Home Reviews Nvidia GTX 1080 Review Round-Up – The new performance king

Nvidia GTX 1080 Review Round-Up – The new performance king

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Nvidia GTX 1080 Review Round Up 4

Just over a week ago Nvidia took to the stage and revealed their desktop-grade, gaming focused Pascal GPUs in the forms of the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. The former, and arguably most interesting of the two, is out at the end of this month – with Nvidia launching their new “Founder’s Edition” as a new approach to reference card design. It’s those cards that will be on shelves first, and it’s those that finally have reviews out all over the internet.

So the question is: Does Pascal deliver on the promises Nvidia made on stage?

In a word, yes. The GTX 1080 is a monstrously powerful card, delivering close to 35% more performance in real-world tests (such as actual games) over the Titan X and GTX 980Ti – Nvidia’s previous performance kings. More so than that, the 1080 manages a staggering 62% over the GTX 980, which basically renders the old (but incredibly good) Maxwell range redundant. As Mark Walton from ArsTechnica wrote:

For those that want the very best graphics card right now, the 1080 is it.

Nvidia GTX 1080 Review Round Up 1

It seems to do well in overclocking too, which is interesting considering the already massive clock-speed bump the cards have. In terms of a CPU, clock-speed boosts have been large over the years, but in the realm of GPUs these gains have been relatively small. The GTX 1080 performs at a core-clock speed of 1600MHz – a full 600MHz more than the core of the Titan X. Pushing that up still, getting a 250MHz more on the core-clock seems to be easy, even with the new reference cooler that Nvidia has designed.

According to Engadget:

I also had no trouble overclocking the GPU by 250MHz (reaching around 1.95 GHz under load), and the memory by 200MHz, without any significant temperature changes.

So it’s without a doubt the fastest card that Nvidia has produced to date, but also one of the most innovative. The Pascal ranges ships with a host of new technologies that assists with multi-monitor setups and high-resolution gaming (although 4K at 60FPS is still not possible on a single card), but at the same time is ruling out the old. For the GTX 1080, only two-way SLI is supported really, considering that games will start ceasing to support anything more.

Nvidia GTX 1080 Review Round Up 2

So with a stronger focus on single-card gaming, the price for the GTX 1080 has to be right. That’s where reviews start dividing. While some consider the $699 starting price (it’s going to be $599 for non-Founder Editions) as a high but justifiable increase for a card with such performance, others don’t. Guru3D, for example, question whether a card like this is even required for enthusiast gaming, especially at the given price.

Depending on street prices you can expect a 599 USD/EURO price tag if you steer away from the, what I find to be a too expensive, Founders Edition card. If you stick to the WHQD 2560×1440 domain this is the card that will last you years to come. For long-term Ultra HD usage (high FPS) however the answer still needs to be found in two cards.

ArsTechnica make this argument too, stating that it’s difficult not to feel somewhat disappointed with the GTX 1080 after looking at the price/performance gain. It’s a huge leap, but one that is certainly asking questions of value.

This is the sort of price rise that only a company without competition could get away with. If AMD’s Fury range had fared better, perhaps Nvidia might have pushed the 1080 further, or been more aggressive on price—and after years of promises, isn’t it about time we had a single GPU card capable of playing high-settings games above 30FPS in 4K?

It’s an expensive card, but as tests in all of the three (and many other) reviews show, it’s a huge jump forward in terms of power. That might not manifest itself too greatly in games now, but Pascal is certainly what Nvidia hopes to drive it forward. At least until Volta rears its head in a year or two, as the PC hardware space undergoes a massive transformation with memory standards.

Should you buy the GTX 1080? We’ll reserve that for our own review. But if you have to have the most powerful card on the market right now, you already know the answer to that question.

Last Updated: May 17, 2016

21 Comments

  1. I think its time for an upgrade from a 570.

    Reply

  2. Ghost In The Rift

    May 17, 2016 at 16:54

    Yeah ill just wait for the 1070 review and make a decision until then…now what does a kidney fetch on the black market?

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Protector

      May 18, 2016 at 07:55

      $25k

      Reply

      • Deceased

        May 19, 2016 at 11:04

        And remember – A single human being has 2 …
        Also – if I’m not mistaken, a healthy heart is also around that range?
        Blood – around $10/litre or something like that – I think we can squeeze out $100K from a single human being 😛

        Reply

  3. Ghost In The Rift

    May 17, 2016 at 16:58

    My GTX 960 still performs beautifully, The Witcher 3 most settings on high, 1080p and smooth 50-55 FPS, so yeah not like im in such a rush just yet, so will we see a drop in price regarding the 970 and 980 in the near future? or EOL?

    Reply

    • Greylingad[He Charges!]

      May 17, 2016 at 17:29

      You probably will, once the 1070 starts selling you should be able to pick them up at a fairly cheap price, between 4500 and 5500 second hand…

      Reply

      • Ghost In The Rift

        May 17, 2016 at 17:49

        And how long will the 970 and 980 hold before they become obsolete in the current rate developers are pushing out pixels lol?

        Reply

        • Greylingad[He Charges!]

          May 17, 2016 at 18:19

          Well,with Doom pumping like it does, the 970 is still quite a good card,unless battlefield maxes the card out…

          Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          May 17, 2016 at 22:06

          They’ll be good for years to come for 1080p gaming.

          Reply

    • Dude_BrO-Anemia

      May 17, 2016 at 17:36

      When the hbm2 arrives I have a 980ti I’ll sell ya for 300. 200 if it’s not for a while.

      Reply

      • Ghost In The Rift

        May 17, 2016 at 17:44

        SOLD!!! lol

        Reply

        • Dude_BrO-Anemia

          May 17, 2016 at 17:52

          Okay I’ll hold you to that then good stranger. Do you have PayPal and live in the US? If you answered yes to these questions you’re a proud owner of a beautiful 980ti hybrid. As soon as payment is accepted of course.

          Reply

          • Ghost In The Rift

            May 18, 2016 at 08:26

            lol just jokes dude, we in Africa cant keep up with the US just yet, best that these SA dudes explain why HAHA!!!

        • Dude_BrO-Anemia

          May 17, 2016 at 17:53

        • HvR

          May 17, 2016 at 19:22

          Haha I think he means dolla’s not randelas

          Reply

  4. Dude_BrO-Anemia

    May 17, 2016 at 17:34

    I’m not sure what I was expecting. This is just maxwell on 16 nm. An improved maxwell, but deff not worth the upgrade for me. I already max every game out at the resolution I play at. I’m gonna go all in on hbm2. Whatever card is the top performer when that happens I’m buying. Amd nvidia. Doesn’t matter.

    Reply

    • MilfShake

      May 17, 2016 at 20:03

      1080 is like a half-ass card. People that already maxing out @1440p @60fps on 980ti don’t need it, and people who want 4k @60fps might not buy it either since it cannot reach 60 fps in most games according to benchmark.
      It is for people that have 144hz monitors, really.

      Reply

    • Admiral Chief Protector

      May 18, 2016 at 07:54

      #TeamRed

      Reply

  5. Raptor Rants

    May 17, 2016 at 17:47

    Looks at SLI 560Tis…. Looks at reviews…. Looks back at SLI560Tis. Ti’s start quivering….

    It’s ok guys. I live in SA. I can’t afford this.

    Ti’s sigh a sigh of relief….

    Reply

  6. HvR

    May 17, 2016 at 19:25

    $600 multiply by 15 divide by zuma_iq carry the 5 … wallet says no

    Reply

  7. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    May 18, 2016 at 11:25

    Waiting for that TI… training my wallet to take the hit!

    Reply

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