NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Performance Review: Pascal, The New King
GTX 1080 Summary And Conclusion
Performance Summary: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is a great performing graphics card. Throughout our entire suite of tests, the GeForce GTX 1080 outpaced all of the other GPUs we tested, in every application / game and at every resolution, with the sole exception being the OpenCL-based benchmark, LuxMark. The GTX 1080 was roughly 20 -25% faster than a Titan X and 10 – 15% faster than a factory overclocked GeForce GTX 980 Ti. It was also significantly faster than a Radeon R9 Fury X, in both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 titles. The GeForce GTX 1080 consumed the least amount of power of the bunch as well, and it was quiet too. The card also overclocked exceptionally well. We were able to hit a greater-than 2.1GHz GPU clock and achieve a significant memory clock increase with only minimal tweaking.
Despite the GeForce GTX 1080’s class-leading performance, we suspect some of you may be scratching your heads after hearing NVIDIA’s CEO state the card was “double the performance of a Titan X” during the live-stream unveiling a couple of weeks back. That was definitely a bit of showmanship on Jen Hsun's part, but there is truth in those statements. Jen Hsun was speaking in terms of performance-per-watt, or when some of Pascal’s new features like simultaneous multi-projection are fully leveraged. Though we couldn't test them specifically, we suspect there will be scenarios, especially with VR applications, where the 1080's lead over a Titan X is increased significantly.
NVIDIA hit a lot of high notes with the GeForce GTX 1080. The card offers a ton of new features and capabilities and very strong overall performance, in an attractive package, that’s also quiet and highly tweakable. NVIDIA has essentially hit every bullet point hard-core gamers and enthusiasts consider when shopping for a high-end graphics card. Low power, awesome performance, good looks -- the GTX 1080 has it all. And the GP104 isn’t even the “big” version of Pascal; the GPU on this card is smaller than the GM204 of the GTX 980. We already know that a bigger Pascal-based GPU exists on the Tesla P100, that also features HBM2 memory. When or if that GPU makes its way into the consumer space remains to be seen, but rest assured NVIDIA’s got some serious firepower in the works. Things are really heating up in the PC hardware space between Pascal, Polaris, Zen, Broadwell-E and the move to more advanced manufacturing processes, like the 16nm FinFET process used on the GP104.The GeForce GTX 1080 is due to hit store shelves on May 27. The Founder’s Edition card featured here has an MSRP of $699, though we’re told GTX 1080 cards from board partners will eventually arrive at prices ranging from $599 on up. Some custom models, with higher clocks than the Founder’s Edition will arrive with >$699 price tags as well, though initial shipments will all be Founder's Editions. It's going to be a little while before custom cards arrive.
As always, enthusiasts that want to ride the bleeding edge have to pay to play – the GeForce GTX 1080 isn’t cheap. In the end though, the GeForce GTX 1080 is one of the most impressive and well-rounded graphics cards we have tested to date. If you’re shopping for a high-end graphics card, the GeForce GTX 1080 is the one to get – bar none.
 |  |
|
|
