Which Gtx 1080 To Buy
Since we published our GeForce GTX 1080 review, Nvidia overcame availability issues, and prices on the top-end gaming card settled into the range we were told to expect at launch. Today, you'll find GeForce GTX 1080 cards selling online between $600 (750) and $770 (900).
which gtx 1080 to buy
When Nvidia introduced GeForce GTX 1080, we only had the Founders Edition board (the company's reference design) in our possession. While its rear exhaust and a high-quality thermal solution turned heads, we knew boards from Nvidia's partners could bring lower prices, factory overclocking, and more cooling designs to the table.
Now, while it may no longer be the very best, the GTX 1080 is still a viable choice in 2023, even with the GTX 1070 Ti and 1080 Ti in the equation. It is more than capable of taking on 1440p in a lot of games.
Ultimately, the key area where the MSI Armor GTX 1080 excels is the pricing. It is one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest models available at the moment, and that is definitely something worth mentioning.
Needless to say, this is the best-performing GTX 1080 on this list, and one of the best-performing models that are available right now. This is, naturally, in no small part due to triple-fan cooling. Furthermore, while it is the priciest card on this list, it is actually not that expensive when compared to some other GPUs that rival it in terms of performance.
Our chief issue with the Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming is its sheer size, the same issue we often see with triple-fan graphics cards. Because of this, you will have a harder time fitting it in smaller cases, though this is unlikely to be a problem for anyone with a regular ATX case.
Well, our pick would have to be the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 AMP! Edition. All things considered, it simply offers the best value for your money, bringing great performance at a relatively low price point.
How much faster? Around 35 percent when compared the GTX 1080 according Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, which makes the 1080 Ti ever so slightly faster than the 1,100/$1,200 Titan X. That's not surprising considering the 1080 Ti is, for the most part, identical to the Titan X: they both use the same GP102 GPU, with 3,584 stream processors and 224 texture units split across six graphics processing clusters and 28 SMs.
The key difference, and what gives the 1080 Ti a slight edge over the Titan X, is its memory configuration. The 1080 Ti features a rather odd 11GB of GDDR5X memory, which results in a 352-bit memory interface and 88 ROPs instead of the 12GB of GDDR5X, 384-bit interface, and 96 ROPs of the Titan X.
However, the 1080 Ti's memory runs at 11GHz rather than the Titan X's 10GHz, giving the new card slightly higher memory bandwidth at 484GB/s. The GPU boost clock is also a wee bit higher at 1.6GHz, with Nvidia promising 2GHz when overclocked. TDP is rated at 250W with power coming in via 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe connectors.
Other improvements include a better vapour chamber cooler on Founders Edition (read: reference) design cards, which Nvidia claims results in quieter performance. Those Founders Edition cards will be priced the same as partner cards too, instead of the premium charged for GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 Founders Editions. Founders Edition cards will launch first, with partner cards following at a later date.
Those with more modest budgets will be pleased to hear the the memory improvements made to the 1080 Ti are trickling down to the GTX 1080 and GTX 1060. A new, pre-overclocked SKU of the GTX 1080 will feature the same 11GHz memory, while a new GTX 1060 SKU will feature 9GHz memory.
The NVIDIA GTX 1080 (opens in new tab) is an excellent graphics card for 1440p and some light 4K gaming. The GTX 1080 Ti (opens in new tab) is a more expensive version of the same card with more memory, bandwidth, and other improvements to push even more pixels through to connected monitors. The question is which is best for you? This depends on a number of factors, including what games you play, what resolution you game at, and your available budget.
Launched in May 2016, the GTX 1080 replaced the aging GTX 980 and was considered by many to be a substantial step up in gaming performance. Sporting just over seven billion transistors, it's a powerful family of cards that can really pack a punch when matched with a capable CPU, like an i5-7700K or above. Should you be looking to upgrade from an older generation of GPUs, migrate from AMD cards, or look to put together a new PC, the GTX 1080 is a solid option.
It's a card that's great at 1440p but is unable to really push 4K content at an acceptable frames-per-second (FPS) rate without dropping quality. If you're only rocking a 1080p display and aren't looking to get a new one anytime soon, you'd be better off with a GTX 1060 or GTX 1070. Prices are around $549.
The only reasons you'd really need to pick up a NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti is if you have the necessary funds available, require the extra horsepower for 4K gaming and are unable to pick up an Nvidia Titan X. The issue with the Ti version of the 1080 is the diminishing returns for your money. This card is more expensive than the 1080 and offers more performance but the frame rate gain for the price makes it harder to justify.
