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Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 reviews and benchmarks

danthefan

Member
Are you still gaming on a 2500k/3570k (OC) and want a 1080?. Get a new CPU first

Shit :(

I'm on a 2600k. There is simply no way I afford a new CPU, GPU, and the GSync monitor I have my eye on at the moment. Might make 2 out of 3. So how do I proceed?
 

NateTheSaint

Neo Member
Shit :(

I'm on a 2600k. There is simply no way I afford a new CPU, GPU, and the GSync monitor I have my eye on at the moment. Might make 2 out of 3. So how do I proceed?

i7 2600k? That's still fine for gaming. I mean sure, you'll get a few extra fps with a newer cpu but you'll still be fine with a 1080 and your current cpu.
 
I am thinking of jumping on board PC gaming and of course I will have to get a brand new setup built around a GTX1080. Couple of questions:

1. Is it worth getting an i7 or an i5 will suffice? Would a game "run better" if I splash a bit more and get an i7?

2. I would assume that a Micro ATX case is out of question? I have a Bit Fenix Prodigy case which I really like, it would be nice to keep using it.

3. What sort of PSU would be necessary? In term of wattage

4. I have been noticing that some motherboards support NVMe hard drives. Do these provide a real advantage over normal SSD? It seems NVMe are pretty much in their infancy.

5. How do I transfer my current Windows 10 licence from my old PC (which won't be used any more) to the new one?

Thanks =)
 

wiggleb0t

Banned
Shit :(

I'm on a 2600k. There is simply no way I afford a new CPU, GPU, and the GSync monitor I have my eye on at the moment. Might make 2 out of 3. So how do I proceed?

Have you OC the cpu? I've got a 3770k at 4.6. Had it at 4.7 but went down a notch.
Will consider an 6-8core cpu if BF1 needs as much cpu cores/threads and gpu as possible to play at high fps. If not then a quad core i7 overclocked still handles everything fine.

You'l likely hit 4.5ghz with an after market cooler.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Considering the relative rush of people trying to sell their 980ti's, what do you think I could reasonably grab one for? I was going to get the 1070, but it seems like performance will be relatively similar.

Considering how much more expensive a 980ti is compared to a 1070, even discounted ones are going to be around the same price as a 1070. And a 1070 should be around he same performance as a 980ti, with twice the memory and some extra features that could be useful for VR in the future.
 
That is a big decision to make. Is the 1440p you are looking at limited to 60fps? or are you going 1440p at 120-144? 4k/60 is very demanding as well and the 1080 comes closest so far to hitting it, but depending on the game it does not do it. I would assume based on the 1080 specs and benchmarks that if things develop we could see a 1080ti or Titan level Pascal can finally hit 4k/60fps with a single card. Unlike others, I have have not had many issues with SLI so I don't mind using that tech, but for now, I am waiting to see what happens over the next 3 months or so before I decide if I want to move to a new card.

I definitely plan on getting a 120-144hz if I get a 1440p monitor.
 

danthefan

Member
What's your current setup?

i7 2600k? That's still fine for gaming. I mean sure, you'll get a few extra fps with a newer cpu but you'll still be fine with a 1080 and your current cpu.

Have you OC the cpu? I've got a 3770k at 4.6. Had it at 4.7 but went down a notch.
Will consider an 6-8core cpu if BF1 needs as much cpu cores/threads and gpu as possible to play at high fps. If not then a quad core i7 overclocked still handles everything fine.

You'l likely hit 4.5ghz with an after market cooler.

I've the 2600k OCd to 4.2, 16gb RAM, and a GTX580.

I really don't want to replace the CPU at the moment, I don't need to be at the bleeding edge and 1440p will do me fine for now.
 

ISee

Member
I am thinking of jumping on board PC gaming and of course I will have to get a brand new setup built around a GTX1080. Couple of questions:

1. Is it worth getting an i7 or an i5 will suffice? Would a game "run better" if I splash a bit more and get an i7?

2. I would assume that a Micro ATX case is out of question? I have a Bit Fenix Prodigy case which I really like, it would be nice to keep using it.

3. What sort of PSU would be necessary? In term of wattage

4. I have been noticing that some motherboards support NVMe hard drives. Do these provide a real advantage over normal SSD? It seems NVMe are pretty much in their infancy.

5. How do I transfer my current Windows 10 licence from my old PC (which won't be used any more) to the new one?

Thanks =)

We have a system builder thread. You might want to ask that question there to get more responses and different opinions.

1. Yeah it will improve your perfromance in CPU heavy games and the ability to handle 8 threads (even on a 4core CPU) could become more and more important in the future. Still an i5 6600k should be able to even outlive current consoles and the slightly upgraded models we're getting next year (or so).

