Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC 11 GB Graphics Card Review – Return of The Windforce

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC Benchmarks (DirectX 11)

Last week, 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 is 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 thought them to be a good gain 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 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.

One such custom model is the Gigabyte Gaming OC, which comes in both RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 flavors. Featuring an updated design over the previous Gaming variants which was available on the flagship GTX 1080 Ti last year, the new model supports even better specifications and a re-designed cooler which looks awesome. It's worthy to note that the Windforce 3X cooler that the Gaming OC is using is the refinement of their previous Windforce cooler with an array of three heavy-duty fans, offering higher heat dissipation than the previous models.

Today, I will be testing the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC model which comes with the triple fan Windforce 3X cooling system and incorporates a factory overclock for faster performance than the reference variants.

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 Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC is Gigabyte's reference PCB, custom cooler design. The extra cooling performance from the Windforce 3X heatsink will deliver higher boost clocks on the card. Overclocking would see a benefit but you also get a slight factory-overclock out of the box that adds to the overall value of this graphics card which sticks close to the Founders Edition pricing. The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC will be selling at $1229.99 US which is a $30 premium over Founders Edition variants.

Furthermore, the entire power delivery system has been rebuilt for GeForce RTX Founders Edition graphics cards, starting with the all-new 13+3 phase iMON DrMOS power supply. Of particular note, there is a new ability to switch off phases, for drastically-reduced power consumption at low workloads, which greatly increases power efficiency.

NVIDIA states that their new reference PCB allows for more power headroom of around 55W. That is where the 325W figure is coming from. The new electrical components also ensure much cleaner power delivery, allowing for better overclocks without wasting excess power.

In terms of clock speeds, the graphics card features the same base frequency of 1350 MHz but the boost clock is rated at up to 1665 MHz over the Founders boost of 1635 MHz (+30 MHz overclock).

Following are some of the features of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC before we go into detail:

Features

• Powered by GeForce® RTX 2080 Ti
• Integrated with 11GB GDDR6 352-bit memory interface
• WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System with alternate spinning fans
• RGB Fusion – 16.7M customizable color lighting
• Metal Back Plate
• 4 Years Warranty (Online registration required)

Core Clock

• 1665 MHz in OC mode
• 1650 MHz in Gaming mode
• (Reference Card: 1545 MHz)

The Gigabyte Gaming OC Series With A Refined Windforce Cooling System

With the differences out of the way, now let's talk about the similarities and the main highlights of the Windforce design. Windforce is a renowned cooling system developed by Gigabyte and has long been in use by their Gaming and Windforce series cards. The Windforce cooler has seen a lot of variations throughout the years and comes in single, dual and triple fan designs. With the GeForce RTX 20 series, Gigabyte is deploying their heavy-weight, triple-fan design.

The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC graphics cards come in a standard cardboard box package. The front of both packages has a large "GeForce RTX" brand logo along with a "Gigabyte" logo on the top left corner and the iconic Gigabyte robot eye in the middle.

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 key aspects of Gigabyte's Gaming custom cards are its Windforce 3X cooling system, one-click super overclocking design through the bundled AORUS Engine software and the new RGB Fusion LED lighting.

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) 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 card is 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.

Useful manuals and installation guides are packed within a Gigabyte labeled letter case. There is a Quick Guide, a AORUS 4 Years Warranty note and a single drivers disk. It's best to ignore the driver disk and install the latest software and graphics drivers directly from the NVIDIA and Gigabyte official web pages as the ones shipped in the disks could be older versions and not deliver optimal performance for your graphics cards.

After the package taken care of, I can finally start talking about the card itself. This thing is a beast and I can't wait to test it out to find what kind of performance improvement I get over current-gen cards.

Gigabyte's Windforce 3X heat sinks are some of the beefiest heatsink cooling solutions that I have ever tested. The card measure in at 286.5 x 114.5 x 50.2mm mm and comes in the standard 2 slot design.

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 the card features a solid backplate which looks stunning and offers a premium look. There's a lot of nifty features about this backplate which I will come back to shortly.

In terms of design, we are looking at an updated version of the Windforce 3X series heatsink which is now in its seventh variation. The first Windforce graphics card shipped back in the Fermi, NVIDIA GeForce 400 series era so this cooler has seen some massive changes over the years. The one on the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC and WindForce OC is the most refined version of the heatsink ever produced.

The new heatsink looks like a more sleeker variant of the previous Windforce with the main changes being the shroud and heatsink design. In addition to the heatsink and shroud changes, you also get a slight bit of RGB in the new shroud which is compliant with Gigabyte's RGB Fusion lighting system and is fully user-customizable.

Coming to the fans, the card actually features two different fan designs which utilize the Unique Blade Fan design. The airflow is split by the triangular fan edge, and guided smoothly through the 3D stripe curve on the fan surface, effectively enhancing the airflow.

