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.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 8GB FOUNDERS EDITION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NVIDIA's package is quite simple so it just has part of the cards top imprinted at the front along with their logo.

 

 

Unlike custom GeForce GTX 1080 partner cards the Founders Edition model actually comes packed vertically as you can see from the above picture and (unfortunately) without any kind of bundle.

 

 

When the first pictures of the GTX 1080 saw the light people went crazy over its design and i can't blame them since this stock/reference cooler looks a lot better compared to their previous ones (plastic meets aluminum).

 

 

Personally i think that this acrylic window placed above the aluminum heatsink does resemble the hood of some sports cars like the Porsche GT (and yes i like it).

 

 

The reference design of the GeForce GTX 1080 uses a single centrifugal blower fan so noise levels could be high (the NVIDIA logo is placed right next to it).

 

 

At the rear we see that NVIDIA has placed two thin metal plates one of each (left part in this picture) is very easy to remove (if you want to improve airflow by opening up more space for a 2nd card in SLI).

 

 

In terms of display connectors the GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition has one DVI-D output, three DisplayPort v1.4 outputs and a HDMI v2.0b output (some custom cards released by NVIDIA partners already have different configurations but take up to 3 slots compared to the 2 of the Founders Edition).

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   Starting from scratch is not easy so as expected our GPU database will not include models not in our procession any longer. Of course all tests were performed using the latest drivers this time over but due to time issues and also because some older models are no longer in our hands sometimes this will simply not be possible (the drivers used will always be placed next to each card). The cards tested today and currently in our database are the following ones:

Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB GS - ForceWare v353.30
Gainward GeForce GTX 670 Phantom 2GB - ForceWare v353.30
ASUS GeForce GTX 960 Strix 2GB - ForceWare v353.30
MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2GB - ForceWare v353.30
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0 4GB - ForceWare 353.30
ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II 3GB - Catalyst 15.6 Beta
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 WindForce 3X OC 4GB – ForceWare v353.30
Inno3D GeForce GTX 980 iChill Ultra 4GB – ForceWare v353.30
MSI Radeon R9 380 Gaming 2G – Catalyst 15.8 Beta
ASUS Radeon R9 Fury STRIX 4GB – Crimson 16.3.2
HIS Radeon R7 360 GREEN iCooler OC 2GB – Crimson 16.6.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition 8GB – ForceWare v368.81

     Once again the screen used for all the benchmarks is our primary NEC 30" 3090WQXi LCD with a maximum resolution of 2560x1600. However we decided to change things to make it easier for us to perform tests so our testing methodology now includes a total of 7 games benchmarked in two different resolutions (2560X1600 and 1920X1200) and with all quality settings set to maximum (AA and AF are not applicable in our tests). The 7 game titles we're currently using consist from both old ones we've used in the past and new ones including Alien Isolation, Bioshock Infinite, Battlefield 4, Metro Last Light, RYSE Son Of Rome, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt and Tom Clancy’s The. Power saving is disabled in the cards we’re testing (or turned to maximum performance) and all tests are repeated a total of 6 times and in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 installation. Room temperature is as usual controlled and steady at 23 degrees Celsius for all tests and to record the temperatures of the cards we used AIDA64 (former Everest Ultimate by Lavalys) and GPU-Z. Recording noise levels is done with an ExTech HD600 dBA meter from a distance of no more than 5-10cm away while power consumption is measured using both with a voltmeter and an amperometer (GPU-Z sometimes comes in handy in this as well).

 

 

TEST RESULTS – ALIEN ISOLATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – RYSE SON OF ROME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – BATTLEFIELD 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – BIOSHOCK INFINITE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – METRO LAST LIGHT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – TOM CLANCYS THE DIVISION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – THE WITCHER 3 WILD HUNT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – POWER CONSUMPTION / NOISE LEVELS / TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – OVERCLOCKING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Overclocking the fastest consumer oriented model by NVIDIA was easier than we had thought and so we managed to push the base clock to 2060MHz (roughly 10% improvement on boost clocks) and the memory clock to 1450MHz (almost 16% up compared to stock).

  
Our OC gave us roughly a 10% boost in both Alien Isolation and Battlefield 4 (temperatures increased 6 degrees under load).

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   With the recent release of their GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition graphics card NVIDIA seems to be determined to dominate the enthusiast segment of the market like they have for many years now and since i was never into very expensive cards i can understand why people consider this line to be at the top right now. Performance is superb (and obviously much higher than expected by most people), power consumption is very low (not even 200W at load – even the GTX 970 used more) and overclocking potential is extremely good (10%+ boost in games is not a small amount with the FPS this card gets). Unfortunately the centrifugal blower fan although completely silent when not playing games (sometimes it doesn’t even spin) is quite loud when playing games and I can go as far to say that it’s not quite sufficient when the card is overclocked since one time during testing it switched to reduced clocks (via the Boost 3.0 feature). NVIDIA partners have already released models with 2 and even 3 fans which should offer reduced temperatures (and thus even better performance thanks to Boost 3.0) but at the same time some of those models take up 3 slots and when you have plenty of PCIe cards to install in your system (or if you want to place three cards in SLI) this is obviously not ideal. Finally as you can all see we added two more games in our benchmarks (we also planned to add the Dreadnought Beta benchmark but it's not very reliable yet) which were tested with the cards we have here and with all the latest drivers (still to not confuse people in with this in upcoming reviews we chose not to mention it earlier).

   If you look right now online you will see that purchasing the GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition 8GB model is not really easy since pretty much every NVIDIA partner sells it under their brand name. Ontop of that there are many custom models out in the market now that cost even less and probably offer less temperatures and better performance across the board. Still for this specific review we need to point out that the Founder Edition currently retails for USD699.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com – ZOTAC) and for 789Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de – GAINWARD). Leaving out the noise levels and the less than “stellar” reference cooler I really can’t find anything wrong with the brand new GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition 8GB by NVIDIA (on the contrary we all are very happy with it) and that’s why it grabs our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Superior Build Quality
- Superb Performance
- Features (Fast Sync / Simultaneous Multi-Projection / Ansel / HDR / Asynchronous Compute / Boost 3.0)
- Design (For Some)
- Low Power Consumption
- Very Good Overclock Headroom
- HDMI v2.0b / 3x DisplayPort v1.4 / DVI-D
- 8GB GDDR5X

 

CONS

- Noise Levels At Load
- OC Temperatures
- Price (Compared To Custom Models)