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 ESTGrand Theft Auto V
The latest edition of Rockstar’s venerable series of open world action games, Grand Theft Auto V was originally released to the last-gen consoles back in 2013. However thanks to a rather significant facelift for the current-gen consoles and PCs, along with the ability to greatly turn up rendering distances and add other features like MSAA and more realistic shadows, the end result is a game that is still among the most stressful of our benchmarks when all of its features are turned up. Furthermore, in a move rather uncharacteristic of most open world action games, Grand Theft Auto also includes a very comprehensive benchmark mode, giving us a great chance to look into the performance of an open world action game.
On a quick note about settings, as Grand Theft Auto V doesn't have pre-defined settings tiers, I want to quickly note what settings we're using. For "Very High" quality we have all of the primary graphics settings turned up to their highest setting, with the exception of grass, which is at its own very high setting. Meanwhile 4x MSAA is enabled for direct views and reflections. This setting also involves turning on some of the advanced redering features - the game's long shadows, high resolution shadows, and high definition flight streaming - but it not increasing the view distance any further.
Otherwise for "High" quality we take the same basic settings but turn off all MSAA, which significantly reduces the GPU rendering and VRAM requirements.
Grand Theft Auto V is another game where the GTX 1080 Ti won’t quite reach 60fps at 4K with all the bells & whistles, but it gets close in doing so. Given that this was originally a console game that ran at 30fps, 51.1 should make a lot of people reasonably satisfied, but there’s always room for improvement.
Relative to the GTX 980 Ti, this is actually the GTX 1080 Ti’s best game; it picks up a better-than-average 83% in performance. I suspect that GTAV is an outlier that is especially memory bandwidth sensitive, benefitting from the combination of a raw 44% increase in memory bandwidth from the previous generation, and NVIDIA’s improved memory compression technology on the Pascal architecture.
Looking at the minimum framerates, the story is much the same. For gamers looking for high minimum framerates, the GTX 1080 Ti is the first card that can deliver better than 30fps at the 99th percentile. So while it can’t average 60fps, it also will never drop to the 30fps rate that its console counterparts are capped at in the first place.
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ddriver - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
Also, granted, there are some amd optimized games, albeit few and far in between. But that doesn't excuse what nvidia does, nor does it justify it.Besides it was nvidia who started this practice, amd does simply try its best to balance things out, but they don't have nowhere nearly the resources.
amd optimized games are so rare, than out of my many contacts in the industry, I don't know a single one. So I cannot speak of the kinds of terms amd offers their assistance. I can only do that for nvidia's terms.
If amd's terms for support are just as exclusive as nvidia's, then amd is being guilty too. But even then, that doesn't make nvidia innocent. It makes amd guilty, and it makes nvidia like a 100 times guiltier.
eddman - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
What terms? Are we back to "If we help, you cannot optimize your game for AMD"? How do you know there are such terms?Also, you said the entire helping out thing is illegal, terms or no terms. Now it's illegal only if there are certain terms?
ddriver - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
Read the reply above. nvidia doesn't state the terms, because that would be illegal, the terms are implied, and they refuse further support if you break them... and worse... so it is a form of legal briberyand since their drivers are closed source, any hindrances they might implement to hamper your software remain a secret, but hey, there is a good reason why those drivers keep getting more and more bloated
eddman - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
What if is nothing implied? Why are you so sure something must be implied if they're helping a dev? What if they simply want that game to work best with their hardware because it's an important game in their mind and might help sell some cards?We are heavily into guessing and assuming territory.
I'm not saying shady stuff doesn't happen at all, but to think that it happens all the time without exception would be extreme exaggeration.
ddriver - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
There is no "nothing implied". It doesn't take a genius to figure what nvidia's motivation for helping is. Of course, if it is an important, prominent title, nvidia might help out even if the studio optimizes for amd just to save face.But then again, nvidia support can vary a lot, it can be just patching up something that would make them look bad, it can be free graphics cards and strippers as in the case of our lad above. I am sure he didn't optimize for amd. I mean that developers don't really care all that much how well their software runs, if it runs bad, just get a faster gpu. They care about how much pampering they get. So even in the case of a studio which is too big for nvidia to blackmail, there is still ample motivation to please it for the perks which they won't be getting from amd.
There is no assuming in what I say. I know this first hand. nvidia is very kind and generous to those willing to play ball, and and very thuggish with those who don't. So it doesn't come as a surprise if most of the developers chose to be on its good side. The more you please nvidia, the more you get from it, if tomorrow you apply for a job, and there is a sexy chick competing for the position, it can get the job by blowing the manager, and even if you would too, he is not into guys. You are not in the position to compete, and it is an unethical thing that wins her the job. U happy about it?
eddman - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
You know this first hand how? You are claiming a lot and providing nothing concrete.eddman - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
I already listed the motivation. Game runs good on their cards. People buy their cards.cocochanel - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
I don't understand your stubbornness. What ddriver is alluding to is questionable practices. In a free market system, fierce competition and all that, it becomes the norm. But it doesn't make it right. Free markets, you know, are like democracy. And you probably know what good old Winston had to say about that.eddman - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
No, he's outright calling such partnerships illegal. He claims to have "first hand" info but reveals nothing.Hardware companies working with software studios has been going on for decades. It wasn't illegal then and it isn't now.
DMCalloway - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
Agreed. Had Intel been fined the true value of what it gained with global dominance over the next 10+ years, things would be vastly different in Sunnyvale right now. So much so I would even speculate that Green team's only hope of viability would have come in the form of an acquisition on Blue team's part.