ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB OC and ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB OC Graphics Cards Review – STRIX Now With Axial Tech

ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti & ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Thermal Tests

Last month, NVIDIA finally released their GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards. Taking a complete departure from traditional GPU design and creating a hybrid architecture that includes a range of new technologies to power the next-generation immersive gaming experiences. The key highlight of the GeForce RTX 20 series was the enablement of real-time raytracing which has been the holy grail of graphics and something NVIDIA spent 10 years to perfect.

In addition to raytracing, NVIDIA also aims to place bets on AI which will play a key role in powering features such as DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling, a unique way of offering the same quality as the more taxing MSAA AA techniques at twice the performance.

We looked at the performance in detail of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080 FE cards and found them to be a good improvement over their predecessors, the GTX 1080 Ti and GTX 1080. When it comes to pricing, the GeForce RTX 20 series are some of the most costly graphics cards NVIDIA has offered to consumers. The reference variants are great with their new cooling design and good looking shrouds but AIBs have also prepped up their own custom models which would rival the FE (reference) cards.

With just a few bucks of asking price over the reference models, the custom variants will offer a range of features such as triple fan coolers, bulky heatsinks, and custom PCBs allowing for better heat dissipation, higher air flow and more overclocking performance and clock stability at their respective boost clocks which will be higher compared to the reference variants.

Today, I'll be taking a look at both the ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 graphics cards which offer a new cooling technology and better heatsink design that is meant to offer better thermal performance while being factory overclocked.

In case you want to read our full NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture deep dive and GeForce RTX 2080 & GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition review, head over to this link.

The ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 20 OC series graphics cards come with a beefy, triple fan cooler. This is ASUS’s latest DirectCU III cooling system that combines Super Alloy Power II components. These deliver the best stability and overclocking results under any circumstance. The card is further built-in ASUS’s industry-leading Auto-Extreme process which ensures the best quality for graphics cards.

ASUS’s triple slot behemoth comes with ASUS AURA RGB LED support and features a fully custom PCB with the superalloy power II design. Clock speeds are configured in two models, gaming and overclock.

ASUS GeForce RTX 20 ROG STRIX Features:

• NVIDIA TURING: ROG GeForce RTX graphics cards are powered by the Turing GPU architecture and the all-new RTX platform. This gives you up to 6X the performance of previous-generation graphics cards and brings the power of real-time ray tracing and AI to games.
• DirectX 12: Power new visual effects and rendering techniques for more lifelike gaming.
• 4K: Step up to the ultimate 4K gaming experience with GeForce RTX and enjoy today’s biggest games in amazing detail.
• Axial-tech Fans feature an all-around better design and IP5X dust resistance.
• 2.7-Slot Design expands cooling surface area by over 20% compared to last gen.
• MaxContact Technology allows 2X more contact with the GPU chip for improved thermal transfer.
• Auto-Extreme Technology uses automation to enhance reliability.
• Super Alloy Power II includes premium alloy chokes, solid polymer capacitors, and an array of high-current power stages to fuel Turing’s cores.
• ASUS FanConnect II equips 2 hybrid-controlled fan headers for optimal system cooling.
• GPU Tweak II provides intuitive performance tweaking and thermal controls.

ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Graphics Card:

The ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the flagship RTX 2080 Ti card that ASUS is offering. The card rocks the same but much-refined cooler as the ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1080 Ti which is one of the best design schemes I have seen to date on a triple slot graphics card and it is also very bulky. In overall size and weight, this thing is just tons of massive performance packed in one triple slot form factor.

In addition to the custom design, the ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti comes with a non-reference PCB, featuring a 16+3 phase design that features higher quality components than the reference variant which is already a really good design by itself. In terms of clock speeds, the graphics card features the same base frequency of 1350 MHz but the boost clock is rated at 1665 MHz over the Founders boost of 1635 MHz.

