Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming OC 8 GB Graphics Card Review – Premium WindForce 3X For RTX SUPER
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Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming OC
July 2019Last year, NVIDIA introduced their latest Turing based GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards, which made a complete departure from traditional GPU design and created a hybrid GPU architecture that would include a range of new technologies to power the next-generation immersive gaming experiences
The GeForce RTX 20 series was the enablement of real-time raytracing which is the holy grail of graphics and something NVIDIA took 10 years to perfect. In addition to raytracing, NVIDIA also aimed to place bets on AI which would go on to play a key role in powering features such as DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling.
While the GeForce RTX 20 series was generally well received in the tech industry, the launch didn't go without a few issues. The first and foremost problem with the new cards was the heavily taxing RTX features and a few key titles that supported it. Since the technology was new, it needed time to deliver results and it felt kind of rushed on NVIDIA's part. The second was the pricing with each tier getting a bump in price over its predecessor.
But all of that changes this month! In less than a year, NVIDIA is now bringing forth their new RTX SUPER lineup. Think of it as the original Turing lineup but supercharged with better performance & more sensible prices. The lineup includes three cards, the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER, and GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER. Termed in our original review as what Turing should've been in the first place, the GeForce RTX SUPER is to bring more gamers over the RTX bandwagon & also compete against AMD's recently released Radeon RX 5700 series cards.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER Pricing Per Segment
When it comes to prices, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER is going to retail at $699 US, the RTX 2070 SUPER is going to retail at $499 US and the RTX 2060 SUPER is going to retail at $399 US. One would ask the question that if the prices are the same as they were before, what has changed?
Well, everything aside from the prices has been upgraded. When it comes to specifications, the RTX 2080 SUPER is going to offer 15% better performance than the Titan XP for $699 US. The RTX 2070 SUPER is said to offer 16% better performance than the RTX 2070 for $499US, putting it right under the current RTX 2080 and the RTX 2060 SUPER is said to be 15% faster than the RTX 2060 for $399 US which puts it at 1% slower than the existing RTX 2070 for a much lower price.
What happens to the existing cards? The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2070 are entirely replaced by their SUPER equivalents so NVIDIA and their AIBs would no longer be making more of those. There might be heavy promotions and discounts on the existing stock to clear up an inventory. As for the RTX 2060, it would exist because of the $349 US price point which makes it the perfect step up to RTX performance and feature set in this category. All cards below that fall in the GTX 16 series portfolio which offer the Turing architecture but exclude RTX features. Following is what the latest pricing chart for NVIDIA GeForce lineup looks like.
NVIDIA GeForce GPU Segment/Tier Prices
| Graphics Segment | 2014-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titan Tier | Titan X (Maxwell) | Titan X (Pascal) | Titan Xp (Pascal) | Titan V (Volta) | Titan RTX (Turing) |
| Price | $999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $2999 US | $2499 US |
| Ultra Enthusiast Tier | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
| Price | $649 US | $649 US | $699 US | $999 US | $999 US |
| Enthusiast Tier | GeForce GTX 980 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER |
| Price | $549 US | $549 US | $549 US | $699 US | $699 US |
| High-End Tier | GeForce GTX 970 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER |
| Price | $329 US | $379 US | $379 US | $499 US | $499 US |
| Mainstream Tier | GeForce GTX 960 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER GeForce RTX 2060 GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GeForce GTX 1660 |
| Price | $199 US | $249 US | $249 US | $249 US | $399 US $349 US $279 US $229 US $219 US |
| Entry Tier | GTX 750 Ti GTX 750 | GTX 950 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 | GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 |
| Price | $149 US $119 US | $149 US | $139 US $109 US | $139 US $109 US | $159 US $149 US |
In addition to the specs/price update, NVIDIA's RTX technologies are being widely adopted major game engines and APIs such as Microsft DirectX (DXR), Vulkan, Unreal Engine, Unity and Frostbite. While there were only three RTX titles around the launch of the RTX 20 series cards, NVIDIA claims that they have at least 13 new titles coming soon which would utilize their RTX feature set to offer real-time ray tracing. These titles include the hugely anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, DOOM Eternal, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Watch Dogs Legion, Wolfenstein Youngblood, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. In addition to that, with the upcoming consoles confirmed to feature ray tracing, developers can also make use of the RTX technology to fine-tune future games for the GeForce RTX hardware.
So for this review, I will be taking a look at the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming OC. This card uses the renowned Windforce 3X cooling solution and a custom PCB design which delivers the best cooling and gaming performance. The card retails for $529.99 US which is $30 US more than the reference Founders Edition but with the added feature set of the custom design.
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.