2. Perfromance wise? Absolutely not. You just have to be more carefull when picking parts (size starts to matter). Also temperatures/cooling could become a problem if you want to overclock. But there are good designed mini itx solutions for that. People can recommend you some great mini itx build in the other thread.

3.Probably something around 550W-600W.

4.They're great and very fast. And I'll get one in the future (as my main OS drive). The thing is they're still a bit too expansive right now and in nomral daily life scenarios (gaming, office stuff, browsing) not really necessary. Going for a larger (or even 2) 'normal' SSD(s) with more space for your first build makes more sense.

5. Easy. After you upgraded your win 7/8 copy of windows (via the win 10 free update tool), you can use your old win7/8 key to install and register a fresh win 10 copy. The important thing is: You have to do the free update first!
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
In my opinion, all of this feels like a new sub-generation from the 28nm years. I mean the jumps in performance during the entire 28nm generation, this is what the 1080's improvements feel to me, not so much as a brand new generation on a new smaller node at all to be frank. It feels like we are starting to hit that same brick wall that cpu's hit years ago that continue on to this day. AMD still has yet to show its cards so there is hope that they will come with something nice that will push Nvidia to put something out much more compelling.

I don't see any need for anyone in the high end/enthusiast level to upgrade to a 1080 for the simple fact the 1080 is still not able to hit that golden mark of 4k/60fps. Maybe the 1080Ti will...i would hope so. Personally i opted for a 390 8gb only because i had a inclination this would happen and that is why i felt the only worthy upgrade last year was getting a card with 8gb since i game at 1080p only at the moment. People say you don't need more than 4gb for 1080p but make no mistake about it....YOU WILL Need more than 4gb for 1080p gaming. Heck, i remember when people were swearing up and down that you don't need no more than 1gb of vram for 1080p...and we know how all that turned out.

I think AMD will really push on the DirectX12 efficiency with their Polaris cards that will catch a lot of folks off guard but in a good way, of course.


It's a small first chip though - only 300 sq mm Vs 400 for the 980 and 600 for the 980ti. So most of the performance increase probably is just coming from the clock speed, but that clock speed is enabled by the node shrink. And it still significantly outperforms the 980ti where normally you'd be comparing to the 980 which it replaces.

If the 980ti is a big chip (don't know if they can hit 600 sq mm) then it could be a huge performer.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
I am thinking of jumping on board PC gaming and of course I will have to get a brand new setup built around a GTX1080. Couple of questions:

1. Is it worth getting an i7 or an i5 will suffice? Would a game "run better" if I splash a bit more and get an i7?

2. I would assume that a Micro ATX case is out of question? I have a Bit Fenix Prodigy case which I really like, it would be nice to keep using it.

3. What sort of PSU would be necessary? In term of wattage

4. I have been noticing that some motherboards support NVMe hard drives. Do these provide a real advantage over normal SSD? It seems NVMe are pretty much in their infancy.

5. How do I transfer my current Windows 10 licence from my old PC (which won't be used any more) to the new one?

Thanks =)


I'm wondering the same. I know my prodigy case will be fine, but as I'll be replacing my 970/3570k/ram/motherboard, part of me wonders whether to sell that as a whole system and just start over. I'm basically just reusing my SSD, case and PSU at that point.
 

ISee

Member
I'm wondering the same. I know my prodigy case will be fine, but as I'll be replacing my 970/3570k/ram/motherboard, part of me wonders whether to sell that as a whole system and just start over. I'm basically just reusing my SSD, case and PSU at that point.

I'd sell the 970 separately and the 3570k, ram and mobo as a bundle.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Meant to post this in this thread.

I wonder how the AU prices will translate. The MSI 980Ti Gaming, for example, is US$689.99 on NewEgg. PCCG has it for AU$$949. Direct currency conversion is AU$948.91, so that's about bang on. No doubt we'll get taxed to fuck.

Despite the relatively small increase in performance, I've mentally sold myself on a 1080 coming off a 980Ti. The extra VRAM will be beneficial as more games use nicer assets and textures while I play at 1440p. And honestly at these resolutions every extra bit of performance counts.

I'd rather not get a reference card though, and instead wait to see what MSI and co offer, especially OC'd variants. Anybody have a guestimate for how long it'll take until these hit?
 

eerik9000

Member
Shit :(

I'm on a 2600k. There is simply no way I afford a new CPU, GPU, and the GSync monitor I have my eye on at the moment. Might make 2 out of 3. So how do I proceed?

I think you'll be fine with 2600K for now. There aren't that many CPU-heavy games where it could become a serious bottleneck. If you want to upgrade then you might as well hop onto the new LGA 1151 socket, which would require a new motherboard and DDR4 RAM as well.
 
