ASUS ROG Strix Gaming RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti Review

Introduction

You can always tell when a new technology is on the horizon. No matter where you go or what you seek, all anyone is talking about is the latest product, whether that is a CPU or motherboard or, as in this case, a new flagship GPU from nVidia.

As with all product launches you get the main product from the manufacturer themselves, but also a range of products from their partners, and nowhere does this hold truer than in the world of graphics cards. Sure the nVidia Turing Founders Edition graphics cards might be a massive step up from their reference cards of old, but the truth is that everyone is waiting on the vendors to put their secret sauce onto the PCB. Whether that is brand loyalty, or a desire to have all your hardware from the same manufacturer for organisation reasons, or just to see what is possible on that new technology when pushed a little further, the partner stuff is always massively popular.

When it comes to being popular, few manufacturers can match up to ASUS and their Republic Of Gamers brand. Particularly the gaming focussed Strix range which forms the backbone of the two graphics cards we have for you today.

We've already seen what the Turing GPU has to offer with the nVidia Founders Edition and MSI Gaming X Trio, so now it's time to see how the always popular ASUS Strix take upon the RTX fares. Hopefully there will be a significant boost in performance over its rivals to justify the huge price hike between the Strix and the rest.

Technical Specifications

There is no denying that the two Strix cards are beefy offerings, both being very nearly three slots wide. They both sport the ASUS DirectCU cooler, both have Gaming and OC modes to help push your clock speeds even higher, and both provide AURA lighting. In a change from the vanilla nVidia cards, the DisplayPort number has dropped from three to two, while the Strix see the addition of another HDMI 2.0b port. No DVI-D here though, so if your monitor is older then it is time to refresh to something with one of these two inputs.