Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP Review: Cooler Than Nvidia’s Founders Edition
Tom’s Hardware Verdict
The Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP offers similar performance to Nvidia’s Founder’s Edition, along with cooler temperatures. Inferior build quality is compensated for by a more affordable price tag.
Pros
- +
Runs cooler than GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition
- +
Higher GPU Boost rating than Nvidia’s Founders Edition card
- +
Configurable lighting via bundled Firestorm app
- +
One of the least expensive GeForce RTX 2080 cards available
Why you can trust Tom’s Hardware
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Today’s best Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP deals
$1,210
View
$1,789. 75
$1,377.64
View
Reduced Price
No price information
Check Amazon
Show More Deals
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP Review
Update, 11/22/18: Due to depleted inventory of GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards and falling prices on third-party Turing-based models, we are revisiting our impressions of Zotac’s Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP and updating value comparisons throughout the review.
Zotac’s Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP boasts a slightly-higher maximum GPU Boost clock rate and better cooling than Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition card. Conversely, while the Zotac board’s performance is strong, its cheaper-feeling materials and the need to take up three expansion slots are notable drawbacks.
Our tests also show that you can get similar frame rates from a less-expensive, last-gen GTX 1080 Ti. But if you want smooth game play at 4K with dialed-back quality settings, along with support for next-gen features like ray tracing, the Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP delivers.
- Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP at Walmart for $1,377.64
Meet The Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP
Size isn’t everything, but a bit of extra heft sure doesn’t hurt when you’re trying to keep a 13.6 billion transistor GPU running cool and quiet. Zotac’s Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP is much larger than Nvidia’s Founders Edition model, measuring 12.13 x 4.45 x 2.24 inches. Of course, that makes it about two and half expansion slots thick, tying up three slots on your motherboard (along with more space in the other direction due to a taller backplate).
Don’t let the sizeable dimensions fool you, though. Whereas Nvidia’s Founders Edition card tips the scales at 1262g, Zotac’s Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP is a noticeably lighter 1152g.
Nvidia’s reference design is denser, more compact, and loaded with lots of metal.
Meanwhile, Zotac unashamedly uses plastic across its fan shroud, along with a less massive thermal solution. Gone is the vapor chamber, replaced by a base plate and two-part aluminum fin stack bisected by five 8mm copper heat pipes. Four pipes run the length of the card. A fifth sits directly over TU104 and loops around, dissipating heat through the left-most fin stack.
Under the sink, Zotac shores up this card’s rigidity with a metal baseplate that also makes contact with the power circuitry and memory modules via thermal pads. The plate acts as a skeleton of sorts, preventing flex by attaching directly to the expansion bracket up front and the fin stack around back. Ten screw holes around the PCB allow a backplate to sandwich the board, stiffening both sides. Unfortunately, the backplate plays no purpose in spreading heat away from TU104’s package; it sits far above the rear-facing surface-mount components.
A trio of 90mm axial fans is designed to blow turbulent air through the heat sink’s fins. Waste heat is pushed down toward the motherboard and out the card’s top. Although Zotac’s black, plastic shroud does impede airflow somewhat, it doesn’t wrap completely around the cooler, leaving room for air to escape. The fans do not disengage completely at idle, which we’re fine with. Turning at around 1,100 RPM, they make no perceptible noise at all.
Zotac’s website draws attention to this card’s Spectra lighting. But the corresponding multi-color picture isn’t representative of the Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP. On our sample, only the Zotac Gaming logo up top lights up. And the effects enabled through Zotac’s Firestorm utility are fairly limited.
The card’s top side also plays host to one six-pin and one eight-pin power connector. Nvidia’s reference RTX 2080 specification calls for 215W partner boards. However, Zotac’s Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP matches the Founders Edition version with a 225W power rating.
Whereas Nvidia covers its NVLink connector with a well-integrated plastic piece, Zotac leaves the interface exposed. The aesthetic difference certainly makes us appreciate Nvidia’s attention to detail.
