Question RTX 2070 Super or 2080 Super for 1440p gaming

[jmfel1926]

Hi all,

I will try to describe my situation fast and clear.

I have a 4K OLED LG TV (C7 model) in my living room and bought a PC with a i5 9600k, 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz, 2TB SSD and a RTX 2080 to play in 4K . When i found out that the new SUPER cards would be out, i returned my 2080 and waited for the 2080 Super. Now, that the SUPERs are out, I see that the difference is not too high, only 5-6% maybe. As far as i see, good 4k gaming is only available with a 2080Ti and still not in all games, and definitely not in the new games to come.
That makes me think that even if i get the 2080 Super, 4k gaming will not be that good, so now i am thinking of getting a 1440p gaming monitor with 144hz and G-Sync since i read that smoother high fps 1440p gaming would be more satisfying than not smooth 4K gaming without g-sync.

My questions now are:

• Should i get a 2080 Super for good 1440p gaming on a 144hz monitor or is a 2070 Super enough?
• I have seen on benchmarks that the 2070 Super on 1440p Ultra high does not reach more than 100-120 fps. Would that make the 144hz setup redudant?
• Is G-sync really worth the money etc?
• Is 4K gaming on Medium setting on a 2080 Super (hopefully you get steady 60fps) better than 1440p Ultra in a 144hz panel with G-sync?

What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks a lot !

 

[Eximo]

1) 2080 Super isn't a bad card, just not that different from the RTX2080. I would say it is the logical choice for 1440p 60hz+ gaming if you don't want to spend $1200 on the 2080Ti.

2) 100-120 FPS on a 144hz monitor is by no means a bad thing, especially with G-sync or FreeSync. People tend to keep monitors longer than GPUs, so getting a monitor that you can't fully exploit now is no big deal.

3) G-sync, kind of worth it. But with FreeSync compatible monitors on the market, not as much. Syncing will get rid of tearing under variable refresh conditions, so in that regard, something is better than nothing. The only time it doesn't matter is when you want more frames, and can achieve, then the monitor supports.

4) That depends on your viewing distance. 4K with anti-aliasing off can be pretty decent compared to 1440p with anti-aliasing on up close.


As a small counterpoint. I am running a 1440p 144hz G-sync panel with only a GTX1080. For most of the games I play, this is well above 80FPS all the way up to 144 FPS on the lighter titles. This is perfectly acceptable to me. Probably wait for Nvidia's next release before deciding on an upgrade.

 

[jmfel1926]

Hi and thanks for the reply.

I did not get what you mean with "G-sync, kind of worth it. But with FreeSync compatible monitors on the market, not as much". Do you mean that i should not only look on G-sync monitors but also Freesync or .. ?

I think it all ends up on buying th 2080 Super with a decent 1440p 144hz monitor. But do you think that it worths the money difference from the 2070 Super ?

 

[Eximo]

G-sync was the first variable refresh technology on the market, and is still expensive. Originally sold as a big boy upgrade kit to an existing ASUS monitor. Then the PG278Q was released, a 1440p 144hz TN panel monitor. Acer followed up with a 1440p 144hz VA (IPS) display with G-sync. Then ASUS matched them, and so did Acer, with the second version of G-sync. These were about $800 and is what I have. They now have G-sync HDR chips that can do 4K at 144hz for the third generation. All of these require a hardware FPGA G-sync Module. Basically, Nvidia moved everything important to the GPU pipeline, reducing as much latency as possible while also allowing for good response time.

FreeSync simply uses the Adaptive Sync technology built into the Display Port standard. They also use a software solution for variable refresh over HDMI. This makes the monitors a lot cheaper since they are still using a standard scalar (albeit a high performance one)

Recently, Nvidia announced they would support FreeSync displays and they have a list of certified panels you can pick from. It should work on all Freesync panels that have display port. Only guaranteed on these: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/g-sync-monitors/specs/

From objective and subjective tests there is little effective difference between G-sync and FreeSync. Though G-sync monitors tend to have a wider operating envelope then their FreeSync coounterparts.

As for the GPU, that is really for you to decide. Still somewhat early days, but everything I have seen so far puts the RTX2080 Super faster at higher resolutions and nearly the same as the 2080 at lower resolutions. Likely due to the faster memory speed. In terms of bang for your buck it is worse, but it always is as you go up the stack.

RTX2070 2304 cores and 14,000Mhz effective memory
RTX2070 Super 2560 cores and 14,000Mhz effective memory 88% of an RTX2080 Super (about right if you simply look at the core counts)
RTX 2080 2944 cores and 14,000Mhz effective memory
RTX 2080 Super 3072 cores and 15,500Mhz effective memory RTX2080 + 4-8%

 

[jmfel1926]

Thanks a lot for your answers. I will have to think about it ...