RTX 2070 vs GTX 1080: Which should you buy?

[Hossam Taibi]

The GeForce RTX 2070 is a tantalising prospect: all of the cool ray tracing and deep learning technology that debuted with the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti in a much more affordable package. However, the outgoing GTX 1080 should offer similar performance at a lower price - so which card is the better buy for most people? That's what we'll aim to answer here, as we examine exactly how these two graphics cards compare in terms of in-game performance, features, pricing and availability.

First up, we'll take a closer look at the features that define the RTX 20-series cards: the capacity for real-time ray tracing, deep learning super sampling (DLSS) and more. Are these game-changers that'll become the RTX series' greatest strength, or fad technologies that only serve to drive up the cost of GPUs? It's a complex topic and the answers aren't all that clear yet, but we can give you a good indication of what to expect once these features start to be supported in real games. We'll also briefly discuss the smaller features that you might not have heard about, including improvements for content creators and VR fans that could make the RTX 2070 a must-have upgrade.

After that, we'll cover the topic that absolutely everyone will care about: real performance in traditional games. We've tested the RTX 2070 and GTX 1080 exhaustively, so we can show you exactly how these cards compare in a wide range of modern games at different resolutions.

Pricing and availability is another key concern for anyone looking to buy a new graphics card, so we'll conclude by showing you where to find the RTX 2070 and GTX 1080 for the best prices and giving our judgement on which card is the better buy. Of course, we'd be remiss to not also mention our full GeForce RTX 2070 review, which tackles all of the topics we'll cover here in greater detail. For now though, let's get into the comparison!

 

RTX 2070 vs GTX 1080: feature comparison

Deep learning super-sampling (DLSS)

While real-time ray tracing gives the RTX series its name, deep learning super sampling (DLSS) could well be the more important addition. DLSS has the potential to boost frame-rates substantially in games that support it, allowing RTX cards to out-muscle their GTX competitors or to offset the performance cost of real-time ray tracing. We've produced an in-depth review of DLSS if you want to learn more, but the short version is that it works by rendering a low-resolution image which is then upscaled to your monitor's resolution. This is achieved by a deep learning algorithm, which has been trained on extremely high resolution images of the game that's being played. That allows the graphics card to deliver a final image that looks similar to one produced with traditional anti-aliasing while using half of the shading power. The practical upshot of all this is that frame-rates can go way up. In fact, in the first shipping DLSS title, Final Fantasy 15, frame-rates are boosted by a massive 40 per cent by switching from traditional TAA to DLSS. That's incredible, particularly for the mid-range RTX 2070

Real-time ray tracing

Ray tracing refers to simulating light as it bounces realistically around a scene. This approach has historically been way too intensive to happen in real-time, but the specialised hardware of the RTX cards finally makes this a reality. While enabling real-time ray tracing in games like Battlefield 5 still has a heavy performance penalty, especially on the low-end RTX 2070, it provides for more realistic-looking lights and shadows and could even allow for some unique gameplay possibilities. If RT is well-supported by developers and the performance penalty is mitigated through DLSS, it could well become an essential feature - but at this stage, it's still too early to tell how fast the real-time ray tracing future will arrive.

 

Turing architecture: new rendering features

As well as RTX and DLSS, Nvidia's 20-series graphics cards include some other interesting additions. For example, new shading models like mesh shading have been included, which essentially allow the GPU to take closer control over level of detail settings, significantly freeing up CPU and GPU resources without sacrificing visual fidelity. Variable rate shading is another clever addition which reduces processing on scene elements that aren't likely to be focused on by the player. That tactic can add roughly 15 to 20 per cent to frame-rates, at least based on a Wolfenstein 2 demo we've seen, allowing another avenue for canny game developers to optimise for the new RTX cards.

The RTX 2070 also joins its 20-series fellows in offering a USB-C VirtualLink port, designed to support next-generation VR headsets to connect without using separate video and data cables. Future 8K displays will also be able to plug into your RTX 2070 through a single DisplayPort 1.4 cable at 60Hz, something that wasn't possible on GTX 10-series cards.

Streamers and game video creators might also be prompted to upgraded to the RTX 2070 through its inclusion of a more efficient NVENC encoder. The new version supports a wider range of video standards, allows for higher resolutions and doesn't sap your processor as much as the previous version. Combined together, these improvements mean that 4K streaming becomes a possibility without extremely expensive hardware - as long as you've got a fast internet connection!

RTX 2070 vs GTX 1080: performance benchmarks

While the RTX 2070 and the GTX 1080 will take centre stage in our performance comparison, it makes sense to include some greater context as well. This comes in the form of two higher-end Nvidia graphics card from this generation and the last, the RTX 2080 and the GTX 1080 Ti. We've also included the AMD Vega 64, Team Red's fastest graphics card at the moment. Our testing was performed at 1440p and 4K to best show the difference between these two cards, as 1080p testing is often too CPU-limited.

To give you a better idea of the raw performance of these cards, you can see some of the relevant stats in the table below. Note that Founders Edition figures are given first, with their reference equivalents in parentheses, as the RTX FE cards we tested come factory overclocked.