The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 & GTX 1070 Founders Editions Review: Kicking Off the FinFET Generation
by Ryan Smith on July 20, 2016 8:45 AM ESTGPU 2016 Benchmark Suite & The Test
As this is the first high-end card release for 2016, we have gone ahead and updated our video card benchmarking suite. Unfortunately Broadwell-E launched just a bit too late for this review, so we’ll have to hold off on updating the underlying platform to Intel’s latest and greatest for a little while longer yet.
For the 2016 suite we have retained Grand Theft Auto V, Battlefield 4, and of course, Crysis 3. Joining these games are 6 new games: Rise of the Tomb Raider, DiRT Rally, Ashes of the Singularity, The Witcher 3, The Division, and the 2016 rendition of Hitman.
| AnandTech GPU Bench 2016 Game List | ||||
| Game | Genre | API(s) | ||
| Rise of the Tomb Raider | Action | DX11 | ||
| DiRT Rally | Racing | DX11 | ||
| Ashes of the Singularity | RTS | DX12 | ||
| Battlefield 4 | FPS | DX11 | ||
| Crysis 3 | FPS | DX11 | ||
| The Witcher 3 | RPG | DX11 | ||
| The Division | FPS | DX11 | ||
| Grand Theft Auto V | Action/Open World | DX11 | ||
| Hitman (2016) | Action/Stealth | DX11 + DX12 | ||
As was the case in 2015, the API used will be based on the best API available for a given card. Rise of the Tomb Raider and Hitman both support DirectX 11 + DirectX 12; in the case of Tomb Raider the DX12 path was until last week a regression – a new patch changed things too late for this article – and meanwhile the best API for Hitman depends on whether we’re looking at an AMD or NVIDIA card. For now Tomb Raider is benchmarked using DX11 and Hitman on both DX11 and DX12. Meanwhile Ashes of the Singularity is essentially tailor made for DirectX 12, as the first DX12 game to be designed for it as opposed to porting over a DX11 engine, so it is being run under DX12 at all times.
Meanwhile from a design standpoint our benchmark settings remain unchanged. For lower-end cards we’ll look at 1080p at various quality settings when practical, and for high-end cards we’ll be looking at 1080p and above at the highest quality settings.
The Test
As for our hardware testbed, it remains unchanged from 2015, being composed of an overclocked Core i7-4960X housed in an NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition case.
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-4960X @ 4.2GHz |
| Motherboard: | ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional |
| Power Supply: | Corsair AX1200i |
| Hard Disk: | Samsung SSD 840 EVO (750GB) |
| Memory: | G.Skill RipjawZ DDR3-1866 4 x 8GB (9-10-9-26) |
| Case: | NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition |
| Monitor: | Asus PQ321 |
| Video Cards: | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 AMD Radeon RX 480 AMD Radeon Fury X AMD Radeon R9 Nano AMD Radeon R9 390X AMD Radeon R9 390 AMD Radeon HD 7970 |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA Release 368.39 AMD Radeon Software Crimson 16.7.1 (RX 480) AMD Radeon Software Crimson 16.6.2 (All Others) |
| OS: | Windows 10 Pro |
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Matt Doyle - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
Same page, "The latter is also a change from GTX 980, as NVIDIA has done from a digital + analog DVI port to a pure digital DVI port.""NVIDIA has gone"?
Matt Doyle - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
Rather, "Meet the GTX 1080" page, second to last paragraph.Matt Doyle - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
"Meet the GTX 1080..." page, "...demand first slow down to a point where board partners can make some informed decisions about what cards to produce."I believe you're missing the word "must" (or alternatively, "needs to") between "demand" and "first" in this sentence.
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
Thanks!supdawgwtfd - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
Didn't even finish reading the first page. The bias is overwhelming... So much emotional language...Good bye Anandtech. Had been a nice 14 years of reading but it's obvious now you have moved to so many other sites.
Shills who can't restrain their bias and review something without the love of a brand springing forth like a fountain.
Yes i created an account just for this soul reason...
The fucking 2 month wait is also not on.
But what to expect form children,
BMNify - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
Then just GTFO you idiot, on second thoughts crying your heart out may also help in this fanboy mental break down situation of yours.catavalon21 - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
You're joking, or a troll, or a clown. I complained about the time it took to get the full article, (to Ryan's credit, for the impatient ones of us just looking for numbers, he noted a while back that GPU bench was updated to include benchmarks for these cards), but this is exactly the kind of review that often has separated AT from numerous other sites. The description of the relatively crummy FP16 performance was solid and on point. From NV themselves teasing us with ads that half precision would rock our world, well, this review covers in great detail the reset of the story.Yeah, I know guys, I shouldn't dignify it with a response.
atlantico - Thursday, July 21, 2016 - link
Anandtech have always been nvidia shills. Sad they can't make a living without getting paid by nvidia, but they're not alone. Arstechnica is even worse and Tomshardware is way worse.brookheather - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
Typo page 12 - "not unlike AMD’s Pascal architecture" - think you mean Polaris?brookheather - Wednesday, July 20, 2016 - link
And another one on the last page: it keep the GPU industry - should be kept.