A Super Gaming Machine For $2K

The new RTX Super cards from Nvidia seem almost too good to be true—let’s put one to the test in a gaming build.

- Christian Guyton

THE CONCEPT

NVIDIA’S “SUPER” VARIANTS of the GeForce RTX range have proved divisive, with some loving the improved performance sans price increase, while others disparage the modest performance gains. For our money, the Super cards are pretty good; however, the 2060 Super loses points for costing $50 more than the original 2060, and the 2080 Super doesn’t hit the 4K performance levels we wish it could. That leaves the RTX 2070 Super, our personal favorite, and arguably the best 1440p GPU on the market. The Super version performs about 15 percent better than the original RTX 2070, and it doesn’t cost a cent more.

That card is the focal point of this build, a future-proofed system designed to handle high-quality 1440p gaming for years to come. That means we’re looking at a cut above the usual components, although we’ve tried to trim costs in other areas. With a target price of $2,000, things were tight; we’re still pushing the new generation of PCIe 4.0 components, which drives up the price across the board—no pun intended.

As you might expect, we’re dealing exclusively in ultra graphical settings. Our goal was to create a system capable of running just about any game at 1440p ultra, at 60fps or better. That includes new releases—with the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and (hopefully) Death Stranding on the horizon, this rig needed to be capable of handling future titles. Versatility was a factor, too. A system that is difficult to upgrade is nobody’s friend, so potential for easy expansion and improvement was a must. So here we go: What should be a straightforward build. Was it, though? Read on….

SUPER-POWERED