Best RTX 2080 Super Graphics Card in 2020 & 2021

Choosing The Best Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Card

Now, let’s dive into all you need to know to make an educated buying decision. First and foremost- how does the 2080 Super compare to the original 2080?

How does this compare to the RTX 2080? Can I buy that instead?

Like with the 2070 Super, the RTX 2080 Super is only a marginal improvement over the original RTX 2080. This card is built to be 10% faster than the original 2080, according to Nvidia, and in-game benchmarks across the board seem to reflect that, especially at higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K. Where the differences will be harder to distinguish is with 1080p gaming, since you’re more likely to run into CPU bottlenecks at this point than anything else.

The RTX 2080 Super is launching at the same price as the original RTX 2080, and is actually replacing it in circulation. This means that after some time has passed, the RTX 2080 will no longer be available at all, and your only choice will be to buy an RTX 2080 Super. This is a refresh, not a generational leap.

If you can find an original RTX 2080 available for much cheaper, then that could be a worthwhile buy. These opportunities will only exist for a few months after the launch of the Super series, though– if you’re reading this article 3 months or more out from the original July 2019 launch, chances are high that the 2080 is completely out of stock and the 2080 Super is all that’s left in circulation.

How do these cards perform?

Now, let’s talk some actual performance numbers.

According to the Digital Foundry reviews and benchmarks, the RTX 2080 Super is built for playing all but the most extremely demanding/unoptimized titles at 1440p max settings and 100+ FPS. With ray-tracing enabled with these settings, 60+ FPS is possible. 

In 4K gaming at max settings without ray-tracing, the RTX 2080 Super generally averages well above 60 FPS in most titles, but a few (like the notoriously unoptimized AC:Odyssey) can still bring it below 60 FPS at native 4K.

Ultimately, the RTX 2080 Super is one of the best cards on the market for 1440p and 4K gaming alike. VR and 1080p gaming are both a breeze, as well. If you encounter any issues playing at 1440p or 4K, turn off ray-tracing or other extraneous settings before reducing resolution and even then, reduce resolution scale first. 

Sometimes even a 10% or 20% reduction in resolution scale at 4K can provide massively better performance without an actual noticeable drop in visual quality, especially when playing on a monitor.

Does clock speed matter?

All of the cards listed above ship with a factory overclock, but this generally won’t impact your performance numbers by a significant margin. Manual overclocking can eke out maybe an extra 10 to 15 FPS, but don’t count on pushing the cards much farther than that. The main purpose of a factory OC is to save you the trouble of overclocking yourself, and these factory OCs are generally incredibly safe and under the card’s full capabilities. 

Unless you refuse to overclock on your own, the factory overclock metric shouldn’t matter to you. Plus, most of the factory overclocks listed above are fairly close, so the real-world difference between them out-of-box should be borderline imperceptible.

Length and width and compatibility

Length and width are the physical dimensions of your card, and they will determine whether or not any of these beastly 2080 Supers will actually fit inside your PC.

Width is measured in PCI Express slots and is generally the less-important metric of the two. Unless you’re using additional expansion cards or building an ITX rig that doesn’t have extra breathing room beneath the motherboard, a 3-slot card shouldn’t be a problem for most systems. You may actually encounter issues with length, though…

Length is measured in millimeters, and since we’re on the higher-end here, a lot of these cards will be fairly long, especially if you’re used to budget GPUs. Be sure to check your case specifications or measure the inside of it yourself before investing in one of these graphics cards– you wouldn’t want it to arrive, only to find that you can’t possibly fit it inside of your PC.

Available ports and USB-C

Last but not least, let’s talk your display ports and DisplayPorts.

DisplayPort is the dominant PC/monitor standard, and will be the most present on your card. There will be at least three on every RTX 2080 Super model.

HDMI is secondary, with usually only 1 for connecting to TVs or other displays without DisplayPort support. This can come at the cost of features like higher refresh rates and G-Sync, though, so we recommend sticking to DisplayPort when possible.

Finally, there’s a dang USB port on some of these. Specifically, a USB-C port with the VirtualLink standard. It’s for connecting VR headsets with a single cable, as opposed to three or four. This is a great utility for VR gamers, but an afterthought to everyone else.