Display outputs on Zotac’s card match the GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition: you get three full-sized DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, one HDMI 2.0 port, and VirtualLink support via USB Type-C. Zotac does use a more free-flowing grille back there, but it isn’t functionally significant since the cooler’s vertically-oriented fins move air perpendicular to the bracket.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Header Cell — Column 0 | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE | Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP | GeForce RTX 2080 FE | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture (GPU) | Turing (TU102) | Turing (TU104) | Turing (TU104) | Pascal (GP102) |
| CUDA Cores | 4352 | 2944 | 2944 | 3584 |
| Peak FP32 Compute | 14. 2 TFLOPS |
10.8 GFLOPS | 10.6 TFLOPS | 11.3 TFLOPS |
| Tensor Cores | 544 | 368 | 368 | N/A |
| RT Cores | 68 | 46 | 46 | N/A |
| Texture Units | 272 | 184 | 184 | 224 |
| Base Clock Rate | 1350 MHz | 1515 MHz | 1515 MHz | 1480 MHz |
| GPU Boost Rate | 1635 MHz | 1830 MHz | 1800 MHz | 1582 MHz |
| Memory Capacity | 11GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 11GB GDDR5X |
| Memory Bus | 352-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 352-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 616 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 484 GB/s |
| ROPs | 88 | 64 | 64 | 88 |
| L2 Cache | 5. 5MB |
4MB | 4MB | 2.75MB |
| TDP | 260W | 225W | 225W | 250W |
| Transistor Count | 18.6 billion | 13.6 billion | 13.6 billion | 12 billion |
| Die Size | 754 mm² | 545 mm² | 545 mm² | 471 mm² |
| SLI Support | Yes (x8 NVLink, x2) | Yes (x8 NVLink) | Yes (x8 NVLink) | Yes (MIO) |
What lives under the Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP’s hood is already well-known. We dug deep into the TU104 graphics processor and its underlying architecture in Nvidia’s Turing Architecture Explored: Inside the GeForce RTX 2080.
Zotac takes the same graphics processor with 2944 of its CUDA cores enabled and bumps the typical GPU Boost rating up slightly to 1830 MHz (versus the Founders Edition card’s 1800 MHz). Eight gigabytes of GDDR6 memory move data at 14 Gb/s, matching Nvidia’s reference design. As you might expect, then, performance comparisons between the two models fall within single-digit percentage variance.
How We Tested Zotac’s Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP
While many users will attach Zotac’s card to a system with the latest Intel or AMD processor, our graphics station still employs an MSI Z170 Gaming M7 motherboard with an Intel Core i7-7700K CPU at 4.2 GHz. The processor is complemented by G.Skill’s F4-3000C15Q-16GRR memory kit. Crucial’s MX200 SSD remains, joined by a 1.4TB Intel DC P3700 loaded down with games.
As far as competition goes, we can assume that GeForce RTX 2080 and all of the partner boards based on the same design are bested by GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and Titan V, both of which we have in our test pool.
We also compare GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, Titan X, GeForce GTX 1080, GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, and GeForce GTX 1070 from Nvidia. AMD is represented by the Radeon RX Vega 64 and 56.
Our benchmark selection now includes Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, Battlefield 1, Civilization VI, Destiny 2,Doom, Far Cry 5,Forza Motorsport 7, Grand Theft Auto V, Metro: Last Light Redux, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, The Witcher 3 and World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth.
The testing methodology we’re using comes from PresentMon: Performance In DirectX, OpenGL, And Vulkan. In short, these games are evaluated using a combination of OCAT and our own in-house GUI for PresentMon, with logging via AIDA64.
All of the numbers you see in today’s piece are fresh, using updated drivers. For Nvidia, we’re using build 411.51 for GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and 2080.
Zotac’s Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP is tested on 411.70. The other cards were tested with build 398.82. Titan V’s results were spot-checked with 411.51 to ensure performance didn’t change. AMD’s cards utilize Crimson Adrenalin Edition 18.8.1, which was the latest at test time.
MORE: Best Graphics Cards
MORE: Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table
MORE: All Graphics Content
- 1
Current page:
Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 AMP Review
Next Page Performance Results: 2560×1440
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom’s Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
Zotac Super RTX 2080 Amp Extreme Review
Will the Real 2080 Please Stand Up, Please Stand UpSpecifications and Features Shipping Container, Accessories & Software Testing Methodology Overclocking Results AC: Origins, AC: Odyssey Battlefield 1, Battlefield 5 CoD: IW, CoD: WW2 Crysis 3, Far Cry 5 Far Cry New Dawn, Far Cry Primal GTA V, Hitman 2 Metro Exodus, RAGE 2 Rise of Tomb Raider, Shadow of Tomb Raider Strange Brigade, Battlefield 1, Shadow of the Tomb Raider Temperature, Noise, and Power Analysis Performance Summary and TL;DR Score Card and Summary Closing Thoughts
PrevNext
Zotac has really stepped things up a notch when it comes to their shipping container.
Just as with previous generations the exterior is as attention getting as it is informative.
The interior protection is also top notch – just as was the last generation.
What really sets it apart though is the inclusion of the plastic slip cover. It may be entirely irrelevant but sliding it off and watching the fans ‘spin’ is a great way to make a first impression. It certainly made us smile and is almost guaranteed to make you as well.
The accessories are pretty typical for Zotac. That is to say all the bases are covered, but some will find the lack of gewgaws and trinkets disappointing on a nearly $800 (USD) video card. Others will be disappointed by the lack of a driver disc. Personally we feel the two dual 6pin to 8pin adapters is more than good enough, we dislike gewgaws on general principle… and always download the latest drivers from the Internet. You may feel otherwise. It will be a subjective call on which of the two ends of the spectrum you fall into.
