has the fastest GDDR6 memory speed of any part on the market at 15.5Gbps, so this isn’t that big a deal.

The default power limit of 250W is also maintained, and there is no additional OC Mode or a secondary BIOS to push things a tad further. The default eight-pin/six-pin power plug combination is thus sufficient and gives the card a maximum theoretical power limit of 300W. Small LEDs next to these plugs will blink if there’s a ‘bad’ power connection, which might aid troubleshooting in a handful of cases.

Physically, the card is longer than a Founders Edition but still under 300mm and thus a comfortable fit for most cases. It’s also thicker, pushing it into triple-slot territory, though even this isn’t a big deal these days unless you’re mounting vertically in case with poor ventilation around the side panel.

Gigabyte has gone with a colour-neutral aesthetic with blacks and greys on the plastic shroud and an all-black backplate, which makes sense in this RGB-dominated world. Note, however, that the heat pipes are partially visible and copper-coloured. Build quality is fine, and the top Gigabyte logo is RGB-illuminated and controllable through RGB Fusion 2.0 software. Hardly an all-singing, all-dancing rainbow light show. then, but a feature ticked off the list nonetheless.

The full set of reference display outputs is maintained, including the USB-C port with VirtualLink support, so a nice bit of future proofing for those interested in VR.

Gigabyte puts the extra size to use by including three 82mm fans on its cooler. These spin in alternate directions (middle opposite to the other two), supposedly as a means of reducing turbulence, though the fan frame that divides them should do this anyway. The open shroud will see most heat recycled within your chassis. A feature Gigabyte calls ‘3D Active Fan’ is simply a semi-passive fan mode whereby the fans switch off when the GPU is deemed cool enough. This is not something the Founders card has.

The card is easy to disassemble and requires only seven screws be removed. The cooler comprises six heat pipes making direct contact with the GPU via thermal paste. They’re also fed by a large contact plate that connects to every memory module via pads, though the chips aren’t quite fully covered by the plate. Pleasingly, the heatsink, which has three distinct aluminium fin stacks, makes direct contact (via pads) with all of the critical VRM components too, and the card also cannot be said to waste space. Even the metal backplate gets involved with heat dissipation behind some of the VRMs and memory modules, so we have no major complaints about the cooler design – it looks well thought out.

The PCB is very similar to the reference card, meaning we’re not getting any bolstered VRM or power delivery. Still, the 8+2-phase configuration is easily adequate, and the most important thing is that they’re properly cooled, and they do indeed appear to be.

Gigabyte gains another upper hand on the Founders Edition for anyone seeking a long-term upgrade, as the RTX 2080 Super Gaming OC can be registered to extend its warranty to four years – a full year longer than the Founders.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Windforce 8G Review

NVIDIA graphics card review. Latest images, pricing and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 specs. Gaming GPU benchmarked against the biggest PC games like Fortnite, Minecraft and PUBG Should you buy this Gigabyte graphics card?

This NVIDIA graphics card features the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 processor. The processor, also known as the GPU, is the most important component in any graphics card. PCGameBenchmark rates processors by how many of the top 1,000 PC games the chip can run. This PC graphics card has a chip that can run 1000 of the top 1000 games — so we give it a 100% rating.

Games that this graphics card can run include Fortnite, Apex Legends, Minecraft, PUBG, GTA V, League of Legends, Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege.

For a full list of the games that this card will run and the chance to compare it to similar cards check our graphics card comparison — we have tracked 15 cards with a similar GPU and 2 of them are cheaper than this setup — no need to wait for a sale or Black Friday 2022 to get the best price on a card like this.

You get 8 GB of VRAM on this Gigabyte graphics card and the weight of the full set up is 1.46 lb.

