ASUS Strix RTX 2080 8G Gaming Graphics Card Review

When it comes to PC Components, AsusTek is among the best names we have in the market. It was founded in 1989 in Taiwan. Ever since its foundation, Asus has seen phenomenal growth and diversity in its business line.

When it comes to Asus, the first associated name that comes to mind is ROG or Republic of Gamers. ROG brand was introduced in 2006, and it focuses on mainstream gamers/enthusiasts with products ranging from Motherboard, Graphics Cards to Peripherals. ROG is now the pinnacle of the Asus products lineup.

I will be taking a spin on Asus Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G edition today. This card is based on Turing TU104 GPU, which is a cut-down version of the fully enabled TU102. The TU104 GPU incorporates all of the new Turing features found in TU102, including the RT Cores, Turing Tensor Cores, and the architectural changes made to the Turing SM.

The full TU104 chip contains six GPCs, 48 SMs, and eight 32-bit memory controllers (256-bit total). In TU104, each GPC includes a raster unit and four TPCs. Each TPC contains a PolyMorph Engine and two SMs. Each SM includes the new RT Core. Like TU102, each SM also includes 64 CUDA Cores, 256 KB register files, 96 KB L1 data cache/shared memory cache, and four texture units.

The Asus Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G edition retains the design of Strix cards introduced with the Pascal generation, with fans receiving a worthy upgrade. Aura RGB lighting is on the board, and there are two fan headers and an RGB header as well.

The card is using Asus MaxContact technology, allowing 2X more contact with GPU for better thermal performance. This is a 2.7-slot design with an emphasis on the cooling department. The major difference in terms of cooling is coming from the new axial-tech fans with the IP5X rating for better performance at improved acoustics.

These cards are produced using Asus Auto-Extreme Technology. The frame is more reinforced to prevent torsion and lateral bending of the PCB. Another key feature differentiating this card from the previous generation is the Dual BIOS. These cards have two BIOS on the board. There is a switch located on the top side of the PCB.

P and Q modes are designated for these BIOS. P mode enables the performance mode with an emphasis on better cooling to gain more performance, and Q mode has a focus on silent operations where the fans will operate at a much lower RPM at the cost of the thermal performance.

This card has a base clock of 1515MHz with a boost clock of 1890MHz (OC Mode) with 8GB GDDR6 Micron chips.

Specifications

Technical Specs	ASUS Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G Gaming
CUDA Cores	2944
Base Clock	1515 MHz
Boost Clock (OC Mode)	1890 MHz
Memory Size	8 GB
Memory Type	GDDR6
Memory Speed	14000 MHz
Memory Interface	256-bit
Dimensions	11.8 ” x 5.13 ” x 2.13 ” Inch
Power Consumption	Above 300W
Recommended PSU	650W
Power Connectors	2 x 8-pin
Slot	2.7 Slot

Packing

The front side of the packing box has ROG eye and Republic of Gamers printed on the top left, followed by the ROG Strix Gaming Graphics Card text. The main background has the ROG eye logo printed in multiple colors.

GeForce RTX 2080 is printed at the bottom right. Asus AURA Sync, OC Edition, and 8GB GDDR6 info labels are printed at the bottom left side. There is a picture of the graphics card on the left side.

The top side of the packing box has GeForce RTX 2080 printed in white and green colors. OC edition and 8GB GDDR6 are printed at the bottom. The right side has the ROG brand logo and name printed.

The backside of the packing box has the ROG brand logo and name printed on the top left side, followed by the ROG Strix Gaming Graphics Card and GeForce RTX 2080 text. This card carries limited 3 years of warranty.

There are 6 pictures in the center focusing on the salient highlights of the card, like MaxContact Technology, Auto-Extreme Technology, AURA Sync Compatibility, Axial-Tech fans, Dual BIOS, and GPU Tweak II. The main specifications and key features are printed on the left side.

The left and right sides are identical. There is a ROG brand logo name printed on the top. ROG Strix Gaming Graphics and OC edition, 8GB GDDR6 text is printed in the middle. The lower portion has a green color background with GeForce RTX 2080 printed in white color.