It should come as no surprise that the latest version of Zotac’s FireStorm is fully compatible with their new cards – and any manufacture’s Super RTX 2080-series for that matter. While it may look simplistic on just a quick glance, FireStorm does contain a lot of useful features in just one page. For example, the small button in the middle of the right-hand side labeled ‘OC Scanner’ allows for one-click overclocking that will take about 20 or 30 minutes to complete but should result in rather decent overclocking profile.
Front and center are a real time display of both the core frequencies as well as the memory clock (just remember to double the memory speed listed as GDDR6 is 8 times not 4 times the actual frequency of the RAM like GDDR5 was… and FireStorm still uses GDDR5 multiplication internally). The left of it is where you can easily set power limit, voltage limit, base and boost clock frequencies, and all the basic tweaks a successful overclock is built upon.
In the top right corner is where you can control the two fan zones on the card.
While we would have liked to have seen a third zone (as this card is a three fan model) that really is not a software issue, instead it is how Zotac configured the three fans at a hardware level. Also nice is with a single click you can create custom fan curve profiles that will instantly be implemented.
In the top left corner is the ‘Spectra’ button which when activated allows you to tweak the on-board LED colors and timings. Everything from static to advanced effects are nicely covered. The ability to treat each zone as separate configuration or as part of a whole board is a nice little touch sure to please the OCD enthusiasts who really want to dial in their color scheme of their new system. The only major negative of this software is it can only control the first four video cards installed so miners need not apply. For everyone else, it is worth a download before you opt for your ‘tried and true’ software solution of choice.
Before we start a tiny bit of background information is required.
As stated in the introduction the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super is based off the their TU104 core design, just as the GeForce RTX 2080 non-super was/is. However, unlike the TU-400 the TU-450 the RTX 2080 Super uses has nothing disabled but still is a TU104 and not TU102 core. This means 256-bit wide bus. This means 8GB of GDDR6 memory instead of 12GB. It also means these new ‘Super’ cores are not the equivalent of last generation’s ‘Ti’ models… which is a good thing as the GeForce RTX 2080Ti already exists. So instead of thinking of these as “this generations Ti” think of them more like upgrades to the existing line. Think ‘1060 6GB vs 1060 3GB’.
We are sure that if it has been possible NVIDIA would have used this TU104 variant if they could have for the ‘O.G. RTX 2080 line’. The reason they did not, possibly could not, use the a fully enabled TU104 core in the first place is due to low production output per wafer. TSMC may not precisely had to work out a ton of kinks to fab’ing these big cores… but output was low.
Now with all the teething issues the ‘proper’ TU104 is ready for primetime. Once again early adopters pay a hefty fine for being early adopters. Though to be fair the differences between the old and new is not going to be drastic. Noticeable… but not enough to justify upgrading a nearly new GeForce RTX 2080 to a GeForce RTX 2080 Super. Now on to the meat of the review.
As expected, the Zotac Super RTX 2080 Amp! Extreme… is a large card. Those thinking about using this beast from the east in an itty-bitty case will be disappointed. Of course, trying to fit a typical high-end card into a shoebox build may not be precisely in the same league as “pants on your head” but is close. This is why manufacture’s make ‘mini’ cards. This is not a mini card.
With all that said this card is actually not that big. Big enough you need a good case, but not so big a ‘Super Tower’ case is necessary. This should come as no surprise as this card is basically the Zotac Amp! Extreme RTX 2080 with faster memory and a bigger core.
Zotac could not only ‘get away’ with recycling a lower TDP card’s design, but easily justify doing so because the Zotac Amp! Extreme RTX 2080 was one of the most over-built RTX 2080’s on the market.
The downside is it still is big – 3-fan, 3-slot wide big (though Zotac official calls it 2.5-slots… it really is more like 2.75 edging in on 3 slot dimensions). So yes, it may be slightly smaller than the Zotac GeForce GTX 1080Ti Amp! Extreme but it is big (for reference the card on top of it is an ASUS GeForce GTX 1660Ti OC… which is not a small card by anyone’s definition). These ‘new’ dimensions are because Zotac wanted to ensure temperatures and noise levels were not just held in check but as low as possible while at the same time ensuring there were also not too many case installation issues… and the IceStorm 1.0 design would simply not be good enough. Thus, the new IceStorm 2.0 was created.
The foundation of the IceStorm 2.0 is IceStorm 1.0. They did not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Nor did they – obviously – simply scale up the dimensions of their previous design and call it good enough. In other words it may not be bigger, but it is better. Better in numerous ways.
