In December, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang made a guarantee about the GeForce RTX 2080 that it is more powerful than the next-gen gaming consoles that haven’t been released yet. After more than a year on the market, is that still true? Is it worth paying the steep price tag for the RTX 2080? And most importantly, does it work with games currently on the market?
There’s no denying the GeForce RTX 2080 packs a lot of power. You can even argue it revolutionizes some of the ways we generate graphics. But how much is that worth? Would you pay more than $600 to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 4K at 60 frames per second? The original version of the graphics card costs $699, while the Founder’s edition comes in at $799. For those keeping score, that’s more than twice the price of a Nintendo Switch.
The main pitch here comes due to NVIDIA’s turing system, which brings real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence and programmable shading to games. Ray tracing is something companies have tried to deliver on for years. Sony and Microsoft, for example, promise the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X will both use it in their graphics systems. The rendering technique offers a fantastic level of visual realism, but it takes time to process. In previous generations, that meant sluggish gameplay and players bored out of their mind while the game dragged along. The RTX 2080 is the first graphics card with enough computing strength to solve that problem. In fact, it’s the first one currently capable of real-time ray tracing. No slow processing speeds, no sluggish gameplay. Just crystal clear 4K resolution running everything from Hitman 2 to Shadow of War.
Expanding PC Gamer’s Graphics Card Options
NVIDIA recently rolled out Red Dead Redemption 2 for a test drive on the RTX 2080 at a PC press event. With settings at 3830x2160, they turned the game over to a number of reviewers from Polygon, IGN and several other companies. Each one came back with a rave review, saying the graphics looked absolutely incredible and almost lifelike.
The RTX 2080 is also one of the first graphics cards to support GDDR6 memory. Labeled as “the next big advance in high-bandwidth memory” by the company’s website, the circuits reach 14 Gbps transfer rates 20 percent faster than previous models, with less of a drain on the power. Add that to the card’s Deep Learning Super-Sampling, which identifies the best way to render graphics on your system, and you seemingly have a perfect setup for your games
Problems With The GeForce RTX 2080 System
It seems perfect, but it’s not quite there yet. As expected for any new rollout, there have been some bugs. At first, the cards were causing blue screens of death, dying after a few months or even bursting into flames. Company officials blamed the issues on some “test escapes,” saying on the GeForce forum that “limited test escapes from early boards caused the issues some customers have experienced.” Last year, as more compatible games were released, some Fallout 4 players warned the card couldn’t render weapons debris. In each case, Nvidia officials asked players to visit the support link on their website, promising to fix the issues. And that’s to be expected with a new generation card, especially one that’s using new types of technology. It may take some time before all games catch up.
While it’s not hard to argue the RTX 2080 will at least compete against upcoming consoles from Sony and Microsoft, you can’t say it’s the best when all games can’t benefit from it. It becomes almost like a tease – you buy the equipment, then have to wait until your favorite game’s development can actually take advantage of the technology.
Not all games are compatible right now with the system. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Watchdogs: Legion and Shadow of the Tomb Raider can all use the new technology, but overall less than 40 are ready to run. If your game’s not on that list, it might be a good idea to wait.
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