The bottom side of the packing box has minimum system requirements printed in 15 different languages. There is a sticker pasted on the right side showing the Part No, Serial No, EAN, and UPC labels and info. These requirements are: –

• Minimum 650W PSU or greater power supply.
• PCIe Compliant motherboard with dual-width graphics slot.
• 5GB of free disk space.
• 8GB System memory (16GB recommended)
• Microsoft Windows 7 x64/Microsoft Windows 10 x64 (April 2018 Update or later)
• 2x 8-pin PCIe connectors

There is a cardboard box inside the main packing box. It has Strix printed on the top cover. Opening it will show a black color Styrofoam pad placed on the top, and there is a container placed in the middle with Asus name printed in gold color.

The user guide and installation disk are inside this container. Removing this top layer will show the graphics card wrapped inside an anti-static cover. Two ROG-branded Velcro strips are also included.

Contents

• 1x Asus Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G graphics card
• 2x Asus ROG branded Velcro Hook and Loop
• 1x Quick Guide
• 1x Installation disk

Design and Features

It is time to take a closer look at the design of the graphics card before proceeding to the testing. Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G is a beautifully designed graphics card. It carries the same shroud design as was introduced with the release of the Pascal generation cards. It is a 2.7-slot design yet with aesthetically pleasing looks and feels to it.

Aura Sync adds a subtle touch when in operation, and it speaks for itself. This design really complements the ROG series motherboards from Asus. The dimension of the graphics card is 11.8×5.13×2.13 inches or 29.97×13.04×5.41 cm.

The card follows the PCIe 3.0 bus interface. It packs 8GB GDDR6 memory rated at 1750MHz using 256-bit bus width at 448 GB/s bandwidth.

The base clock of the card is 1515MHz in all the modes. The default mode is Gaming Mode, with a 1860MHz boost clock and a 1890MHz boost clock under OC Mode. Please, note that you will need to install GPU Tweak II to access these modes.

BIOS switch has nothing to do with these modes. Interestingly enough, this card has 2944 CUDA Cores, whereas the fully enabled TU104 chip has 3072 CUDA cores. The maximum supported digital resolution is 7680×4320.

The card draws power using two 8-pin connectors. This card packs 64 ROP units and 184 TMUs. The pixel fillrate is 98.9 GP/s and Texture fillrate is 284.3 GT/s. The texture fill rate is low compared to Nvidia’s stated minimum of 314.6 GT/s.

Let’s dig deep into the design elements of this card and explore its might and its beauty of it. This card has a stylish cooler shroud that differentiates the Strix cards from others. The cooler shroud is made of hard plastic.

The top and bottom cutouts on the cooler have LEDs on them, which can be controlled with AURA Graphics Card software available on the Asus website. The central fan has Asus branding printed in white color on its fan hub, whereas the other two fans have ROG Eye printed in their centers.

With the curves, edges, and grooves, Asus not only was able to maintain the typical Strix looks it is known for but has given the user what could be described as one of the most stunning designs.

Asus has taken a different approach (much needed for Turing) with the ROG Strix GeForce RTX series coolers design. They have increased the width of the fin stack by adding 20% more to the surface area over the previous generation Strix cards making the design to be 2.7 slots.

This has enabled them to have more sink surface area for effective heat dissipation across the complete surface.

Asus MaxContact is an industry-first GPU cooling technology that features an enhanced nickel-plated copper plate that makes direct contact with the GPU. This plate is 10 times flatter than the traditional plates.

MaxContact utilizes precision machining to provide a surface that makes up to 2X more contact with the GPU than traditional heat spreaders, resulting in an improved thermal transfer.

This card uses a single heatsink with aluminum fins and five 8mm (not confirmed on the thickness) nickel-plated copper heat pipes. There are two nickel-plated copper plates. One is making contact with the GPU, and the other is making contact with the MOSEFT/VRMs of this card. The heat pipes are terminated at the front.

The Asus Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G has three 90mm fans with an axial-tech design. The central fan has Asus branded sticker pasted in the center. The left and the right fans have ROG-branded stickers pasted in the center.

These fans have an IP5X certification which means they are more dust resistant, which would improve their reliability and a longer lifespan. The previous generation of Strix cards has a wing-blade design.

This time around, Asus has come up with the Axial-Tech fans, which deliver up to a 27% increased in airflow and a 40% increase in static pressure. This was a needed requirement as the width of the heatsink has been increased; resultantly, stronger fans with high static pressure and airflow were needed.

