The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition Review: Bigger Pascal for Better Performance
by Ryan Smith on March 9, 2017 9:00 AM ESTDiRT Rally
For the racing game in our benchmark suite we have Codemasters’ DiRT Rally. Codemasters continues to set the bar for graphical fidelity in racing games, delivering realistic looking environments with layered with additional graphical effects. Based on their in-house EGO engine, DiRT Rally includes a number of DirectCompute based compute shader effects, and while it’s not the most punishing game in our suite, it still takes a very good card to sustain the 60fps frame rate that driving games are best played at.
With DiRT Rally, the GTX 1080 was already capable of breaking 60fps at 4K, so the GTX 1080 Ti just adds to the lead here. Though it’s not for naught; with high refresh rate 4K monitors due a bit later this year, the GTX 1080 Ti will be a good match. Otherwise for high refresh rate 1440p monitors, the GTX 1080 Ti is the first card that should be able to peg those monitors at their full 144Hz refresh rate.
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mapesdhs - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
Some 780 Ti owners may have oc'd their cards that high, but not many I suspect. I've been searching for 780 Ti cards for a while, for CUDA, most tend to be around 980MHz at best.mapesdhs - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
Also recall one model which was 1002MHz.Chaser - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
Glad to see I have no need for a card that powerful and expensive. I run a single 27" 2K IPS monitor and my Gigabyte Extreme gaming 1080 is more than enough to keep me on the high end for years to come. 4K is 90% bragging rights in terms of visible difference and also game developer support.sharath.naik - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
I think you may need to consider multi monitor gaming. Then this card makes sense if you want to use this in a small case that allows only one GPU.mapesdhs - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
Depends on the game and what kind of detail one likes. Site reviews and forum commentaries also don't take into account game mods which often significantly increase the GPU load (check out the OCN Best Skyrim Pics thread, have a look at the builds people are using).I like to play games with all details/settings at maxed out. Thus, such a card is very relevant. Sure, plenty of players don't mind if the fps drops to 30 or 40, but some like it smooth at a minimum. I've currently no interest in high frequency monitors (which ironically can sensitise one's vision anyway), but I do seek 60Hz minimum sync'd, something I can't get atm with a single 980 at 1920x1200. I plan on moving up to 4K soon; with a 1080 Ti, and likely being able to get away with turning of some of the AA options because of the higher pixel density (which regains performance), minimum 60Hz looks very possible.
It depends on one's needs; everyone has different thresholds of what they're happy with.
Chaser - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
Very well written, balanced review. Nicely done Ryan.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
+1!nismotigerwvu - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
Quality work as always Ryan! I spotted a minor typo on the conclusions page "Because the GeForce GTX 1080 Tii Founder’s Edition isn’t NVIDIA’s first GP102-based product". Did a little midnight coffee spill and make that i key sticky? :)BrokenCrayons - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
Typo/Error also on Page 4 of the review in the line that reads:"For our review of the GTX 1060, we’re using NVIDIA’s 378.78 driver."
Probably should be "GTX 1080 Ti"
The table directly below that line is also missing the GTX 1080 Ti in the video cards section.
Ryan Smith - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
Thanks!