Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsStill testing it, but great great card, you don't know until you get your own.
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2019
After some intensive research about the card, despite doubt about the cooling issue with the card, I gave it a shot. It's been two days since I got the card, and it is performing really well. I'm OC'ing up to 1900mhz and 7700mhz memory clock, hitting only 71 degrees (60% fan speed on the card). I do have a big case with 7 fans working. It really seems that some cards have bad cooling, whereas others don't, so there is honestly no way of knowing whether the card is great in cooling unless you get your own. You can always return your card if you want, so I suggest you give a try. I have previously used 1080, and the card performance is as twice better. However, as a lot of people experience card failures usually within a month, I'm still testing the card.
UPDATE:
I've finally decided to return the card. I will give you the honest reason why you should not go for this card if you were actually considering getting 2080 Ti. But before that, I am assuming that you are getting this card because you want to get a high-end performing graphic card that every $ you spent is worth at least up to your expectation.
Straight to this assumption, with this 2080 Ti card, you need to compromise. That was the reason why I returned. Some of you may say "oh I just want whatever 2080 Ti that can actually perform 10% less than the $1.5k 2080 Ti card." Then, yeah you should definitely go for it, but you will constantly have to compromise with your card in terms of benchmarking, OC setting etc. My logic was that if I were to actually spend over $1,000 (close to $1.2k atm), which is already over-priced, why do I even need to compromise? I am already spending a ton, yet I need to constantly compromise for memory clock and gpu clock due to temp and power usage? To me, if I were to pay a ton of money for this kind of card, I want to be fully satisfied with the card.
For your reference, I overclocked 700+ memory, 200+ gpu, and 100 voltage with 112% power. The temperature stayed at 71 at max. However, I kept getting artifacts and BSOD because the card is rated pretty low compared to other 2080 Ti cards. Yes, the gpu goes all the way up to 2050 mhz. Is it stable? No. I mean stable as for all games. A lot of games will give you trouble, so you need to "compromise." See, this was the reason why I didn't feel owning this card.
Now, I'm owning 2080 Ti FTW3 by EVGA. Am I satisfied after spending $1.5k instead of $1.2k? Yes, because the card handles every game with constant 2050 mhz with more than 700 mhz memory clock. It's barely capped by power usage as well. I consider this value of "not compromising" more than $300, so it was worth switching.
My conclusion is this; the current pricing for 1080 Ti is close to 2080 Ti black edition; if you want to run 2080 Ti at factory default, go ahead and get this one, because it will perform better than 1080 Ti OC. If you want actual 2080 Ti? DO NOT GET THIS, because as much as this card is legit 2080 Ti, you will always be compromising. And btw, for the whole RTX issue, you are not gonna run into such a problem anymore. Even if you get it, which is hardly 1/1000 odd, register your card with the manufacturer and get a new one.
