Nvidia RTX 2080 Super hands-on: The result when AMD is out of striking distance

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  It’s neither bird nor plane, but rather a new RTX Super GPU from Nvidia. Behold: the RTX 2080 Super, shipping as of today. [credit:
  Nvidia ]

Earlier this month, Nvidia kicked a stool out from under AMD’s feet, just as the graphics-card sector began heating up anew. AMD was set to land a serious blow with new RX 5700 cards in the “pricey but reasonable” range—a range that Nvidia had failed to capture with its “entry-level” RTX cards, the 2060 and 2070. Nvidia responded to AMD’s news by unveiling and launching a surprise pair of solid “Super” cards. AMD responded with its own price cut (and a claim that this price-war dance was its plan all along).

As these similarly specced cards jostled for the “$400ish” crown, the winner was ultimately consumers. At every price point, new GPU buyers can expect a solid bang-for-buck quotient between the $349 AMD Radeon RX 5700 and the $499 Nvidia RTX 2070 Super.

Weeks later, we have Nvidia’s third Super-branded launch, the RTX 2080 Super. And it’s a good reminder of what happens when AMD is not in striking distance of a particular price sector.