After a long wait, Nvidia has finally unveiled their new family of gaming graphics cards which is the GeForce RTX 20 series. Up till now we only have GeForce 10 series graphics cards for gaming use that are based on the Pascal GPU architecture. GeForce 10 Pascal series is one of the longest running and very successful graphics cards series from Nvidia. Also, these graphics cards were much better in performance and efficiency compared to the older Maxwell and Fermi based graphics cards.
The GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards from Nvidia are based on the new GPU architecture, which is Turing and is built on the smaller 12nm FinFET manufacturing process. This is one of the most advanced GPU architectures ever built and it supports Artificial Intelligence (AI), Deep Learning, and Real Time Ray Tracing. Ray Tracing is a rendering technique for creating lifelike shadows, reflections, refractions, light scattering, dispersion, and other complex lighting effects in games and applications. Ray-tracing takes a lot of processing power and is a very performance-oriented feature, but due to Nvidia’s advanced Turing GPU architecture and algorithms, it can now be performed in real-time in the GeForce RTX 20 series GPUs that include GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080 and RTX 2070. Also apart from Ray Tracing, all these GeForce RTX Graphics Cards support a new technique called Deep Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS) that employs deep learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to rendering techniques to smooth out edges on objects in games. These GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards come with RT Cores and Tensor Cores in addition to CUDA Cores. They are full VR ready and come with VirtualLink USB Type-C connector to hook up your VR headsets.
Nvidia has also introduced two new metrics namely Giga Rays/s and RTX-OPS to evaluate and depict the performance of these new Turing graphics cards. Only RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 graphics cards support multi-GPU SLI setup using GeForce RTX NVLink bridge that offers 50X bandwidth (up to 50GBps per link) over previous technologies. Other features that are supported include Nvidia Ansel, Nvidia Shadowplay, Nvidia G-Sync and HDR, HDCP 2.2, DirectX 12, Vulkan, and OpenGL, and Nvidia GPU Boost 4. Here in this post, I am going to list down the major specifications of these GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, and RTX 2070 graphics cards and compare them with their GeForce 10 series equivalents.
Major Features of RTX 20 series GPU
- Real Time Ray Tracing
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- GDDR6 memory
- VirtualLink (USB Type-C)
- NVLink SLI support
- Deep Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS)
Games that support Ray Tracing – Assetto Corsa Competizione, Atomic Heart, Battlefield V, Control, Enlisted, Justice, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, Metro Exodus, ProjectDH, Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Games that support Deep Learning Super-Sampling (DLSS) – Ark: Survival Evolved, Atomic Heart, Dauntless, Final Fantasy XV, Fractured Lands, Hitman 2, Islands of Nyne, Justice, Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Remnant: From the Ashes, Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, The Forge Arena, We Happy Few.
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is currently the most powerful gaming graphics card ever built and is the flagship of the RTX 20 series. This card is a beast and packs a tremendous amount of power. It comes with 4352 CUDA Cores and 11GB GDDR6 memory having 352-bit interface, offering bandwidth of whopping 616 GB/s. The card offers a single-precision computer performance of 13.4 TFLOPS and Ray Tracing performance of 10 Giga Rays/s and 78T RTX-OPS. The card comes with 13-phase power supply for super solid stability during higher overclocking.
For the first time, we will see dual-fan cooler on the Nvidia’s Founders Edition graphics cards. It has got two 13 blade fans coupled with a new vapor chamber for ultra-cool and silent performance. It is not a blower fan styled design and Nvidia claims that this new cooling unit is about one-fifth time quieter than the blower fan type cooling found in earlier Founders edition graphics cards. The card supports NVLink SLI using the new Nvidia RTX NVLink Bridge for setting up multi-GPU configuration for increased performance and computing power. The power consumption of this card stands at 260 Watts and it requires two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors from the PSU. The recommended power supply for this card should be 650 Watts capacity. Connectivity options include three DisplayPort, HDMI, and USB Type-C port.
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is also available from different graphics card manufacturers with dual fan and triple-fan cooling solution. They may also incorporate higher clock speeds and include features such as RGB LED lighting and advanced fan control options.