Following are some of the features of the ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti before I go in detail:

Core/Memory

• OC Mode - GPU Boost Clock: 1665 MHz, GPU Base Clock: 1350 MHz
• Gaming Mode (Default) - GPU Boost Clock: 1650 MHz, GPU Base Clock: 1350 MHz
• 11GB GDDR6 (Default 14 Gbps)

ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Graphics Card:

The ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 is the top-tier RTX 2080 card that ASUS is offering. The card rocks the same coolers as the ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti which is one of the best design schemes I have seen to date on a triple slot graphics card and it is also very bulky. In overall size and weight, this thing is just tons of massive performance packed in one triple slot form factor.

In addition to the custom design, the ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 comes with a non-reference PCB, featuring a 10+2 phase design that features higher quality components than the reference variant which is already a really good design by itself. In terms of clock speeds, the graphics card features the same base frequency of 1515 MHz but the boost clock is rated at 1890 MHz over the Founders boost of 1800 MHz.

Following are some of the features of the ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 before I go in detail:

• Gaming Mode (Default) - GPU Boost Clock: 1860 MHz, GPU Base Clock: 1515 MHz
• OC Mode - GPU Boost Clock: 1890 MHz, GPU Base Clock: 1515 MHz
• 8 GB GDDR6 (Default 14 Gbps)

TORX FAN 3.0: Supremely silent

• Dispersion fan blade: Steeper curved blade accelerating the airflow.
• Traditional fan blade: Provides steady airflow to massive heatsink below.
• Double ball bearing: Strong and lasting core for years of smooth gaming.

The ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 20 Series With Next-Gen DirectCU Cooling

With the differences out of the way, now let's talk about the similarities and the main highlights of the new ROG STRIX design. You won't see a huge change in the shroud design compared to ASUS GeForce 10 series cards but differences do exist and that's what I am going to talk about here. First up, we have the new Axial Tech fans. These new fans feature extended blades that connect to a barrier ring. This ring adds to the structural integrity of the frame itself, offering higher cooling and thermal performance compared to last-gen design.

The ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards come in a standard cardboard box package. The front of both packages has a large "GeForce RTX" brand logo along with the "ROG" logo followed by the ROG STRIX Gaming brand next to it.

The packaging has put a large emphasis on the RTX side of things as the first feature enlisted by AIBs will be Ray Tracing, followed by GDDR6, DirectX 12 and Ansel support. NVIDIA has bet the future of their gaming GPUs on Ray Tracing support as these are the first cards to offer support for the new feature.

The back of the box is very typical, highlighting the main features and specifications of the cards. The six focus points of ASUS's top tier custom cards are its blazing performance which is achieved by a fully custom design using the Auto-Extreme Technology, Max Contact Technology, Axial Tech Fans, Dual BIOS Switch design, GPU Tweak II and support for AURA Sync.

There's also a focus towards GeForce.com on each AIB card through which users can download the latest drivers and GeForce Experience application which are a must for gamers to access all feature set of the new cards.

The sides of the box once again greet us with the large GeForce RTX branding. There's also mention of the 11 GB GDDR6 (RTX 2080 Ti) and 8 GB GDDR6 (RTX 2080) memory available on the cards. The higher bandwidth delivered through the new GDDR6 interface would help improve performance in gaming titles at higher resolution over GDDR5 and GDDR5X based graphics cards.

Outside of the box, the graphics card and the accessory package are held firmly by foam packaging. The graphics card comes with a few accessories and manuals which might not be of much use for hardcore enthusiasts but can be useful for the mainstream gaming audience. The accessories package includes two soft touch cable ties, an installation disk, and a Speed Setup guidebook.

The cards are nicely wrapped within an anti-static cover which is useful to prevent any unwanted static discharges on various surfaces that might harm the graphics card. The card accessories include a Molex power connector which isn't of much use in high-end systems since the PSUs already have the required cables.

After the package taken care of, I can finally start talking about the card itself. The ASUS ROG STRIX graphics cards always featured a very aggressive design scheme and the new RTX 20 series cards are no exception.

ASUS's ROG STRIX series are some of the biggest graphics cards that I have ever tested. ASUS has further refined the ROG STRIX design by offering more cooling and thermal transfer prowess within the same package. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ROG STRIX measures at 12 " x 5.13 " x 2.13 " Inch while the GeForce RTX 2080 ROG STRIX measures at 11.8 " x 5.13 " x 2.13 " Inch. Both cards are 2.7 slot designs which means that they take up just about 3 slot spaces within your case.

