It's difficult to recall the last time a new flagship GPU from Nvidia was as fast as two of its predecessors in SLI. And you supposedly get all of this for a starting price of $599? Surely there's a catch?
While
the GTX 1080 doesn’t eclipse two 980s in every scenario, it's
demonstrably stronger at 4K. That makes this, right now, the fastest
single-GPU card about to hit the market.
Design
I'm
reviewing the “Founder’s Edition” of the card, which cost $699 ($100
more than the 1080’s starting price). While previous iterations from
Nvidia were known as “reference designs,” it appears the corporation
wants to show it designs more than baseline graphics cards. So it has
revamped its own design by using higher-quality materials that will no
doubt resonate with the most devoted enthusiasts . Having said that, the
Founder’s Edition graphics card does not use a higher-quality binned
GPU. The extra $100 is merely for the superior materials and
craftsmanship. For what it's worth, personally I find the card’s jagged
edges look pretty sharp.
What
makes the Founder’s Edition stand out? For starters, the 4.3x10.5-inch
chassis uses a die-cast aluminum body. The two-slot card’s radial blower
fan is also aided by Nvidia’s vapor chamber cooler. Under load, I saw
the fan rev up to 1,342rpm, which was still near whisper quiet.
Another
feature that makes the Founder’s Edition different is its removable
low-profile backplate, which is useful for snug SLI configurations.
Specs
GeForce GTX 1080 also uses a new video RAM built by Micron called GDDR5X, which is currently the fastest GDDR memory on the market
Founder’s
Edition details aside, all GeForce GTX 1080s use Nvidia’s new Pascal
architecture, which leverages bandwidth reduction, preemption, and
memory compression techniques to become the company’s most efficient
architecture to date. On top of this is a new 16nm FinFET production
process, which ultimately allows the card’s clocks to run really high (I
witnessed a base clock of 1.61GHz and a boost clock of 1.73GHz.) Nvidia
says it’s also been able to overclock the card to over 2GHz. For
reference, the company has not before been able to surpass 2GHz on any
of its cards, whether using air cooling or more efficient water coolers.
The GTX 1080 uses a generous 8GB of that frame buffer, which positions it in 4K territory, and is double the VRAM of its 2014 predecessor, the GTX 980.
Spec Chart
| GTX 1080 | GTX Titan X | GTX 980 Ti | GTX 980 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CUDA Cores | 2560 | 3072 | 2816 | 2048 |
| Texture Units | 160 | 192 | 176 | 128 |
| ROPs | 64 | 96 | 96 | 64 |
| Core Clock | 1607MHz | 1000MHz | 1000MHz | 1126MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1733MHz | 1075MHz | 1075MHz | 1216MHz |
| Memory Clock | 10GHz GDDR5X | 7GHz GDDR5 | 7GHz GDDR5 | 7GHz GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus Width | 256-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit |
| VRAM | 8GB | 12GB | 6GB | 4GB |
| TDP | 180W | 250W | 250W | 165W |
| GPU | GP104 | GM200 | GM200 | GM204 |
| Architecture | Pascal | Maxwell | Maxwell | Maxwell |
| Transistor Count | 7.2 billion | 8 billion | 8 billion | 5.2 billion |
| Manufacturing Process | 16nm FinFET | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 28nm |
| Launch Date | 05/27/16 | 03/17/2015 | 06/01/2015 | 09/18/2014 |
| Launch Price | $599/$699 | $999 | $649 | $549 |
But
what does all this new tech mean for power consumption? With the more
power-efficient design, the GTX 1080 carries a modest 180-watt TDP
(thermal design power), and only requires one eight-pin power connector.
This is really lightweight when you compare it to the reference 980
Ti’s 250-watt TDP, which is a card that requires both an eight and
six-pin connector.
Features
Every
time a new GPU architecture from Nvidia rolls around, the company likes
to incorporate new graphical features, the situation is no different
with Pascal.
