MSI RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti – The Perfect 144 Hz Gaming Cards?

Performance

Rise of the Tomb Raider

First up is Rise of the Tomb Raider, where the MSI RTX 2080 Trio X scored a respectable 113FPS on average. This was achieved by locking the game in the at its medium graphics profile. Personally, I wouldn’t like to go below this graphics setting, as it does begin to reduce graphical fidelity more drastically. Much in the same way you get better graphics but diminishing returns in regards to GPU performance above it. However, that is obviously up to the end user. Personally, I would like even more frames per second over more detailed environments in the game given the choice.

Given that frame rate is almost double that of the “60fps standard”, I would be more than happy with the performance as it is and these graphics settings for day to day gaming. However, for those who want to increase the graphics settings, and see more frames per second, the RTX 2080 Ti is clearly the way to go. The 2080 Ti scored 147 FPS, just above the 144 Hz refresh rate of our monitor.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we saw very similar results, again using the medium graphics profile. Both scored very high, but only the Ti was above the 144 Hz limit, although with frame display times of just under 0.007 of a second, screen tearing is barely noticeable even at 118 FPS on a 144 display with no V-Sync enabled. Compared to the 0.016 seconds frame time of 60 Hz/60 FPS.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

This proved to be very demanding to run at such extreme refresh rates. We got an average of 102 FPS on the 2080 and 131 on the 2080 Ti. However, both games saw dips in the minimum frame rate to around 30 FPS below this in busy scenes. Still, this is very much playable and much smoother than you would see on 60 Hz, in fact, it’s more than twice as smooth when using the 2080 Ti Duke.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands

I’m pleased to see this game run so smoothly. It has a lot of on-screen action and movement that really flowed well on both cards. While we used the “normal” graphics profile,  you could perhaps tweak it to get about 144 FPS on the RTX 2080. However, it’s close enough and the gameplay was stunning. On the 2080 Ti, however, we blasted all the way up to 164 FPS average, and the minimum was an incredible 141 FPS! You could easily turn up the graphics just a bit more here and still be comfortable.

Far Cry: Primal

Finally, we have Far Cry: Primal, which again on the “normal” profile did amazing, even with the HD Texture Pack installed. For the Trio X, I could tweak a few graphics settings for a few more frames; although it isn’t wasn’t needed in my opinion. Scoring more than double the usual 60 FPS golden number is no bad thing at all. However, if you really want to max out that refresh rate, it’s clear that the 2080 ti Duke is the beast of choice, even if it is a lot more expensive. At 161 FPS, you could go for some higher visual settings here also.