Gigabyte Gaming OC RTX 2080 Super Review

Conclusion

When we looked at the Gigabyte Gaming OC RTX 2070 Super it was clear that the extra cooling performance managed to extract even more performance from the updated TU104 GPU even when taking into account the good Nvidia cooler that has replaced their blower style on recent models. With this in mind we were excited to discover if the extra cooling potential of the Windforce cooler would finally push the RTX 2080 Super above the RTX 2080Ti in our benchmarks.

Certainly initial impressions were good with the small factory overclock becoming a huge one when we got down to manually overclocking it. The combination of the excellent power design and always impressive Gigabyte triple fan cooler led to a clock speed 100 MHz higher than it comes out of the box and 50 MHz higher than the Nvidia take upon the RTX 2080 Super managed. With the combination of this and a robust cooling ability that led to an average boost clock only 2% lower than the peak boost we were certain that the Gigabyte Gamign OC RTX 2080 Super would finally follow the rest of the Super range in besting the stock ‘next card up’.

However, it wasn’t the case. Whether the Nvidia cooler on the RTX 2080 Super was better than the 2070 Super version, and thus much closer to the Gigabyte, or whether the GPU itself is very near the limits of its capabilities regardless of clock speed, the two variants of the RTX 2080 Super that we’ve tested – Nvidia and this Gigabyte – were incredibly close in performance when overclocked. Yes the Gigabyte was nearly always found to be ahead of the Nvidia option, but given how slender the gap between the Nvidia Super and the lowest performing stock RTX 2080Ti was, we didn’t think there would be room for the Gigabyte Gaming OC to slide without getting into Ti territory but it managed it. So whilst it might be disappointing for us that there isn’t enough extra performance in the Gaming OC to really put the Nvidia in the shade as we’d hoped, the Super is already an impressive enough upgrade on a regular RTX 2080 that it’s still an excellent performer.

Naturally if you overclock you get better performance, but in this case you don’t get significantly better than the reference card. Where the Gigabyte does score big points though is in the stock performance where, as you might expect, the combination of a factory overclock and the extra headroom for the GPU Boost 4.0 technology to do its thing reap dividends. There is the same difference in boost clock between the ‘stock’  Gigabyte Gaming OC RTX 2080 Super and the stock Nvidia reference card as there is between the stock and overclocked Gigabyte. Therefore if you’re the type of user who doesn’t want to head down the road of overclocking your card for diminishing returns but instead just wants to install it in their system and get on and play, then the Gigabyte Gaming OC is the clear choice. It’s cooler, quieter, draws the same power and has more performance. Everything you could desire.

Whilst the overclocked performance didn’t see the big step ahead of the Nvidia card we were hoping to find, the Gigabyte Gaming OC RTX 2080 Super is still a spectacular performer giving performance up to a stock RTX 2080Ti at a fraction of the cost and in a quiet and cool package. It is an easy product to recommend and particularly so if you’re the sort of user who just wants to get on with the business of gaming without tweaking endlessly.

  

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