MSI Teases GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z With Carbon Fiber Backplate

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas kicks off tomorrow, January 6, and like every year you can expect a bevy of product announcements and unveilings, not all of which will see the light of day. One product that presumably will be released, however, is MSI's upcoming GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z graphics card.

MSI's social media team in Japan posted a teaser image of the upcoming card on Twitter (see image at the top of this article). There is not a whole lot to see as it is only a partial snapshot, and it was taken in deliberately poor lighting. What you can see, though, is the carbon fiber backplate with the word "Lightning" imprinted on it.

"What do you think is this? The most powerful graphics card comes out with the strongest carbon fiber with the highest durability. Stay tuned! Wait for the second report!," the Twitter post reads, according to a Google translation.

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z PCB
Image Source: Videocardz via HWBOT

The folks at Videocardz wrote about this card last week after spotting some images of the bare naked card on HWBOT. At least two of the entries pegged the card as being clocked higher than 2,450MHz (overclocked).

Assuming the photos are real—and they sure look like it—the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z sports a 19-phase VRM, and draws power from three (yes, THREE!) 8-pin PCIe power connectors. You can also make out various fan and voltage connectors emerging from a section that is covered by a heat plate.

We still don't know what the cooling apparatus will look like. The assumption is that it will be a three-fan cooler, but we'll have to wait and see.