Thankfully, regardless of which option you go for, there's no "wrong" choice. Both the GTX 1080 and Ti GPUs offer excellent levels of performance and will be able to play anything at 1440p with high settings configured, placing them among the best graphics card options available. Go with the GTX 1080 if you're on a tighter budget but need the power to get through more demanding titles. The Ti is a great upgrade for those where money is not an issue. For everyone else, hold off and see what 2018 brings.
And if you step up to an Nvidia GTX 1080 ($600, 560, roughly AU$815 converted), you could get what reviewers are calling the best graphics card ever made. Review after review shows it's not only the fastest on the market, it usually wins by leaps and bounds. In some games, it's faster than two of last year's GTX 980s put together.
It's true: If you bought your graphics card in the past couple of years, you may not need to upgrade at all. For instance, an Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 390 ($320, 280, roughly AU$420) can play practically any game at 1080p resolution with loads of gorgeous detail.
If you've wanted to play games on a 4K TV or monitor, there really hasn't been a single graphics card with enough muscle to make it happen. The AMD Fury X and Nvidia GTX 980 Ti came close, but the new GTX 1080 can finally achieve smooth gameplay at 4K resolution and near-maximum levels of detail. Games like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto V, The Division and Crysis 3 would require turning down your graphics settings with any other GPU.
Reportedly, the GTX 1080 can play those games at 4K even if your system isn't a crazy-expensive monster rig like the ones most PC review sites use for testing, and it does it all without sucking down more electricity or generating more heat than its predecessors.
While the cheaper AMD RX480 and the Nvidia GTX 1070 won't quite manage that feat (the 1070 is engineered to have roughly 75 percent the power of a 1080), they are capable enough for another strenuous task: virtual reality.
That requires a pretty beefy GPU, which both AMD and Nvidia are making more affordable. But Nvidia has another ace up its sleeve. The GTX 1070 and 1080 both support a host of new rendering techniques specifically for VR.
Though Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080 will soon cost $599 (559 or roughly AU$815 converted) you can only buy the Founder's Edition as of today -- a special version of the graphics card dressed up in a custom aluminum cooling solution that retails for $699, 619, or roughly AU$950.
But you probably can't even get it for that price right now, because supplies are limited. We're seeing street prices as high as $899 for the GTX 1080 Founder's Edition right now. It's not like the card is a limited edition, either. Nvidia says it'll sell them through the lifespan of the product.
The cheaper GTX 1070 is in the same boat. When it arrives June 10, you'll have to pay $449, 399 or roughly AU$610 converted -- a sizable premium on top of the $380 (roughly 265 or AU$515) that normal versions of the card should cost in a matter of weeks or months. (Normal versions of the 1080 are already beginning to trickle out.) And again, that doesn't include any additional retailer markup if Nvidia can't produce it quick enough to satisfy demand.
Meanwhile, if you want to see how AMD's RX480 compares at $199 (roughly 140 or AU$270 converted), you'll have to wait until its June 27 launch. We also don't know if AMD has a higher-end Radeon GPU to match the GTX 1080 and 1070, which could make it worth waiting even a little bit longer. And if you wait longer still, Nvidia will likely have an even more powerful GTX 1080 Ti early next year.
The GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and AMD RX480 offer a pretty sizable leap forward for PC gaming if you've got the cash to spend, and at $199, the AMD card could make investing in VR far more affordable than before.
The GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card has 2560 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR5X memory with 320 GB/s memory bandwidth and 256-bit of memory interface. It comes with output connectors such as DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, and Dual-Link-DVI; supports multi-monitor display and HDCP 2.2. They also require at least a 500W power supply and a single 8-pin PCI power connector. However some GTX 1080 requires a 6+8 pin (or even an 8+8 pin), and power draw varies from one model to another.
Also, there are some GTX 1080s (like from Asus, MSI and Gigabyte) that comes with two clock speed modes. They have a so-called gaming mode and OC mode. I will place the gaming mode first followed by the OC mode inside a parenthesis, since the gaming mode is usually their default setting and the speed you get right out of the box.
Based on the GTX 1080 specs comparison table above, the GTX 1080 with the highest clock speed out of the box are the Galax GTX 1080 HOF Limited Edition and Zotac GTX 1080 AMP Extreme. However the Asus STRIX GTX 1080 08G Gaming has a (very slightly) higher clock speed vs the Zotac GTX 1080 AMP Extreme when the STRIX 1080 is set to OC mode using the Asus GPU Tweak; same goes with Gigabyte 1080 Xtreme Gaming. But take note, you can manually overclock the Zotac GTX 1080 AMP Extreme to match or get even higher clock speeds than the STRIX 1080. In fact most of the non-reference graphics cards here can be manually overclocked to run at around 2GHz to 2.1GHz; pretty much the limit under normal circumstances. 041b061a72