MSI's GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z is truly a flagship. It comes factory overclocked to 1770 MHz, which is higher than most RTX 2080 Ti custom designs. Unfortunately, memory isn't overclocked even though the Samsung GDDR6 memory chips are certainly able to handle an OC since we could manually overclock it by almost 20%. The Lightning is the first custom-design RTX 2080 Ti that we saw significant performance improvements from due to the factory overclock. With 8% performance gained over the Founders Edition, the gains are much better than with other RTX 2080 Ti cards, which usually are in the range of 4% extra performance. Still, 8% isn't that much in the grand scheme of things, especially considering the price. Compared to the RTX 2080, the Lightning Z is 38% faster, and the performance uplift over the GTX 1080 Ti is 51%. AMD's fastest, the Vega 64, is only half as fast as the Lightning Z while using similar amounts of power. The RTX 2080 Ti is a great choice for 4K gaming with highest details; only in the most demanding titles will you have to dial down settings a bit to reach 60 FPS at 4K.

MSI has slapped an enormous triple-slot, triple-fan cooler on the Lightning, which does a good job at keeping the card cool. Temperatures are slightly better than the Founders Edition, as are gaming noise levels. It would have been nice to see idle-fan-stop on the card. I am not sure why MSI didn't include it... maybe because the card targets the overclocking crowd more than the low-noise enthusiasts. Idle noise levels are whisper quiet though, which is due to a well-designed fan profile. On the back of the card, MSI included a novelty: a backplate made from a carbon-epoxy compound. I took a closer look at it, and it doesn't seem to be a mesh of actual carbon-fibre, but, rather, a mix of carbon with epoxy. MSI is using the word "carbon" in their material description, but not "carbon fibre", which supports that theory. The material is definitely not simple plastic or metal, and it looks great, which is the key point here. MSI integrated a heatpipe into the backplate, but it's fed heat only from the back side of the card, through a thermal pad, which significantly reduces thermal conductivity. The cooling potential from any backplate is minimal—the MSI Lightning is no exception here, and the temperature difference between backplate and no backplate is less than 1°C. Still, I have to praise MSI for trying something novel here.

With its three 8-pin power inputs, the MSI RTX 2080 Ti Lightning is capable of 525 W, which is supported by a massive 16-phase GPU power design (plus an additional three phases for memory). MSI has increased their card's board power limit to 350 W, which is more than on any other custom-design we've seen so far. Additional manual increases let you go to 380 W, which is less than I expected. My guess is that MSI prefers to play it safe, so you'll have to void the warranty by physically modding the card to run at even higher power levels. The second BIOS of the card, which is optimized for liquid nitrogen overclocking, seems to follow a similar philosophy by coming with a rather low 300 W adjustment limit—for hardcore overclockers, any limit is too low anyway, and they'll mod their cards, no doubt. MSI has added easy-to-use voltage measurement points on their card, and MSI Afterburner lets you adjust several GPU voltages via software, which makes the first overclocking steps easier.

Unlike most RTX 2080 Ti cards on the market, MSI is using Samsung GDDR6 chips on their card, which overclocks much better than the chips from Micron. We typically see about 100 MHz higher OC potential, which will come in handy when chasing records. GPU overclocking on the other hand was pretty normal with 2100 MHz, a typical maximum for an RTX 2080 Ti. After manual overclocking, we gained almost 10% in real-life performance, which definitely makes this a rewarding journey.

Priced at $1,600, the MSI RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z is definitely not cheap, but not outrageously expensive either (compared to other options above $1,000). The Titan RTX, which is a little bit faster due to its higher shader count, is $2,500, so quite some ways off. Cheaper RTX 2080 Ti cards start at $1,300, but won't offer nearly as many overclocking features, and they all come with weaker heatsinks. MSI's choice to add RGB bling might be questionable for many overclockers, but I can see how this design choice makes the card interesting to a new group of customers. Either way, money definitely has to be secondary to you to consider the Lightning Z, but this card is the RTX 2080 Ti that has been dialed up to 11.