After months of rumors and speculation, NVIDIA's GeForce 20 series is now official. The company announced the latest GPUs ahead of Gamescom, and is eschewing the GTX moniker in favor of RTX to highlight the new real-time ray tracing features. The Turing-based RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti come with dedicated cores that provide a significant boost in real-time rendering and image processing — six times over the previous generation — and NVIDIA is highlighting those capabilities by switching to RTX branding.
Turing is the most advanced GPU NVIDIA has created to date, with its development taking over ten years. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that the platform is the company's most important breakthrough since the launch of CUDA back in 2006. Or as he put it, RTX makes "things that look like things look like things."
GeForce RTX 2080/RTX 2080 Ti: Specs
| Category | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Turing | Turing |
| GPU | TU104-400 | TU102-300 |
| CUDA Cores | 2944 | 4352 |
| Core Clock | 1515 | 1350 |
| Boost Clock | 1800 (OC) | 1635 (OC) |
| Maximum Resolution | 7680x4320 | 7680x4320 |
| Memory | 8GB | 11GB |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 352-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448GB/s | 616GB/s |
| Memory Standard | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| TDP | 225W | 260W |
| Input | 1 x 6-Pin, 1 x 8-Pin | 2 x 8-Pin |
| Connectors | DisplayPort 1.4 HDMI 2.0b, USB-C | DisplayPort 1.4 HDMI 2.0b, USB-C |
GeForce RTX 20 series: Pricing and availability
The Founders Edition RTX 20 cards are designed for "crazy amounts of overclocking," and NVIDIA is also introducing a new fan design that makes these cards run significantly quieter than GTX 10 series cards.
The RTX 2070 forms the entry point into the RTX series, with the card set to retail for $599. The RTX 2080 will be available for $799, and the high-end RTX 2080 Ti will go on sale for an eye-watering $1,199. That's for the Founders Edition cards; and AIB partner cards will be selling for as low as $499. Third-party RTX 2080 will retail from $699, and the RTX 2080 Ti will hit shelves from $999.
The Founders Edition RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti are up for pre-order right now, with deliveries set to commence from September 20. The RTX 2070 is listed as coming soon, and we should know more in the coming weeks. For now, have a glance at our roundup of the best graphics card picks.