Check out best deals on cheap graphics cards and the latest deals on Amazon.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Windforce 8G
PCGameBenchmark Rating: 99%

Best Price:	$992.05

Check latest prices

Network N earns commission from qualifying purchases via Amazon Associates and other programs.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Windforce 8G Specs

GPU	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
RAM (Memory)	8 GB RAM
Weight	1.46 lb (662.24 g)
Dimensions (L x W x H)	27.94 cm x 11.68 cm x 4.06 cm 11 in x 4.6 in x 1.6 in
Brand	Gigabyte
Model Number	GV-N2080WF3-8GC

Best Price:	$992.05

Check latest prices

Network N earns commission from qualifying purchases via Amazon Associates and other programs.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Windforce 8G PC Gaming Performance

This graphics card will run 993 of the top PC games. Use PCGameBenchmark’s Rate My PC service to test your current set up and set how it compares.

Can It Run GTA 5?

This Gigabyte graphics card can run GTA 5. It beats the system requirement for graphics card speed.

Can It Run Fortnite?

This Gigabyte graphics card can run Fortnite. It beats the system requirement for graphics card speed.

Can It Run Apex Legends?

This Gigabyte graphics card can run Apex Legends. It beats the system requirement for graphics card speed.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Windforce 8G Features

Powered by GeForce RTX 2080
Nvidia Turing architecture & Real time Ray Tracing
Windforce 3x cooling system with alternate spinning fans
Intuitive controls with AORUS engine
Core Clock 1710 MHz
8GB 256-Bit GDDR6
1 x HDMI, 3 x DisplayPort, 1 x USB Type-C
Pci Express 3. 0 x16

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Windforce 8G DEALS — BEST prices

Best Price:	$992.05

Check latest prices

Network N earns commission from qualifying purchases via Amazon Associates and other programs.

Similar to Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Windforce 8G

Here are a few other options…

ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 2080 Twin Fan 8…

Rating: 99%

$799.99

GeForce RTX 2080

8 GB RAM

Gigabyte GV-N2080GAMING OC-8GC

Rating: 99%

$665.

GeForce RTX 2080

8 GB RAM

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G Review

The RTX 2080 SUPER was announced together with the RTX 2060 SUPER and RTX 2070 SUPER for the RTX 20 series lineup refresh and replaces the previously launched RTX 2080. Board partners like Gigabyte too have released their own custom design of the RTX 20 SUPER graphic card, we’ll be looking at the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G this time so let’s keep the introduction short now and see what kind of performance can we expect from this card.

Specifications

GPU	GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER	GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G
SMs	48	48
CUDA Cores	3072	3072
Tensor Cores	384	384
Tensor FLOPS (FP16)	89	89
RT Cores	48	48
Texture Units	192	192
ROPs	64	64
Ray Cast	8 Giga Rays	8 Giga Rays
GPU Boost Clock	1815 MHz	1845 MHz
Memory Data Rate	15. 5 Gbps	15.5 Gbps
Total Video Memory Size	8G GDDR6	8G GDDR6
Memory Interface	256-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	496.1 GB/sec	496.1 GB/sec
TDP	250W	250W

Unboxing

Looking at the front of the box, you’ll find the highlighted features such as the RGB Fusion 2.0, WindForce cooling fan, factory overclocked settings, and all the NVIDIA RTX graphics card features as usual. Also, just in case if you missed this – the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G also comes with a 4-year limited warranty from Gigabyte as well.

More details on some of the highlighted features can be found at the back of the box, but you can always visit the main product page to learn more about the features, as well as to get the drivers and optional utilities for the product itself.

As for the accessories pack, nothing fancy is included but you will still find the usual Drivers CD, quick start guide, and product registration guide.

The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G

Unlike the fancier AORUS RTX 2080 SUPER 8G with tons of RGB lightings, the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G comes with a much more minimalist design, which is much to our liking because we’re not really a fan of RGB. Despite not having those RGB blings, this card doesn’t fall short when it comes to the cooling solution.

The WindForce cooler on the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G is pretty similar across the newer Gigabyte graphics card, all equipped with the same cooling fan that runs cool and quiet. As previously mentioned, Gigabyte designed the cooler with the middle fan rotating in a reversed direction to provide much more coverage to further improve the cooling performance.