The most obvious is the dimensions of the card and its fascia, heatsinks, and backplate. In the X, Y and Z axes Zotac has maximized the dimensions right to the edge of what is practical… or at least sane. To be specific instead of 325 x 148 x 56.6mm (GTX 1080Ti Amp! Extreme), the RTX 2080 Super Amp! Extreme is 324mm x 136mm x 59mm.
These new dimensions were chosen after careful consideration. Put simply, any bigger than this and Zotac’s design team would have had to explain to management why they made another card that will not fit inside some cases. Which probably is what happened when people who did not do their homework bought the last generation GeForce GTX 1080Ti Amp! Extreme and could not easily install it in their case.
This increase in depth, when combined with six large U shaped heatpipes, allows the new IceStorm 2.
0 design to take full advantage of the 3 powerful fans the Super RTX 2080 Amp! Extreme comes equipped with. This increase in cooling not only keeps the higher clocked GDDR6 RAM cool, but it in turn means the TU-104-450-A1 core runs cooler. The cooler a NVIDIA core runs… the higher the frequencies it will ‘auto overclock’ itself to.
In testing the core frequency under load bounced between 1950 and 1960Mhz on average, and peaked at 2025Mhz for short durations. At stock settings. No extra voltage applied, no increase in stock power limit levels. That is indeed impressive considering this is a 250watt TDP class card. Equally impressive is the fans never really got above 50 percent and instead spent most of their time in the high 30 low 40 percent range. At this rotation speed they were not only whisper quite bordering on silent they still were able to keep temperatures below 70-degrees Celsius.
To ensure the power delivery subsystem was also kept nice and cool, IceStorm 2.0 also comes with a secondary heatsink underneath the main or ‘core and memory’ heatsinks.
While Zotac calls it is a ‘die-cast metal jacket brace’ this is an actively cooled heatspreader. It comes with numerous heat pads for the VRM and air from the three fans are pushed through the two large radiators, then they hit this heat spreader (cooling it in the process) and then and only then is the air allowed to escape. Therefore, it is a heat spreader. If Zotac had included some more cooling fins one could even consider it a heatsink.
As with previous generation designs, though to a bit more limited extent, the backplate curves up and over the front and top of the PCB. It is unfortunate that Zotac does not include heatpads on the backplate to also convert it into a tertiary heat sink; but as there is really not major hot running components located on the back of the PCB that could be easily connected to the backplate it is not really an issue. Instead the backplate is meant to act as a wind tunnel and funnel waste air over and around the large “Power Boost” super capacitor – whose job once again is to reduce ripple and vDroop when pushing the boundaries of sanity during overclocking adventures.
To help buyers push that self-same envelope (and even go all the way past insanity to plaid) Zotac has also carried over the extremely beefy 16+4 all digital power delivery subsystem… which is actually more than what many companies use on their RTX 2080Ti ‘overclocking’ cards (and while their Amp! Extreme GTX 1080Ti came with 16 phases for the core it only had 2 phases for the memory). To harness all these phases Zotac has opted for two uP9512P controllers. One is for the core itself and the other is dedicated for the RAM. This is a very, very good 8-channel controller that may be ‘overkill’ for the memory and its four phases but the core controller is able to double up phases for the each of its channels. This helps spread the load out keeping everything cool running as well as reducing ripple and random voltage droops.
To feed this power delivery subsystem, Zotac has opted for dual 8-pin connectors which when combined with the 75 watts from the PCIe allows for up wards of 375 watts of power to be fed into the card.
Of course, it is doubtful that this 250watt TDP class card will demand that much – unless it is hardware mod’ed and intended to eventually catch fire. Instead it gives the card plenty of wiggle room for calling on 300 watts of power when overclocked and set to 120 percent. This will reduce stress on the motherboard’s power delivery system, and allow the Super RTX 2080 Amp! Extreme to easily be run on a riser card without worry over properly powering it.
Moving on. Ironically enough, some people felt that the amount of lighting Spectra 1.0 designs offered was insufficient for their needs. Thus Spectra 2.0 was created to fill this perceived need. The end result is even more LEDs and a total of three lighting control zones… and a fourth if you use a Zotac NVLink Bridge. Since the NVLink bridge is not included the three default/stock controllable zones are left, right, and end of the card. These zones can either be set to independent mode (for really advanced lighting) or combined into one massive array of LEDs.
Unlike Spectra 1.0 based cards the left and right light diffusers are not small sections of the top fascia. Instead they run about three quarters the length of the card.
There are two issues we have with the new Spectra 2.0 design. The minor, more nitpick, is that the fans themselves do not glow. They are sold black and so too is their frames. There is not even any LEDs underneath the fascia to allow the fans to appear to glow. We doubt any one will care, as there are literally too many LEDs to count already on this card. Instead, most people will like the fact that once again these fans will stop spinning when possible thanks to Zotac’s inclusion of their ‘Freeze’ technology. Also helping to alleviate this very minor nitpick is the fans can be somewhat individually controlled. Albeit via two groups, not three. The left and center fans are grouped together (via FireStorm software where they are ironically labeled ‘Fan 1’) and the right most fan is a second ‘group’ or ‘Fan 2’ in the software.