You would have to keep in mind the height when going for a dual card solution as your case or motherboard PCIe slot combination may not allow such setup. The cooling shroud extends all the way to the back of the PCB and it requires a casing with good interior space for proper installation.

The back of both cards feature a solid backplate which looks stunning as always with the ROG Eye logo on the far end, a unique laser etched design spread all over and the ASUS STRIX logo, all done in brushed metallic black colors.

In terms of design, we are looking at an updated version of the DirectCU heatsink which is now in its third variation. The first variation started off with the GTX 1080 and I got to see an updated version on the GTX 1080 Ti. The one used on the new RTX 20 series is the most updated one. ASUS also had DirectCU II and DirectCU III heatsinks on previous NVIDIA GPUs but they were of a far too different design than the one I have today.

The new heatsink looks like a beefed up version the last DirectCU heatsink with the main changes being the fans and heatsink design. ASUS has kept their RGB implementation much similar to the previous model.

The shroud comes with cutouts the implement ASUS’s AURA Sync lighting. Each of the six cutouts comes with LEDs that light up and can be modified through the AURA RGB Lighting software. The software allows for several different lighting modes and full RGB colors (up to 16.8 million). There is also an RGB lit logo on the side and the back of the card which I will get to in a bit.

Coming to the fans, here we see one of the major updates to ASUS's ROG STRIX design. Gone is the wing-blade and now comes the Axial-tech. This is the first time a manufacturer is using Axial Tech based fans on their cards so it will be interesting to note how the affect thermal performance.

Compared to their older Wing-blade fans, the Axial Tech fans offer higher air flow (27% increase), greater static pressure (40% increase) and around the same acoustics. The fans are also designed to last longer thanks to their IP5X dust resistance certification.

The fans are fully compliant with 0dB Technology and are actually comprised of three areas. All of these would stay at 0 RPM (idle state) if the temperatures don’t exceed 55C. When it does exceed 55C, all fans would start spinning. You can enable this with the onboard BIOS “Quiet Mode” switch. The other mode is the Performance Mode which always spins the fans for better cooling and GPU performance.

I am back at talking about the full-coverage, full metal-based backplate which both card use. The whole plate is made of solid metal with slightly sharp edges that add to the durability of this card. The brushed metallic black finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic.

There are cutouts in screw placements to easily reach the points on the graphics card. There are open vents for the hot air to move out from the back too. I can also see the ASUS ROG eye logo on the back which looks stunning.

If you are not a fan of the RGB LEDs, ASUS has a Stealth mode switch that lets you turn off or on, all of the LEDs on the card.

Gone is SLI and now we have the latest NVLINK gold finger connectors. Both the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 come with a single NVLINK connector which allows for 2-Way multi-GPU functionality. The RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 are the only cards to support NVLINK connectivity so multi-GPU is only for the high-end spectrum of cards and for good reason. Only these cards have enough bandwidth that can drive another GPU of their tier as anything below wouldn't have the power to interlink to the other card.

A single x8 NVLINK channel provides 25 GB/s peak bandwidth. There are two x8 links on the TU102 GPU and a single x8 link on the Turing TU104 GPU. The TU102 GPU features 50 GB/s of bandwidth in parallel and 100 GB/s bandwidth bi-directionally. Using NVLINK on high-end cards would be beneficial in high-resolution gaming but there’s a reason NVIDIA still restricts users from doing 3 and 4 way SLI.

Multi-GPU still isn’t optimized so you won’t see much benefits unless you are running the highest end graphics cards. That’s another reason why the RTX 2070 is deprived of NVLINK connectors. The NVLINK connectors cost $79 US each and is sold separately. Currently, only NVIDIA is selling them as the AIB cards don’t include any such connectors but that may change once the standard is adopted widely.

With the outsides of the card done, I will now start taking a glance at what's beneath the hood of these monster graphics cards. The first thing to catch my eye is the humungous fin stack that's part of the beefy heatsink which the cards utilize.