As for the thickness, the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G only takes up a total of 2 slots space on the PCIe. So there’s still plenty of room for a decent airflow in case if you decided to SLI two of these on an mATX form factor motherboard as compared to those cards with a gigantic cooler that has a thickness of 2. 5 slot space.

The very minimal RGB lighting available on the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G, which is located at the side of the shroud. If you’re not a fan of all the RGB blings, this can be disabled with the RGB Fusion 2.0 software from Gigabyte.

The power requirement of the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G is the same as the RTX 2080 SUPER Founders Edition, and Gigabyte recommends the use of a 650W power supply with a 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connector to power this card.

A metal backplate is included at the back of the card as well, which is meant to give the card some additional enhancement in rigidity to minimize the chance of sagging PCB.

As for the display output, the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G comes with 1 x HDMI port, 3 x DisplayPort port, and 1 x Type-C port – pretty much the same as the RTX 2080 SUPER Founders Edition.

Test System Setup

For our games benchmark test, we’ve selected a number of AAA titles to run at its highest possible settings using the following setup under an ambient temperature of 30°C:

CPU	Intel Core i7 8700K @5GHz
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Maximus X Apex
Memory	G. Skill TridentZ RGB 16GB @3200MHz
Graphics Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G
Power Supply	Enermax MaxTytan 1250W
Primary Storage	Gigabyte UD Pro 512GB SSD
Secondary Storage	WD Black 6TB
CPU Cooler	Thermaltake Floe Riing 360 RGB
Chassis	Cooler Master Test Bench V1
Operating System	Windows 10 64bit

The test is done separately for games that support both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 at the resolution of 1920×1080, 2560×1440, and 3840×2160 using the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G against GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Founders Edition we have in our test lab.

Games Benchmark

Starting off with 1080p, both the RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G and RTX 2080 Founders Edition is what we will describe as too overpowered for 1080p gaming. Even at RTX games with all the fancy real-time ray tracing feature enabled, both RTX 2080 SUPER can handle them at above 60fps with ease.

Both RTX 2080 SUPER starts to struggle on more demanding titles i.e Metro Exodus and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey as we scale up to 1440p, but it can still handle most of the AAA titles in the list without much issue.

Moving on to the 4K benchmark, the RTX 2080 SUPER is a pretty capable card for 4K gaming but it’s not quite yet the performance of an RTX 2080 Ti that can single-handedly take on most of the newer AAA titles after NVIDIA released their GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards. The RTX 2080 SUPER can be seen struggling with most of the RTX games and some of the very demanding AAA titles such as Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider with DXR enabled.

Temperature

During an hour-long gaming session, 70°C is the highest temperature recorded under an ambient room temperature of 30°C. The system is then left on idle for 1 hour, and the idle temperature recorded is around 40°C. Compared to the Founders Edition design, the Gigabyte cooler is definitely doing a better job in cooling down the GPU.

Final Thoughts

Compared to the reference RTX 2080 SUPER, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G is pretty much an upgraded version with a slightly buffed up performance and better cooling solutions. It’s not as powerful as the RTX 2080 Ti, but it’s definitely powerful enough to handle quite a handful of AAA titles at 4K resolution with a very minimal sacrifice on the graphics settings as compared to the RTX 2070 SUPER or RTX 2060 SUPER which is targeted for 1080p and 1440p gaming.

Despite having a pretty reasonable performance for 4K gaming, the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G isn’t the most affordable RTX 2080 SUPER around. At the price of RM 3699, it’s not hard to tell why some users with a tighter budget will go for competing brands that offer similar performance or longer warranty coverage at a lower price. Though, that RM3699 price tag can still be justified through features such as the silent fan design, 4-year warranty, and minimalist design – something which the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC 8G can offer, but not by some of these lower-cost alternatives.