Check out: Best RTX 2080 Ti Card for 4K Gaming, Ray Tracing & Workstation
| GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 4352 |
| GPU Clock | 1350 / 1635 MHz (Base / Boost) |
| Memory Clock | 14 Gbps |
| Memory Size | 11 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface | 352-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 616 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| Real Time Ray Tracing | Yes |
| Compute Performance | 13.4 TFLOPS |
| Ray Tracing Performance | 10 Giga Rays/s, 78T RTX-OPS |
| NVIDIA NVLink (SLI-Ready) | Yes |
| VR Ready | Yes |
| PCI-E Power Connectors | 8-pin + 8-pin |
| Power Consumption | 260W |
| Recommended PSU | 650W |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 3, HDMI, USB Type-C |
GeForce RTX 2080
GeForce RTX 2080 is the second powerful graphics card in the Turing based RTX 20 series. It comes with 2944 CUDA Cores which is considerably less than the RTX 2080 Ti. However, it has got higher GPU clock speeds of 1515 MHz and 1800 MHz (Base and Boost). The card comes with 8GB GDDR6 memory with 256-bit interface, offering a bandwidth of 448 GB/s. The card comes with 8-phase power supply to provide stability during maximum overclocking.
The single precision compute performance of this card stands at 10.1 TFLOPS and Ray Tracing performance at 8 Giga Rays/s and 60T RTS-OPS. The card features similarly designed cooler with dual fans as found in the above mentioned RTX 2080 Ti. Just like RTX 2080 Ti, it also supports multi-GPU setup using RTX NVLink Bridge. The card has a maximum power consumption of 225W and requires an 8-pin and 6-pin PCI-Express power connector for its working. You will need a 650W PSU to run this card in your gaming rig. Connectivity options include three DisplayPort, HDMI, and USB Type-C port.
Must Read: Best RTX 2080 Card for 4K Gaming, Ray Tracing & VR
| GeForce RTX 2080 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 2944 |
| GPU Clock | 1515 / 1800 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 14 Gbps |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| Real Time Ray Tracing | Yes |
| Compute Performance | 10.1 TFLOPS |
| Ray Tracing Performance | 8 Giga Rays/s, 60T RTS-OPS |
| NVIDIA NVLink (SLI-Ready) | Yes |
| VR Ready | Yes |
| PCI-E Power Connectors | 8-pin + 6-pin |
| Power Consumption | 225W |
| Recommended PSU | 650W |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 3, HDMI, USB Type-C |
GeForce RTX 2070
GeForce RTX 2070 is also a high-end Turing graphics card and is slightly slower than the RTX 2080. This is the cheapest and the least power hungrier of all these three cards. It comes with 2304 CUDA Cores and 8 GB GDDR6 memory having 256-bit interface, churning out bandwidth of 448 GB/s. The GPU clock speeds for this card are 1410 MHz / 1710 MHz (Base / Boost). It offers Ray Tracing performance of 6 Giga Rays/s, 45T RTX-OPS and compute performance of 7.5 TFLOPS. For providing stability during overclocking, the card comes with a 6-phase power supply.
It also uses a dual fan cooler but it is a bit smaller compared to its bigger brothers i.e. RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080. The card does not support SLI through NVLink Bridge. However, it does support other features such as G-Sync, Nvidia Ansel, Nvidia Shadowplay, and HDR, HDCP 2.2, DirectX 12, Vulkan, OpenGL and Nvidia GPU Boost 4. It has a power consumption of 185W and requires only a single 8-pin PCIe power connector from the power supply. The recommended PSU for this card is 550W. Connectivity options at the rear include three DisplayPort, HDMI, and USB Type-C port (for VirtualLink).
