Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super review – Real upgrade, small update or just a side kick?

1 - Einführung und Übersicht 2 - Tear Down: Platine und Kühler 3 - Benchmarks 1920 x 1080 Pixel 4 - Benchmarks 2560 x 1440 Pixel 5 - Benchmarks 3840 x 2160 Pixel 6 - Leistungsaufnahme im Detail 7 - Temperatur, Takt, Infrarot 8 - Lüfter und Lautstärke 9 - Zusammenfassung

Board layout

The board of the new, big sister of the GeForce RTX 2080 resembles the board of the copy template almost like one egg to another. It's the same design with real 8 (GPU) + 2 (memory) phases and it's as cleverly solved as the GeForce RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti. A total of six phases are fed from the external PCIe ports, two from the motherboard slot Equal remains that the PWM controller for the memory is on the top. The positioning of the two phases for the memory can be seen again by the larger inductors of the two coils.

The back is badly paved and you can also see that the socket of the GPU is much smaller than the TU102. The uP9512 on the back is used as an 8-phase PWM controller specifically designed to provide high-precision output voltage systems for the latest generation GPUs. It has programmable output voltage and active voltage positioning functions to adjust the output voltage depending on the load current, so that it is optimally positioned for a good load current transition.

The uP9512 supports NVIDIA Open Voltage Regulator Type 4i+ with PWMVID function. The PWMVID input is buffered and filtered to create a very accurate reference voltage. The output voltage is then precisely controlled on the reference input. The integrated SMBus interface offers enough flexibility to optimize performance and efficiency and also to connect the appropriate software. The controller also supports new Smart Power Stage chips (PLCs). Appropriate PLC then provide very accurate information about e.g. currents (IMON) and temperatures (TMON).

An important feature is the flexible hardware specification to adjust the operating phase number in different load current states. In addition, soft start to avoid peaks, channel current limitation, undervoltage protection, overvoltage protection and power good output. All 8 voltage converter circuits are equipped with the smaller FDMF 3160 from ON Semiconductor, a PowerTrench® MOSFET and equivalent to the original Fairchild, which is hardly documented.

In the case of coils, one again relies on the usual encapsulated ferrite core coils, which this time, however, are rectangular, in order to create more space for the high number of voltage converter circuits with the narrower sides in the vertical line-up of the coils. The label on the memory identifies it as Samsung's K4Z80325BC-HC16. These are 8GB GDDR6 SGRAM modules with a bandwidth of 16 Gb/s. Since a total of eight modules are installed, the memory expansion of 8 GB is also available.

The two phases of the voltage converters, like the GPU, are provided by a uP9512 in a two-phase layout. The same PLC is also used with the two FDMF 3160s. The coils are slightly larger at 470 mH in the inductance, but are completely identical in terms of external dimensions.

The input filtering is carried out via three 1-H coils, wherein there is a suitable shunt in each of the three connection lines. This is a very low-impedance resistance to which the voltage drop is measured in parallel and passed on to telemetry. Thus, the board power can be limited quite exactly to what the manufacturer as a frame for the total power consumption or specified the respective supply line. The Silver Pencil faction will surely shrug nervously.

The following table contains the most important components:

GPU Power Supply
PWM Controller	uP9512P UPI Semiconductor 8-phase PWM controller
Gate Driver	no external
Vrm	8x FDMF3160 ON Semiconductor Smart Power Stage
Coils	Encapsulated Ferrite Choke 220 mH
Memory and power supply
Modules	K4Z80325BC-HC16 Samsung 8x 8GB GDDR6 SGRAM Modules 16Gb/s
PWM Controller	uP9512 UPI Semiconductor 2-phase used
Vrm	2x FDMF3160 ON Semiconductor Smart Power Stage
Coils	Encapsulated Ferrite Choke 470 mH
Other components
Bios	25WP080 Eeprom Bios
Shunts	1x Shunt per 12V rail (3x)
Processor	uP7561Q Voltage/current monitoring of the three 12-volt rails
More details
Other Features	8-pin + 6-pin PCI-Express connectors for power supply

Cooler

The top cover carries the two fans of AVC and it is the usual 7.5 watt models with a maximum of 3700 rpm. Since I also own such modules individually, I have a consumption of approx. 4 watts per airer module on an external controller.

Among them sits the actual cooler with a vapor chamber, as we also know it from the RTX 2080, as well as the slat cooler. This chamber distributes the waste heat over the radiator floor, which works quite well in practice. On the board sits a massive aluminum-cast mounting and cooling frame that cools all active components except the GPU that need to be cooled.

The side lying on the board does not save on pads and so everything is really thermally integrated and not only the large items such as voltage converters and memory. The backplate absorbs the waste heat of some active components, so cool is much more integrated than that of the smaller RTX 2060 Super.