Pros

Support the latest RTX games
Support for NVLink
Good cooling solution
Near silent operation even on full load
Reasonable performance in 4K gaming
4-years warranty

Cons

The heat from GPU now goes inside your case
1080p and 1440p gaming performance is close to RTX 2070 SUPER

super gaming and a bit about NVIDIA STUDIO GECID.com. Page 1

::>Video cards
>2020
> GIGABYTE GV-N208SGAMING OC-8GC

17-04-2020

Page 1
Page 2
One page

Most users associate mass video cards with games. However, do not forget that the resources of the graphics accelerator can be used in other tasks. For example, when creating videos and 3D animations, architectural and design objects, photo retouching and in the process of streaming.

It was with the thought of accelerating these tasks that the NVIDIA STUDIO platform was created, announced in the spring of 2019 as part of the Computex exhibition. It facilitates the selection of suitable equipment for these purposes. The initiative certifies only hardware capable of delivering performance enhancements to production applications to make things easier for many professionals and novices alike. It is based on a combination of advanced functionality of the RTX series graphics cards through specialized cores, software with specialized SDKs, and a single NVIDIA STUDIO driver that can be downloaded and used for both mainstream GeForce video accelerators and the professional Quadro series.

At the same time, you should not think that priority is given exclusively to stationary PCs. Several laptops with NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000, RTX 4000 and RTX 3000 or GeForce RTX 2080, RTX 2070 and RTX 2060 series graphics were presented at the same show.

process, which is very important when running multiple applications at the same time. The driver also contains optimizations to increase the performance of these applications. Already now, STUDIO drivers track updates and contain optimizations for more than 200 professional programs. Over 40 of them accelerate on RTX graphics.

Not the last role in this list belongs to Adobe products. For example, RT cores as part of the GPU speed up the creation of video content by 9.1 times in Premiere Pro compared to working on conventional CUDA cores. Photographers and retouchers will appreciate the more comfortable work in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Scene rendering with photorealistic lighting is much faster and better on RT cores than when using processor resources.

The NVIDIA Turing microarchitecture is also distinguished by tensor cores. They accelerate artificial intelligence algorithms, which are increasingly used in applications for photo, video, graphics, computer vision and robotics, programming and more.

For example, in Substance Alchemist, processing an object using GPU resources is 19 times faster than using the CPU.

You can learn more about all the features of NVIDIA Studio on the official website at this link.

Thus, any video card of the GeForce RTX line is a universal tool for comfortable launching diverse games, streaming and creating content in professional programs. We can verify this once again using the example of the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC 8G video card. First, let’s take a look at its characteristics.

Specification

Model	GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC 8G rev 1.0 (GV-N208SGAMING OC-8GC)
GPU	TU104-450
Microarchitecture	NVIDIA Turing
Technical process, nm	12
Number of CUDA cores	3072
Number of texture units	192
Number of raster blocks	64
Number of tensor cores	384
Number of cores RT	48
GPU base / dynamic frequency, MHz	1650 / 1845
Effective memory frequency, MHz	15500
Memory size, GB	8
Memory type	GDDR6
Memory bus width, bit	256
Memory bandwidth, GB/s	496
Tire type	PCI Express 3. 0 x16
External interfaces	1 x HDMI 2.0b 3 x DisplayPort 1.4a 1 x USB Type-C
Minimum power supply unit, W	650
Optional PCIe power connector	1 x 8-pin 1 x 6-pin
Dimensions from the official website (according to measurements in our test laboratory), mm	286.5 x 114.5 x 50.2 (300 x 113 x 49)
Drivers	Latest drivers can be downloaded from the GIGABYTE website or the GPU manufacturer’s website
Manufacturer website	GIGABYTE

Packaging and Contents

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC 8G comes in a cardboard box with original color printing. On its sides, key design features and some technical characteristics of the video card are marked.

A list of system requirements for the computer where you plan to install it is located on the back of the package. Based on the recommendations, the power supply must have a power of at least 650 W and support one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe connector.

In the package, we found only the standard documentation and a software CD.

Appearance

GIGABYTE GV-N208SGAMING OC-8GC can hardly be called a compact device, because its length exceeds 28 cm. On the other hand, inside it occupies two expansion slots, which is not so much for a high-performance model.

