By Jimmy Thang on Jul 24, 2017 11:35 pm
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti review roundup
4K is an extremely graphically demanding resolution. Considering it offers four times as many pixels as 1080p, it's able to bring down the mightiest graphics cards to their knees. The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the best gaming GPU that stands a chance at handling 4K without breaking a sweat, but with there being so many variations out there, which one is the best? We rounded up four GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards to find the answer. Table of Contents A bit about aftermarket graphics cards In this review roundup, we're testing aftermarket GTX 1080 Ti cards from PNY, Asus, and Zotac along with Nvidia's Founders Edition variant. All of the aftermarket solutions we tested here use the same GP102 graphics processing unit (GPU) as Nvidia's reference board, but cost more. Why pay more for the same GPU? Many of these OEM companies make significant tweaks to the cards that often incorporate more fans and larger heat sinks that allow them to run cooler and quieter. These hardware vendors also often design their own printed-circuit boards (PCBs) that offer tweaked voltages and power efficiencies to provide more overclocking headroom. All of the aftermarket cards we tested in this roundup are overclocked right out of the factory. Some vendors may also choose to add more or faster video RAM to their boards. Finally, aftermarket cards may also offer more ports, fancier designs, and RGB color options. In the next few slides, we'll walk you through the features of each card.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition
| | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | | CUDA Cores/Stream Processors | 3584 | | Texture Units | 224 | | ROPs | 88 | | Core Clock | 1480MHz | | Boost Clock | 1582MHz | | Memory Clock | 11Gbps GDDR5X | | Memory Bus Width | 352-bit | | VRAM | 11GB | | Transistor Count | 12B | | TDP | 250W | | Power Connectors | 1x6 pin, 1x8 pin | | Manufacturing Process | 16nm FinFET | | Architecture | Pascal | | GPU | GP102 | | Dimensions | 10.5x4.37x2 inches | | Ports | 3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b | | Retail Price | $699 |
Nvidia's reference design, also known as the Founders Edition, is the only board that uses a single fan in this roundup. It is a blower-style solution, however, which makes it ideal for small Mini-ITX configurations where there isn't a lot of air to draw upon. The Founders Edition card comes with a 1480MHz core clock and a 1528MHz boost clock along with 11GB of GDDR5X video memory clocked at 11Gbps. The card offers three DisplayPorts and one HDMI 2.0b port. The reference design requires one six-pin and one eight-pin power connector and retails for $699. You can read the full review of the reference model here.
PNY XLR8 GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
| | PNY GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | | CUDA Cores/Stream Processors | 3584 | | Texture Units | 224 | | ROPs | 88 | | Core Clock | 1531MHz | | Boost Clock | 1645MHz | | Memory Clock | 11Gbps GDDR5X | | Memory Bus Width | 352-bit | | VRAM | 11GB | | Transistor Count | 12B | | TDP | 250W | | Power Connectors | 1x6 pin, 1x8 pin | | Manufacturing Process | 16nm FinFET | | Architecture | Pascal | | GPU | GP102 | | Dimensions | 12.36x4.96x2.2 inches | | Ports | 3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b | | Retail Price | $735 |
PNY's XLR8 GTX 1080 Ti offers three fans and features a boost GPU frequency that's overclocked to 1645MHz right out of the box. This makes it 63MHz faster than the Founders Edition's boost speed. At 4.96x12.36 inches, it is also bigger than Nvidia's reference model. Still, it is the smallest aftermarket card in this roundup. Aesthetically, the GPU shroud uses a predominately black and silver design, though it offers red accents, which might make it look a little garish for some. Unlike the other cards in this roundup, there are no LEDs here. Like the Founders Edition before it, PNY's board requires a single six-pin and eight-pin power connector and offers the same ports: three DisplayPorts and one HDMI 2.0b port. It retails for $735, which is roughly $36 more than Nvidia's reference card.