In addition to the standard fan spin, Gigabyte Windforce fans have an alternate spinning mode. It leads the middle fan to spin in a clockwise manner while the two fans on the side spin in anti-clockwise mode. This helps reduce airflow turbulence and allow more airflow to be blown away from the card, effectively increasing heat dissipation.

The fans are fully compliant with the 3D Active Fan technology which will allow the fans to stay in idle mode until the temps exceed a certain threshold. This threshold is based on both the GPU load and the temperatures, allowing for smooth and quiet operation under lower application loads.

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 rounded edges that add to the durability of this card. The matte black finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic.

There are small 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. We can also see the Gigabyte logo in the middle. Gigabyte is also using heat pads beneath the backplate which offer more cooling to the electrical circuitry on the PCB.

Gone is SLI and now we have the latest NVLINK gold finger connectors. The RTX 2080 comes 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 huge fin stack that's part of the beefy heatsink which the cards utilize.

Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is comprised of composite heat pipes which combine thermal conductivity and phase transition to efficiently manage the heat transfer between two solid interfaces which increases cooling capacity. The base of the heatsink is a direct touch heat pipe surface.

The heat pipes made direct contact with the GPU die, allowing for faster dissipation of heat from the core. Gigabyte is one of the few GPU manufacturers who is still using direct contact surfaces while others have switched over the nickel plated, cold plates. It will be interesting to see how this heatsink performs compared to the nickel plated designs we have tested more recently.

The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 TI Gaming OC comes with a factory overclock out of the box. Being so, it uses a dual 8 Pin connector configuration. The card is rated at a TDP of 300W officially by the manufacturer.

I/O on the graphics card sticks with the reference scheme which includes three Display Port 1.4a, a single HDMI 2.0b and a single USB Type-C port for VirtualLink connectivity to high-end HMD (Head Mounted Displays).

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC Series PCB Teardown

Gigabyte makes use of a 13+3 phase PWM design that includes high-end components. The cards also uses the  MT61K256M32JE-14: A GDDR6 memory from Micron that operates at 14 Gbps along a 256-bit wide memory interface.

Following are a few close up shots of the reference PCB which is being offered under the hood of the Gaming OC series graphics cards.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC Series RGB Lighting Gallery

Gigabyte Gaming OC series cards utilize their RGB Fusion technology to offer you a visually pleasing lighting experience on your graphics cards. The entire side logo comes with RGB Fusion Light support. You can fully customize the RGB lights to your preference using the Gigabyte RGB Fusion application from Gigabyte'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.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC Overclocking

Since the card is clocked at overclocked specifications, we are kind of left with limited headroom to overclock. I pushed the core to +160 MHz beyond its overclock profile and +1050 MHz on the memory.

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+ without any AA.

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 GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC series is fitted with the most advanced version of the Windforce cooling design. The latest Windforce 3X 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.

Note – We tested load with Kombuster which is known as a ‘power virus’ 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. The default TDP for the RTX 2080 Ti is 260W (Founders Edition) while the Gigabyte custom model has a TDP of 300W.

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 Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC comes in at a $30 US premium over the Founders Edition with a price tag of $1229.99 US. That isn't much higher compared to NVIDIA's own solution but the price is already way too high and that puts gamers in a tough spot who are looking to get the absolute best gaming performance with the GeForce RTX 20 series cards.

For an extra $30 US, you get slightly better performance, thanks to a +30 MHz out of the box boost overclock. The Founders Edition has a +90 MHz out of the box at 1635 MHz while the Gaming OC is rated at 1665 MHz out of the box. You get the same Founders Edition PCB which allows you great overclocking clocks considering it packs a 13+3 phase PCB design but the difference that the OC yields aren't much big of an improvement. Maybe if some games are just lacking that 4K 60 FPS spot, the extra OC can give you a nice boost but don't expect miracles as the reference PCB is still bound to a certain level due to locked voltages by NVIDIA. It is a really good design but if you want a custom PCB, you have to pay a higher premium.

In addition to the overclock, you get a nice triple fan Windforce cooler that offers better cooling than the Founders Edition dual axial fan design. It is also a dual slot design with the standard PCB length which makes it an easy fit inside any PC chassis. The cooler is fitted with a very bulky heatsink that offers larger contact surface and to top it off, the backplate, which is stunning, comes with extra thermal pads for good thermal transfer on the opposite side of the card.

NVIDIA themselves have a reference solution that doesn't look reference at all. In fact, it is their rival solution against custom board partner cards. But AIBs like Gigabyte have always tried their best to release cards that offer something extra over the reference NVIDIA solution. The Gaming OC proofs that AIBs can still deliver solutions that are designed to offer better performance and cooling over the Founders Edition card. If you are aiming for a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti for your new gaming rig, then the RTX 2080 Ti Gaming OC from Gigabyte offers a great cooler that performs and looks great while keeping those clocks running stable around the 2 GHz range.

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