We have a system builder thread. You might want to ask that question there to get more responses and different opinions.

1. Yeah it will improve your perfromance in CPU heavy games and the ability to handle 8 threads (even on a 4core CPU) could become more and more important in the future. Still an i5 6600k should be able to even outlive current consoles and the slightly upgraded models we're getting next year (or so).

2. Perfromance wise? Absolutely not. You just have to be more carefull when picking parts (size starts to matter). Also temperatures/cooling could become a problem if you want to overclock. But there are good designed mini itx solutions for that. People can recommend you some great mini itx build in the other thread.

3.Probably something around 550W-600W.

4.They're great and very fast. And I'll get one in the future (as my main OS drive). The thing is they're still a bit too expansive right now and in nomral daily life scenarios (gaming, office stuff, browsing) not really necessary. Going for a larger (or even 2) 'normal' SSD(s) with more space for your first build makes more sense.

5. Easy. After you upgraded your win 7/8 copy of windows (via the win 10 free update tool), you can use your old win7/8 key to install and register a fresh win 10 copy. The important thing is: You have to do the free update first!

Fantastic thanks =)

And I will definitely check out the other thread!
 

danthefan

Member
I think you'll be fine with 2600K for now. There aren't that many CPU-heavy games where it could become a serious bottleneck. If you want to upgrade then you might as well hop onto the new LGA 1151 socket, which would require a new motherboard and DDR4 RAM as well.

Thanks, sounds like I'll be OK for the time being. I'm fairly sure I have DDR4 already. Think I'll go for the card and then a year or two down the line do the CPU.
 

ISee

Member
Meant to post this in this thread.

I wonder how the AU prices will translate. The MSI 980Ti Gaming, for example, is US$689.99 on NewEgg. PCCG has it for AU$$949. Direct currency conversion is AU$948.91, so that's about bang on. No doubt we'll get taxed to fuck.

Despite the relatively small increase in performance, I've mentally sold myself on a 1080 coming off a 980Ti. The extra VRAM will be beneficial as more games use nicer assets and textures while I play at 1440p. And honestly at these resolutions every extra bit of performance counts.

I'd rather not get a reference card though, and instead wait to see what MSI and co offer, especially OC'd variants. Anybody have a guestimate for how long it'll take until these hit?

~ 4 weeks.

Thanks, sounds like I'll be OK for the time being. I'm fairly sure I have DDR4 already. Think I'll go for the card and then a year or two down the line do the CPU.

If you're on a 2600k you for sure don't have ddr 4. If you bought your cpu back in 2011 you most probably have 1333 or 1600 mhz ddr3.
 
Thanks, sounds like I'll be OK for the time being. I'm fairly sure I have DDR4 already. Think I'll go for the card and then a year or two down the line do the CPU.

You don't have DDR4. That CPU only supports DDR3. As said, it's fine for now.

However, when you upgrade, it will be CPU, MOBO, and RAM altogether.
 

danthefan

Member
If you're on a 2600k you for sure don't have ddr 4. If you bought your cpu back in 2011 you most probably have 1333 or 1600 mhz ddr3.

You don't have DDR4. That CPU only supports DDR3. As said, it's fine for now.

However, when you upgrade, it will be CPU, MOBO, and RAM altogether.

Hah OK then fair enough. I'll wait a bit then and buy a mobo, CPU over clocked bundle.

Thanks for all the advice!

Edit, looked up my order on Amazon, it's DDR3 1600 MHz.
 

Genio88

Member
People right now are comparing a reference 1080 model with overclocked 980Ti custom designs. The thing is: 3d party 1080 models will be (probably) able to reach 2ghz. The 30% gap will most likely stay.

IMO:

You don't care, you want the best: Wait for the 1080Ti or at least for 3d party 1080 models.
4k: Wait for 1080Ti and vega benchmarks .
1440p (owning a 980Ti or Fury X): No need to upgrade atm
1080p (owning a 980 or 390X): No need to upgrade atm, if you're willing to set shadows to very high instead of ultra.
1080p (owning a 970 or 390): Are you unhappy with overall high-v.high quality settings and 1080p@60fps? Wait for Polaris 10 and 1070 benchmarks.
Are you still gaming on a 2500k/3570k (OC) and want a 1080?. Get a new CPU first.

Everybody else: Wait for Polaris 10 and 1070 benchmarks or go for the 1080 if you want to go above 1080p.

Just my opinion, people have different reasons for upgrading. Some really feel the urge to be able to max out everything, other want to feel VR ready, other want to own the very best other want to 'future proof'. It's all viable.