What is a touch disappointing is the front light diffuser. With its aggressive angular design, it may indeed help complete the overall look of this card, but it does needlessly increase the overall length of this card. Length really is what is going to be the limiting dimension for many cases. So, while this is an aggressive looking card that is huge, some of the footprint is not due to increase cooling dimensions and rather was done solely for aesthetics. We prefer function over form, not form over function. Thankfully, this light bar does not stick out all that much so there are few ‘edge cases’ where the Super RTX 2080 Amp! Extreme edition would have fit if not for that diffuser. It is however something that Spectra 3.0 should fix.
The only minor disappointment with the all new Super RTX 2080 Amp! Extreme edition card is the fact that the display ports on the back has been reduced from that which comes with the original GeForce RTX 2080 Amp! Extreme edition. Basically, Zotac has gone from a dual slot configuration to a single slot layout for the ports.
This necessitated the removal of the USB Type-C port from the list of options. Thankfully, for those who are interested in VR, there still is the VirtualLink connector on the back. Since the VirtualLink connector is basically USB-C (with USB-PD) combined with DisplayPort routing… all the bases are covered…ish. You just cannot plug in a USB Type-C monitor directly to this card. We doubt (m)any buyers will consider this a great hardship as there are three full-sized DP 1.4a ports, and a HDMI 2.0b port… and the DisplayPort 1.4a ports now natively support Display Stream Compression (‘DSC’) for 8K resolutions at 60Hz.
Overall this is one impressive card that for many potential buyers will easily justify its extra $80 asking price.
Will the Real 2080 Please Stand Up, Please Stand UpSpecifications and Features Shipping Container, Accessories & Software Testing Methodology Overclocking Results AC: Origins, AC: Odyssey Battlefield 1, Battlefield 5 CoD: IW, CoD: WW2 Crysis 3, Far Cry 5 Far Cry New Dawn, Far Cry Primal GTA V, Hitman 2 Metro Exodus, RAGE 2 Rise of Tomb Raider, Shadow of Tomb Raider Strange Brigade, Battlefield 1, Shadow of the Tomb Raider Temperature, Noise, and Power Analysis Performance Summary and TL;DR Score Card and Summary Closing Thoughts
PrevNext
Zotac Super RTX 2080 Amp Extreme
92%
Will the Real 2080 Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up
No matter if you are a novice, an experienced enthusiast, or even just a Silent PC aficionado, the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP! Extreme all but demands to be on your short list
Packaging & Accessories
80%
Functionality & Aesthetics
95%
Build Quality & Warranty
95%
Performance
100%
Value
90%
Review and test ZOTAC GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER AMP Extreme (ZT-T20820B-10P) — i2HARD
Cool multi-zone lighting, factory overclocking, excellent VRM subsystem and good performance in 4K resolution.
Any gamer will not refuse the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G graphics card.
As part of the update of the video card lineup in connection with the advent of the NVidia 20×0 Super family of chips, Zotac introduced the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G model with an increased frequency in Boost mode, a seriously redesigned GPU and memory power subsystem, a three-fan cooling system, as well as controlled backlight Spectra 2.0. The board occupies an intermediate position between the models on the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 ti and leaves enthusiasts with a backlog for overclocking experiments.
Specification
| Manufacturer | Zotac |
| Model | Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G |
| Interface | PCI Express x16 3.0 |
| GPU | GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (TU104-450) |
| Process technology | TSMC 12 nm |
| Number of Cores | 3072 |
| GPU frequency | 1650 MHz |
| GPU Boost frequency in games | 1875 MHz |
| Memory size | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory interface | 256 bit |
| Memory frequency | 1938 MHz |
| Memory Bandwidth |
496. 1 GB/s |
| Connectors |
DisplayPort (4096×2160@60Hz) x 3; HDMI 2.0 (3840×2160@60Hz) x 1 |
| Connecting displays | up to 4 pcs. |
| HDCP support | 2.2 |
| DirectX support | 12.1 |
| OpenGL support | 4.5 |
| Ray tracing (RTX) support | Yes |
| VR Support | Yes |
| G-SYNC Technology | Yes |
| Power consumption | 280 W |
| Power Connectors | 8-pin x 2 pcs. |
| Number of cooling fans | 90mm x 3pcs |
| Cooling system height |
2. 5 slots
|
| SLI | NV Link (SLI-ready) |
| Recommended power supply capacity | 650 W |
| Dimensions (LxWxT) | 324 x 136 x 59 mm |
Official product page: https://www.zotac.com.
