INTRODUCTION

   One of the things I’ve learned over the past 25 years is that the gaming industry never sleeps and that goes not only for game publishers and developers but also for all the hardware and peripherals manufacturers out there. So between all the VR devices currently released or being developed and the recent release of games like Tom Clancy’s The Division, DOOM, No Mans Sky and Mirrors Edge Catalyst and the upcoming release of titles like Star Citizen (Squadron 42), Battlefield 1, Watch Dogs 2, For Honor and Mass Effect Andromeda it only makes sense that gamers will soon (if they haven't not already) either turn towards the recently released GeForce GTX 1080/1070/1060 cards by NVIDIA or towards the Radeon RX480/470/460 models by AMD. Well it may have taken a while but on our test bench today we finally have the GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition which we'll be comparing against a good number of other cards in the market.

   NVIDIA is the world leader in visual computing. The GPU, our invention, serves as the visual cortex of modern computers and is at the heart of our products and services. Our work opens up new universes to explore, enables amazing creativity and discovery, and powers what were once science fiction inventions like artificial intelligence and autonomous cars. Beginning as a standard PC graphics chip company, NVIDIA has transformed into a specialized platform company that targets four very large markets — Gaming, Professional Visualization, Datacenter and Auto — where visual computing is essential and deeply valued. We are singularly focused on the field of visual computing with the ability to deliver our value through PC, mobile and cloud architectures. We are vertically integrated and bring together GPUs, system software, algorithms, systems and services to create unique value for the markets we serve.

   The GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card is based on NVIDIA's brand new Pascal architecture (GP104 processor) which features a total of 2560 CUDA cores, 160 TMUs (texture mapping units), 64 ROPs (raster operations pipelines) and a 256bit memory interface along with a total of 8GB GDDR5X RAM by our friends over at Micron (memory is effectively clocked at 10GHz). In terms of software the new Pascal architecture supports many new and interesting technologies such as Fast Sync (eliminates frame-tearing), Boost 3.0 (increases and reduces clocks according to temperature levels), Simultaneous Multi-Projection (optimal surround-view output), Ansel (in-game snapshots), HDR (10/12-bit High-dynamic-range imaging) and Asynchronous Compute (ability to run graphics and compute workloads concurrently). The base clock for this NVIDIA reference card (the Founders Edition as NVIDIA has named it) is set at 1607MHz while the memory clock is set at 1251MHz (1733MHz boost clock). Unfortunately our sample took its time getting here (seems it had to make a few stops on the way) but it's here now so let's get down to business.