Everything is super when you are part of a team, oh um….
Hey what up OCNers, bluedevil here. I hope you all are doing well, I know I am. Just moved into a new house, so this space is going to be my setup for a while. It’s a bit minimalist, but I really like it. Well today we are going to talk about an RTX 2080 Super, which happens to be the AMP! Edition from Zotac. Now Zotac is pretty well known GPU add in board partner, a lot like ASUS and MSI, for making custom GPUs with custom PCBs with custom cooling solutions. A lot of the 3rd party designs, offer a “beefier” design to allow for lower temps, better overclocks, and overall a better aesthetic look than what the reference model was designed for. Often times these AIB GPUs will even run quite a bit quieter than Nvidia’s own Founder’s Edition design. While I am not saying those that want to watercool should go with a custom AIB GPU, mainly because full cover water blocks are pretty scarce for anything other than a reference designed GPU board.
So this RTX 2080 Super from Zotac is well a big boi. Sporting two large 100mm fans with 5 nickel plated heatpipes within the heatsink array, Zotac is serious about cooling the full fat version of the Turing based TU 104 GPU die. However, this PCB and cooling design was recycled from the older RTX 2080 Amp Maxx, just like EVGA did with their RTX 2060 Super SC Ultra that I reviewed a few weeks ago. Seeing that the Super series is more of a slight improvement, keeping the PCB and cooling designs the same, is keeping costs down to a minimum. Again I can’t say I blame AIBs for doing this, but differentiation is very difficult having the non Super and Super looking 99% identical. One scenario that could possibly happen is having a user buy a 2080 Super to SLI with their non Super 2080 mistakenly thinking they were identical. Having some “SUPER” branding might have solved this, but hey, what do I know?
So the thought that’s burning in my mind is, having a beefier RTX 2080 Super, like the AMP! from Zotac, matter? What I will be testing is overclocking, temps, acoustics, and power draw, and I guess I will throw in some games as well.
The test bench system consists of:
Intel Core i7 8700K @ 5Ghz
Asus Z370 Maximus X Code
4x8GB DDR4 @ 3000mhz TG T-Force Delta R CL 16-18-18
Intel 256GB 760p PCIe NVME SSD, TG T-Force Vulcan 500GB 2.5” SSD
EVGA P2 750w w/ black EVGA cableset
Enermax Liqtech 2 280MM AIO
Window 10 Pro 64 bit Ver 1903
Acer 34” Ultrawide 3440x1440 @ 100hz
Lian Li T70X (custom)
Nvidia Geforce drivers 431.60
So yeah the results are pretty interesting. Though the Zotac RTX 2080 Super AMP! boosted to 1950mhz and the FE 2080 Super to 1920mhz, the Zotac model used about 20 watts more power which as a result ran a bit hotter by 6C. Not huge but the Zotac with those twin 100mm axial fans, I would have thought would have ran cooler. Though one thing I did notice is that the Zotac also has a zero spin up until about 40C, but the Nvidia FE 2080 Super’s fans always run, albeit at lower RPM, resulting in lower idle temps.
Alright guys, thanks for watching. If you haven’t liked and subscribed by now, you know what to do. I will see you all in the next one.
bluedevil out.
Product Link
https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphics_card/zotac-gaming-geforce-rtx-2080-super-amp