Ansel
Arguably
the most interesting addition is Ansel. Named after famed photographer
Ansel Adams, the new feature is a free-roaming camera that allows you to
pause a game’s action and take a high-resolution screenshot (with the
UI stripped out). While that description may sing to the budding
videogame photographer in you, it actually sells Ansel a little short,
since there are also a ton of post-processing effects that you can add
to your image that include film grain, bloom, lens floor, vignettes, and
more.
Perhaps
more impressive is that Ansel uses a CUDA-based imaging stitcher that
can stitch up to 3600 tiles for a photo that scales up to 4.5
gigapixels. That equates to an EXR file that’s roughly 1,000 times
sharper than 4K. It’s a really sophisticated tool that not only allows
you to save 360-degree images, but stereoscopic 360-degree images that
you’ll be able to revisit in VR using anything from the $800 HTC Vive to
the inexpensive Google Cardboard.
However, this tech
only works for games that allow it, but Nvidia claims that developers
should find it easy to incorporate. Apparently, to get Ansel working
with The Witness, it took only 40 lines of code. Other games that will support Ansel include The Division, LawBreakers, The Witcher 3, Paragon, No Man’s Sky, and Unreal Tournament.
VRWorks Audio
With
modern VR now a reality, Nvidia wanted to change how people listen to
spatialized audio. While the industry has been able to nail down
directional audio to a satisfactory degree in traditional video games,
modern audio solutions don’t quite cut it for VR. To mimic lifelike
audio in VR, audio needs to reverberate off walls and echo
appropriately. Coming up with a solution to this problem could greatly
enhance virtual-reality immersion.
Nvidia’s
solution is VRWorks Audio, which the company enthusiastically exclaims
is the “world’s first real-time acoustics simulator.” The technology
essentially leverages the GTX 1080’s ability to calculate complex
physics to realistically bounce audio off of virtual environments.
I’ve
only briefly tried one VRWorks Audio demo at a controlled Nvidia press
event, and would like to do more AB testing to come to a conclusion on
how well it works.
Simultaneous Multi-Projection
Because
display types and resolutions are constantly evolving, Nvidia created
what it calls “Simultaneous Multi-Projection” to be adaptable to the
times. SMP uses 16 independent “viewports” to appropriately re-composite
an image to its display type. For instance, if you’re going to game
with three monitors in Nvidia Surround, chances are you’re going to want
to angle the peripheral monitors inwards so you can get a better sense
of your virtual surroundings. A negative side- effect to this is that
because the game doesn’t know you’re turning the monitors inward, it
inadvertently creates this weird and inaccurate image distortion. SMP
fixes this by warping and rendering a wider FOV to compensate for the
angle change.
Nvidia
also says that SMP can provide a performance boost for virtual reality.
Instead of rendering a monster twice for each eye in VR, for instance,
SMP, in theory, allows the GTX 1080 to do one single rendering pass of
the monster and displays two different viewports from that pass that
mimic the positions of both our eyes.
HDR
High-dynamic
range monitors are said to be the “next big thing” for displays. HDR
increases the visible colors of traditional monitors by a factor of two.
According to Nvidia, that covers roughly 75 percent of the visible
color spectrum. Nvidia is positioning its Pascal GPUs to take advantage
of this richer HDR color gamut. Games will have to be optimized to work
with HDR, however, and some titles that will support it include The
Witness, Lawbreakers, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Paragon, and Shadow Warrior 2.
Fast Sync
With
the GTX 1080, Nvidia is also introducing a GPU/display feature called
“Fast Sync.” It's a complementary feature to the company’s G-Sync
technology, but does not require a G-Sync monitor. The benefits of Fast
Sync come into play at the higher end of the performance spectrum, when
your GPU is able to render frames faster than your monitor’s refresh
rate. Enabling Fast Sync here, in theory, would allow you to get near
the low latency of having V-Sync disabled, but without the annoying
screen-tearing effects.
GPU Boost 3.0
The
last noteworthy feature the GTX 1080 introduces is GPU Boost 3.0, which
allows you to adjust the per-voltage point frequency offset. This
allows you to match the card’s frequency against its voltage more
closely. If you’re really into the minutia of GPU overclocking, this can
be pretty exciting.1080P Benchmarks
Performance
While
the new bells and whistles seem nice, the real acid test is how fast
the GTX 1080 runs. Let’s take a look at the benchmarks.
