MSI Working on GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z

[btarunr]

MSI is working on its next-generation flagship graphics card, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z (going by previous naming conventions for the Lightning). The card will be positioned above its current Gaming X Trio, as well as the liquid-cooled SeaHawk series, and it's possible there could be a sub-variant with factory-fitted full-coverage water-block. As with previous generation cards that bear the name, the card could have the highest factory overclock in MSI's product stack, the strongest VRM setup that's voltmod-friendly, and a gargantuan cooling solution for its air-cooled sub-variant. There's no word on when MSI could roll the beast out. MSI teased the card with a final slide in one of its media events in China, which depicts lightning bolts captioned "Coming Soon."



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[dj-electric]

A Turing card can only get so extreme with its severely limited BIOS and restrictions.
Guess this one's for XOCers.

 

[[XC] Oj101]

I don't have high hopes. XOC is basically dead on NVIDIA cards.

 

[W1zzard]

If they can convince NVIDIA of allowing higher power limit this could be interesting

 

[Vayra86]

Lightning has been overpriced and 100% marketing since what, 2013? And its no different for every other top end branding. They're all limited anyway.

 

[John Naylor]

The advantage of the Classified, Lightning Matrix cards back in the day was that you could OC the crap outta them and even edit the BIOS. Now, AFAIK, no one has cracked that nut yet. However, refering back to nVidia's partner program, this is what i thought the program was all about in the 1st place. NVidias beef was that all the media frenzy and mindshare created by the Lightning for instance would be diluted if there was Vega Lightning card whereby the OC boost was no where near the sibling. If the AIB manufacturers agree to not share the model line name, then I see nVidia loosening the reigns a bit.

After all, since the nVidia 7xx and AMD 2xx series, all we have been seeing is reviews putting 1 card from each in the various price / performance niche's based upon out of the box clocks ... with no mention of nVidias OCs ranging as high as 30+ % over reference and AMD for the most part in single digits. In the graphs, at stock settings, the 480 had a slight edge over the 1060... but when OC'd the 1060s performance advantage was quite substantial. So based upon the "partner program' goals, I can see nVidia doing this on a limited basis with the premium cards. And it would be real nice to see a Seahawk EK edition of a premium PCB, so far the blocks were always installed on the lesser PCBs

 

[[XC] Oj101]

If they can convince NVIDIA of allowing higher power limit this could be interesting

Absolutely no doubt, and it WILL be interesting, not just COULD be interesting. However, given NVIDIA’s stance I don’t think it’s likely to happen.

 

[John Naylor]

I'm not sure... this was the whole thing about the proposed "partnering" program. Become a partner, don't allow our competition to benefit of our co-branding, and we will grant you assistance / special considerations.