Discreet, but not boring, the design is sure to please most buyers. The casing of the cooling system is made of dark plastic with light inserts.

Company logo on the side with built-in RGB Fusion 2.0 lighting. Illumination can be synchronized with the operating mode of other compatible components thanks to proprietary software.

The reverse side of the video card is covered with a metal stiffening plate. It not only improves the design, but also increases the overall rigidity of the structure and protects the PCB from breaking under the weight of the massive cooling system. It also takes a passive part in heat dissipation.

The tested video card uses a PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot and two PCIe connectors for power: one 6-pin and one 8-pin. The cooler does not make it difficult to disconnect the power cables due to the good location of the connectors.

The reference set of interfaces is used for image output:

1 x USB Type-C;
1 x HDMI 2.0b;
3 x DisplayPort 1.4.

The maximum resolution is 7680 x 4320.

Near the interface panel there is a connector for connecting the NVIDIA NVLink bridge.

The video accelerator is based on the 12nm NVIDIA TU104-450 GPU. Its base frequency is 1650 MHz, and the dynamic one is stated at 1845 MHz, although GPU-Z fixes 1860 MHz. This is 2.5% higher than the reference 1815 MHz.

The video memory is made up of Samsung GDDR6 chips with a total capacity of 8 GB. They operate at a reference effective frequency of 15500 MHz. Data exchange between the graphics core and memory is carried out through a 256-bit bus, which is capable of passing 496.1 GB of information per second.

Cooling system

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GAMING OC 8G graphics card with installed WINDFORCE 3X cooling system occupies two expansion slots and has a total length of 286.5 mm.

The cooler consists of a large three-section radiator, assembled from transverse fins, and six copper composite heat pipes with a diameter of 6 mm, with direct contact to the surface of the GPU.

Memory chips and power subsystem elements are also in contact with the main heatsink thanks to special inserts and thermal pads.

The composite tubes themselves consist of an inner hollow layer and an outer one with grooves, inside of which there is a liquid for better heat transfer.

The active part of the cooling system is represented by three fans with a blade diameter of 83 mm. They are distinguished by the original shape of the blades and the Alternate Spinning technology: the central spinner rotates clockwise, while the outer ones rotate counterclockwise. This reduces airflow turbulence and improves cooling efficiency.

3D Active Fan technology also available. It pauses the turntables at low GPU load to reduce noise.

When automatically adjusting the speed of rotation of the fan blades, in the maximum load mode, the graphics core heated up to 65°C at a critical value of 89°C. The propellers worked at a speed of 1678 rpm (54% of the maximum rate). The noise was low and did not create discomfort.

Let’s take the Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock video card for comparison. In a similar mode, her GPU heated up to 66 ° C and worked at a lower frequency: 1800 versus 1845 MHz.

In the maximum fan speed mode (3100 rpm), the GPU temperature dropped to 51°C. The noise exceeded the average level, and became uncomfortable for constant use.

The opponent’s cooler in the same mode was able to cool the GPU down to 53°C. The frequency of his work was again lower: 1830 versus 1875 MHz.

Now let’s look at the behavior of the video card under real gaming load. First, we launched Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in Full HD. The temperature reached 57°C with the speed of the turntables at 1260 rpm (41% of the maximum value). The core frequency at the peak reached 2010 MHz.

The transition to 4K brought temperatures up to 62°C. The speed of the cooling system has increased to 1470 rpm (47% of the maximum rate). The core frequency remained at the same level.

In the absence of load, the frequencies of the graphics core and memory were automatically reduced, allowing to reduce power consumption and heat dissipation of the video accelerator as a whole. In this mode, the GPU temperature did not exceed 39°C, and the cooling system worked in passive mode thanks to 3D Active Fan technology.

Overall, we really liked the performance of the WINDFORCE 3X cooling system. It works efficiently and quietly in automatic mode and has a good power reserve for overclocking experiments. There were no extraneous noises in the form of a whistle of chokes during the test.