Nice review Hilbert! Awesome card but way too rich for me :/ How come the GPU shootout results are more than the OC results? o_O

Beautiful, beautiful card... so much better looking than the MSI Gaming Trio variant. It's just that I simply can't bring myself to appreciate the card fully due to the price tag... 😳 I'm a guy who bought two MSI Lightings 680s back in the day at launch, and there were VERY few available, so it felt like a great achievement to get my hands on 2 at the same time (for a lot of money, but compared to this, it was cheapo). This Lightning 2080Ti however... probably will never even hit the shelves here and if by chance it does, 1600-1700 euros - holy shieeee... I couldn't afford to buy even one, lol. But again, great engineering, great performance, great looks (love the gold + carbon black combo especially). 😉 PS - I still have one of those 680s as a "back-up" card 😛, and even now, when I take it out it looks amazing. So yeah, from these POVs, hats down MSI, you did it again. I'd choose this over Asus for example any day.

ScreamerRSA:

Nice review Hilbert! Awesome card but way too rich for me :/ How come the GPU shootout results are more than the OC results? o_O

We're listing the GPU score in the shootout, not the overall performance score.

nice review, I read them all, thanks

Lovely card...But what about the fans lighing thing once the card is horiziontaly plugged on the MB (normaly with the fans at the bottom). The "RGB Fans LED effect" will not be directly visible (except if the card is vertically monted with a PCI extender of course).

Hilbert Hagedoorn:

We're listing the GPU score in the shootout, not the overall performance score.

Hilber, very nice review and great card but can you please start listing and comparing out of the box and maximum board power limits for each GPU that your review. This is one of the most important differentiating factors between various vendors. This is extremely important for overclocking and to minimize throttling. I know that Lightning has very high power limit, but it would be nice to know what it is and how does it compare to other 2080Tis. Thanks!

Can you switch to the LN2 Mode and show us the Biosnumber and the Powerlimit that is available please? i guess its the same marketing stunt as with the 1080ti lightning z, i can switch from 300W to 350W with LN2 BIOS and loose timing. real xoc bios only provided from msi for hardcore clockers, for private persons that would try ln2 they didtn give out the XOC Bios or Special Afterburner

Moto_Life:

$1.500.00? HAHAHAHA

Probably more close to 2K EUR. :-P

39 fps @4k in BFV with RTX on. That's terribad when you've spent over 1500 pounds on this and i'm sure it'll cost even more than that because the sea hawk is 1600 already.

Mother of god... You can build TWO computers for the price of the current lineup cost... PLEASE AMD, release gpu's that cost half this price for the same performance & I just may switch when my 1080ti dies.

Nice review!! I have one question, i have read the review at hexus.net and there this card is very hot and loud but here its cool and quiet, can anyone answer why? Thanks

Carlos:

Nice review!! I have one question, i have read the review at hexus.net and there this card is very hot and loud but here its cool and quiet, can anyone answer why? Thanks

When you get two sets of results like this its normally either due to different testing environment (like tested inside an air starved case), software issues (driver corruption e.t.c), hardware issues (heatsink loose, incorrectly applied thermal paste, bios bug e.t.c), or product damage. **EDIT** Had a bit of a look at their review and noticed this line-- "It is worth pointing out that our test system is configured for quiet operation by default - switching the fans on the be quiet! chassis from low to high does help bring down both temperature and noise." They are testing in a be quiet! Dark Base 700 case, in quiet mode, a case that isn't known for particularly good thermals, the harder you push these high end 2080Ti's the more wattage they use, the more wattage the more heat that needs to be removed from the case, higher airflow cases or a test bench will produce muuuuuch better thermals, I would say their card was just starved for air. This is another reason why HH's method of open air benching is superior, you have no idea what kind of case the end user of the card will be using, so testing with any one case can make a card look better or worse than the end user will be expecting, at least with open air you know the best case results and can plan from there. Though I guess you could also test with a bad airflow case and just show worse case and everyone will be extra happy when it works better in their system lol

nmkr:

Can you switch to the LN2 Mode and show us the Biosnumber and the Powerlimit that is available please? i guess its the same marketing stunt as with the 1080ti lightning z, i can switch from 300W to 350W with LN2 BIOS and loose timing. real xoc bios only provided from msi for hardcore clockers, for private persons that would try ln2 they didtn give out the XOC Bios or Special Afterburner

ab is very powerfull software and the xtreme its not necessary now don't get me wrong if you show them you have a cold set up and are stumped by the stock bios limitations they sometimes slip you one. but lately the nv chips have been so efficient they don't take to the voltage increases older piggyer chips do take a 2080ti for instance on just benches chilled water 2150-2200 on stock board what are the pro's getting? 2400-2500 frozen so its really hard to gain the few 100. so just cool it and even stock bios would be fine no need to reach much farther then the p/l for the most part.

george1976:

I cannot understand why this card is tested at 1080p also. Surely anyone paying this amount of money won't be gaming at 1080p, maybe not even 1440p.

Remember, we still have big tech pushing their 2000's LCD leftovers on us as new tech so 1080p is still being kept artificially alive and relevant like Ruth Bader Ginsburg

39 fps @4k in BFV with RTX on more likely 15

999Anticlock9wiSe:

39 fps @4k in BFV with RTX on more likely 15

Really? Been meaning to call HH out on falsifying test results. Come on, at least make the troll post reflect that the thing between your ears was used.

Thanks Hilbert for the review, helpful as always! It is indeed a great card but the price as everyone else is saying, it's just crazy. I might be in the minority here but I find the design ugly and LED lights make it look like a cheap knockoff. I'm wondering why the GTX 1080 ti was missing from the GPU VRAY benchmark. Other lower cards were included... And please, keep the 1080p results!! I play on an ultrawide 1080p, so almost in-between 1080p and 1440p and does help a lot of people. Cheers!

Not an Nvidia fan but wow that's a beautiful card and I hate RGB lighting but this is passable! I give Nvidia CEO TWO leather jackets up!

Ridiric:

144fps at 4k I agree will take a loooong time, which is why I didn't say anything about 4k, 1440p though? we are already getting quite close with top end cards (and I have been speaking specifically about the benchmarking for top end cards). Hell just look at this review about half the benchmarks get very close to 144fps at 1440p and some get much higher, nearly all of the benchmarks at 1080p get 144fps or better on this card, so yeah 1080p is still a valid benchmark resolution for top end cards right now, but I could see the next top end card or the one after that being able to drop 1080p from its testing if things continue like this. DXR is another thing all together though, for the games that support it, yeah I can see 1080p being in the testing resolutions for a much longer time.

Yes that's true, but since 1440p adoption is even slower than 4K, I expect the jump from 1080p right towards 4K. But none of which you say is wrong 🙂

Ricepudding:

Love the card, the upgrade of mine... but what the hell is up with the pricetag... in the UK this is at £1439... A standard 2080ti is £1049, talking about a 40% price hike... just what even is this generation, my Lightening was more expensive sure, but not £400 more! more like £50-80 more... very hard to get onboard this generation, then again this 11XX series thats rumoured might change that since i have to assume they will be normal prices just without the RTX/tensor cores

Here in Sweden the difference is quite small. Most cards cost ~15k SEK and this one costs 16k SEK so just a 10% difference.