2070S or 2080S?

[Exentrick]

I know the 2070S is by far the better price/performance, but I'm also going to be buying a new monitor and watercooling my PC in the next few months. So, I've got a few questions:

 

If I'm watercooling mostly for fun/looks but maybe a little overclocking, does it make any sense to buy anything other than the founder's edition cards since any fancy cooling solution will be junked anyway?

 

Second question, if I'm looking at a 120 or 144hz monitor, is the 2070S going to be a bottleneck on a 1440p in AAA titles?

 

I'm no monitor expert, but I've been looking at a couple of monitors that LTT has featured. The LG Linus recently shot a video on as well as this Aorus: https://www.newegg.com/black-gigabyte-aorus-series-aorus-ad27qd-sa-27/p/N82E16824012006

 

Spending the extra $200 is definitely doable for the 2080S, but if the benefits aren't really going to be significant I'd rather keep my $200. I know there's no clear cut answer here, but I'd be interested in your thoughts and opinions on how you all would think about this decision.

 

Best,

 

Matt

[Zando_]

2070 Super:

 

Hardware Unboxed has a review on the 2080 Super as well, but all those tests were run in 4K, not 1440p. IIRC the 2080 Super isn't much faster than the 2080 though, so if you get a normal 2080 on sale it's probably the better deal. The 5700 XT could also be a solid option, but it'll probably be a while before there's waterblocks so it's probably out of the picture. 

Also keep in mind on all of these benches they usually run them at ultra settings, at higher resolutions you can drop the AA and mess around with other settings to get more FPS for no visible drop in graphics quality. 

[TheGlenlivet]

6 minutes ago, Exentrick said:

I know the 2070S is by far the better price/performance, but I'm also going to be buying a new monitor and watercooling my PC in the next few months. So, I've got a few questions:

 

If I'm watercooling mostly for fun/looks but maybe a little overclocking, does it make any sense to buy anything other than the founder's edition cards since any fancy cooling solution will be junked anyway?

 

Second question, if I'm looking at a 120 or 144hz monitor, is the 2070S going to be a bottleneck on a 1440p in AAA titles?

 

I'm no monitor expert, but I've been looking at a couple of monitors that LTT has featured. The LG Linus recently shot a video on as well as this Aorus: https://www.newegg.com/black-gigabyte-aorus-series-aorus-ad27qd-sa-27/p/N82E16824012006

 

Spending the extra $200 is definitely doable for the 2080S, but if the benefits aren't really going to be significant I'd rather keep my $200. I know there's no clear cut answer here, but I'd be interested in your thoughts and opinions on how you all would think about this decision.

 

Best,

 

Matt

The benefits will be significant.  AAA titles at 144hz in 1440p will need a 2080s depending on settings and you sound like a "I need higher settings!" kinda person.  I don't personally have either of these cards, but if you are comfortable spending the money, always get the better card.

You can watercool other cards besides founders.  EVGA makes coolers for other cards they make.  I think Gigabyte does too.

Also what CPU?

[Rezzify]

I know gigabyte has a waterblock 2080s and an aio 2080s! I am personally looking into buying those myself. Not sure if they have hit market yet because I can't seem to find them anywhere, but you can see it on their website!

[Fakmykak]

37 minutes ago, Exentrick said:

If I'm watercooling mostly for fun/looks but maybe a little overclocking, does it make any sense to buy anything other than the founder's edition cards since any fancy cooling solution will be junked anyway?

If you are water cooling cause it looks cool, get the Nvidia FE card. If you are trying to get a higher overclock, never get the FE card, the VRM's on those are not as good as partner cards.

[Ebony Falcon]

I'd take the 2080 super I have a 2080 and I love it for 1440p 144hz but I think it would be a bit lacking the 70 super

Plus of ur doing block the 2070 super is the worst of the silicon on the 104 chip it's the stuff that wasn't good enough to be a 2080 where as the super is the silicon that was even better than the 2080 so u have get a lot better oc potential 

 

Also deffo get the founders because nvdia keep the best silicon for them selves anyway so unleashing the full power with a water block will be great 

[hollyh88]

it 100% depends on which games you play. 
Battlefield 5? yeah a 2070 super can do that. 

Metro? No. 

 

But not even a 2080 super can pump out 144 frames at 1440p ultra settings in the most newest tripple a titles. so forget it. it wont happen if you want the best graphics, heck not even a 2080ti will be able to do it. 

it more and less comes down to your choice. personally i would go for a 2070 super. it can do 1440p raytracing at 60fps and that would be good for me. spending 200 more to not even get that much more performance is just.. eh not worth it. 
 

[hollyh88]

1 hour ago, Ebony Falcon said:

I'd take the 2080 super I have a 2080 and I love it for 1440p 144hz but I think it would be a bit lacking the 70 super

Plus of ur doing block the 2070 super is the worst of the silicon on the 104 chip it's the stuff that wasn't good enough to be a 2080 where as the super is the silicon that was even better than the 2080 so u have get a lot better oc potential 

 

Also deffo get the founders because nvdia keep the best silicon for them selves anyway so unleashing the full power with a water block will be great 

no a 2070super is a cut down version of a 2080. not the worst sillicon. 