Asus has reduced the size of the fan’s hub to allow for longer blades and added a barrier ring that increases structural integrity and downward air pressure through the heatsink. These fans use the Asus 0dB technology. Please, note that due to the dual BIOS nature, the 0dB works under the Q-Mode only.

They don’t spin until the temperature exceeds 55°C. If you want to enable the 0dB technology for P-mode, then use GPU Tweak-II to enable it. The left and right fans are grouped to be controlled jointly, whereas the middle fan can be controlled separately using the GPU Tweak-II.

As mentioned above, among the key differentiating design features of this card over the previous generation is the Dual BIOS implementation. The Asus Strix GeForce RTX 20xx cards come with two BIOS. In order to differentiate the two, they are labeled as P-Mode and Q-Mode.

P-Mode focuses on the performance with adequate cooling over the acoustic, whereas the Q-Mode is focused on the silent operations, which come at the cost of thermal performance. I have tested the thermal performance of the graphics card under both modes, which can be checked in the testing section.

There is a switch on the top side of the PCB. P-Mode is on the left side, and the Q-Mode is on the right side. The default mode is P-mode. Another important observation is that once the Windows is loaded, switching to the other BIOS will not take effect until the PC is restarted.

The below picture highlights the effects on temperature and acoustics in both modes. Asus in-house testing is showing the graphics card to be 30% cooler in P-Mode over Q-Mode. Similarly, the graphics card was 25% quieter in Q-Mode over the P-Mode.

Another key design feature is the provision of the LED On/Off button located on the backside of the graphics card. This will allow the users to turn the RGB lighting completely on or off at their disposal.

This was not possible in the previous design. Seems Asus has taken note of the feedback from the users. This somehow has a limitation, as it will disable/enable the entire lighting zones on the card. There are three zones.

One on the ROG Eye located on the backplate, one on the top side, and one on the shroud itself. There is no control over the dedicated zone lighting. Builders/gamers who would prefer a stealth look would appreciate this feature.

Let’s take a look at the top side of the graphics card. STRIX is printed on the lower left part of the shroud. GeForce RTX is printed on the upper part of the shroud opposing the STRIX. The fins are straight in design, not angular.

Shroud is not fully covering the fin stack, which is a must for effective heat dissipation. “Republic of Gamers” brand name and logo are on the top left side of the shroud. They have LED underneath and light up under operation.

Asus has implemented a reinforced frame in this generation of Strix cards which has increased the structural integrity of these cards 3X by using a metal brace that is mounted to both the backplate and I/O shield. This metal brace prevents excessive torsion and lateral bending of the PCB.

The card requires two 8-pin power connectors to power it up. Both connectors have LEDs beneath them to indicate their action. The static white color would mean normal power. The static red light would indicate a power-related issue.

Let’s have a look at the top front side of the graphics card. The Shroud’s end is not fully covering the heat sink. The heads or terminating ends of the 5 heat pipes are visible. Underneath we have two PWM fan headers.

ASUS FanConnect II features two 4-pin, hybrid-controlled headers that can be connected to both PWM and DC system fans for optimal system cooling. Normally there is no way to reference the PC Chassis fans to regulate their speeds based on the graphics card’s temperature.

Asus has taken care of this particular situation in their Strix cards as fans can be connected and controlled based on the graphics card’s requirement. The connected fans reference both the GPU and CPU, operating automatically based on the one with the higher temperature.

One fan power connector and the RGB LED power connector are visible on the left side. There is a 4-pin RGB header having 12V GRB pin format. The user can connect the supported RGB LED strip with the graphics card as well.

This will come in handy when using the Asus AURA Sync-enabled motherboard, and in that particular scenario, think of it adding one more header at the user’s disposal. The connected fans can be controlled using the GPU Tweak II.

On the back side of the graphics card, we have the same metal backplate as has been on the previous generation. It has printed lines in a pattern to signify the Strix concept. We have a large-size ROG Eye in the white background, which is a diffuser.

This section is implemented with RGB LED and really adds to the cool looks of the card when in use. We can see two 8-pin power connectors. There are what seem to be soldered overclocking tweaking points on the left side of the power connectors. One of the screws on the GPU bracket is covered with a white sticker.