Packaging and contents
The video card came to us for testing in a retail package. On the outside, it’s a thin cardboard box with an abstract image on the front and device info on the back. The layout is completely in English.
Inside is another box made of thicker cardboard with a plastic casing. The pattern on them is applied in thin stripes, and when the protection is shifted to the side, an illusion of rotation of the fans is created. Looks very unusual.
The package includes a flyer, a quick installation guide, a reminder sheet to download drivers from geforce.
com, a Zotac Gaming logo sticker, and two adapters from two six-pin PCIe power connectors to one eight-pin.
The graphics card itself is protected by a thick foam backing.
Appearance and design
Given the increased operating frequencies and power consumption, the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G received a three-fan version of the cooling system. It is her decorative casing that sets the design of the device. Even when turned off, it looks interesting due to the chopped design with a combination of milky white and black. Semi-transparent matte white inserts at the edges refresh the device and at the same time act as diffusers for the integrated RGB lighting on addressable LEDs.
The reverse side of the device is completely covered with a black metal backplate with the Zotac Gaming logo applied in light gray paint and the inscription «Live to game_». Closer to the back bar on the same side there is a sticker with a barcode and a serial number.
The large Power Boost capacitor of the video processor power subsystem also stands out.
The dimensions of the video card are quite immodest. Taking into account the protrusions of decorative elements, the length is 32.4 cm, the width is 13.6 cm, and the thickness is 5.9The upper sidewall of the cooling system is decorated with illuminated Zotac Gaming lettering and large dark gray GEFORCE RTX lettering.
Illuminated petals of the plastic elements go to both the upper and lower ends of the plastic casing, so they are also visible from the side of the PCIe pads.
The two-slot mounting bracket contains connectors for connecting image output devices in one row: three DisplayPort ports and one HDMI 2.0. There is no USB-Type C port, often used for virtual reality systems. The distance between the connectors is standard, problems with close connection of several cables should not arise.
To supply additional power, the video card has two eight-pin connectors, near which there are cutouts that simplify the process of connecting and disconnecting wires.
At the top end of the board, next to the mounting bracket, there are contacts for connecting several video cards in tandem.
Cooling system
The cooling system of the video card is based on a large two-section radiator connected via six 8 mm heat pipes with a copper heat sink. Five tubes run evenly through the larger right-hand section of the radiator, and one tube curves into the thicker left-hand section. A base is made around the sole of the cooler, which fastens the flattened parts of the tubes and at the same time acts as heatsinks for video memory chips. Dark gray thermal paste of a very thick consistency acts as a thermal interface. Despite a decent amount of surplus, it is very problematic to re-smear it in the contact area with the processor chip and it is easier to replace it with a high-quality analogue.
Three identical APISTEK GA92S2U fans with a diameter of 90 mm with a power supply of 12 V and a current consumption of up to 0.
46 A are used for active cooling of the structure.
heat from the heating power elements of the power subsystem. It also increases the overall strength of the structure, and given the decent weight, this is an important fact. Thermal pads are used at the points of contact with transistors.
The backplate of the card does not use gaskets for better thermal contact and mainly removes heat through contact through the fastening screws.
PCB
The circuitry of the board is based on a non-reference design. On the left side, closer to the middle, there is a Turing T104-450-A1 GPU, manufactured using a 12-nm process technology. It contains 3072 unified shader units (CUDA cores), 192 texture units (TMUs) and 64 rasterization units (ROPs).
Eight Samsung K4Z80325BC-HC16 video memory chips of the GDDR-6 type are soldered around, operating at a frequency of 1938 MHz (effective — 15504 MHz).
According to the specification, the memory can operate at a frequency of 2000 MHz.
Zotac completely redid the power subsystem with 16 phases for the processor and 4 for the memory. K5P845 transistors are used. Impressive, as even most 2080ti power systems are simpler. The phases are controlled by two uP9512P controllers. Two eight-pin power connectors are appropriate, as the card’s consumption is stated at 280 watts.
On the reverse side in the lower left corner is the Holtek HT32F52342 ARM processor responsible for monitoring.
A large capacitor for the VRM subsystem with the Power Boost inscription stands out in the center of the board.
Light
The video card is equipped with a chic Spectra 2.0 backlight system on addressable LED strips. Due to the bending of the diffusers on the side of the cooling system casing, it is clearly visible in the classic horizontal position of the card.
But, of course, it fully reveals itself in all its glory with the vertical orientation of the video card.
We appreciated this use case in the Phanteks Eclipse P600S case.
The color and effects of the three zones and the Zotac Gaming side logo are controlled through the manufacturer’s free FireStorm utility. It contains seven static and five animated lighting options with a choice of color schemes, speed and brightness of effects. Both the synchronized operation of all RGB zones and their individual settings are possible.
