The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, Nvidia’s top-tier gaming GPU, has been available for more than a year. The GPU is still the best graphics card the company has ever produced. The GTX 1080 Ti, based on Nvidia’s award-winning Pascal architecture, offers the best performance of any Nvidia GPU to date thanks to its 12 billion transistors, 3584 CUDA cores, and 11GB of memory. Is the GTX 1080 Ti really designed for 5K resolution and beyond as claimed by Nvidia? Does the performance merit the $699 price tag (it costs Rs. 89,990 in India owing to mining and import duty)? As we examine the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Editions in greater detail, let’s find out:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition Specs
Let’s get the specifications out of the way before we begin with the actual review of the graphics card. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition has incredible specifications, and the GPU is unmatched on paper.
| CUDA Cores | 3584 |
| Texture Units | 224 |
| ROPs | 88 |
| Core Clock | 1481MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1582MHz |
| TFLOPs (FMA) | 11.3 TFLOPs |
| Memory Clock | 11Gbps GDDR5X |
| Memory Bus Width | 352-bit |
| VRAM | 11GB |
| FP64 | 11689 |
| FP16 (Native) | 23377 |
| INT8 | 0.167361111 |
| TDP | 250W |
| GPU | GP102 |
| Transistor Count | 12B |
| Die Size | 471mm2 |
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 16nm |
What s in the Box
There isn’t much to say about the package’s small amount of contents. The GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition itself, a few pamphlets, a Display Port to DVI Converter, and an exclusive badge for the graphics card—which, in my opinion, looks really cool—are all included.
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition
- DisplayPort to DVI Converter
- Quick Start Guide
- Support Guide
- Special Edition Premium Badge
Design and Build Quality
The Founders Edition cards from Nvidia have always been hailed for their ability to combine stunning aesthetics with a die-cast aluminium housing that is designed to last. The GTX 1080 Ti is made with high-quality materials and components and is a thing of pure beauty. It is actually one of the best-looking graphics cards in recent memory since it manages to keep a tidy tone throughout while yet conveying the viewer’s awe-inspiring performance.
The cooling of the GTX 1080 Ti is aided by a single fan that is used in a blower-style configuration. Despite having a single beautiful fan in the chamber system, they are not very successful at their task. However, we will go into more detail about that in a later section of this review.
The GPU’s PCI Express x16 pins are located at the bottom, and a GeForce GTX SLI HB bridge port and a 7-phase dual FET power supply are located at the top.
You receive an HDMI port and three Display Port ports for the actual interactive ports.
The exhaust for the blower fan comes next.
The GeForce GTX on top of the graphics card has a discreet yet attractive design, especially when it is lit up in the distinctive green of Nvidia.
Performance
Overall, there isn’t much to say about the design and construction of the GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition because Nvidia chose to go with a simple yet effective design that is entirely composed of high-quality materials, adding to the GPU’s premium appearance (and price tag).
Nvidia asserts that the GTX 1080 Ti offers up to a 35% improvement over the performance of the GTX 1080, and is based on the acclaimed Pascal architecture. Even though that is a rather big remark to make, the statement is generally true.
The AMD Ryzen 5 2400G @ 3.9GHz, 8GB of RAM, Kingston A400 240GB SSD paired with a Seagate 500GB Barracuda HDD, and 64-bit Windows 10 compose the test rig Beebom created for me to evaluate the GTX 1080 Ti. In all of my tests, I played the games at 1920 x 1080 resolution with the highest possible visual quality using the Very High, Ultra, Extreme, etc. settings. I am aware that the system is not the best hardware available for a gaming PC, but the beast seemed unconcerned with the weak hardware and still managed to dominate every game. Benchmarking Results for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition Gaming Results with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition
The GTX 1080 Ti quickly pushed past 100FPS on 1080p without breaking a sweat, as you can see from the list above, and tamed the so-called stress testing benchmarks. The GTX 1080 Ti was readily rendering frames above 80 FPS despite being on the highest settings, even on the most demanding games like Metro Last Light, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and The Witcher 3. And they are still highly optimised games. The GPU was able to maintain a consistent frame rate of 132 FPS even on an unoptimized game like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds while everything was set to Ultra.
The 1080 Ti is meant for 4K and VR gaming and should be used for those purposes only.
Thermals
Unfortunately, I lacked a system to test the graphics card’s 4K capabilities, but I can guarantee you that the 1080 Ti would still be able to do all of those jobs with ease. When it comes to performance, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a real beast and unquestionably the greatest graphics card available. However, if 1080p gaming is what you need, a GTX 1070 or perhaps a 1070 Ti would be preferable (if you want to push things). The 1080 Ti is entirely excessive for 1080p gaming and is largely limited by the capabilities of your processor.
The major weakness of this GPU is undoubtedly its thermals. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like it’s a total failure or anything, but when you consider the GTX 1080 Ti’s monster performance, the thermal part does seem to be a let-down in contrast.
A radial fan with a cutting-edge vapour chamber cools the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition. Or, to put it simply, the GTX 1080 Ti uses a blower-style cooler with a single fan. Which although good, is insufficient. The 60 to 80 degree Celsius range is referred to as the standard when discussing gaming, benchmarking, or even stress testing. Within the first 15 minutes of our testing, the 1080 Ti reached temperatures of 80 degrees, and they then proceeded to rise, reaching 85 degrees.
I know what you’re thinking—this is the top gaming graphics card available, and given its capabilities, 85 degrees should be considered normal. Right? Actually not at all. You’re overlooking the fact that this is simply the average temperature, which is what you’re doing. The GTX 1080 Ti can, according to Nvidia, be overclocked from 1.6GHz to 2GHz. And even though I succeeded in doing so, the temperature was rapidly rising and getting very close to the 100 degree mark.
Pricing and Availability
Overall, if you’re going to operate the GPU at base clock speeds, the thermals aren’t that much of a bummer and should be plenty for you. However, if you want to use the GPU for demanding jobs that call for overclocking, I’d advise turning to Nvidia’s partners, who have added an additional fan or two to improve the graphics card’s total thermal dissipation and cooling.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition: The Best Gaming Graphics Card Out There!
The MSRP of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a staggering $699, but given the current popularity of cryptocurrency mining, it might be hard to buy this GPU. Although it can cost up to $1200 at retail stores, finding a GPU can be a real hassle because it is almost never in stock. However, you can look at the item on Amazon, Newegg, or BestBuy and attempt to buy it as soon as new stock becomes available.
Although the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti costs $700, it performs about 30% better than the GTX 1080 for only 33% more money.
- Based on Pascal Architecture
- Unbeatable Performance
- Highly Overclockable
The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti can handle any game at 4K resolution with a comfortable 60 FPS frame rate thanks to its 384 CUDA Cores and 11 GB of GDDR5 VRAM.
- The single fan is not good enough for cooling
- Very-high power usage
- For most users, GTX 1080 offers a better value for money
However, the GTX 1070 seems to be a better option for you if you won’t be making the switch to 4K anytime soon.
Pros:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition: A Beast of a GPU!
Cons:
| REVIEW OVERVIEW | |
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Design and Build Quality
9.5
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Performance
10
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Thermals
8.5
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Value for Money
8.5
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| SUMMARY
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition is probably the best gaming GPU you can buy. While the performance of the GPU is unmatched, the thermals can be a let down for some, making users resort to third-party OEMs. Also, if 4K and VR aren’t your main concerns and you can compromise on a couple of FPS, the GTX 1080 offers a higher value for money.
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9.1
OVERALL SCORE |