Peeling or tearing would void the warranty though recently warranty terms have been redefined, dropping this requirement in the US region. I am not sure if this is done worldwide yet. There is a sticker pasted on the bottom right side with the serial no of the card. The LED on/off button is located under the NVLink connector.

Though I did not open the card, it seems like there is no thermal pad between the backplate and the PCB.

The rear side has the I/O shield for the output. It is not in a silver color as Nvidia has opted for a black color I/O shield on their RTX cards which definitely adds to the overall look and feel of the graphics card. We have two HDMI 2.0b ports, two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and a USB Type-C port.

This configuration allows the user to enjoy immersive virtual reality experiences anytime without having to swap cables by having a VR Device connected to other displays at the same time. Backside implementation allows better cable management as well.

The bottom side of the card clearly shows the two fin stacks on the cooler. Thermal pads have been used as the possible point of contact between the PCB and the cooler. PCB’s color is black. The visible thermal pad seems to have slipped through the QC, as it is already torn.

Asus graphics cards are produced using Auto-Extreme Technology, an industry-exclusive, 100% automated production process that incorporates premium materials to set a new standard of quality. Auto-Extreme Technology ensures consistent graphics card quality as well as improved performance and longevity.

It allows the soldering to be done in a single pass reducing thermal strain on the components and avoiding the use of harsh cleaning chemicals. The end result is less environmental impact, lower manufacturing power consumption, and a more reliable product.

The Asus Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G has 10+2 power phases using Super Alloy Power II components. These components would enhance efficiency, reduce power loss, and would achieve sustained thermal levels.

They are using SAP II capacitors having a 2.5X extended lifespan (over 90000 hours longer than standard capacitors), SAP II chokes to help to reduce the buzzing, SAP II DrMos for lower temperature and increased power efficiency, and SAP II POSCAP to maximize overclocking headroom.

Featuring Aura RGB Lighting on both the shroud and the back plate, ROG Strix graphics cards are capable of displaying millions of colors and six different effects for a personalized gaming system.

ROG Strix graphics cards also feature ASUS Aura Sync, RGB LED synchronization technology that enables complete gaming system personalization when the graphics card is paired with an Aura-enabled gaming motherboard. There are 6 modes which the user can configure and select for the color effect.

• Static mode. A single color of the user’s choice would remain lit.
• Breathing mode would fade in and out the user’s selected color.
• Strobing mode flashes the user’s selected color.
• Music Effect mode would produce the pulses of the user’s selected color.
• Breathing mode will enable the user to select the color, which will be then faded in and out.
• GPU Temperature will change color depending upon the load and the temps under the loads.

GPU Tweak II

Asus has designed comprehensive software to control and monitor their graphics cards. This software is known as GPU-Tweak-II. It has a typical red and black color theme on it, which represents ROG’s traditional colors.

Though in recent times, ROG has taken a deviation from the Red/Black combo and is setting yet another tradition when it comes to colors on the brand.

The main window of the software shows three main indicators, which are:

• VRAM Usage
• GPU Speed
• Temperature

The red bar on these circles shows the corresponding value of the indicator. On top, we have the model no of the graphics card on the left side with three buttons to its right, Home, Info, and Tools.

The home button is the default and can be clicked at any time to bring the main window back on the screen. The info button will show the Graphics Cards specs with built-in GPU-Z implementation.

The tools button has Game XSplit Game Caster, AURA Graphics Card, and the ROG Furmark buttons to launch the corresponding app.

We have 4 profiles which are OC Mode, Gaming Mode, Silent Mode, and My Profile. Gaming is a default mode with a base clock of 1515MHz, and a boost clock of 1860MHz. OC Mode has a base clock of 1515MHz, and a boost clock of 1890MHz.

My Profile will allow the user to create a custom profile based on the user’s own settings. This can be done in Professional Mode, where all the settings like Voltage Control, Power Level, Base Clock, Memory Clock, and Fan Speed can be configured. The fan can be set on Auto or Custom fan curve.

The monitoring window can be activated by clicking on the Monitoring button at the bottom left side of the main window. The monitoring window shows all the critical variables for monitoring. Values are mentioned in Min, Max, and Current value is shown on the graph.

The user has the option to monitor only the desired variables. The monitoring window can be disconnected from the main window by clicking once on the chain button between both windows. This is where the user can also control the fans (if any) connected to the graphics card’s fan headers.