The same program implements functionality for controlling overclocking and the operation algorithm of the cooling system fans. The selected parameters are saved in one of three profiles for quick switching between them.
Testing
Test bench configuration
| Accessory type | Model |
| Motherboard | ASUS Strix X470-F Gaming (BIOS: 5220) |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 2700X |
| Cooling system | Thermaltake C240 DDC Soft Tube Liquid Cooling Kit |
| Thermal interface | Arctic Cooling MX-4 |
| RAM | Thermaltake TOUGHRAM RGB DDR4-3200 2x8GB (R009D408GX2-3200C16A) |
| System drive | ADATA Gammix S5 512 GB |
| storage device | Seagate FireCuda 510 2TB |
| Video adapter | Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G |
| Power Supply | Thermaltake Toughpower iRGB PLUS 850W Platinum (850W) |
| Frame | Cougar Conquer |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (Version 19)03) |
| Graphics driver |
441. 12 dated October 24, 2019
|
Operating at factory frequencies
The video card received the AMP Extreme postscript in the title not only because of the advanced power system. The factory overclocking of the graphics core was performed to a value of 1875 MHz in Boost mode. This is +60 MHz to the value of the 2080 Super Founders Edition. The memory operates at a standard frequency — 1938 MHz. The video card BIOS version is 90.04.7A.00.5B. Temperature limits: 84°C for throttling and 88°C for emergency shutdown. Consumption limit — 280 W (peak — 308 W).
GPU voltage versus frequency graph:
The advanced cooling system keeps the temperature of the graphics card components well at a low level, even with relatively quiet fans. Test run in Furmark 1.20.8.0 GPU Stress Test at 4K (3840×2160) resolution and 8X MSAA, temperature did not exceed 77°C with automatic fan control. The temperature in the room with the test bench was 28 °C.
Automatic start
Like all recent NVidia GPUs, the GeForce 2080 Super supports the OC Scanner auto-overclocking routine, which optimizes the GPU voltage vs. frequency curve. In MSI Afterburner 4.6.2, the procedure worked successfully, taking approximately 20 minutes. As a result, the maximum GPU frequency did not change even by MHz.
Zotac’s factory optimization turned out to be better matched in automatic mode, since the performance from the frequency and voltage curve modified by OC Scanner only decreased.
Manual overclocking
Experiments with increasing the frequencies of the GPU and memory showed that the manufacturer still «squeezed out» not all the «juices» from the video card. Stable operation was achieved by increasing the consumption limit to 110%, setting the GPU frequency to 1724 MHz (Boost — 1949 MHz), and the memory to 2178 MHz. In fact, the increase was + 4% for the video processor and + 12% for the video memory (link to GPU-Z validation).
The positive effect of overclocking was 4% in the 3DMark Time Spy 1.0 test (link to result).
At the same time, heat dissipation increased proportionally and the maximum heating was 79 °C versus 76 °C in the drain.
Noise level
The cooling system of the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G graphics card operates in semi-passive mode. The fans are stopped until the GPU is above 50°C. Then there is a gradual increase in speed depending on the degree of heating. At the same time, the intensity of rotation of the fans varies. The first two operate synchronously at reduced speeds, while the third, located above the VRM area, spins faster. However, the cooling system has a drawback. For fans, the minimum supply voltage threshold is set too low in the range from 50 to 70 °C. It is simply not enough for stable rotation at a constant speed, as a result, when the speed drops, the PWM control starts to accelerate them too sharply and immediately slows down.
Because of this, with a medium-low load on the video card, a well-audible sound is formed from frequent increase and decrease in speed. When heated above 70 ° C, the fans rotate already with a uniform and not so intrusive sound.
Power subsystem chokes are of high quality, no spurious sounds from them during load, not counting the moments in some games when FPS flies over 1000 fps on loading screens.
The sound level of video card fans measured with the Aktacom ATE-9015 device from a distance of 1 meter in an acoustically unprepared room is shown in the diagram below.
It is worth noting that during testing, automatic fan control kept the speed below 2000 rpm (60%). All values above this bar are measured with manual installation in MSI Afterburner.
Energy consumption
The declared maximum consumption of 280 W was not achieved in tests even with manual overclocking. On average, the consumption of a video card under load fluctuated around a figure of 215-220 W, the total consumption of a PC, taking into account the parallel load of the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, fit into 510 W.
Without load, the consumption of the video card is approximately 27 watts. The manufacturer’s recommended power supply capacity of 650 W is indicated with a decent margin and is designed more for configurations with HEDT-segment processors.
Synthetic test score
The difference between the RTX 2080 Super and the RTX 2080 actually boils down to an increase in the number of CUDA cores from 2944 to 3072, which resulted in a noticeable increase in performance and can be clearly seen in the results of graphic benchmarks.