The large fin stack runs all the way from the front and to the back of the PCB and is so thick that you can barely see through it. ASUS has moved to a 2.7 slot design which is the result of the thicker heatsink design that offers 20% more cooling area than the last gen heatsink.

The heatsink is fitted with several copper heatpipes and has a very dense aluminum surface with a cold plate that makes direct contact with the GPU and runs the entire length of the PCB.

ASUS’s MaxContact technology allows for a precision-machined heat spreader which makes up to two times more contact with the GPU than a traditional contact surface, allowing for better heat dissipation.

ASUS is also supplying a much larger reinforcing frame on the RTX 20 series cards compared to GTX 10 series. The new frame includes plastic braces that are mounted on the backplate and I/O shield and extends on both sides of the cards and the front too. This increases the structural integrity of the card by 3 times, preventing from torsion and bending.

ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Teardown:

ASUS makes use of a 16+3 phase PWM design that includes their Super Alloy Power II components such as SAP II Capacitors, SAP II Chokes, SAP II DrMOS and SAP II POSCAP. The cards also use the MT61K256M32JE-1 4:A GDDR6 memory from Micron that operates at 14 Gbps along a 352/256-bit wide memory interface.

ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Side-By-Side:

Below, you can see the side by side differences of the ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 TI and 2080 graphics cards.

You can note that the shroud design is the same on both cards and so is the heatsink. The only differences between both cards are the use of a different custom PCB solution, both of which are powerful for each card.

The display port configuration on both cards is also the same which includes three Display Port 1.4a, HDMI 2.0b and a single USB Type-C port for VirtualLink HMDs (Head Mounted Displays).

ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 20 Series AURA SYNC RGB Lighting Gallery:

ASUS ROG STRIX series cards utilize their AURA SYNC RGB technology to offer you a visually pleasing lighting experience on your graphics cards. There are a total of 6 different RGB effects which you can choose from and the cards have eight RGB accent points, six on the front, one on the side and one on the back of the card which looks really good. You can fully customize the RGB lights to your preference using the ASUSs' ARUA Sync application from MSI's web page.

Following is what the graphics card looks like when lit up.

We used the following test system for comparison between the different graphics cards. Latest drivers that were available at the time of testing were used from AMD and NVIDIA on an updated version of Windows 10. All games that were tested were patched to the latest version for better performance optimization for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.

GPU Test Bench 2019

CPU	Intel Core i9-9900K @ 4.70 GHz
Motherboard	AORUS Z390 Master
Video Cards	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming OC MSI GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming OC MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 2080 TI Vulcan X OC ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 TI OC NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 OC AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 Xtreme MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 2080 DUKE OC NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2070 OC MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Ventus XS MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming X MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ventus XS MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Titanium MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Armor X OC MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Lightning OC Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 64 (Reference Air) XFX Radeon R9 Fury X Liquid Cooled ASUS ROG STRIX RX 580 OC
Memory	G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series 32GB (4 X 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz
Storage	Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB)
Power Supply	ASUS ROG THOR 1200W PSU
OS	Windows 10 64-bit

• All games were tested on 2560×1440 (2K) and 3840×2160 (4K) resolutions.
• Image Quality and graphics configurations have been provided in the screenshots below.
• The “reference” cards are the stock configs while the “overclock” cards are factory overclocked configs provided to us by various AIB partners.

ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti & ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Overclocking

Since the card is clocked at reference specifications, there's a lot of room for it to be overclocked. I pushed the core to +178 MHz (RTX 2080 Ti) and +172 MHz (RTX 2080 Ti) beyond its overclock profile and +1070 MHz on the memory for both cards.

I had the power and temp target slider maxed out in EVGA Precision X1 so that meant that the GPU was under no restrictions or blocks when it came to overclocking. The clocks were stable after testing for an hour under stress load.

DOOM

In 2016, Id finally released DOOM. My testing wouldn’t be complete without including this title. All cards were capable of delivering ample frame rates at the 1440p resolution using Nightmare settings, so my focus turned to 4K.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Wolfenstein is back in The New Colossus and features the most fast-paced, gory and brutal FPS action ever! The game once again puts us back in the Nazi-controlled world as BJ Blazkowicz. Set during an alternate future where Nazis won the World War, the game shows that it can be fun and can be brutal to the player and to the enemy too. Powering the new title is once again, id Tech 6 which is much acclaimed after the success that DOOM has become. In a way, ID has regained their glorious FPS roots and are slaying with every new title.

