MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z: Holy Balls of Steel

The MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z is one of the best graphics cards you can buy right now, and it looks AWESOME.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: MSI
11 minutes & 48 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 100%
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The Bottom Line

MSI hits another home run with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z, which is one of the fastest RTX 2080 Ti cards on the market out of the box with oodles of overclocking headroom. The cooler is amazing and it looks GORGEOUS. Kudos, MSI.

Introduction, Pricing & Availability

MSI always has an ace up its sleeve when NVIDIA launches new series of GeForce graphics cards, and now that it has been close to 6 months since the announcement of the GeForce RTX series graphics cards, MSI has released its beyond-enthusiast GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z graphics card.

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NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition is already one of the best RTX 2080 Ti cards on the market, but MSI kicks it up a notch with some slick overclocks and much improved cooling technology on the RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z. The stock RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition has boost GPU clocks of 1635MHz while the RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z boosts up to 1770MHz, and beyond that when overclocked. The 11GB of GDDR6 remains at its 14Gbps of bandwidth.

But it is the price that skyrockets with the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z over the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition. NVIDIA's own card costs $1199 while MSI has priced its RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z at a $400 premium hitting $1600. Here in Australia, the card tops out at $2600 AUD. Crazy stuff.

What do you get for that additional money? Well, you get one of the best performing, best looking custom GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards on the market. MSI pulls out all of the stops with the LIGHTNING family of cards and the new RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z is no exception. It's the cherry on top of an already super delicious cake that NVIDIA built with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

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RTX abilities to the side, the raw performance of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is unmatched by anything on the market including the previous-gen TITAN Xp. The only thing that beats it is the insanely expensive, but deliciously fast NVIDIA TITAN RTX graphics card that costs $2499. It rocks 24GB of GDDR6 and is more tuned towards people who don't care about money, content creators and 8K gamers (there are a couple, but not many).

I'm still waiting to see if NVIDIA can sample me with the TITAN RTX for 8K benchmarking, which is an area where the 11GB framebuffer on the RTX 2080 Ti really dies. I'll be following up with this article with an overclocking piece, but I simply didn't have the time (I was on an 8-day cruise in the South Pacific when MSI sent the RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z, soz).

  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE - $1199
  • MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z - $1599

Specs: RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z

Detailed Specs

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MSI has made the ultimate LIGHTNING branded graphics card with its new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z, with a potent combination of the Turing GPU from NVIDIA, GDDR6 memory technology, and MSI's expertise in building some of the best graphics cards you can buy. The new MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z is no different, it is a complete beast from the ground up.

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You can see the LIGHTNING thermal design is exquisite.

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MSI deploys its newest TORX fans on the RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z.

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GAME ON WITH BALLS OF STEEEEEEL!

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See, MSI isn't messing around when it comes to cooling technology.

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MSI has famously disabled its fans on higher-end graphics cards with its ZERO FROZR technology and the RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z is no different. However, the ZERO FROZR function is disabled by default because of the PHANTOM OF LIGHTNING effects, you'll need to switch to LN2 mode to unlock the ZERO FROZR functionality.

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Unboxing + Detailed Look

Detailed Look

MSI has always used great packaging on their graphics cards with the GAMING X/Z and LIGHTNING Z products all arriving in awesome looking boxes, with the new RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z coming in a gigantic box, but light-ish on the contents.

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The front of the box has a gorgeous shot of the card itself front-and-center, while NVIDIA dominates with its GeForce RTX branding in the bottom left, and well... every single side of the box which you're about to see. On the back of the box we find out about what makes the RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z tick in terms of cooling technology, RGB lighting, and more.

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The side of the box has some 'LIGHTNING' branding as well as even larger GeForce RTX branding at the bottom.

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MSI's new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z from the front looks like a boss, one of the slickest designs I've seen yet. MSI has used a black and gold color scheme with a checkerboard pattern that really makes the card pop.

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The backplate of the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z looks really awesome with its checkboard pattern and super-awesome carbon fiber that adds another touch of class to the card. There is some adjustable RGB lighting on the back of the card in the form of some cool-looking lightning bolts.

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MSI has the same display outputs as most GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards with 3 x DP, 1 x HDMI, and the 1 x VirtualLink USB-C port. It's also all themed black instead of silver, which is another nice touch. You'll need to have room to handle the chunky 3-slot design, though.

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MSI's new beast of a RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z requires a huge 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connector setup.

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MSI's new LCD screen on the RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z, I will have more on this in an update to the review soon.

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From the back of the card lit up, there will be updates to this soon, too.

Test System Specs

GPU Test Rig Specs

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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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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Benchmarks - 1080p

1080p Benchmarks

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EA and DICE put everything they had into Battlefield V which runs the latest version of the Frostbite engine, and really stretches its legs in terms of graphics quality and squeezing the most from our cards. It's one of the best looking engines and best looking games on the market, until the new slew of games launches over the coming months, that is.

