Introduction

NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 20-series in September last year, with support for several new technologies, like machine learning and RTX Raytracing. This feature is so big for NVIDIA that it has changed the naming of their GeForce cards from "GTX" to "RTX".

NVIDIA RTX is a near-turnkey real-time ray-tracing model for game developers that lets them fuse real-time ray-traced objects into 3D scenes that have been rasterized. Ray-tracing the whole scene in existence isn't quite possible yet, but the results with RTX are still better-looking than anything rasterizing can achieve. To even get those few bits of ray tracing done right, an enormous amount of compute power is required. NVIDIA has hence deployed RTX cores, purpose-built hardware components on its GPUs that sit alongside all-purpose CUDA cores.



It has taken them a little while, but the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning has finally been announced. This card is THE demo-vehicle to show what's possible when you build an RTX 2080 Ti custom-design without limits.

MSI is releasing two variants of the Lightning: The RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z, which is clocked at 1770 MHz Boost Clock, and the RTX 2080 Ti Lightning (without Z), which runs at a more conservative 1575 MHz Boost. Both cards share the same impressive cooler and design. MSI is using a triple-slot heatsink with three large fans. Also included is plenty of RGB lighting that is fully adjustable and can be turned off. The power input capability has been upgraded to three 8-pin connectors, which are paired with a total of 19 power phases.

The MSI RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z in this review retails for $1600, which is not exactly cheap. Let's see what MSI came up with to justify that price.