If you’re going down the route of building a custom water loop and installing a water block onto a reference PCB RTX 2080 Ti, rather than buying an AIO liquid cooled RTX 2080 Ti, there are a fair number of water blocks compatible with the RTX 2080/2080 Ti. These water blocks, however, vary quite a bit in terms of price, performance and value. In this guide we will go over the top waterblock options for the RTX 2080/2080 Ti in 2019, and which ones will be most suited for your next RTX 2080 Ti custom water-cooled build.
At this time of writing, there are about 12 different waterblocks available for the RTX 2080/2080 Ti, from various manufacturers including EK, EVGA, Heatkiller and Alphacool. The full list is found below.
RTX 2080 Ti Compatible Waterblocks
- Barrow
- EK Vector
- Phanteks Glacier
- EVG HydroCopper
- Bitspower Lotan
- XSPC Razer Neo
- Heatkiller IV
- Alphacool Eisblock GPX-N
- Thermaltake Pacific V-RTX
- AquaComputer Kryographics
- Bykski
If you are looking to go custom than purchase an aftermarket RTX 2080 Ti – this is the guide for you. Within this list, there really are two waterblocks for the RTX 2080 Ti that stand out from the rest, and that we would recommend over the others – these are the Watercool Heatkiller and Aquacommputer Kryographics. We will go into more detail why below.
Our recommendations
| Award | Design | Model | Manufacturer Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best performance waterblock for RTX 2080 Ti |  | Aqua Computer Kyrographics NEXT | Link |
| Best performance-for-price waterblock for RTX 2080 Ti |  | Watercool Heatkiller IV | Link |
Aquacomputer Kryographics RTX 2080 Ti Waterblock
The first RTX 2080 Ti waterblock that we recommend comes from the folks at Aquacomputer, the Kryographics RTX 2080 Ti Waterblock (with the active backplate). This full cover water block is designed to be used with reference PCB RTX 2080
Watercool Heatkiller IV RTX 2080 Ti Waterblock
Our second, and last, recommended custom waterblock for the RTX 2080 Ti comes from also German manufacturers, Watercool, with their HEATKILLER IV waterblock. This particular cooler we would recommend for most enthusiast builders since when compared to the Aquacomputer Kryographics waterblock, the Heatkiller will provide the best all-around ratio of perfromance and build quality for the price (approx 135 euros). The more expensive Aquacomputer waterblock will provide better performance, but this will set you back a few more pennies.
Similar to the Aquacomputer block, this waterblock is built for performance, with the coldplate composed of more than 800 grams of pure copper and covering the entire PCB of the RTX 2080 Ti – including the MOSFETs, coils and other components involved in the RTX 2080 Ti’s power circuitry.
With such large coverage of cooling potential from this waterblock coldplate, the really delivers great coooling performance and thus improving stable power delivery from the RTX 2080 Ti, resulting in higher overclocks and increased performance. With the Heatkiller IV, you shouldn’t expect the RTX 2080 Ti to go north of 45 degrees, at all.
In a recent test by Toms Hardware Germany, they put the Heatkiller under the test against several different waterblocks compatible with the RTX 2080 Ti, under identical test condiitons, and easily outperformed the RTX 2080 Ti waterblocks from EK and Phanteks.
Summary
| Award | Design | Model | Manufacturer Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best performance waterblock for RTX 2080 Ti | | Aqua Computer Kyrographics NEXT | Link |
| Best performance-for-price waterblock for RTX 2080 Ti | | Watercool Heatkiller IV | Link |
Overall, if you’re looking for a decent, high-performance waterblock for the RTX 2080 Ti that will not disappoint, we really recommend nothing over than the outstanding waterblocks from Watercool and Aquacomputer.
If you found this article useful in picking your next RTX 2080 Ti, we have also produced guides on the top PSUs to pair with the RTX 2080 Ti, as well as monitor recommendations for RTX 2080 Ti builds.