In crux, this software has everything the user would have dreamt of to monitor and control their graphics cards. Plus, the interface is easy to understand, and once you have launched it, it will get you going.

Test Bench

The following test bench setup is used:

• Intel i7 8700k @ 5.0GHz using 1.350V
• Asus Strix Z390-E Gaming
• Ballistix Elite 4x4GB @ 3000MHz
• Deepcool Castle 240 AIO
• Thermaltake TP RGB 750W PSU
• HyperX 120GB SSD
• Seagate Barracuda 2TB for games

The following games have been tested:

• Battlefield 1 [DX11, DX12]
• DOOM [Vulkan]
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Metro Last Light Redux
• Far Cry 5
• Assassin’s Creed Origin
• The Witcher 3
• Rise of the Tomb Raider [DX11, DX12]
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider [DX11, DX12]
• Middle Earth: Shadow of War
• Ashes of Singularity: Escalation [DX11, DX12]

Software information is as under:

• MSI Afterburner v4.50
• HWInfo 64 v 5.88-3510
• 3DMark
• Unigine Superposition

For GeForce GTX graphics cards, Nvidia’s driver 398.36 are used, and for GeForce RTX graphics cards, Nvidia’s 411.70 drivers are used. Microsoft Windows 10 x64 version 1607 was used. All the reported framerates are average.

Previously Unigine Heaven and Valley were a part of our testing, but they have been dropped in favor of superposition.

Let’s take a look at the performance graphs.

3DMark

Unigine Superposition

Battlefield 1 DX11

On 1080P, there is a 28.6% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 34.15%. At 4K, the performance gain is 42.39%. The Asus Strix GeForce GTX 1080Ti OC was in the closer performance range than Asus Strix GeForce RTX 2080Ti.

Battlefield 1 DX12

On 1080P, there is a 34.25% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 41.16%. At 4K, the performance gain is 39.24%. Once again, we are seeing close quarters between the GTX 1080Ti and RTX 2080Ti at 4k resolution, but lower resolutions are showing the RTX 2080 to be a clear winner.

DOOM

On 1080P, there is a 0.15% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. The performance gain is marginal as all the cards are hitting near the 200 FPS mark. So real, performance testing results would come from higher resolution testing, particularly the 4K.

On 1440p, the performance gain is 12.74%. At 4K, the performance gain is 31.74%. Both the GTX 1080Ti and RTX 2080Ti were neck-to-neck on it, and at 4K, GTX 1080Ti has taken the lead.

Metro Last Light Redux

On 1080P, there is a 38.77% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 45.45%. At 4K, the performance gain is 54.54%.

This game has shown a good improvement. Once again, the GTX 1080Ti and RTX 2080 were neck-to-neck with just 1 FPS difference.

Grand Theft Auto – V

On 1080P, there is a 23.32% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 21.85%. At 4K, the performance gain is 27.68%. GTX 1080Ti has taken the lead over the RTX 2080 in this game on all resolutions.

Far Cry 5

On 1080P, there is a 26.05% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 33.33%. At 4K, the performance gain is 34.88%. RTX 2080 has a marginal lead over the GTX 1080Ti by 3 FPS at 1080P and 1440P. Both were tied at 4k resolution.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War

On 1080P, there is a 36.89% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 40.84%. At 4K, the performance gain is 47.50%. RTX 2080 has a marginal lead over the GTXS 1080Ti by 4 FPS.

Assassin’s Creed Origin

On 1080P, there is a 20.45% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 31.34%. At 4K, the performance gain is 38.46%. RTX 2080 has a marginal lead over the GTX 1080Ti.

Rise of the Tomb Raider DX11

On 1080P, there is a 22.77% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 32.23%. At 4K, the performance gain is 32.88%. At 1080P, the RTX 2080 has a marginal lead over the GTX 1080Ti, whereas, on higher resolutions, GTX 1080Ti has a marginal lead over the RTX 2080.

Rise of the Tomb Raider DX12

On 1080P, there is an 18.19% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 27.29%. At 4K, the performance gain is 51.72%. At 1080P, the GTX 1080Ti has almost 5 FPS lead over the RTX 2080. This lead maintained at higher resolutions though it was marginal.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider DX11

On 1080P, there is a 20.22% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 29.68%. At 4K, the performance gain is 38.23%. Once again, there was a close quarter between the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080Ti, and both were neck-to-neck.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider DX12

On 1080P, there is a 32.29% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 37.50%. At 4K, the performance gain is 39.39%. Once again, there was a close quarter between the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080Ti, and both were neck-to-neck.