Check out: Best RTX 2070 Cards for 1440p and 4K Gaming
| GeForce RTX 2070 Specifications | |
| CUDA Cores | 2304 |
| GPU Clock | 1410 / 1710 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 14 Gbps |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s |
| Bus Interface | PCI Express 3.0 |
| Real Time Ray Tracing | Yes |
| Compute Performance | 7.5 TFLOPS |
| Ray Tracing Performance | 6 Giga Rays/s, 45T RTX-OPS |
| NVIDIA NVLink (SLI-Ready) | No |
| VR Ready | Yes |
| PCI-E Power Connectors | 8-pin |
| Power Consumption | 185W |
| Recommended PSU | 550W |
| Output Ports | DisplayPort x 3, HDMI, USB Type-C |
Comparison with GeForce 10 series
Below are the comparisons of the RTX 20 series graphics cards with their GeForce 10 series counterparts.
RTX 2080 Ti vs GTX 1080 Ti
| Specifications | RTX 2080 Ti | GTX 1080 Ti |
| GPU Architecture | Turing | Pascal |
| CUDA Cores | 4352 | 3584 |
| Boost Clock | 1635 MHz (OC) | 1582 MHz |
| Memory Size | 11 GB GDDR6 (352-bit) | 11 GB GDDR5X (352-bit) |
| Memory Speed | 14 Gbps | 11 Gbps |
| Memory Bandwidth | 616 GB/s | 484 GB/s |
| Compute Performance | 13.4 TFLOPS | 11.3 TFLOPS |
| SLI multi-GPU support | Yes (using NVLink Bridge) | Yes (using HB Bridge) |
| Power Consumption | 260W | 250W |
RTX 2080 vs GTX 1080
| Specifications | RTX 2080 | GTX 1080 |
| GPU Architecture | Turing | Pascal |
| CUDA Cores | 2944 | 2560 |
| Boost Clock | 1800 MHz | 1607 MHz |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR6 (256-bit) | 8 GB GDDR5X (256-bit) |
| Memory Speed | 14 Gbps | 10 Gbps |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 320 GB/s |
| Compute Performance | 10.1 TFLOPS | 8.9 TFLOPS |
| SLI multi-GPU support | Yes (using NVLink Bridge) | Yes (using HB Bridge) |
| Power Consumption | 225W | 180W |
RTX 2070 vs GTX 1070 Ti vs GTX 1070
| Specifications | RTX 2070 | GTX 1070 Ti | GTX 1070 |
| GPU Architecture | Turing | Pascal | Pascal |
| CUDA Cores | 2304 | 2432 | 1920 |
| Boost Clock | 1710 MHz | 1607 MHz | 1506 MHz |
| Memory Size | 8 GB GDDR6 (256-bit) | 8 GB GDDR5 (256-bit) | 8 GB GDDR5 (256-bit) |
| Memory Speed | 14 Gbps | 8 Gbps | 8 Gbps |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 256 GB/s | 256 GB/s |
| Compute Performance | 7.5 TFLOPS | 8.1 TFLOPS | 6.5 TFLOPS |
| SLI multi-GPU support | NA | Yes (using HB Bridge) | Yes (using HB Bridge) |
| Power Consumption | 185W | 180W | 150W |
See also:
- RTX 2060 Specifications, Benchmarks and Details
- RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2070 Super & RTX 2080 Super Overview
My Thoughts
Well if we look at the paper then the new GeForce RTX 20 series cards are definitely better than their GeForce GTX 10 series counterparts in every aspect. However, the actual gaming performance of these new RTX 20 series cards is not known at the moment and we really don’t know how much they outdo the previous pascal cards in terms of frame rates. Yes, they would be ahead when it comes to Ray Tracing but how much impact does it make in the gaming world is still a question because most of the users do not bother about shadows and all, and how many games will support it, is also a major concern.
Also, these RTX 20 series cards are incredibly expensive which may not attract as many users. The Founders Edition of GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, and RTX 2070 is priced at $1199, $799, and $599 respectively. Right now the main selling point of these Turing graphics cards is their Real-Time Ray Tracing technology which indeed is a steep jump in the future of gaming and graphics. However, it is still very early to say how much real performance and graphics improvement in games these new cards will bring until the gaming benchmarks come out. If you have anything to say or want to express your opinion then please leave a comment below.
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