NVIDIA GTX 1080Ti Review

With the announcement of the GTX1080Ti, many people have been speculating whether its performance would be better than a Titan X. While the GTX Titan X Pascal did prove to be around 30% faster than the GTX 1080, the pricing of the graphics card was not friendly to everyone, especially enthusiasts who are on a budget.

Now that it has launched, people around the world are pleased and ecstatic to know that the GTX1080Ti is faster than both the Titan X and the GTX1080, around roughly 35% to be exact.

For this review, we have the cream of the crop, Nvidia’s current flagship – the Nvidia GTX1080Ti Founders Edition. You can read our first impressions here.

Specifications

First off, let’s check out the specifications of the GTX1080Ti and see on how it compares against the Zotac’s GTX1080 Amp Extreme, as well as the original GTX1080 Founders Edition.

Judging from the specs, the biggest advantage of the GTX1080Ti is the significant increase in CUDA Core count. Which means more cores are available to render textures, scenes, and complex-physics that help the game run smoother.

Despite the increase in CUDA Cores, overall and boost clock speed is around 200Mhz which is slower than the original GTX1080 Founders Edition, and almost 400Mhz lower than Zotac’s GTX1080 Amp! Extreme version. However, this doesn’t mean gaming performance is weaker. It simply means that, while clock speed is slower than the original GTX1080, the significant increase in the CUDA Core count make up for the loss by delivering more processing power.

Another advantage of being slightly clocked lower than the reference 1080 is a more efficient thermal cooling. If the same clock speed is present with the GTX1080Ti, the card would quickly heat up to a point that i might damage the card since there are more CUDA Cores present.

Thankfully, the dimensions of the graphics card is the same with the Founders Edition 1080. Future non-reference 1080Ti cards with special improvements from various manufacturers might be different in actual size. The case is the same with the Zotac GTX 1080 Amp! Extreme.

Unlike the Titan X with the 12GB of VRAM, the GTX1080Ti only has 11GB of RAM. While it’s still more than the reference 1080, the Titan X might have a slightly better performance in certain scenarios where VRAM is the dominant consumer.

Despite having an improvement over the GTX 1080, it also draws out more power. You can read our review of the Zotac GTX1080 Amp Extreme here.

Build Quality:

Nvidia has always been a hero of product quality. Their designs of their reference graphics cards, whether flagship or not, has always been top-notch. With regards to the Pascal family, Nvidia introduced the “Founders Edition”. A series of reference graphics cards that are built with high standards both in design, and quality.

Right off the bat, the GTX1080Ti took us with its glorious aluminum body, giving it a sturdy feel. Despite being somewhat similar with the GTX1080 Founders edition, some parts of the body is covered in a glossy black finish, as well as a matte black finish on the sides of the blower-type fan.

Upon looking around the body, you’ll notice several embedded logos of Nvidia and the GTX1080Ti lettering.

On the back, the GTX1080Ti features 3 DP 2.0 ports, and 1 HDMI port, all accompanied by the rear exhaust of the blower-type cooling system.

The blower-type fan has been popular ever since the release of the reference GTX980 cards. Before that, they were only used on high end models of old cards such as the GTX480 or the GTX580. Here we have an improved version of the blower-type cooling system, built with aluminum blades and an overall better thermal composition.

The copper heatsinks here are the same with the GTX1080 reference, and the layout of the heatpipes is the same with the GTX1080. We can say that the GTX1080Ti is slightly quieter than the GTX1080Ti under idle load.

Benchmarks:

In our benchmarks, we used the following setup to ensure our system doesn’t bottleneck the performance of the card. We overclocked the 7700K up to 4.3Ghz under an ambient room temperature of 18C.

CPU Specs:

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Battlefield 4: Graphics-wise, Battlefield 4 looks great, and the GTX1080Ti delivered a smooth performance even in 4K gaming.

Grand Theft Auto V: The 1080Ti performed well, even in dense, grassy areas such as the mountain tops or the fields outside of Los Santos. Average FPS even in 4K on dense areas at ultra settings with advance settings on, the 1080Ti performed outstanding. Delivering a constant above 60FPS, and reaching even above 100FPS on 4K, in selected areas.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: In Rise of the Tomb Raider, the same can be said although the graphics has been improved. Lara has more facial details, and the environment’s lighting is beautiful.

Hitman 2016: The GTX1080Ti’s performance of the game is smooth. Even at its highest settings in 4K, the GTX1080Ti pulled through snatching in numbers above 60FPS, making sure that gameplay is smooth and flawless.

Shadow of Mordor: The GTX1080Ti performed absolutely well with the game. Despite not being a DX12 release, the GTX1080Ti proved to be efficient in all ends, delivering a smooth overall performance with amazing graphics.

With the benchmarks we have above we can safely say that the GTX1080Ti is a beast when it comes to 1440p and 1080p gaming. In 4K, however, overall performance is great but still, depends on the game at hand. We have noticed that the card performs better in selected DX12 games, older games utilizing DX11, however, has an average performance ratio to older cards.

Unlike the GTX980Ti, which is its counterpart, the GTX1080Ti performed very well, thermally. Even at high load, the card delivered playable frame rates, while not sacrificing much on cooling.

In our current setup in 3DMark’s benchmarks, the GTX1080Ti performed well, amassing over 14000 points in firestrike extreme, 11000 points in timespy, and 7000 points in firestrike ultra.

Temperatures:

The GTX1080Ti’s cooling performance is similar to the GTX1080 considering that both cards feature the same cooling system and layout. Below are the temperatures of the GTX1080Ti under heavy load and idle

The card, despite the heavy load, provided solid cooling performance. Thanks to its blower-type cooler, the design, and the advanced layout of the heat pipes within the card, made the cooling performance very efficient.

Unlike older cards, particularly the GTX7XX series, and the GTX9XX series, the cooling performance of the 10-series has been seen as notably better. Though of course, non-reference cards will vary in its cooling performance, and might or might not be better. Though, we can safely say that cooling performance of the card is good.

Conclusion:

The GTX1080Ti is a great option for enthusiasts that want a cheaper, and faster, alternative than the GTX Titan X Pascal. Despite having 1GB of VRAM less compared to the Titan X. Overall performance is better than the Titan X and is around 35% better than the Founders GTX1080.

In certain gaming or workstation scenarios, the GTX1080Ti may lack in performance when the VRAM has exceeded the 11GB mark. This is where the Titan X will have an advantage since the card has 12GB of VRAM that allows more room for processing. In realistic scenarios, situations where graphics memory exceeding the 11GB mark are rare, and even so, the fact that the memory consumption is higher than 11GB, it is more likely to go beyond 12GB as well.

Consumers on the other hand, that wants a 4K gaming graphics card, can definitely rely on the GTX1080Ti. 1080p gaming performance is outstanding, and the same can be said for 1440p on most games. You can expect an over 120FPS in most games at their max settings at 1080p, and expect an above 60FPS average, sometimes leaning towards to 100FPS, on 1440p.

4K gaming, while better than the GTX1080, can still be improved as not all games are ready for 4K gaming in their highest settings. In future cards, we can expect performance to be better and be more power efficient as well.

All in all, if you’re leaning towards 4K gaming and want a reasonably priced card for performance, the GTX1080Ti is a great option for you.

Pros:

• Very fast gaming performance
• Good workstation performance
• Looks beautiful
• All aluminum build
• Great build
• Great cooling performance
• Good for the price

Cons:

• None