Gadgetory

all right we're checking out a new video card today it's the msi geforce r-tx 2080 ti lightening z don't be fooled by the absence of a Z on the box it has a Z all you got to do is pay attention to the sticker the retail box is crap just look at the sticker which clearly says Lightning Z right there it's official alright so we got the Z model which is the fancy-pants one it's clocked faster much faster out of the box than the non Z SKU I think the non Z's like fifteen hundred and thirty five megahertz this is seventeen hundred and seventy mega Hertz boost clock out of the box that puts it around 200 megahertz faster than a reference r-tx 20 80 TI and roughly 100 mega Hertz faster than a founders edition 20 80 TI so this is perhaps one of the fastest RT x 20 ATT eyes on the market right out of the box which is pretty exciting of course you're gonna pay a pretty penny for this guy but hey if budgets no option or you're just looking for the best of the best this could be a possible contender we're gonna take a closer look at it let's take the sucker into the box it's a big box Somali am I doing this right oh no I think it's upside down that's not like I take things out of boxes for a living or anything alright very nice casing actually it's the documentation we have a bracket anti-sag bracket so that your GPU doesn't sag because this is a very big card it's a matey bastard the triple slot triple fan holy Toledo so I didn't actually get a chance to see this up close at CES and it is even bigger and heavier than I ever expect it this thing is gargantuan would be the proper word look at that heatsink that heat sink is ridiculous and you've got the Torx fan 3.0 here I believe the two outer fans have RGB lighting that looks pretty cool it's their Phantom of the Opera know what's it called what's it called phantom of lighting it's their phantom of lighting technology that's built into these fans we'll take a closer look at that later now there's RGB all over this thing but the card itself is black and gold MSI has been on this huge gold kick lately which I don't mind I'm kind of a fan you know I like the gold trim that they've been putting on some of their other devices like their laptops and so forth but bear in mind it is gold you can't change it you got carbon-fiber accents all over this card as well from the front of the shroud here to the full cover backplate which is also lined with some plastic it's reinforced backplate also to help eliminate GPU sag and just give the board some added rigidity RGB lighting right there you can see the two little strips rip loop you've got envy link SLI finger a fairly large LCD screen which can give you some useful real-time system diagnostics like clock speeds temperatures and you can even add your own animation and stuff maybe we'll get around to that too just above that as a dip switch that lets you choose between two profiles whether you're using the stock cooler or you're going exotic ln2 this will also toggle be zero frozer technology which basically reduces your fan speed to zero RPM to the GPU fall below sixty degrees Celsius we've got triple eight pin power connectors which means you're gonna need an efficient and reliable power supply to drive this unit effectively it also tells us that this is a fully custom PCB with a nineteen phase vrm at that again the heatsink is massive it's actually two large stacks that are being connected by a series of six millimeter and eight millimeter copper heat pipes all those pipes are eventually leading to a nickel plated copper base plate which is making direct contact with the GPU for effective heat dissipation throughout the part MSI also advertises that they're using high-grade thermal compound for the GPU which is supposed to have better performance and longevity okay can we install it now now really quick disclaimer before we continue here I actually have to produce and record the rest of this video from home because of the new house it's a long story but basically I can't shoot at the studio right now I didn't feel like bringing my entire equipment set over to the house so I'm just gonna do a voiceover for the rest of this video I'm sorry you won't get to see my glorious face for the rest of it I know that's the number one reason why you guys subscribe but yeah this is just one of those little hiccups that I have to deal with during this whole moving into a new house process so with that out of the way let's continue so I dropped the card in my Z 390 test bed with a core I nine ninety nine hundred K overclocked to five gigahertz on liquid paired with 16 gigs of G skills Sniper Elite ddr4 at 3400 speed on an Asus prime z3 98 it only took me a few minutes to find a stable overclock but the 40 megahertz core clock offset and 425 megahertz memory clock offset don't expect any earth-shattering gains here since the lightning Z chips already come heavily tuned from the factory still land at our core clock speed just shy of the two gigahertz mark I will take it temps we're hovering in the mid 70s nearing 80 C at times but never quite getting there fortunately far from chilly but super respectable for an air-cooled tu 102 at 2 gigahertz I would guess that you'd probably seen better thermals with one of those liquid cooled RT X 20 ATT eyes that debuted at CES year like the asus rog matrix or EVGA z' kingpin model but those also come with the inconveniences and risks associated with liquid cooling and when spending one to two thousand dollars on a graphics card some users may find peace of mind with the lightning Z in a quiet room you'd probably be able to hear the card under load through a closed chassis but it's definitely not loud enough to break your concentration with in-game audio present so for all intents and purposes the card is quiet enough for me both the LCD and RGB lighting are controlled through the mystic light tab with an MSI dragon Center and while the lighting on the back plate and above the LCD look great I'm not a hundred percent sold on the fans I think it looks weird with a dark fan in the middle I'm just gonna say it I've spent all weekend with the card and this design choice has not grown on me at all the lighting on the - lit fans also looks kind of cheap and doesn't match the style of the other lighting accents I know you won't see it much in a typical case but I can't help but feel a bit underwhelmed by the implementation here the opposite is true for the dynamic dashboard LCD the digital readouts for things like GPU temp clock speed and memory usage are large enough to be read easily from several feet away and while I didn't get around to making any animations my custom images from mspaint loaded just fine you are limited to black and white however for testing the CPU and GPU ran overclocked with the settings I mentioned earlier and were tested on seven games at 2560 by 1440 and 3840 by 2160 with the exception of Metro last light which kept crashing it for K for some reason even with the system running bone-stock I spent like half an hour troubleshooting before finally giving up so sorry about that we're also using the latest wiffle driver at the time of filming that's for 17.7 1 and here we go so yeah big surprise this card is stupid fast chewing up every maxed out title at 1440p and 4k right now there's virtually nothing it can't handle and that's probably gonna be the case for years to come I didn't test any r-tx features but I reckon the lightning Z eats rays for breakfast before tracing them with its butt like a Froyo dispenser sure it's faster than nvidias founders addition I would guesstimate five percent on average based on my RT X 20 ATT I launched a review but not by enough to warrant the $400 premium with it's insane $1600 price tag so assuming you have the bankroll in the first place only a deep deep infatuation with the design and appearance of the cards would really make it worth your dollar you're single $1600 dollar I mean as far as I'm concerned this card is a work of art a statement piece reserved exclusively for the ultra gaming elite and if you fail to see the value in that you're you're just a filthy casual pleb but that's all I got what do you guys think of these premium flagship cards like if you had the money what features would a card like this have to have for you to throw down let me know in the comments if you could toss a like on this video before you go I'd really appreciate it and subscribe to my channel or I will poop in your water-cooling Luke yet another reason to go air cooling thanks for watching guys have a good one and I'll see y'all in the next video