Build it yourself or, snag a prebuilt model? That’s the classical we all go through when shopping for a gaming desktop. The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme GXiVR8080A4 is a pre-built high-end gaming desktop that aims to deliver the benefits of both worlds. Designed for serious gaming, it’s offered with the highest hardware around — a 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9700K (8-core) processor and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 (8GB) graphics card.
It gets you other options including liquid cooling, and the spacious chassis allows for smart part selection in case you need to upgrade it later. Above all, it has superb overall performance out-of-the-box and a clean design than most competitors. Both of these make the Gamer an alluring choice for a gaming mid-tower that’s value-packed, offered at a reasonable price, and an easy substitute for going the DIY way.
Design
The new Gamer GXiVR8080A4 uses the same standard tower case as its siblings from last year (of course with a few tweaks), and I’m a big fan. It stands at 18.6 by 8.5 by 18.5 inches (HWD), all black brushed aluminum. The front panel is half-solid black cover, and the other half is a glass panel that reveals a trio of concentric LED circles.
The upper panel host a couple of quick-access ports recessed to the right-front side, and the rest of the panel is made of parallel lines, save for grilled vent that lets you view the interior components and lighting from the top. On the left side is a near-full window made of tampered glass, and gives you a perfect view of the interior components. Looking at the case you’ll realize that it isn’t a small-form-factor, but it happens to be on the smaller side for traditional towers.
For size comparison, the iBUYPOWER AM003i Gaming Desktop PC stands 25 inches tall, 12.5 inches wide, and 21.38 inches deep, taking up much more space. CyberpowerPC, just like other boutique manufacturers, sometimes go overboard on the bling, but here the design is rather restrained, and I can say –elegant.
Ports
This CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme GXiVR8080A4 doesn’t have an optical drive, which is fine given that these days you occasionally need to play from DVDs, as most PC games can be downloaded from digital services like Steam and Origin. Plus, having one on the front would be a scratch on the case’s stylish austerity. As it is, there are easy-access ports on the top panel (towards the front): two USB 3.1, microphone and headphone, and a Reset button.
On the back, it’s a completely different story, it’s there you find the rear panel ports: two USB 2.0, four USB 3.1, one RJ-45 Network Ethernet, and Audio 7.1 channel. The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card also includes one HDMI 2.0b and two DisplayPort 1.4, alongside a VirtualLink connector the latest versions of the ubiquitous technologies you’d need to power most G-Sync HDR monitors.
Productivity Performance
While this is by no means an inexpensive desktop, you can easily find more pricier rigs out there, so its satisfying that this unit soars in both productivity and gaming.
The hexa-core Core i7-8700K CPU with 16GB RAM has been a favorite all year round, posting high score in productivity tests, and clearly demonstrating strong capability for general use. Plus, it also soars through more strenuous multimedia desktops, getting into the same league as, truly high-end desktops like the iBUYPOWER Trace 9230 and the Skytech [RTX 2080 Version] Omega.
On daily productivity, it gets a punch against the competition and can easily beat some pricier machines. Despite being in the cusp of high-end gaming systems on price, the Gamer GXiVR8080A4 is still a very capable media machine should you need it for work or a hobby.
Our review configuration is loaded with a 240GB solid-state drive (SSD), and an additional 1TB hard drive, which is a huge amount of room for games. It’s nice that the system gets a speedier SSD, and a bigger large scratch drive for storing files. In a pricey, roomy desktop, that’s a bit encouraging. This is the same storage option you get on the iBUYPOWER Trace 9220 and pretty other midrange gaming desktops.
Nvidia Turing RTX 2080 GPU
The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 (8GB) is no slouch, leveraging new technologies to enable real-time ray tracing on your favorite games and deep learning Tensor cores. From the onset, the next-generation GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards (starting with GeForce RTX 2080 AND GeForce RTX 2080 Ti) look like the most significant generational upgrade to the gaming cards. The RTX 2080 system included in this system uses new Nvidia Turing architecture that boasts more cores than existing GTX GPUs.
We mentioned earlier that the Gamer GXiVR8080A4’s design isn’t entirely different from its predecessor, and for that the graphics must be the culprit for the price hike. Thus, we expected that performance needs to be impressive to justify the added bucks, and right now it seems to be the case. Nvidia claimed that the GeForce RTX 2080 would be, on average, 50 percent faster than the GTX 1080.
That’s true but on tests the modestly overclocked GeForce RTX 2080 Founders edition basically tied with the GTX 1080 Ti, which somehow adds to the typical aspect of diminishing returns, while the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders edition remains unrivalled, so far. And, there is some difficulty assessing the RTX 2080’s performance as it gets tons of new features, including 46 RT Cores for ray tracing and 468 Tensor Cores for deep learning.
Gaming Performance
Currently, games that can leverage such potential and features aren’t available. In future, the GeForce RTX 2080 may end up being a better performer than the 1080 and 1080 Ti with newer games, but in the present the benefits are far more marginal. We have seen popular overclocking apps like EVGA Precision X1 and MSI Afterburner release beta builds of their apps, and we are hoping for the same in gaming in the near future.
Spec by spec, the RTX 2080 boasts 2,944 CUDA cores, 8GB GDDR6 memory and 1710MHz boost clock, which is far better than the GTX 1080’s 3,584 CUDA cores and a 1,600MHz boost clock. As a result, the new graphics card gets a jump of 20-40 fps in frame rates, and at 4K the RTX 2080 here can easily hit as high as 60 fps, which is damn impressive.
Some real-world game scores, the RTX 2080 manages to achieve 42 fps on Shadow of the Tomb raider at 4K at the highest setting, while Destiny 2 yielded 73 fps, once again at 4K and Ultra settings, with HDR turned on. This is pretty impressive for a single card GPU, and for the price it can’t get any better. Plus, short of the Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, you won’t find another more capable graphics card than what you have on this system.
Verdict
The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer GXiVR8080A4 is seriously fast and lives up to the legacy of its predecessors, delivering high-end performance, design and build quality at a premium price. Other than the all-familiar design carried from last year’s model, there’s not much to complain about here. This is an exceptional machine.
Is there a better alternative?
There’s no shortage of competing products, but it’s hard to find one that’s strictly better. The iBUYPOWER Trace 9230 does squeeze the same performance out of identical parts, and it costs a few hundred dollars less, and comes with the same standard tower design.
Should you buy it?
Absolutely. The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme GXiVR8080A4 takes all the power of more expensive gaming PCs, and slashes the price while delivering strong performance. It’s attractive, customizable, and importantly a good deal.
Our Pick