Methodology
For
our test bench, I'm using a PC equipped with an Intel Core i7 5930K CPU
clocked at 3.5GHz along with 16GB of RAM. I've used a wide array of
game benchmarks along with some synthetic tests at three resolutions
(1080p, 1440p, and 4K).
I'm pitting the GTX 1080 against
the GTX 980, its predecessor, and because Nvidia claimed that the GTX
1080 is faster than two 980s in SLI, we’re testing it against that, too.
Nvidia also claimed that the GTX 1080 is faster than the GTX Titan X.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a Titan X on hand, but we do have the next
best thing, and perhaps something that is even better: Zotac’s GeForce
GTX 980 Ti Amp! Extreme. The GeForce GTX 980 Ti is already almost as
fast as the Titan X, but Zotac’s supercharged version is a massive
three-slot card that has three fans along with massive heat sinks to
accommodate the extra overclock. Compared to its vanilla counterpart, it
carries a 253MHz faster core clock and a zippier 279MHz boost clock. On
top of that, it’s VRAM is also clocked 210MHz higher and the card is 25
watts beefier than the stock 980 Ti. In many cases, it’s actually at
least 10% faster than a Titan X.
Because there is a lot
of GPU horsepower here, to properly push the cards, all benchmarks are
set to their respective max settings.
1080p Benchmarks
Clearly, this card is overkill for 1080p gaming.3DMark 11 is a popular system benchmark tool that is heavily graphics-intensive and leverages DirectX 11. We ran the benchmark under the Extreme setting. As you can see from the graph above, the GTX 1080 is the fastest single-GPU setup with a 9441 score. Nvidia’s claim that the GTX 1080 is faster than two 980s doesn’t quite hold up under this resolution, but it is important to note the the Extreme mode renders scenes at 1080p, which is a resolution that is too low to awaken the GTX 1080’s monstrous VRAM from its slumber.
1080p Conclusion
At 1080p, the GTX 1080 generally isn’t faster than two GTX 980s in SLI
At
1080p, the GTX 1080 generally isn’t faster than two GTX 980s in SLI,
but that’s because the resolution is too low for the GTX 1080’s 8GB of
GDDR5X to even awaken. The GTX 1080 is like a super fast race horse that
is tied down by the weight of a low resolution. Sure, it can still push
the chariot superfast, but two slightly slower horses (the 980s) can
generally do the job five to nine percent faster. Still, considering you
can get similar levels of performance here for several hundreds of
dollars less is extremely impressive.
Perhaps the bigger
takeaway is that you should not get the GTX 1080 if you plan on using a
1080p monitor. Unless you aim to use a 144Hz or 165Hz super high
refresh-rate monitor, it’s simply overkill.
1440p Benchmarks
1440p Benchmarks
If your goal is to max out 1440p games with at least a 30 FPS average, then the GTX 1080 will be able to handle that with relative ease.
Even
though I'm testing the GTX 1080 against two 980s, it’s worth pointing
out the giant delta between the GTX 1080 against a single 980 in this
test. The GTX 1080 is able to enjoy a 62.8 average FPS here, whereas the
980 has a much lower 37.6 average FPS. That’s a 67 percent performance
gap and means the difference of gaming at 30 something FPS vs 60
something FPS.
1440p Conclusion
If
your goal is to max out 1440p games with at least a 30 FPS average,
then the GTX 1080 will be able to handle that with relative ease. Even
under the brutal Metro Last Light benchmark, which is one of the most graphically-demanding games
around, it garnered a very playable 45.6 average FPS. This suggests
that GTX 1080 may be powerful enough to perform at 4K, which is
something few single-GPU cards have been able to achieve.
2160P (4K) Benchmarks
Up
until now, the GTX 1080 has been trying to play catch up to the dual
980s in our BioShock Infinite benchmark. Now, in the realm of 4K, the
card and its 8GB of GDDR5X video RAM can just about cross the finish
line with a four-percent lead. Perhaps more important is that it’s able
to play BioShock Infinite maxed out at 4K with a smoother-than-60 (65.5)
average FPS, which is quite the accomplishment.
