GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink is capable of 4K 120Hz gaming, handles 8K at 40-50FPS average which is INSANE.

Published
Updated
17 minutes & 25 seconds read time

Introduction

NVIDIA has the most powerful graphics card in the world with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, but even with its next-gen Turing GPU architecture and GDDR6 memory there is always room for more performance. A single RTX 2080 Ti is capable of driving over 60FPS at 4K, but two of them in NVLink? WHOAA NELLY.

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So, everyone has been calling me an NVIDIA shill for the last week or so since my release of the GeForce RTX series launch and they couldn't be further from the truth. If NVIDIA was paying me, I have to make this clear in my articles to be by the law. They aren't paying me. I explained for more than a few pages of text that I'm a pure enthusiast, and that's what I'm here with today.

I have two of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards in NVLink, after I purchased an NVLink bridge from NVIDIA Australia last Friday. I posted to my Twitter that I wished I could get it ASAP and then I had shipping notification emails on Monday alerting me to an expected Wednesday delivery.

But then magic happened: I was nearly finished with my day on Tuesday when the NVLink bridge turned up at my door. Well, I had to change my plans that night with my wife and I forged through with testing multi-GPU games and benchmarks with GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards in NVLink. Like, this doesn't happen everyday... right?! I was having a tech fanboy meltdown... RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink and I own an 8K monitor as well. Oh boy.

NVLink = Huge Multi-GPU Upgrade

Before the previous-gen Pascal architecture, NVIDIA GPUs used a single Multiple Input/Output (MIO) interface as the SLI Bridge technology, which allowed the second/third/fourth GPU to transfer its final rendered frame output to the primary GPU that was physically connected to the bridge.

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Pascal changed this with a faster dual-MIO interface that arrived as HB-SLI, increasing the bandwidth between the GPUs. This paved the way for higher resolution output, and multiple high-res monitors to be used in NVIDIA Surround. NVLink takes all of this to the next level.NVIDIA has deployed its new multi-GPU technology NVLink into the new GeForce RTX 20 series, but NVLink is not something new for the company as it has used the high-speed interconnect on its Quadro RTX series cards and was made specifically for the Volta GV100 GPU.

TU102 features two NVLink 8x links that can feed out 25GB/sec of bidirectional bandwidth, while total aggregate bidirectional bandwidth hits 100GB/sec.

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NVIDIA's new Turing-based TU102 and TU104 GPUs now use NVLink for all SLI GPU-to-GPU data transfers, with the higher-end TU102 featuring two NVLink x8 links while TU104 has a single NVLink x8 link. Each individual link provides up to 50GB/sec of bidirectional bandwidth (25GB/sec per way) while the two links in TU102 push 100GB/sec in total (50GB/sec per way).

Turing GPUs only support 2-way SLI over NVLink, but 3-way and 4-way SLI configurations "are not supported".

NVLink Is The New SLI

NVIDIA sells the NVLink bridge in two sizes: 3-slot and 4-slot GPU spacing. All motherboards are different, and so is the spacing between custom RTX series graphics cards. I'm using the 3-slot NVLink bridge between my RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards. At the time of writing I'm benchmarking RTX 2080s in NVLink and will have those results in a separate article.

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You can buy the GeForce RTX NVLink Bridge on NVIDIA's store for $79, while my NVLink bridge costs $119 AUD here in Australia. NVIDIA currently limits customers to buying just 1 bridge.

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The older SLI-HB bridge was much shorter, with a lower pin count of 52 pins while the new NVLink bridge has 124 pins. It's quite wide, that's for sure.

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Test System Specs

Our New GPU Test Rig

Welcome to the latest revision of our GPU test bed, with our system being upgraded from the Intel Core i7-7700K to the Core i7-8700K. The CPU is cooled by the Corsair H115i PRO cooler, with the 8700K overclocked to 5GHz. We've stayed with GIGABYTE for our motherboard with their awesome Z370 AORUS Gaming 7.

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We approached our friends at HyperX for a kit of their kick ass HyperX Predator DDR4-2933MHz RAM (HX429C15PB3AK4/32), with 2 x 8GB sticks for a total of 16GB DDR4-2933. The RAM stands out through every minute of our testing as it has beautiful RGB lights giving the system a slick look while benchmarking our lives away, while the Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 motherboard joins in with its own array of RGB lighting.