Asus Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
| | Asus GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | | CUDA Cores/Stream Processors | 3584 | | Texture Units | 224 | | ROPs | 88 | | Core Clock | 1569MHz | | Boost Clock | 1708MHz | | Memory Clock | 11.1Gbps GDDR5X | | Memory Bus Width | 352-bit | | VRAM | 11GB | | Transistor Count | 12B | | TDP | 250W | | Power Connectors | 2x 8 pin | | Manufacturing Process | 16nm FinFET | | Architecture | Pascal | | GPU | GP102 | | Dimensions | 11.73x5.28x2.07 inches | | Ports | 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4 | | Retail Price | $780 |
The Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti uses three low noise 90mm fans. They're also IP5X-certified, which makes them dust resistant. Asus' card is significantly larger than the Founders Edition and measures 11.73x5.28x2.07 inches. You'll want to measure the innards of your case for clearance before you decide to purchase this puppy. The primary reason it's so big is that it features an aluminum heatsink that offers 40 percent more heat dissipation area than Nvidia's variant. The card also uses five 6mm heat pipes. Asus asserts that it runs 30 percent cooler and three times quieter than Nvidia's reference design. One slight issue that we encountered when we tried to install the graphics card was that we needed to slightly bend the two teeth on the bracket to squeeze it into our system. It wasn't hard to do, but it was an oddity. Asus' 1080 Ti card offers a 1708MHz boost factory overclock, which is 126MHz faster than the Founders Edition. The video RAM here is also overclocked by 100MHz, which brings the VRAM speed to 11.1Gbps. The Strix also offers different overclocking presets that you can enable with Asus' software. While Asus' card is still a 250-watt solution, it does require two 8-pin power connectors. The card also offers a PWM fan header that allows you to automatically or manually adjust thermals. In addition, the card offers an RGB header that uses Asus' Aura Sync software so you can control the RGB LEDs on the card to breath, strobe, and more. The card ran very quiet and cool and generally stayed in the low 70 degrees Celsius in our testing. In terms of ports, the Strix offers five ports: 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 2x HDMI 2.0, and 2x DisplayPort 1.4. It retails for $780, which is a hefty $81 more than the reference card.
Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Amp Extreme
| | Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | | CUDA Cores/Stream Processors | 3584 | | Texture Units | 224 | | ROPs | 88 | | Core Clock | 1645MHz | | Boost Clock | 1759MHz | | Memory Clock | 11.2Gbps GDDR5X | | Memory Bus Width | 352-bit | | VRAM | 11GB | | Transistor Count | 12B | | TDP | 320W | | Power Connectors | 2x 8 pin | | Manufacturing Process | 16nm FinFET | | Architecture | Pascal | | GPU | GP102 | | Dimensions | 12.8x5.83x2.23in | | Ports | 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 3x DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 | | Retail Price | $770 |
Zotac's Amp Extreme is the biggest graphics card in our roundup with dimensions that measure 12.8 x 5.83 x 2.23 inches. This makes it a 2.5 slot card, so you'll definitely want to make sure that you have enough clearance in your rig before you purchase it. Like the other aftermarket graphics cards in this roundup, Zotac's Amp Extreme card offers three 90mm fans. They won't actually spin until the GPU hits around 60 degrees Celsius. Zotac's card offers the most aggressive out-of-the-box frequency with a boost clock that tops out at 1759MHz. This makes it 177MHz faster than Nvidia's reference board. The Amp Extreme also features the most aggressive VRAM overclock with its 11.2Gbps rate. In terms of aesthetics, the card comes in a "gunmetal" gray. It's got some sharp-looking edges, but looks pretty clean overall. Like the Asus Strix card, Zotac's model also offers RGB lighting. With its Spectra software, you can tweak three lighting zones on the board to cycle colors, breathe, and more. And like the Asus card, it requires two 8-pin power connectors. In terms of ports, it offers 3x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1x HDMI 2.0b. The card retails for $770, which makes it approximately $70 more than Nvidia's reference SKU.