Ultra HQ-AF, Vulkan, Async Compute On *if available, Deferred Rendering and GPU culling off

We tested the game at Ultra settings under the Vulkan API which is standard. Async Compute was enabled for graphics cards that support it while deferred rendering and GPU culling were disabled.

You can read our detailed analysis of GPU Culling and Deferred Rendering graphical settings for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus here!

Ashes of The Singularity: Escalation

NVIDIA and AMD have been tweaking the performance of their cards for Ashes of the Singularity since the title released. It was the first to make use of the DirectX 12 API and the first to leverage from the new Async compute technology that makes use of the DX12 renderer to improve performance.

Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 takes us back to the great war that was meant to end all wars aka World War 1. Using the latest Frostbite tech, the game does a good job at looking gorgeous in all ways possible. From the open world environments to the intense and gun-blazing action, this multiplayer and single player FPS title is one of the best Battlefields to date.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Humanity is at war with itself and divided into factions. On one end, we have the pure and on the other, we have the augmented. That is the world where Adam Jensen lives in and this is the world of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game uses the next generation Dawn Engine that was made by IO interactive on the foundation of their Glacier 2 engine. The game features support of DirectX 12 API and is one of the most visually intensive titles that taxes the GPU really hard.

Hitman (2016)

With the latest drivers, NVIDIA has managed to up the performance of their Pascal and Maxwell parts in Hitman (2016). The game has been a major win for AMD graphics cards that still show a strong gain in performance when switching over from DX11 to DX12, but NVIDIA is slowly catching up with their drivers.

Shadow of The Tomb Raider

The Rise of The Tomb Raider

The rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the most beautiful games that I have played recently and was patched to the DX12 API. The game features a wide variety of settings and we chose Very High, HBAO+ and AA enabled.

Assassins Creed: Origins

Assassins Creed Origins is built by the same team that made Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. They are known for reinventing the design and game philosophy of the Assassins Creed saga and their latest title shows that. Based in Egypt, the open-world action RPG shows its graphics strength in all corners. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 engine which boosts the draw distance range and delivers a very impressive graphics display.

We tested the game at maxed settings with TAA enabled and 16x AF. Do note that the game is one of the most demanding titles out in the market and as such tweaks and performance issues are being patched out.

Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 is a standalone successor to its predecessor and takes place in Hope County, a fictional region of Montana. The main story revolves around doomsday cult the Project at Eden’s Gate and its charismatic leader Joseph Seed. It uses a beefed up Dunia Engine which itself is a modified version of CryEngine from Crytek.

Final Fantasy XV

Grand Theft Auto V

GTA V is the most optimized gaming title that has been made for the PC. It’s so optimized, it even runs on my crap GT 840M based laptop with a smooth FPS on a mix of medium/low settings. I mean what???

Aside from being optimized, GTA V is a great game. It was the Game of The Year for 2013. At 1440p Ultra quality, the game gave us smooth frames on all cards tested.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Using the new Anvil Next engine that was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Ghost Recon: Wildlands goes wild and grand with an open-world setting entirely in Bolivia. This game is a tactical third-person shooter which does seem an awful lot similar to Tom Clancy's: The Division. The game looks pretty and the wide-scale region of Bolivia looks lovely at all times (Day/Night Cycle).

The Witcher 3 Game of The Year Edition

Witcher 3 is the greatest fantasy RPG of our time. It has a great story, great gameplay mechanics and gorgeous graphics. This is the only game I actually wanted to get a stable FPS at 4K. With GameWorks disabled, I gave all high-end cards the ability to demonstrate their power.

