Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan Power Tests
For our power testing, we used AIDA64 to stress the Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan, then HWiNFO to monitor power use and temperatures.
After the stress test has ramped up the Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan, we see it tops out at 254 watts under full load and 15 watts at idle. That means we actually saw lower power consumption than the Founders Edition which translates into operational savings.
Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan Cooling Performance
A key reason that we started this series was to answer the cooling question. Blower-style coolers have different capabilities than some of the large dual and triple fan gaming cards. In the case of the Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan which uses dual fans that exhaust hot air into the case.
Temperatures for the Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan run slightly higher than the Founders Edition card. Using a lower-cost cooling solution, this is a result we expected.
Final Words
Most vendors have an impressive list of SKU’s for the new RTX graphics cards. Zotac comes in with 8 different GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards. That is a lot which begs the question, which one should you decide to get? We look at built-in overclocks and cooling, our Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan unit ran just fine but did not handle overclocks well. Some benchmarks we saw a nice boost while others ran below stock settings when overclocked. This is common for many RTX class GPUs where thermal and power use limits overclocking.
Many of STH readers do not overclock so this is fine running at stock settings. With the Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan, we saw large improvements over the GeForce RTX 2080 line which is good and something we expect. We also think that in a server we might look at a blower type GPU for better chassis airflow in denser configurations. Some cards on the market like Zotac’s Triple Fan solutions might not be possible in a server as the Triple Fan model is thicker at 2.24” while the Twin Fan is 1.5” which is the same as the Blower version. In a server, every bit of extra space helps keep these cards cool. For a single GPU in a server, the Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan should work OK provided there is sufficient chassis airflow.
It is also rather interesting to note that prices for RTX graphics card are dropping in a preemptive competitive response to AMD soon entering the market with new GPUs. That is changing the economics of the market compared to when we did our original review.
Getting back to our original question, for GPU compute, rendering, and deep learning training/ inferencing, the Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Twin Fan offers similar performance at a lower price point than the NVIDIA Founders Edition card potentially making it a great value in the market. There are more aesthetically pleasing GPUs on the market, but if all you need is inexpensive compute, this should certainly be an option for you.
