Ditching the Ti moniker that has been used to denote faster variations in the past, Nvidia has released three new cards in what it calls its RTX Super range. The RTX 2060 Super was a significant upgrade over its original, sporting more memory, CUDA Cores and boosted clock speeds. The RTX 2070 Super, by comparison, seems far less interesting on paper. It bears more similarities with its original, and comes off as a standard upgrade serving as a minor step up rather than a worthwhile reinvention. And while that definitely might be the case in practice, its price that makes the RTX 2070 Super a much more alluring purchase than ever.

The RTX 2070 Super features no additional memory to speak of, shipping with the same 8GB as before across the same memory interface running at the same speed. It does, however, feature considerably improvements to its operating performance. CUDA Cores have been increased from 2304 to 2560, accompanying a base clock jump from 1410MHz to 1620MHz. Ray-tracing performance is better too, according to Nvidia’s own confusing metric, topping out at 7 whole Gigarays (if you’re keeping count, that’s one full one more than the RTX 2060 Super).

It uses the same cooling solution as all other Founder’s Editions cards thus far, with a dual-fan intake sucking in air from your chassis and exhausting out the rear of the card. Although you’ve got twice the fans than on the Founder’s Edition versions of Nvidia’s Pascal line, the cards remain sleek and sexy, brandishing an illuminated “GeForce RTX” logo on the side that shines a bright green. Unlike the 2060 Super though, the 2070 Super requires an 8+6 pin power connection to drive the extra horsepower – another similarity to its original design.

So yes, the 2070 Super is very similar to the original in many regards. It seeks to replace it in the market too, with Nvidia ceasing production of both the original 2070 and 2080 RTX cards (the 2060 Super will sit alongside the original). The Super variants will be sold at the same price point, which makes their increased performance feel like a mid-cycle upgrade if you’re looking for a neat analogy to wrap it all up in. What that means is that for the same price as last year, you’re getting a superior RTX 2070, which ends up making its value proposition a lot stronger.

Not only are their more games to make use of its unique ray-tracing hardware (well, more than at launch last year), you’ll have more oomf behind it to eek out more performance too. And with a brighter horizon for ray-traced support, the prospect of picking up an RTX card seems more logical now than it did last year. All of this combines to make the RTX 2070 Super a much close comparison to the market leading GTX 970 and GTX 1070 respectively, each of which become strong favourites among the majority of PC gamers.

Performance only proves that, striking a good balance between high refresh rate capabilities at both 1080p and 1440p, and much better 4K performance than the RTX 2060 Super can muster. Across the same tests, it’s clear that the difference between the two is large, which makes their price difference seems a lot smaller when considering what you’re getting for the premium. That’s especially true if you’re trying to hit 144Hz in most titles, or just looking for a way to hit 60FPS in some 4K titles without too many compromises. Check out the results below and see.

The impressive performance remains as such in synthetic tests, with the RTX 2070 Super carving through 3DMark’s FireStrike runs and posting an impressive run through the ray-tracing focused Port Royal.

At an RRP of R8,900.00, you’re definitely paying more for the performance the RTX 2070 Super offers. And at that point it’s little more than a curiosity that’s driving you towards Nvidia’s RTX promise – it’s a commitment to believing in its future, and the support that titles like Control and Cyberpunk 2077 will bring in the months to come. But it’s also the most balanced price for the performance offered amongst the entire Super range, nailing the sweet spot of enthusiast power with a price that doesn’t put it out of reach of mid-priced builds.

The RTX 2070 Super might be the card that Nvidia should’ve launched with to start off with, and it’s a pity it’s taken a whole year to reach that point. But with greater support now and even more coming in the near future for ray-tracing, and powerful performance irrespective of its inclusion or not, it’s certainly the crowd favourite RTX card on the market right now.