The Witcher 3

On 1080P, there is a 26.08% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 39.64%. At 4K, the performance gain is 54.82%. Again we are seeing marginal performance gain between the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080Ti, with RTX 2080 taking the lead on higher resolutions.

Ashes of the Singularity – Escalation DX11

On 1080P, there is a 20.17% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 23.02%. At 4K, the performance gain is 27.51%. Again the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080Ti were neck-to-neck.

Ashes of the Singularity – Escalation DX12

On 1080P, there is a 34.78% performance gain over the GeForce GTX 1080. On 1440p, the performance gain is 23.80%. At 4K, the performance gain is 30.03%. This has shown better improvement in the DX12. Here, the GTX 1080Ti has taken a marginal lead over the RTX 2080.

Overclocking

The Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G is a factory-overclocked graphics card. O in O8G denominates Overclocked edition. In gaming mode, we have a 1515MHz base clock which is the same as Nvidia’s reference design base clock.

In OC mode, the base clock is 1515MHz as well. The boost clock in Gaming mode (Default) is 1860MHz, which is 60Hz above Nvidia’s FE design. In OC mode, the boost clock is 1890 MHz which is 90MHz above Nvidia’s FE design.

Out of the box, the graphics card was boosted to 1995MHz in the OC mode and 1980MHz in the Gaming mode, many thanks to Nvidia’s turbo boost 3.0. Overclocking the RTX card seems challenging.

I started with the memory overclock first without disturbing the core clock. The voltage was set to 100% in the GPU Tweak II, and the Power limit was increased to 125% with an 88°C temperature limit.

I managed to get +76MHz on the core clock and +275MHz on the memory clock. Please, keep in mind that this was done with the fans on Auto settings. With overclocking, the maximum boost was 2040MHz though the clocks were never settled as there was continuous fluctuation, with 2010MHz being the lowest.

It all depends upon the cooling solution, which is quite adequate on this graphics card. Despite overclocking, the results are marginal. Here is the result of the synthetic benchmark with overclocking:

3dMark

Power Limit

This graphics card was continuously hitting the power limit (not the thermal limit). The total power limit is 125% with an 88°C thermal limit. By default power limit is set at 100% and 83°C. I observed the boost clock throttling down to 1875MHz when the graphics card was hitting the power limit.

Mind you; the temperature was 68°C during this time; hence thermals have nothing to do with it. When the power limit was increased to 125%, the frequency of the graphics card to hit the power limit reduced significantly, and the maximum drop during the recurrence was 1915MHz.

I would suggest the gamers/users set the power limit to 125% all the time, regardless of the overclocking.

Thermals

The graphics card was tested with a Furmark run of 10 minutes each at native resolution with 8x MSAA in full screen. For ease of reference, the ambient temperatures are also mentioned. Thermal testing was done with P-Mode and Q-Mode.

After each test minimum of 30 minutes of idling was ensured. 79°C was hit under the stress test in Q-Mode. Keep in mind the ambient temperature. 67°C was hit in P-Mode. Using Q- Mode will have an impact on the boost clocks as the dynamic nature of turbo boosts 3.0. It will clock down as the temperature goes higher.

This is how it was with Pascal as well.

I have tested the graphics card in P and Q modes to check for performance loss if any. For this purpose, Battlefield 1 was used using Ultra settings in DX11 at 4K. Here are the results:

Mode	Minimum Boost Clock	Maximum Temperature	FPS
P	1950MHz	67°C	84.3
Q	1890MHz	79°C	81

Power Consumption

Effective from this content, I will be using HWInfo 64 to record the power consumption of the graphics card. It seems like the HWinfo 64 is measuring the total power draw of the graphics card, not just the GPU.

The below graph shows the power draw of the graphics card only and not of the PC. The power draw of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE seems sketchy, as the chip itself has a TDP of 180W. To measure the power draw on idle, all the background apps were closed, and the system was left idle for 30 minutes.

Battlefield 1 in DX11 at 4K using Ultra settings was used to measure the in-game power draw of the graphics card.