The 2070 super is an amazing card that at oc can beat stock 2080 results which is pretty good. 

 

[Exentrick]

Thanks for all the quick replies. My CPU is a 9700k, so I'm not worried about a bottleneck there. I'm still on the fence, but this is all helpful information.

 

Best,

 

Matt

[Ebony Falcon]

1 hour ago, hollyh88 said:

no a 2070super is a cut down version of a 2080. not the worst sillicon. 

The 2070 super is an amazing card that at oc can beat stock 2080 results which is pretty good. 

 

And they cut it down because it can't be a 2080 

 

They don't just make a bunch of full dies and then say we will cut those for 2070s this for 2080 and those for 2080s

 

They test them all and what fails for 2080/ super is what they salvage to make the 2070s

 

They don't just cut down good dies just to make the 2070s

[hollyh88]

3 minutes ago, Ebony Falcon said:

And they cut it down because it can't be a 2080 

 

They don't just make a bunch of full dies and then say we will cut those for 2070s this for 2080 and those for 2080s

 

They test them all and what fails for 2080/ super is what they salvage to make the 2070s

 

They don't just cut down good dies just to make the 2070s

no, they cut down the 2080's because they no longer will restock the 2080's. due to it being replaced by the 2080 super. 
 

[Ebony Falcon]

37 minutes ago, hollyh88 said:

no, they cut down the 2080's because they no longer will restock the 2080's. due to it being replaced by the 2080 super. 
 

Take out the 2080 and the dies that are not good enough to be 2080s are what they use to make 2070s

[Hunter-97-G]

Save the money and get a 5700 XT.

[Exentrick]

As much as I dislike Nvidia's business practices, I don't trust AMD drivers. I might consider an AMD if they had a card powerful enough to disrupt the high end market, but they don't.

[AngryBeaver]

7 hours ago, TheGlenlivet said:

The benefits will be significant.  AAA titles at 144hz in 1440p will need a 2080s depending on settings and you sound like a "I need higher settings!" kinda person.  I don't personally have either of these cards, but if you are comfortable spending the money, always get the better card.

You can watercool other cards besides founders.  EVGA makes coolers for other cards they make.  I think Gigabyte does too.

Also what CPU?

The benefits are not "significant imo" the 2080s is only about 8% faster than the 2080. The 2080 is only about 3-5% faster stock for stock than the 2070s. The 2070s is faster in some games though due to the higher memory speeds.

 

I guess my point is $200 more for a 10-13% increase in fps isn't significant.  At 120 fps you are taking 12-15 fps. I doubt you will notice 135fps vs 120fps even on a 144 or 165hz monitor.

 

Just went back to confirm on this. So in games the fos difference of the 2070s and 2080 is 2-6 fps +/-. So just watch a 2080 to 2080s comparison and take that in to consideration. So we are talking 15 or less fps in pretty much all games between a 2070s and 2080s for a $200 premium. It is not worth it at all imo.

[TheGlenlivet]

16 hours ago, AngryBeaver said:

The benefits are not "significant imo" the 2080s is only about 8% faster than the 2080. The 2080 is only about 3-5% faster stock for stock than the 2070s. The 2070s is faster in some games though due to the higher memory speeds.

 

I guess my point is $200 more for a 10-13% increase in fps isn't significant.  At 120 fps you are taking 12-15 fps. I doubt you will notice 135fps vs 120fps even on a 144 or 165hz monitor.

 

Just went back to confirm on this. So in games the fos difference of the 2070s and 2080 is 2-6 fps +/-. So just watch a 2080 to 2080s comparison and take that in to consideration. So we are talking 15 or less fps in pretty much all games between a 2070s and 2080s for a $200 premium. It is not worth it at all imo.

I don't disagree, but my response was taking into account the OPs original statements about watercooling, 144hz 1440p monitors and AAA titles.  I think they will be happier spending the extra money for the extra frames than not, and wondering how much better the system could have been.

[AngryBeaver]

7 hours ago, TheGlenlivet said:

I don't disagree, but my response was taking into account the OPs original statements about watercooling, 144hz 1440p monitors and AAA titles.  I think they will be happier spending the extra money for the extra frames than not, and wondering how much better the system could have been.

I dunno tbh. The difference is even smaller as resolution goes up. I guess from my perspective the 10 fps at 1440p isn't going to make a noticeable difference. You would need to move up to a 2080ti to see any real gains, but also at twice the cost. I just feel like with the 2070s the 2080 and 2080s are a extremely hard sale and really don't have much of a spot in this market. The 2080s would need to gain another 10-15% fps increase from where it is to actually hold a decent spot in this market.

[Exentrick]

Thanks for your input. I'm not sure this has made the decision any easier, but you've given me some helpful things to think about.