EVGA Brings GeForce RTX 2080 And RTX 2080 Ti Ray-Tracing Goodness With 16 New Cards
Do you think maybe NVIDIA's add-in board partners are excited about the company's GeForce RTX 2000 series launch? You better believe it. Unlike everyone else, NVIDIA's hardware partners have known about finalized specs for a long time so they could prepare custom cards at launch. EVGA in particular has unveiled no less than 16 GeForce GTX 2080 Ti and GeForce GTX 2080 cards, and there will be even more SKUs when the GeForce RTX 2070 hits in October.
The more than a dozen SKUs are split evenly between the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce GTX 2080 (eight each, by our count). Features vary by model, of course. Most of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti sport a 16 phase power design, for example, while the two highest end SKUs—GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FTW3 Ultra and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FTW3—boast 19 phase power designs.
Those two SKUs are one of several that occupy 2.75 slots (basically 3 slots, for all practical purposes). We had a chance to see some of the new cards up close and personal at the GeForce launch event and snapped a bunch of pictures.
There are different style coolers throughout the product stack. For its flagship cooling, EVGA says it completely redesigned its ICX2 cooling solution from the ground up to run 14 percent cooler and 19 percent quieter than before. ICX2 also features the first hydro dynamic bearing (HDB) VGA fans for lower noise and a longer lifespan.
In some of the images we took, you can see that the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is smaller than the GeForce GTX 2080. That's just because the higher end model is the SC version with two cooling fans, whereas the GeForce GTX 2080 shown is the FTW3 variant with three cooling fans.
EVGA has done a good job with the aesthetics on its custom cooled models. Some of them are pretty thick because of the beefy cooling, and all of them are eye catching. In the shot above, you can see the nubs of the heatpipes sticking out ever-so-slightly from the rear of the card.
You will also be able to customize the look of EVGA's card somewhat. They feature switchable trim options in black, red, and white, and there is a shield you can apply to the front of the cards for extra protection and a more aggressive look as well.
On the software side, EVGA retooled its Precision X1 overclocking utility. It features a completely new codebase and a brand new layout that is intended to make it faster and easier to use.
"When paired with an NVIDIA Turing graphics card, the new EVGA Precision X1 will unleash its full potential with a built in overclock scanner, adjustable frequency curve and RGB LED control," EVGA explains.
EVGA's new cards are not yet available to order in standalone form (all of them state "auto notify"), but we imagine they will be soon.