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Overwatch is one of the most popular games on the market, from legendary game developer Blizzard. It's a game that looks great but doesn't require a huge amount of GPU grunt, but it's tested for another reason: high-FPS for enthusiast/professional gamers. Overwatch in our testing is to provide a two-fold result: first, it's a popular esports title and second it gives us a look at what we need to run it at 1440p for 144/165Hz displays and at 4K on those new 144Hz HDR G-Sync displays.

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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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Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

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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.

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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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EA and DICE put everything they had into Battlefield V which runs the latest version of the Frostbite engine, and really stretches its legs in terms of graphics quality and squeezing the most from our cards. It's one of the best looking engines and best looking games on the market, until the new slew of games launches over the coming months, that is.

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Overwatch is one of the most popular games on the market, from legendary game developer Blizzard. It's a game that looks great but doesn't require a huge amount of GPU grunt, but it's tested for another reason: high-FPS for enthusiast/professional gamers. Overwatch in our testing is to provide a two-fold result: first, it's a popular esports title and second it gives us a look at what we need to run it at 1440p for 144/165Hz displays and at 4K on those new 144Hz HDR G-Sync displays.

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MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z: Holy Balls of Steel 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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Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

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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.

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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

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Overwatch is one of the most popular games on the market, from legendary game developer Blizzard. It's a game that looks great but doesn't require a huge amount of GPU grunt, but it's tested for another reason: high-FPS for enthusiast/professional gamers. Overwatch in our testing is to provide a two-fold result: first, it's a popular esports title and second it gives us a look at what we need to run it at 1440p for 144/165Hz displays and at 4K on those new 144Hz HDR G-Sync displays.

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MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z: Holy Balls of Steel 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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MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z: Holy Balls of Steel 4007

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

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MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z: Holy Balls of Steel 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.

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MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z: Holy Balls of Steel 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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Overclocking, Heat, & Power

Overclocking

MSI already has the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z overclocked pretty high, but I managed to hit 2040MHz without a problem and hurtling through Heaven loops at 2560x1440 for some testing. There was a nice 8-10% increase in performance over the out-of-the-box boost GPU clock speeds, as well as the GDDR6 being cranked from 7GHz to 8GHz resulting in over 700GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Heat

I did notice that the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z was running hotter than the ZOTAC GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AMP! with the new LIGHTNING Z hitting 71-73C during testing while the AMP! was only hitting 63C. I need more time with the cards as I've been so busy lately, so this part of the review will be updated with a chart showing temps soon.

After wrapping the review I quickly did some testing of the EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FTW3 ULTRA which when under load and fully overclocked (to similar clocks as the MSI RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z) we're seeing lower temps of 56C or so. This is why I need more time with the cards, something I will be spending most of the next 5-6 weeks testing thoroughly.

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Power

NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition in our Intel Core i7-8700K test rig consumes anywhere between 330-350W on stock clocks while the card uses up to 400-460W when overclocked. During benchmarking on stock clocks we saw around 350-400W depending on the test, and between 460-530W when overclocked to its limits in some scenarios. Again, a chart is coming for this shortly.

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Final Thoughts

I'm already ecstatic with the performance NVIDIA has provided with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in Founders Edition form, but as usual MSI takes this foundation of technology wtih the next-gen Turing GPU architecture and super-fast GDDR6 memory technology and takes it up a notch.

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MSI engineers some of the best cooling technology deployed on graphics cards and the new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z is another notch in that belt. The card looks great as well, with some subtle but strong RGB lightning on the card as well as an LCD display at the top. The carbon fiber-style checkerboard backplate looks slick as hell in person. I dig the gold and black theme and it makes me want to build a gaming PC themed in that color scheme.

It will be hard to swallow at $2600, but MSI isn't aiming for this to be a mainstream card as that's what the other cards in other families that MSI sells within its GeForce RTX 2080 Ti range of offerings. There's the GAMING X and DUKE ranges of cards, before you get to the enthusiast and LN2 cooling level side of things with the new RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z.

I'm keen to see where some of the professional overclockers can take this card when it's unshackled from its air cooling technology and some liquid nitrogen is used to cool it down. MSI is in full support of LN2 cooling on these cards, so expect the new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z to snag a few awards.

TweakTown award
Performance (overclocking, power) 100%
Quality (build, design, cooling) 100%
General Features (display outputs, etc) 100%
Bundle, Packaging & Software 100%
Overall 100%

The Bottom Line: MSI hits another home run with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti LIGHTNING Z, which is one of the fastest RTX 2080 Ti cards on the market out of the box with oodles of overclocking headroom. The cooler is amazing and it looks GORGEOUS. Kudos, MSI.

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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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