RTX 2080 or 2080TI?

[LukeMurtagh1995]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering about something. I am thinking about replacing my current GTX 1080 with either an RTX 2080 or 2080TI. I cannot, however, decide which. My monitor is just 1080p instead of 1440p or 4K, so would an RTX 2080TI be overkill? I play RTS and RPGs mostly. Total War, SWTOR, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls are games/series I play consistently. The only game series I struggle with on my GTX 1080 is Total War, specifically Total War: Warhammer 2, in which my FPS hovers between 60 and 80, but in large battles it often shoots down to between 40 and 50. Would the RTX 2080TI give me significantly more FPS than the 2080 to justify the higher price tag?

Thanks for reading.

My full specs:
CPU: i7-9700K overclocked to 4.5GHz
CPU Cooler: Noctua NHD-15
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero (WiFi)
GPU: EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 8GB SC
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB)
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 SSD & Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5'' SSD
PSU: Corsair RMx 650w Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

 

[LukeMurtagh1995]

I would say so, 2080 / Vega VII would be a fine choice for 1440p and a 2080Ti would be a fine choice for 4k. At the resolution you are playing, and the types of games you are playing (where high fps aren't really needed) your 1080 should be plenty for a while yet.

Upgrading to a 2080ti will give you a boost:

But you will be paying top dollar for that boost. My recommendation would be to overclock that 1080 with MSI Afterburner or the EVGA Precision software.

Thanks for the advice.
What specific 2080 would you recommend? I've seen this model which looks interesting:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr6-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-426-as.html
How much overclocking could I get from this sort of card? I've heard aftermarket cards are already overclocked. I presume this one is as well with OC being on the box.

 

[LukeMurtagh1995]

If your only struggling a bit this far after Turing launch you might want to save your pennies and see what's up next from nvidia and AMD as they both move into releasing new products on smaller fabrication processes then most of their current products l are released on.

Sorry, could you explain what you mean by 'smaller fabrication processes'? Are you referencing the news around Nvidia Volta?

 

[LukeMurtagh1995]

I would go first with overclocking and see how it goes, it may raise those FPS to acceptable levels for you. If not, I don't recommend Asus cards, rubbish warranty and inflated prices. Although they have good coolers, generally.

I would go for the Zotac: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/zota...ddr6-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-10z-zt.html
Or a Gigabyte model: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...ddr6-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-1a2-gi.html

Longer warranty, Gigabyte is UK based, Zotac is pretty good with claims too.

Thanks for the recommendations. I have seen some debate elsewhere around getting a GTX 1080TI instead of an RTX 2080. What is your opinion on that?

 

[LukeMurtagh1995]

Interesting news... I will probably wait for the new architecture GPUs then. I understand we only have a very limited amount of information about them, but what are your opinions of the new Ampere cards? How much of an improvement do you both expect them to be?

 

[LukeMurtagh1995]

I am surprised that you are getting such frame rate drops with the 1080 at 1080p. I am using a 1070 at 1440p and average about 55 fps with the occasional dip to 40fps (ultra unit sizes). Rather than spend a lot of money on a new card, I wonder if you would be better checking what graphics settings you are using in game. Turning down AA etc. can easily add over 10 fps (while still keep unit detail at max). Also think about a Gsync monitor if you are noticing the frame rate drops so much. You could pick up a 1440p g-sync monitor for less than the new card and the difference in visuals would be much more worth it in my opinion.

I already have a g-sync monitor, specifically the ROG Swift PG258Q. I'm not too bothered about the FPS in Warhammer 2, as I'm fairly happy about it. I'm mostly just thinking about future Total War games. Three Kingdoms, for example, which is due to be released in May, might very well tank my FPS more than Warhammer 2. I don't know that, of course, so it might just be me assuming the worst. And I suppose to be fair to my 1080 it is only in the really large battles that FPS drops. Now that I know new cards might come out at the end of 2019 or in 2020 I will probably just wait. If I can find a 1080TI for a cheap price I might go for that in the meantime.

 

[LukeMurtagh1995]

Always good to remember that the total war games are CPU intensive. The drop in frame rate could also be in part due to the CPU in the very large battles. If you can find a 1080ti at a good price I think that will be a good shout. Obviously I can't say how the performance in Three Kingdoms will be, but if recent track history repeats itself then Total War are getting better optimised (Warhammer 2 runs better than Atilla). A 1080 card should still be more than enough at 1080p and I will probably keep using my 1070 at 1440p with pretty good performance (fingers crossed).

Yeah, I think I'll wait on upgrading my GPU. I'm surprised my CPU could be holding me back, considering the i7-9700k is, from what I've heard, one of the best CPUs out there. I know this is diverging from the original topic, but could overclocking it to 5GHz improve things?

 

[LukeMurtagh1995]

The i7-9700k is one of the best CPUs for Total War games which has always leaned towards higher clock speeds (intel usually beat AMD despite the difference in core numbers). There is no guarantee you will reach 5Ghz overclock with your CPU. Your cooler is probably up to the task, but then it depends on the silica lottery. The truth is that Total War games at ultra unit sizes and max settings have always been pushing what CPUs are capable of delivering. In big battles most CPUs will start to struggle at some stage. Maybe try overclocking to 4.7 Ghz to start with. See if that is stable and if it makes any difference.

Will do. I was impressed with my cooling on my new build. My new case is a Corsair 780T, and whilst the quality of the construction isn't phenomenal, the cooling it provides is. After about three hours on Warhammer 2 both my GPU and CPU were only between 60 and 65 degrees c. Thanks for your advice!