Mass Effect Andromeda

Being a huge fan of the Mass Effect series, I was highly anticipating the arrival of Andromeda to store shelves. Now that it's here, I put the fastest gaming card to the test. Using Frostbite, the latest Mass Effect title looks incredibly gorgeous and the open world settings on the different planets immerses you a lot.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War

The successor of 2014’s epic, Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War continues the previous game’s narrative continuing the story of the ranger Talion and the spirit of the elf lord Celebrimbor, who shares Talion’s body, as they forge a new Ring of Power to amass an army to fight against Sauron. The game uses the latest Firebird Engine developed by Monolith Productions and is very intensive even for modern graphics cards.

Watch Dogs 2

Finally, we have Watch Dogs 2. Gone is Aiden Pearce as the new game takes us away from Chicago and puts us in the shoes of Marcus, a seasoned hacker in San Francisco. Running off the Disrupt engine, the game is based on the DirectX 11 API and is a graphics hungry monster. You can see the results for yourself below:

No graphics card review is complete without evaluating its temperatures and thermal load. The ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce 20 series cards are fitted with the most advanced version of the DirectCU cooling design. The latest DirectCU cooler features a massive heatsink with multiple heat pipes which extend beyond the aluminum fin-based design that lead towards the incredibly dense heatsink block. The card comes with PWM cooling and an anti-bending plate that keeps the card sturdy and durable in the harshest environments inside your PC.

The cards also use the new Axial Tech fans with 0dB technology featured on this card make sure that it delivers the best cooling performance and best acoustics while operating.

Note – We tested load with Kombuster which is known as ‘Power viruses’ and can permanently damage hardware. Use such software at your own risk!

I compiled the power consumption results by testing each card under idle and full stress when the card was running games. Each graphics card manufacturer sets a default TDP for the card which can vary from vendor to vendor depending on the extra clocks or board features they plug in on their custom cards. Default TDP for the RTX 2080 Ti is set at 250W while the MSI custom model has a TDP of 300W. The default TDP for the RTX 2080 is 215W while the MSI custom model has a TDP of 250W.

Also, it's worth noting that the 12nm FFN process from TSMC is a refinement of their 16nm FF node. NVIDIA is cramping even larger amount of transistors and more cores than their previous cards, making it one of the densest chip built to date. It's likely to consume a lot of power and the results are reflective of that.

The ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti consumes around the same power as the Founders Edition at stock clocks which is impressive considering it features higher clocks out of the box and a 19 phase VRM design. When overclocked, we see the consumption figures rise to the same extent as other RTX 2080 Ti cards I have tested before with manual overclocks.

The ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 impressed me more than the ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in this review so I'll begin with that. Featuring a boost clock of 1890 MHz which is the same as the AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 Xtreme but with even better thermal performance. The ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 really does shine in the performance department compared to all other graphics cards with the TU104 GPU core.

While it may not be the most cost-effective solution in the market, retailing for $869.99 US, the ROG variant offers way better cooling than the Founders Edition model and even better clocks when compared to the NVIDIA NVTTM solution. The ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 comes with a 10+2 Phase PCB design featuring a solid component layout and dual 8 pin power delivery that lets you overclock the cards by a great margin.

The new axial tech cooling design is something that impressed me on both RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 ROG STRIX variants. Looking at temperatures far below the competing custom cards, ROG's cooling implementation and the enhanced 2.7 slot heatsink with larger cooling area really does work here. My only issue is the 2.7 label which should have been 3 slots as users can get slightly confused with this marketing label. In terms of power consumption, I was looking at the slightly efficient operation on both cards compared to the competition which is a plus as it further adds to Turing's already great power/performance efficiency.

The RGB implementation is similar to the last generation design which is fine as nothing was wrong with the previous design either. You can tinker around with the settings in ASUS's AURA Sync app which offers lots of customization options to users. The ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 is really a well-rounded graphics card, offering one of the best graphics and cooling performance in a nicely fit package.

As far as the RTX 2080 Ti is concerned, I was expecting far better clocks but the manual overclock capabilities of the card makes up for it. The RTX 2080 Ti ROG STRIX is one of the most powerful graphics card available on the market, featuring the best cooling performance and two BIOS modes made for performance enthusiasts and noise free gaming. With only 30dB of noise using the quiet mode, this has to be one of the quietest RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards while keeping up with the impressive thermal figures. The ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2080 Ti retails for $1299 US on retail.

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