It was starting to seem like a *wink-wink-nudge-nudge* when Nvidia announced the pricing for its GeForce RTX series graphics cards, and in particular the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, which was supposed to start at $999. The Founders Edition costs $200 more, and that's what Nvidia's add-in board (AIB) partner have been aligning their own versions with—a quick peek on Newegg shows various third-party models listed for between $1,269 on up to $1,699. Well, EVGA has bucked the trend with its GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Black Edition.
The Black Edition SKU (11G-P4-2281-KR) is listed on EVGA's website for $999.99, making it the most 'affordable' GeForce RTX 2080 Ti available. Er, sort of. It's not in stock at the moment so you can't actually purchase one, if you're so inclined. However, it's nice to see that not all of the non-FE cards will sell for the same price or more as Nvidia's FE model.
That's not to say EVGA's Black Edition model is cheap by any stretch—a penny shy of a thousand bucks is still a lot of coin. It's just not as much as every other GeForce RTX 2080 Ti card out there.
EVGA may not stand alone for long. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti isn't exactly available in abundant supply at the moment. Almost every version on Newegg is accompanied by an "Auto Notify" button, save for this overclocked MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Ventus, with a jacked up $1,699 price tag by a third-party seller.
In any event, EVGA's Black Edition model sticks to Nvidia's reference specs—it has a 1,350MHz base clock and 1,545MHz boost clock, whereas the FE model is overclocked to 1,635MHz (boost clock). Users might be able to make up the difference by overclocking on their own, though.
If you're interested in this model and aren't worried about the complaints of dying cards, you can head to the product page and sign up to be notified by email when it's in stock.
