MSI RTX 2080 Ti Duke Graphics Card Review

Peter Donnell / 6 years ago

Final Thoughts

How Much Does it Cost?

The MSI RTX 2080 Ti Duke OC Nvidia Graphics Card is available right now from most major retailers. It’s going to bruise your wallet at £1139.99, but that’s the price of extreme performance these days. If you’re gaming at 1080p, this isn’t a sound investment. However, if you’re seeking 4K and extreme refresh rate thrills, then you’re not going to find much faster than this. It blows the RTX 2080 out of the water when it comes to enthusiast gaming.

Overview

I really love this card, and it may be my favourite RTX 2080 Ti card so far. It’s certainly not the most expensive on the market. I can go buy an RTX 2080 Ti for over £1400 right now, and I certainly wouldn’t. You can also get some for just a smidge under £1100 too. However, the Duke finds a fine sweet spot, being £100 (or more) cheaper than the extreme-extreme cards, but still matching them very closely in performance. Now that’s the kind of maths anyone can enjoy.

Build Quality

MSI has a great reputation for building nice quality graphics cards. The inclusion of a durable full-length backplate for the PCB not only looks great but helps with stability and passive cooling. The huge oversized heatsinks and the triple Torx 2.0 fans are a well-proven combination. Big airflow, bit chunks of metal, it’ll more than get the job done. Of course, MSI also included that PCI full-length brace to keep things straight and true also.

Aesthetics

The card is definitely a good looking bit of kit. The two-tone shroud looks fantastic and is unlikely to clash with any systems colour scheme too. The card does have RGB lighting on the side, and since you can customise that, having it match your other hardware should be a breeze.

Should I Buy One?

I know the price is a sore spot for many right now. However, for a card built for extreme performance on high-resolution and high-refresh-rate displays, it certainly delivers. It’s one of the best value RTX 2080 Ti cards on the market right now, and certainly one of the best looking too.