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Detailed Tech Specs

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5GHz
  • Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO
  • MB: Z370 AORUS Gaming 7
  • RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Predator DDR4-2933
  • SSD: 1TB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
  • SSD: 512GB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
  • PSU: InWin 1065W PSU
  • Chassis: In Win X-Frame
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro x64

Additional Images

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Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike - 1080p

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3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark Fire Strike - 1440p

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark Fire Strike - 4K

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark TimeSpy

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3DMark TimeSpy Extreme

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Heaven - 1080p

Unigine Heaven benchmark

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Heaven - 1440p

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Heaven - 4K

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Heaven - 3440x1440

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Benchmarks - 1080p

1080p Benchmarks

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4006

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4004

Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

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GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4008

Far Cry 5 was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 46
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4003

F1 2018 is the latest iteration of the super-popular franchise that Codemasters has worked on for close to a decade now, with F1 2009 kicking it all off. The game is powered by the EGO game engine, which is a modified version of the Neon game engine that was developed by Codemasters and Sony Computer Entertainment for Colin McRae: Dirt, which was released in 2007. The revamped EGO engine was developed to give Codemasters the ability of using more detailed damage and physics in the game world, as well as rendering larger-scale environments.

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GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4002

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p Benchmarks

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 52
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4006

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 53
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4004

Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

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GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4008

Far Cry 5 was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 56
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4003

F1 2018 is the latest iteration of the super-popular franchise that Codemasters has worked on for close to a decade now, with F1 2009 kicking it all off. The game is powered by the EGO game engine, which is a modified version of the Neon game engine that was developed by Codemasters and Sony Computer Entertainment for Colin McRae: Dirt, which was released in 2007. The revamped EGO engine was developed to give Codemasters the ability of using more detailed damage and physics in the game world, as well as rendering larger-scale environments.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 57
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4002

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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Benchmarks - 3440x1440

3440 x 1440 Benchmarks

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 72
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4006

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 73
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4004

Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 74
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4008

Far Cry 5 was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 76
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4003

F1 2018 is the latest iteration of the super-popular franchise that Codemasters has worked on for close to a decade now, with F1 2009 kicking it all off. The game is powered by the EGO game engine, which is a modified version of the Neon game engine that was developed by Codemasters and Sony Computer Entertainment for Colin McRae: Dirt, which was released in 2007. The revamped EGO engine was developed to give Codemasters the ability of using more detailed damage and physics in the game world, as well as rendering larger-scale environments.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 78
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4002

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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Benchmarks - 4K

4K Benchmarks

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4005

Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 62
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4006

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 63
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4004

Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 64
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4008

Far Cry 5 was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 66
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4003

F1 2018 is the latest iteration of the super-popular franchise that Codemasters has worked on for close to a decade now, with F1 2009 kicking it all off. The game is powered by the EGO game engine, which is a modified version of the Neon game engine that was developed by Codemasters and Sony Computer Entertainment for Colin McRae: Dirt, which was released in 2007. The revamped EGO engine was developed to give Codemasters the ability of using more detailed damage and physics in the game world, as well as rendering larger-scale environments.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 67
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 4002

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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Power Consumption

You'd think that with two graphics cards running at 4K 120FPS+ in the gaming tests we're running the cards through would be chewing down some serious power, but Turing is a very power efficient GPU architecture and the new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti packs a huge performance punch without needing that much power.

It definitely chews through more power than the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and TITAN Xp graphics cards, but not that much more when in multi-GPU mode. The two GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards in NVLink had whole system power consumption of between 700-770W during our testing with it sitting around 730-740W most of the time.

Comparing this to the GTX 1080 Ti in SLI which uses somewhere around 550-600W, or the TITAN Xp SLI with 600-660W, they're all still low compared to AMD.

Two of AMD's Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics cards in CrossFire consume between 730-830W of power, and they get a hell of a lot hotter as well as much louder. They aren't ideal in multi-GPU at all, whereas the RTX 2080 Ti is not only fast, but it is power efficient. RTX 2080 Ti blows away Vega 64 with less power used, and RTX 2080 Ti NVLink continues that trend of Vega 64 CF.

Unlocked: 4K 120FPS Gaming

4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now A Reality

These results are literally mind blowing.

