Nvidia may have designed its GeForce RTX line of GPUs for gaming, but that doesn't mean that the Nvidia Geforce RTX cards are slouches in the mining department, particularly Ethereum. According to a recent report from Tweaktown, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in particular has tremendous potential for Ethereum mining based on the benchmarks that were performed. So much so that its results are almost twice of what last-generation GPUs such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti were capable of. This is despite the Turing architecture of the Nvidia GeForce RTX line up not being tuned for mining applications.
"But when we have the 11GB of GDDR6 overclocked on the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition, we see the Ethereum mining performance scale up incredibly high, hitting 55MH/s. This is nearly twice the performance of the GTX 1080 Ti, which is quite incredible," the report reads after comparing the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti to the RTX 2080 Ti, with the former achieving 32MH/s.
For these tests, the site used RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti Founders Edition cards in both stock and overclocked settings along with an Intel Core i7-8700K and running the very latest version of Claymore's Dual GPU Miner, v11.9. Keep in mind that Claymore doesn't support the Nvidia GeForce RTX Turing architecture just yet so it's not taking advantage of all the additional horsepower it offers. This is even when compared to the AMD RX Vega series of GPUs.
"Even with the HBM2 memory on the Radeon RX Vega 64 it was really only able to push 38-40MH/s out of the box and 42MH/s when using the AMD blockchain optimized drivers/Compute mode enabled," the post states. "Even an overclocked Titan Xp (which costs the same as the RTX 2080 Ti) 'only' does 43MH/s when overclocked (37MH/s stock) while the GTX 1080 Ti does 32MH/s out of the box."
All of this makes us wonder what we could expect in terms of pricing for the Nvidia GeForce RTX series going forward. The 10-series line-up saw a massive price hike over the course of its life and even right now, occupies a price tag not too far removed from what it cost at launch in 2016. With Nvidia not dropping 10-series prices, it may just be that the RTX series sees an increase in pricing with these new found Ethereum mining performance benchmarks making PC gaming more expensive than it already is.
2: RTX 2080 Super
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super is finally out in the wild, superseding the original RTX 2080. And, a quick look at its spec sheet will show you a slight improvement over its predecessor, with marginally more CUDA cores and faster video memory (VRAM). But, that’s not all you can look forward to with this Super RTX card.
When the Nvidia Turing graphics first hit the streets, with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 taking the lead, the premium price tags didn’t sit well with us. Especially compared to their predecessors, those cards were a tad too expensive in a market filling up with more economical options thanks to the AMD Navi cards. However, Nvidia is finally feeling the pressure, rolling out more powerful 'Super' cards with more power. That includes the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super.
If you're already in the Nvidia Turing landscape, the RTX 2080 Super may not be such a worthy upgrade, especially since you’re only reaping minor performance improvements. However, if you have yet to do so, the RTX 2080 Super is a more compelling entrance into Nvidia's ray traced future, even in the face of the more affordable RTX 2070 Super.
TEST SYSTEM SPECS
Performance
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super is, without a doubt, a powerful piece of hardware. With its 3,072 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6 clocked at 15.5 Gbps, it's certainly one hefty graphics card. Yet, it isn't that much more powerful than the existing RTX 2080.
While testing the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super, we saw about 4-6% increased performance over the vanilla RTX 2080, in both our synthetic benchmarks and our anecdotal gaming testing.
For example, in the Metro Exodus benchmark at 4K using Ultra settings, we see around 40 fps on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super and 38 on the older card. That's an increase of 2 fps, or just 5%. It's still an improvement, but one that really nothing to write home about.
In 3DMark, on the other hand, we see similar numbers. In Firestrike Ultra, the RTX 2080 Super scores 6,636 points to the RTX 2080's 6,281: an improvement of just 6%. Then, in TimeSpy Extreme, we see the Super card get 4,869 points to the RTX 2080's 4,656, another 6% improvement.
3: RX 5700 XT XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra
XFX has officially launched their top of the line, Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II graphics card. The card comes with a very thick and surprisingly gorgeous design scheme while offering an impressive OC out of the box.
XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Makes Sure It's The Thickest RX 5700 XT In Town - Excellent Design, Overclocked Out of The Box
AMD Radeon RX 5000 '7nm Navi RDNA' GPU Lineup Specs:
| Graphics Card | Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary | Radeon RX 5700 XT | Radeon RX 5700 | Radeon RX 5600 XT | Radeon RX 5500 XT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Architecture | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) |
| Stream Processors | 2560 SPs | 2560 SPs | 2304 SPs | 2304 SPs | 1408 SPs |
| TMUs / ROPs | 160 / 64 | 160 / 64 | 144 / 64 | 144 / 64 | 88 / 32 |
| Base Clock | 1680 MHz | 1605 MHz | 1465 MHz | 1130 MHz | 1670 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1980 MHz | 1905 MHz | 1725 MHz | 1560 MHz | 1845 MHz |
| Game Clock | 1830 MHz | 1755 MHz | 1625 MHz | 1375 MHz | 1717 MHz |
| Compute Power | 10.14 TFLOPs | 9.75 TFLOPs | 7.95 TFLOPs | 7.19 TFLOPs | 5.19 TFLOPs |
| VRAM | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 6 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Bus Interface | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit |
| Bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 288 GB/s | 224 GB/s |
| TBP | 235W | 225W | 180W | 150W | 130W |
| Price | $449 US | $399 US | $349 US | $279 US | $169 US (4 GB) $199 US (8 GB) |
| Launch | 7th July 2019 | 7th July 2019 | 7th July 2019 | 21st January, 2020 | 7th October 2019 |
The card features a solid backplate with a much larger XFX logo branding and there's also a logo cutout around the I/O ports. Display options include triple DisplayPort and a single HDMI port. It looks like the card would feature a massive fin-based aluminum block with 4 x 6mm copper heat pipes. There's also a uniquely styled grill on the rear of the card which seems like an exhaust out port to ventilate hot air out. The whole card looks surprisingly good in its enclosed shroud design, giving a very premium look.
The XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II is powered by an 8+6 pin connector configuration and I/O includes triple DisplayPort 1.4 and a single HDMI 2.0 port. In terms clock speeds, the card is rated at 1605 MHz base, 1755 MHz game and 1905 MHz boost clock across the 2560 stream processors. Other specifications include an 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM interface that runs across a 256-bit bus to deliver a sustained bandwidth of 448 GB/s. All XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II graphics cards are backed by a 3-year warranty and expect the pricing to be around the $450-$500 US range.
4:RTX 2070 Super
ELSA introduces two new graphics cards, these cards are based on the RTX 2070 Super, and both feature a different clock speed when compared to the reference RTX 2070 Super graphics card. Both of these cards are called the Super Erazor X and Super SAC, and both feature a dual-fan design with backplates.
ELSE reveals two new RTX 2070 Super graphics cards, The Super Erazor X and the Super SAC both projected to be available in Japan on June 26th
These two cards offer incredibly similar features including 4K HDR output, G-SYNC NVIDIA support, and both cards are equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. With both of these cards have 8 GB of GDDR6 memory allows these cards to play high-resolution games with resolutions up to 4K easily.
The slower of the two cards, the ELSA RTX 2070 Super SAC is still a fantastic card features a base clock of 1605 MHz and a higher than average boost clock of 1770 MHz. While this card does feature a slightly slower boost clock, what this card lacks in boost speed it makes up for in being a thinner card making it easier to plug in other components in slots below this card. This card also features a total of four 6 mm diameter heat pipes which gets cooled by the two 90 mm "SAC 2" fans.
The faster of the two cards is the Super Erazor X graphics card, this graphics card has a higher boost clock speed of 1815 Mhz and comes with a backplate featuring the ELSA logo. This graphics card also features more cooling as it has four 8 mm diameter heat pipes which are cooled by two 90 mm "SAC 3" fans. One important feature to remember is that this card does feature a 2.5 slot cooler making SLI or a system that uses two graphics cards tougher to accomplish.
The Super SAC is stated to be available in Japan from June 26th and is projected to be priced at 71,400 Yen or 670 USD. While the Super Erazor X is going to be available the same time but priced at 81,200 Yen or 760 USD, this means these cards are a bit more expensive when compared to other RTX 2070 Super cards on the market.
5:GTX 1650 SUPER
NVIDIA introduced their Turing GPU architecture last year, making a complete departure from traditional GPU designs and creating a hybrid architecture that would include a range of new technologies to power the next-generation immersive gaming experiences.
While initially announced with Quadro lineup under the new Quadro RTX brand, we all knew that the Turing architecture was coming to the GeForce lineup. It arrived in the GeForce lineup a few months later under the new GeForce RTX branding. NVIDIA's first big naming departure for two decades of GeForce GTX.
The GeForce RTX 20 series was the enablement of real-time raytracing which is the holy grail of graphics and something NVIDIA spent 10 years to perfect. In addition to raytracing, NVIDIA also aims to place bets on AI which will play a key role in powering features such as DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling, a unique way of offering the same quality as the more taxing MSAA AA techniques at twice the performance.
NVIDIA has announced for cards under the GeForce RTX 20 series family, the flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, the Enthusiast GeForce RTX 2080, the high-performance GeForce RTX 2070 and the main-stream GeForce RTX 2060. Now, NVIDIA is looking to offer Turing for more reasonable prices, so is also going back to the good old GeForce GTX branding and for good reasons. While GeForce RTX and GeForce GTX will exist alongside each other in this generation, the GeForce GTX lineup as the name suggests would be aiming for raw performance over the graphics intensive RTX features which only the RTX cards support.
NVIDIA GeForce GPU Segment/Tier Prices
| Graphics Segment | 2014-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titan Tier | Titan X (Maxwell) | Titan X (Pascal) | Titan Xp (Pascal) | Titan V (Volta) | Titan RTX (Turing) |
| Price | $999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $2999 US | $2499 US |
| Ultra Enthusiast Tier | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
| Price | $649 US | $649 US | $699 US | $999 US | $999 US |
| Enthusiast Tier | GeForce GTX 980 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER |
| Price | $549 US | $549 US | $549 US | $699 US | $699 US |
| High-End Tier | GeForce GTX 970 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER |
| Price | $329 US | $379 US | $379 US | $499 US | $499 US |
| Mainstream Tier | GeForce GTX 960 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER GeForce RTX 2060 GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GeForce GTX 1660 |
| Price | $199 US | $249 US | $249 US | $249 US | $399 US $349 US $279 US $229 US $219 US |
| Entry Tier | GTX 750 Ti GTX 750 | GTX 950 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 | GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 |
| Price | $149 US $119 US | $149 US | $139 US $109 US | $139 US $109 US | $159 US $149 US |
For this review, I will be taking a look at Zotac's Zotac Gaming GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER Twin Fan, a compact custom graphics card that will retail at $159 US. The reference card will be priced at $159 US so we are looking at a fairly reference performing version of the GTX 1650, if you want to see a premium overclocked version of the card check out the MSI Gaming X version review.
The main barrier with overclocking on Turing GPUs is by far the power limit and those that offer the highest power limits out of the box are generally the ones with the best overclocking potential and performance output.
Post a Comment