MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z
January, 2019Type
Graphics CardPrice
$1599.99 USMSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z Benchmarks (DirectX 11)
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:
Contents
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MSI has really hit the notes right with their flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z graphics card. A strong contender in the custom RTX 2080 Ti lineup and a card that features excellent cooling, excellent overclocking and an excellent design which even at its high price is totally worth it.
- One of the fastest GeForce RTX 2080 Ti models available right now
- Stellar gaming performance at the 4K resolution
- Great upgrade from GTX 1080 Ti and GTX 1080
- Factory Overclocked Out of Box (Up To 1770 MHz)
- Excellent 19 Phase Power Design With Up To 380W TDP Limit
- Stunning Tri-Frozr Design With Carbon Fiber Shroud and Backplate
- OLED Dashboard for real-time GPU/VRAM Statistics (Includes Splash Screen)
- Zero Frozr Fan Technology Included on TORX 3.0 Fans
- Great overclocking potential, full tuning options
- Memory modules on the Lightning Z can hit more than 750 GB/s bandwidth
- Backplate includes heat pads for increased heat dissipation
- MSI Mystic Light RGB support on the shroud and back look stunning
- Support for real-time ray tracing and DLSS features in next-generation gaming titles
- Good driver support for GeForce products, compatibility with DX11, DX12, Vulkan, OpenGL titles
- Lot's of display connectivity, great for VR and multi-display PCs.
Pros
- Ridiculously High Priced ($1599.99 US)
- Very high power consumption when overclocked
- Factory Overclock Not As Impressive As Other Custom RTX 2080 Ti cards
- No Zero Frozr enabled on default BIOS
- Very few DLSS and RTX titles available right now
Cons
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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