Acoustics

As the summer season is still here, there is environmental noise that is beyond my control. These sounds will easily invalidate the sound meter testing. The card was tested on an open-air test bench, and I am sitting close to my test bench setup.

Using my judgment, the graphics card was silent under Q-Mode, which is damn impressive, but it came at the cost of the 79°C max temperature.

The P-Mode is still not that much audible, and with the room’s fan powered off and fans on the AIO set at 40% of their speed, the whole room was almost silent, and I had to get much closer to the graphics card to hear the fans under the stress test. Asus has definitely done a great job in this department.

Conclusion

The Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G is the first RTX card on my test bench. This card is based on Turing TU104 GPU. The dimension of the graphics card is 11.8×5.13×2.13 inches or 29.97×13.04×5.41 CM. The card follows the PCIe 3.0 bus interface.

It packs 8GB GDDR6 memory chips from Micron rated at 1750MHz using 256-bit bus width at 448 GB/s bandwidth. The base clock of the card is 1515MHz in all the modes.

The default mode is Gaming Mode, with a 1860MHz boost clock and a 1890MHz boost clock under OC Mode. Please, note that you will need to install GPU Tweak II to access these modes. BIOS switch has nothing to do with these modes.

Interestingly enough, this card has 2944 CUDA Cores, whereas the fully enabled TU104 chip has 3072 CUDA cores. The maximum supported digital resolution is 7680×4320. The card draws power using two 8-pin connectors.

This card packs 64 ROP units and 184 TMUs. The pixel fillrate is 98.9 GP/s and Texture fillrate is 284.3 GT/s. The texture fill rate is low as well compared to Nvidia’s stated minimum of 314.6 GT/s.

This card carries all the bells and whistles of the Turing TU104 GPU, including RT Core, Tensor Cores, USB Type-C, VirtualLink, NVLink, New decoder/encoder, and DLSS with ray tracing sitting at the core of Turing. Unfortunately, we have yet to test the true performance potential of these cards due to the lack of enabled games and API.

It is clear that I will be visiting this content again as soon as we get to have RT-based synthetic benchmark apps and games at our disposal.

The Asus Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G has retained the basic concept design from Pascal and has brought further improvement. This card features dual BIOS, which can be toggled using a switch located on the top side of the PCB. These are designated as P-Mode and Q-Mode.

P-Mode focuses on strong cooling for better performance that may come at a more sound level than Q-Mode, which aims at bringing silent operations to the user’s disposal. However, this is done at the cost of high thermals. Once the Windows is loaded, switching the BIOS will not take effect until the system is restarted.

Dual BIOS always comes in handy when flashing a corrupt BIOS, as we have a nice backup. There is an LED power on/off button located on the backside of the card. Now, the user has the option to turn the lighting off for a pure stealth look. Asus has introduced new Axial-Tech fans in this graphics card which deliver up to a 27% increased in airflow and a 40% increase in static pressure.

This is a much-needed requirement as the overall thickness of the heatsink has been increased by 20% hence powerful fans with more static pressure and airflow. The increase in surface area of the heatsink has made the overall design of the card to be 2.7 slots. Keep that in mind for clearance issues with respect to the chassis.

The length of this card is 11.8”, which is another important factor for clearance. The heatsink has 5 nickel-plated copper heat pipes, which seem to be 8mm thick. The middle portion of the heatsink is a bit recessed. There are two nickel-plated copper plates on this heatsink.

One is making contact with the GPU, and the other is making contact with the MOSFET/VRMs. This card is using MaxContact technology that utilizes precision machining to create a heat spreader surface that makes up to 2X more contact with the GPU for better heat transfer.

The backplate is of the same design as we saw on the previous generation Strix cards. This card uses using metal brace as an added strength measure to bring reinforcement to the structure that prevents excessive torsion and lateral PCB bending. This card has two 4-pin fan headers for controlling the chassis fans according to the graphics card’s thermals.

There is one 12V GRB pin format AURA header as well. If using this graphics card on an Asus AURA Sync-enabled motherboard, then this would be an added AURA header should one need it.

So, the big question. What is the performance like on the RTX 2080? The graphs are self-explanatory when it comes to the Asus Strix GeForce RTX 2080 O8G competing against the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE. The performance gain range is 20% to 50%, depending on the game.