Review: Palit GeForce RTX 2080 Super GamingPro OC

Conclusion

A lot has happened in the world since Nvidia took the wraps off its first GeForce RTX graphics cards some 20 months ago.

With Brexit, a global pandemic and plenty else occupying our minds, the much-vaunted Turing architecture is starting to feel a little long in the tooth. Granted, there's still nothing faster out there, but with the initial excitement surrounding dedicated RT cores having died down, most gamers are now resigned to the fact that the full promise of ray-tracing goodness will not be realised this generation.

That being the case, cards such as the RTX 2080 Super can be viewed in a different light. The amount of raw muscle hasn't changed, and RTX tech is still under the hood for those who want to dabble, but pricing has barely shifted since launch, and with Nvidia Ampere and AMD RDNA2 looming large, £700 is a lot to ask for a second-tier solution at this stage in the Turing life cycle.

It is in this uncertain landscape that Palit has chosen to introduce a new triple-fan cooler. Branded as GamingPro, the overall design has merit as a lower-cost partner card on models further down the stack, but is at odds with GeForce RTX 2080 Super's current market position. Our OC review sample's timid real-world boost frequency isn't any better than reference, temps are only slightly improved, and overclocking is hampered due to an inability to raise the power limit. Not quite what we had in mind at this end of the market.

Bottom line: wanting to spend around £700 on a new graphics card? RTX 2080 Super remains the obvious (only?) choice, but the natural tendency now is to wait and see what the next generation has in store.

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TBC.

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