I thought that the single GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on its own was impressive, but when you put two of them together through NVLink and really push the card - 4K minimum, you get some out-of-this-world performance. We're talking beyond 4K 120FPS, which is perfect for the Big Format Gaming Display and new flock of 4K 144Hz HDR G-Sync monitors from Acer and ASUS.

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Seriously, if you have a game that is SLI ready you're going to have a rocking time with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards in NVLink. There are great looking games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider that reach levels of performance that are simply impossible on any other graphics card setup in the world.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider stands out as one of the latest games released, and it is one of the best-looking of the year, with incredible NVLink scaling on the RTX series cards. GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink provides a huge 126FPS average at 4K, a massive 94% increase over a singel RTX 2080 Ti that pumps out 65FPS.

Normally 65FPS at 4K would be something worth bragging about as you've reached the 'holy grail' of 4K 60FPS gaming, but 65FPS is nothing against 126FPS average. Especially for NVIDIA's upcoming BFGD TVs that offer 65-inch 4K 120Hz HDR G-Sync as well as the new 4K 144Hz HDR G-Sync gaming monitors that are now available.

Rainbow Six Siege is another game that has some magic inside of it under Turing, with next to no scaling between the Pascal-based GTX 10 series and TITAN Xp graphics card, but some truly unbelievable results with the RTX series cards. We're talking improvements of beyond 100% with the RTX 2080 Ti NVLink setup being 76% faster than a single RTX 2080 Ti, and a huge 172% increase over TITAN Xp in SLI (which cost the same $2400 as the RTX 2080 Ti cards do at $2400 total).

Shadow of War has some great scaling at 4K and multi-GPU setups, with the RTX 2080 Ti NVLink combination pushing an incredible 124FPS average at 4K, compared to the 81FPS on a single RTX 2080 Ti and to put things into perspective - 57FPS on a single GTX 1080 Ti. We're talking over double the performance from a single GTX 1080 Ti, and another 43FPS over a single RTX 2080 Ti.

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Absolutely incredible results, putting TITAN Xp and RX Vega 64 CF to shame... nothing competes with RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink. The previous $2400 cost of two TITAN Xp cards is completely dethroned at the same price with huge gains in performance.

I mean, look at the minimum FPS on the RTX 2080 Ti NVLink scores... just phenomenal.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider @ 4K: 112FPS minimum and 126FPS average. Wow. Compare this to the single RTX 2080 Ti with 58FPS minimum, or the GTX 1080 Ti with 41FPS minimum. RTX 2080 Ti has 173% higher minimum FPS. Insane.

Note: Don't worry about the lack of minimum FPS on Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the NVLink setup, there are some bugs like this where the game doesn't report a minimum FPS in the benchmark results. We're working on this now and will have updates in the next batch of benchmark results. The minimum is still very high we just don't have the exact numbers on some of the cards. There are anomolies like the TITAN Xp and TITAN Xp in SLI which both for whatever reason show minimum FPS.

Note: The same goes for Rainbow Six Siege where there is ZERO multi-GPU scaling with Pascal-based cards, and PERFECT multi-GPU scaling on Turing. Those results are just mind blowing. I ran those so many times to make sure there wasn't a mistake. Incredible stuff.

Also Unlocked: 3440x1440 Performance

3440x1440 performance is also completely unlocked. GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and TITAN Xp in SLI both did some seriously good work at the 21:9 aspect ratio gaming monitor res, but the RTX 2080 Ti dominates there as well.

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If we look at Rainbow Six Siege at 3440x1440 on the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink we're looking at an out-of-this-world 263FPS average, compared to the 158FPS average of the single RTX 2080 Ti. This represents an increase of 66%.

Funnily enough the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is capable of 92FPS average at 3440x1440 in Rainbow Six Siege, meaning the RTX 2080 Ti is 72% faster than the GTX 1080 Ti while RTX 2080 Ti cards in NVLink are a how-is-it-this-good 185% better. Wowowow.

Should You Buy RTX 2080 Ti NVLink?

This is going to be a hard question, but it's something with an easy answer: no, no you should NOT buy GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards in NVLink. Are you crazy? That's $2400... the cost of an entire gaming PC with a single RTX 2080 Ti inside.