Game tests
In games from late 2018 to mid-2019, even with ray tracing turned on, the GeForce RTX 2080 Super graphics card will show a comfortable FPS above 60 frames per second where the «simple» RTX 2080 falls short of this bar. Below is a small selection of Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G performance charts in four popular games at maximum graphics settings at 3840 x 2160 (4K) and 2560 x 1440 (2K) resolutions compared to the previously tested MSI RTX 2080 Ventus 8G OC .
Mining potential
Below is the approximate performance of a video card in different mining algorithms using the NiceHashMiner benchmark version 1.9.2.16 as an example.
Conclusion
The tested Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G graphics card has an excellent cooling system that provides moderate heating of the GPU, video memory and power elements. The power subsystem has been significantly modified by Zotac engineers and expanded to a 16 + 4 phase circuit, and also supplemented with a Power Boost multi-phase tantalum capacitor. This allows you to experiment with overclocking and squeeze out about 4% more performance from the card compared to the original factory overclock. At the same time, the noise level will remain at an acceptable level thanks to the well-thought-out design of the radiator on copper pipes and three cooling fans.
In the absence of load on the GPU, they are generally idle, providing complete silence. Only the specific setting of the fan operation with frequent starts and stops at low loads and GPU temperatures in the range of 51-70 ° C became a fly in the ointment, but this is easily corrected by setting the control curves through the FireSorm bundled program. The controlled four-zone lighting system looks great. It just asks for a modern gaming assembly with an emphasis on RGB modding, especially if the case provides space for a vertical installation of a video card through a PCIe riser. Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G can rightfully be called one of the best options among video cards based on new modifications of GeForce RTX 2080 Super video processors.
Benefits of Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme 8G:
- High performance;
- High efficiency cooling system;
- Spectra 2.0 beautiful controllable backlight;
- Cooling fans quiet under load;
- Metal backplate;
- Ray Tracing and DLSS support.
Drawbacks:
- Unsuccessful fan operation algorithm at low load on the GPU with frequent start and stop (adjusted by settings).
Features:
- Oversized;
- Heavy weight.
Test & Review: ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Extreme Powerful Hardware Ray Tracing Graphics Card
Page 1: Test & Review: ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Extreme Powerful Hardware Ray Tracing Graphics Card
Another high-end GeForce RTX 2080 Ti has arrived in our test lab. ZOTAC decided to push the leaders among the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards, as the new AMP Extreme model features a high nominal Boost frequency. In addition to a high level of performance, the video card stands out with a stylish appearance with RGB backlighting and a powerful cooling system. Let’s see how the new ZOTAC will show itself in practice.
ZOTAC offers two variants of its top graphics card. The Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Extreme ZT-T20810B-10P is the fastest of the two, clocking in at 1.815MHz Boost. The Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Extreme Core ZT-T20810C-10P is a little slower, at least in theory: the Boost frequency is 1.755 MHz.
We have already tested the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP graphics card, which relies on an NVIDIA reference design PCB but features a custom cooler. Below are the technical specifications of the Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Extreme.
| Model | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition | ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Extreme | ||
| Price | 95.990 ₽ 1.259 euros |
1. 575 euros |
||
| Technical specifications | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Turing | Turing | ||
| GPU | TU102 | TU102 | ||
| Process | TSMC 12 nm | TSMC 12 nm | ||
| Number of transistors | 18.6 billion | 18.6 billion | ||
| Crystal area | 754 mm² | 754 mm² | ||
| Stream Processors | 4.352 | 4.352 | ||
| Tensor cores | 544 | 544 | ||
| RT cores | 68 | 68 | ||
| Texture blocks | 272 | 272 | ||
| Geometric blocks | 34 | 34 | ||
| ROPs | 88 | 88 | ||
| GPU clock (base) | 1.350 MHz | 1.350 MHz | ||
| GPU clock (Boost) | 1. 635 MHz |
1.815 MHz | ||
| Memory frequency | 1.750 MHz | 1.800 MHz | ||
| Memory type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | ||
| Memory capacity | 11GB | 11GB | ||
| Memory bus width | 352 bit | 352 bit | ||
| Capacity | 616 GB/s | 633.6 GB/s | ||
| TDP | 260 W | 300 W | ||
| Add. nutrition | 2x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin | ||
| SLI/NVLink | 2x NV Link | 2x NV Link | ||
The ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP Extreme is designed for maximum performance. The nominal Boost frequency is declared at 1.815 MHz. Much higher than many competitors, but the high declared Boost frequency is not a guarantee that we will get a record frequency in practice. Interestingly, ZOTAC decided to overclock the 50 MHz GDDR6 memory to 1,800 MHz, which increased the bandwidth from 616 to 633.