Nvidia’s exceptionally powerful GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition is a home run for gaming at 4K or high refresh rates. Only its pricing and the lack of games supporting ray tracing and DLSS keep it from being a launch-day grand slam.
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This article originally appeared on PCMag.com .
At $699, the GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition is a home run for gaming at 4K or high refresh rates.
The packaging is true to Nvidia’s longtime green-and-black GeForce branding.
The card uses dual 13-blade axial fans, backed by a vapor chamber heatsink, for cooling. It vents the air mainly into the case, rather than out the backplane.
To string two RTX 2080 graphics cards together, you’ll need to invest in a new $79 NVLink bridge. The connector is under a cap on the top edge.
Here’s a look at the card from the bottom up, showing the PCI Express slot interface.
The main video-out connectors on the RTX 2080 are three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors, which can drive display resolutions of 8K with a 60Hz refresh rate. In addition, there’s an HDMI 2.0b connector for 4K output at 60Hz, and VirtualLink, a USB Type-C-style connector designed for next-generation virtual reality (VR) headsets.
The RTX 2080 Founders Edition requires six-pin and eight-pin power connectors.
Metal heatsinks totally envelop the board.
A DisplayPort-to-DVI dongle comes bundled in the box.
The rear of the card is etched with simulated circuit traces.
To our eyes, the RTX 2080 is an easy sell for single-card 4K gaming. That’s where it shows the most significant performance gains over its predecessor.