Methodology
We tested the GPUs using their out-of-the-box speeds on five graphically-taxing games. We maxed out the graphical settings on all the games with the exception of anti-aliasing, which is a very graphically demanding effect that doesn't make much sense at 4K. We tested all of the GPUs on the same system, which is a custom rig equipped with an Intel Core-i7 6700K CPU, 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 RAM clocked at 2133MHz, and a Gigabyte GA-170X-Gaming 7 motherboard housed in NZXT's H440 case. Full test bench details are located below. CPU | Intel Core-i7 6700K | RAM | 16GB Corsair Vengeance 2133MHz | Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-170X-Gaming 7 | Storage | Seagate 600 Series 240GB | Cooler | NZXT Kraken X61 | Case | NZXT H440 | OS | Windows 10 | PSU | NZXT 1200W |
4K Benchmarks
Measured in average frames per second (higher is better)
As you can see from the benchmark chart above, Nvidia's reference card is the slowest solution of the bunch. The fastest card across the board is Zotac's aggressively overclocked variant followed by the Asus Strix and then by PNY's XLR8 card. The aftermarket boards don't make huge performance jumps compared to the Founders Edition, but there are some noticeable takeaways. In our GTA V benchmark, only the Asus and Zotac cards were able to cross the 100 average FPS threshold. They were also the only two models that allowed our rig to hit over 60 average FPS in the Witcher 3. Nvidia's reference GPU was the only card that wasn't able to cross the 60 average FPS threshold in our Metro Last Light Redux benchmark. The Zotac Amp Extreme was the only model to surpass the 70 average FPS threshold in Rise of the Tomb Raider, and it was the only card to get above 40 average FPS in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. While all of the cards are able to average over 30 FPS in Eidos Montréal's stealth action game, all of them featured minimum framerates that dipped into the 20s. This means you'll probably want to turn down some graphical settings to bring up the frame rate.
VR Benchmark
Frames rendered (higher is better)
While the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive both use resolutions that amount to 2160x1200, both VR headsets allow you to easily enable supersampling options that push the rendering targets to 4K-like levels. Running Valve's SteamVR Performance Test, all of the cards here earned a "very high" score of "11," which is the highest score. The test does provide more granular data that takes into account the amount of frames that are rendered within the benchmark, however. The more frames a GPU is able to render, the better. Again, here the pecking order remains the same. According to our results, Zotac's GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the best VR graphics card out of the bunch.
Conclusion
| | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | PNY GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | Asus GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | | CUDA Cores/Stream Processors | 3584 | 3584 | 3584 | 3584 | | Texture Units | 224 | 224 | 224 | 224 | | ROPs | 88 | 88 | 88 | 88 | | Core Clock | 1480MHz | 1531MHz | 1569MHz | 1645MHz | | Boost Clock | 1582MHz | 1645MHz | 1708MHz | 1759MHz | | Memory Clock | 11Gbps GDDR5X | 11Gbps GDDR5X | 11.1Gbps GDDR5X | 11.2Gbps GDDR5X | | Memory Bus Width | 352-bit | 352-bit | 352-bit | 352-bit | | VRAM | 11GB | 11GB | 11GB | 11GB | | Transistor Count | 12B | 12B | 12B | 12B | | TDP | 250W | 250W | 250W | 320W | | Power Connectors | 1x6 pin, 1x8 pin | 1x6 pin, 1x8 pin | 2x 8 pin | 2x 8 pin | | Manufacturing Process | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | 16nm FinFET | | Architecture | Pascal | Pascal | Pascal | Pascal | | GPU | GP102 | GP102 | GP102 | GP102 | | Dimensions | 10.5x4.37x2 inches | 12.36x4.96x2.2 inches | 11.73x5.28x2.07 inches | 12.8x5.83x2.23in | | Ports | 3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b | 3x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x HDMI 2.0b | 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4 | 1x Dual-link DVI-D, 3x DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 | | Retail Price | $699 | $735 | $780 | $770 |
All of the cards we tested here are 4K-capable cards, though you'll most likely want to lower some graphical settings if you want to reach a consistent 60 FPS in the more graphically demanding games. One mathematical way to calculate a graphics card's value is to divide the price of the GPU with the average frame rate it garners. Averaging our frame rates using this metric, the Founders Edition represents the best bang for the buck value in our roundup, costing $2.20 per frame. The value proposition for all the cards using this metric are laid out below: While it may not be the best value, the most powerful card here is Zotac's Amp Extreme, which edges out Asus' offering by a hair and retails for $10 less. If you're in the market for a great-bang-for-the-buck 4K solution, we recommend Nvidia's Founders Edition graphics card. If you're looking for the most badass gaming GPU in town, we recommend Zotac's Amp Extreme solution. Just make sure it fits into your case.
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