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But... holy sh*t are two GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards in NVLink a powerful combo when you have a game that has good to great multi-GPU scaling. An example is Shadow of the Tomb Raider cranking along at 126FPS average on the RTX 2080 Ti NVLink configuration. That is just... I don't even know what to say. We finally have a graphics card combo capable of 4K 120FPS gaming and no one seems to care.

Everyone is crying that there's no RTX games and DLSS available yet, but as I've said since my RTX 2080 Ti review - if you want pure performance, RTX 2080 Ti is the next level. RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink is even better, with some great scaling in games really pushing the limits of what was the previous ceiling.

This is why I don't recommend any multi-GPU system. There are more problems than they're worth, with not many games supporting SLI through to scaling issues and general technical issues. But when it works... holy balls you better be strapped to your seat... because 1440p and 4K games will never run better.

Final Thoughts

The results of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards in NVLink surprised me. In some games we have beyond the multi-GPU scaling of Pascal, with Rainbow Six Siege scaling the best on Turing. Shadow of the Tomb Raider has some baller scaling at 4K and 8K, while other games vary with scaling.

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For those that will be buying the Big Format Gaming Display TVs next year, a BFGD with its native 4K 120Hz HDR G-Sync image on a massive 65-inch gaming TV is going to require serious horsepower. This is something I was concerned with when NVIDIA first announced the BFGD, was that we don't have a graphics card setup fast enough to handle 4K 120FPS.

It didn't matter if you used TITAN Xp cards in SLI and spent $2400 a few months ago, you won't hit 120FPS average in most games. You could dial settings down, but when you're buying a huge new 65-inch 4K 120Hz HDR G-Sync TV, you'll want max eye candy. Well, with RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink, that is now possible.

I'm using one of the 4K 144Hz HDR G-Sync gaming displays and I finally have a set of GPUs that is capable of driving 144FPS average. I have to tune a few settings in some games because we're not yet at 4K 144FPS with Ultra settings (minus AA) but we're damn close. A tweak of the shadow settings, and detail settings, and we're hitting 144FPS without an issue with RTX 2080 Ti NVLink.

If we compared $1199 graphics card (TITAN Xp) against $1199 graphics card (RTX 2080 Ti) and then the two setups in SLI and NVLink, respectively - we're looking at $2400 worth of graphics cards. Now get yourself one of those new 4K 144Hz HDR G-Sync panels and you're looking at another $2000.

So we're now at $4400.

$4400 is the entry cost of gaming at 4K 120FPS. That's no CPU or RAM, motherboard or SSD, case or PSU. Add on another $1500-$2000 for a decent Core i7-8700K, 16GB RAM and a large 1TB+ SSD and you're going to be hitting $6500 without a problem.

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2 x NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards in NVLink and a beautiful new 27-inch 4K 144Hz HDR G-Sync gaming display is pretty damn good value for money if you compared it to previous-gen multi-GPU setups and high-end monitors from over the last few generations.

A few generations ago $1100 was the launch cost of 2 x GeForce GTX 980s, while an ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q would cost $800. This is $1900 total and would've provided 1440p 50FPS at the time in Metro: Last Light (this is 2014) while BioShock: Infinite ran at 113FPS average at 1440p (99FPS on a single GTX 980).

Rewinding past that, I remember buying $2000+ monitors over the years with the Sony G520 and my beast HP LP3065 (30-inch 2560x1600 @ 60Hz) monitors with thousands of dollars worth of graphics cards. For enthusiasts, it's not about the money - it's about having the best.

Right now, 2 x GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards and a 4K 144Hz HDR G-Sync gaming monitor is the best gaming experience you can have. You can have multi-monitor setups that might be better, but that's an entirely different conversation. Now that we have 4K 144Hz monitors the best triple-monitor gaming rig would be a 3 x 4K 144Hz gaming rig which would really drive up the GPU requirements.

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink: 4K 120FPS Gaming Is Now Here 06

And even then, the RTX 2080 Ti cards in NVLink are the only option at that resolution. This is why we have NVLink with the additional bandwidth for next level gaming setups like triple 4K and triple 8K monitors... not that there is a huge customer base for that.

NVIDIA should be applauded for being the ONLY company in that space.

NVIDIA is the only company on the planet with graphics cards even capable of driving 4K 120FPS. There is no AMD Radeon graphics configuration that can drive 4K 120FPS or higher like the new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards can in NVLink. Nothing.

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Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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