Metro
Last Light is the only 4K benchmark in which the GTX 1080 isn’t able to
outperform the dual 980s. It’s likely all those crazy special effects
that are too much for the single GPU to handle, with the game rendering
at an unplayable 19.3 FPS. To be fair, even two 980s are only able to
muster a 22 FPS average, which is also not playable.
The
GTX 1080 appears to edge ahead here, but the really big thing to focus
on is the disparity between the GTX 1080 and single 980. While the GTX
980 is able to muster a playable 34.6 average FPS, that’s 71 percent
slower than the GTX 1080’s 59 FPS average. One graphics card has you
playing in the 30s, while the other has you almost at 60FPS.
What
was a narrowing two-percent deficit at 1440p has grown to a
three-percent lead for the GTX 1080 over the dual 980s. And with an
average FPS of 55.7, Tomb Raider is most definitely playable maxed out
at 4K.
4K Conclusion
Experientially, the GTX 1080 will be able to handle most games maxed out at 4K with above 30 average FPSClearly, the GeForce GTX 1080 is a 4K-capable card. Will it be able to max out every single game at 3840x2160? No, but that’s a lot to ask of any single graphics card. Experientially, the GTX 1080 will be able to handle most games maxed out at 4K with above 30 average FPS, which is quite the feat. If you’re looking to max out graphically-demanding games at 4K with 60 plus FPS, you’ll need at least two graphics cards.
VR Test
With
VR picking up steam (no pun intended) and being so graphically-intense
having to run two independent 1080x1200 resolution screens at 90FPS,
it's wise to see how the GTX 1080 would handle a VR workload.
While
there aren’t very many VR benchmarks out there at the moment, Valve did
recently release its SteamVR Performance Test, which benchmarks systems
using its Aperture Science VR demo.
Because framerate
is so essential to VR (if it dips below 90fps, you are more likely to
get motion sick), the more frames a graphics card can generate, the
better the experience.
The GeForce GTX 980 is a really
good card for VR and is actually above both Oculus Rift’s and HTC Vive’s
recommended spec (both recommend a GTX 970). The GTX 1080, on the other
hand, is an exceptional card for VR and is a whopping 58 percent faster
than the 980 with a 13921 frame count.
While the dual
980s were able to trade blows with the GTX 1080 in most of our previous
tests, you’ll notice that the SLI setup is actually the worst of the
bunch here. The reason for that is most VR demos, including the SteamVR
Performance Test here, are not optimized for SLI. As a matter of fact,
because SLI introduces latency, with the two cards having to communicate
with each other, VR performance actually suffers.
Overclocking
According
to Nvidia’s internal testing, the company was able to overclock the GTX
1080’s core clocks up to 2.1GHz under load. Using a prerelease version
of EVGA Precision that was provided by Nvidia, I wasn't able to
duplicate the results in our initial testing. I was, however, able to
crank GPU clocks up by 200MHz with stable results. It is important to
note that every single GPU is going to overclock differently, even GPUs
within the same SKU (due to complicated and intricate binning
processes). You can expect a more in-depth GTX 1080 overclocking story
on GameSpot in the near future, but for now, know that the GTX 1080 does
provide some overclocking runway.
Conclusion
The
GeForce GTX 1080 is the fastest single GPU-graphics card available
today. It easily gives the $1,000 Titan X a run for its money. At 4K,
where it’s really able to flex its muscles, it can be 70 percent faster
than its predecessor, which is insane when you consider that the GTX 980
is still a fantastic GPU.
The GTX 1080 offers a new single-card performance standard at great value.
If
the GTX 1080 is out of your price range, you’ll want to keep your eye
out on the GTX 1070, which releases on June 10th. Nvidia claims that the
1070 is as fast as the Titan X, but will start at a much more
reasonable $379.
No, it won’t max out every single game
at 3840x2160 with smooth playable frame rates. Don’t expect a single-GPU
card to be able to smoothly max out 4K until at least Nvidia’s Volta
architecture arrives, which looks to be around 2018. Regardless, the GTX
1080 offers a new single-card performance standard at great value.
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