Gigabyte's Q4 Product Blitz From GeForce RTX To Intel Z390
Gigabyte's RTX GPU Lineup
The first three cards each feature a variant of the Windforce cooler with 3x alternate spinning fans, while the RTX Turbo OC card uses a simple blower style fan. Gigabyte contends the alternating spins on the Windforce cooler further allow the fans to work in concert to improve airflow. It makes intuitive sense to reduce turbulence, but its actual impact is hard to gauge without an identical-but-not-alternating variant to compare to.
About that Windforce cooler -- its most striking iteration is found in the Aorus RTX and Aorus RTX Xtreme variants. Gigabyte has configured the fans in an overlapping arrangement and embedded an RGB LED light in each to achieve a look worthy of a showcase. The overlap does more than deliver good looks, it also allows each of the fans to be about 20mm larger in diameter -- 100mm vs 82mm in the RTX Gaming OC card – which in turn allows the fans to spin slower and generate less noise, while moving a similar amount of air than smaller fans.
The RTX Gaming OC and Windforce OC cards are positioned very similarly by comparison, but there are still a few important distinctions. The Windforce OC is effectively the “reference” card with OC mode clock speeds equal to NVIDIA’s Founders Edition equivalents. The Gaming OC variants are clocked 30MHz faster. The 2080 and 2080 Ti coolers also have slightly larger 82mm fans to the Windforce OC’s 80mm fans which may modestly improve cooling. The bigger advantage the Gaming OC and Aorus cards have are their 4 year warranties, although Gigabyte still covers the Windforce OC and Turbo OC cards for 3 years at least.
RTX 2080 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce
Since the event, Gigabyte has also introduced the RTX 2080 Aorus Xtreme WaterForce card. It utilizes the same board design as the other RTX Aorus 2080 cards, but eschews air cooling for an AIO liquid cooling loop.
Gigabyte is also expanding its product offerings in a bid to allow users to “build an all Aorus system.”