Last Updated: August 6, 2019

Nvidia RTX 2070 Super Founder's Edition
The RTX 2070 Super is the best choice in the RTX range right now, providing the best balance between performance and price and coming out at a time where Nvidia’s ray-tracing promise looks set to deliver.
9.0

45 Comments

  1. Nege
    Duisend
    Rand

    *cries in hundreds about the thousands*

    Reply

  2. Admiral Chief Umbra

    August 6, 2019 at 14:38

    My next big purchase will be a bigger monitor, 144hz

    The NVMe upgrade is quite nice though. (7x faster than my normal SSD)

    Reply

    • Viper_ZA

      August 6, 2019 at 15:03

      Sweet, I am holding out for a 144hz+ 4K screen myself. Way to go still (years, not months) xD *edit* Must also have 1ms panel for FPS goodness ofc.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Umbra

        August 6, 2019 at 15:03

        Using my December bonus for the 27” MSI one

        Reply

        • Viper_ZA

          August 6, 2019 at 15:03

          WQHD?

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief Umbra

            August 6, 2019 at 15:04

            Dunno, still deciding, have to do research etc, but new screen I am getting for sure!

          • Viper_ZA

            August 6, 2019 at 15:18

            ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27″ xD

          • Admiral Chief Umbra

            August 6, 2019 at 15:18

            Dat price doe….

            More in the R5k to R6k range pls

      • Yahtzee

        August 6, 2019 at 15:03

        Got a 2K 27″ 144Hz screen, and it murders a 1080Ti. The world is not ready for 4K gaming just yet… well true native 4K, not corporate 2K lies 😛

        Reply

        • Viper_ZA

          August 6, 2019 at 15:03

          Yep, hence WQHD is good enough for me for now.

          Reply

        • Admiral Chief Umbra

          August 6, 2019 at 15:04

          Make and model?

          Reply

          • Yahtzee

            August 6, 2019 at 15:30

            DELL S2716DG 27” WQHD (2560×1440) 144Hz 1ms NVIDIA G-Sync 16:9 TN Panel Gaming Monitor

          • Admiral Chief Umbra

            August 6, 2019 at 15:30

            You happy with it?

          • Yahtzee

            August 6, 2019 at 15:30

            Very, the g sync makes a hell of a difference

          • Admiral Chief Umbra

            August 6, 2019 at 15:44

            I only have a 1060 so not sure if I should run at the 2K

          • Yahtzee

            August 6, 2019 at 15:45

            Yea the 1060 will not hit close to 60fps on most games in 2K

          • Yahtzee

            August 6, 2019 at 15:45

            Yea the 1060 will not hit close to 60fps on most games in 2K

  3. Magoo マグ

    August 6, 2019 at 14:38

    Haven’t seen one priced below R11k yet. I don’t think this is anywhere near mid-range budget. Just two years ago the best of the best were breaking R10k and barely anyone could afford it. We still can’t.

    Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      August 6, 2019 at 14:51

      Should be able to pick the Palit one up for around R9k as it’s REALLY close to reference. problem with other manufacturers is they implement their own designs, fans and cooling and that somehow makes it worth an extra R2k.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Umbra

        August 6, 2019 at 14:51

        So we can make @monstercheddar:disqus cooler with R2k?

        Money well spent

        Reply

        • Geoffrey Tim

          August 6, 2019 at 14:51

          not a single thing could help make him remotely cool.

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief Umbra

            August 6, 2019 at 14:51

            What about R2k worth of things?

      • Magoo マグ

        August 6, 2019 at 14:51

        Some are worth extra, but not that much extra. I was able to overclock my 950 with the MSI gaming reference and effectively get about +5fps for a bit of a noise trade-off, but I would not dare tweak my current XFX 580. The thing gets very, very hot.

        Still can’t imagine R9k being mid-range budget.

        Reply

  4. Raptor Rants

    August 6, 2019 at 14:51

    TRUE 4K!

    Reply

  5. Yahtzee

    August 6, 2019 at 14:51

    Is it good enough for native 4k, or can it only do true 4k?

    Reply

  6. Viper_ZA

    August 6, 2019 at 14:51

    “The RTX 2070 Super might be the card that Nvidia should’ve launched with to start off with…” Now where would the excessive profit be in doing that? 😉

    Reply

  7. Caveshen Rajman

    August 6, 2019 at 15:03

    A 9/10 graphics card that has no real purpose for existing, noice.

    Reply

    • Yahtzee

      August 6, 2019 at 15:03

      Toit

      Reply

  8. Viper_ZA

    August 6, 2019 at 15:03

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