I fit that category, i7 4770k/GTX980 OC and i play on a 1080p 42" IPS TV... definitely not gonna upgrade until later next year, when perhaps even newer Nvidia GPUs will be released and for sure the 14nm AMD and HBM2 memory will be out too, so the situation will be more clear and prices fair...
Funny though how you get that specific like "...set the shadows to very high instead of ultra" i had a good laugh on that cause to me every game is different, it's not like shadows are what always kill games performance, for example in the latest demanding games i've been playing like Forza 6 Apex, Doom and The Witcher 3 Heart Stone i always got steady 60fps on 1080p and everything set on Ultra
 

ISee

Member
I fit that category, i7 4770k/GTX980 OC and i play on a 1080p 42" IPS TV... definitely not gonna upgrade until later next year, when perhaps even newer Nvidia GPUs will be released and for sure the 14nm AMD and HBM2 memory will be out too, so the situation will be more clear and prices fair...
Funny though how you get that specific like "...set the shadows to very high instead of ultra" i had a good laugh on that cause to me every game is different, it's not like shadows are what always kill games performance, for example in the latest demanding games i've been playing like Forza 6 Apex, Doom and The Witcher 3 Heart Stone i always got steady 60fps on 1080p and everything set on Ultra

I know and I'm also on a 'descently' overclocked gtx 980. But often enough shadows are what I have to turn down to get steady 1080p/60. But maybe your overclock is even higher, no idea.

Also:
Doom 4 has a nightmare setting for shadows... so yeah we have to turn it down one notch ;)
And I'm definitely not able to go for ultra shadows in witcher 3, my fps drop to 56ish in a few spots under certain situations (e.g. noticed during early game testing). And yeah some drops to 56 are fine and normally not a reason to adjust settings but still it's per definition not steady.
 

mcmmaster

Member
I want to see how games like Street Fighter 5 & Dark Souls 3 would handle at 4K on the 1080.

Must have gone through 10 sites in the OP and its like they're all benchmarking the same ultra heavy realistic games.
 

spyshagg

Should not be allowed to breed
Guru3D review painted an interest picture on the OLD KINGS

If you keep your purchases for 2-3 years before upgrading, you should take notice.

5or501S.jpg
 
3570k and 1080 wont go together well?

They will, though if you're playing at 1080p you'll be CPU limited, and you'd see pretty healthy gains going to a newer CPU. I assume yours is overclocked a good bit anyway.

If you're playing at higher resolutions you'll probably be GPU limited in most titles, so it's less important.

Given the choice between a new CPU or a 1080 for your 3570k, I'd go for the 1080 (assuming you don't have, e.g. a 980 Ti right now...).
 

Zojirushi

Member
3570k and 1080 wont go together well?

There are some people hellbent on upgrading CPUs in this thread but I|m gonna say OC your CPU (I got mine to 4,2 GH by just adjusting the multiplier without any voltage stuff so that's essentially a free built-in OC), upgrade your GPU and then see where that gets you. Depending on resolutions and preferred framerate there's a high chance you won't notice anything.

If you do, well you can always upgrade your CPU later.

Obiously the smartest thing would be to wait a bit and see if sites put out benchmarks with different CPUs for example.
 
People right now are comparing a reference 1080 model with overclocked 980Ti custom designs. The thing is: 3d party 1080 models will be (probably) able to reach 2ghz. The 30% gap will most likely stay.

IMO:

You don't care, you want the best: Wait for the 1080Ti or at least for 3d party 1080 models.
4k: Wait for 1080Ti and vega benchmarks .
1440p (owning a 980Ti or Fury X): No need to upgrade atm
1080p (owning a 980 or 390X): No need to upgrade atm, if you're willing to set shadows to very high instead of ultra.
1080p (owning a 970 or 390): Are you unhappy with overall high-v.high quality settings and 1080p@60fps? Wait for Polaris 10 and 1070 benchmarks.
Are you still gaming on a 2500k/3570k (OC) and want a 1080?. Get a new CPU first.

Everybody else: Wait for Polaris 10 and 1070 benchmarks or go for the 1080 if you want to go above 1080p.

Just my opinion, people have different reasons for upgrading. Some really feel the urge to be able to max out everything, other want to feel VR ready, other want to own the very best other want to 'future proof'. It's all viable.

Good post.
 

dr_rus

Member
About "planned obsolescence"... It's not that Nvidia is evil and deliberately gimps older models. The situation is a bit more subtle.

You have a certain amount of dev-hours to allocate on optimization. This both at the software house as well Nvidia engineers doing drivers work. A driver you can download and install has taken months to develop and test, it's not a last-minute thing.

When a brand new model launches of course most of the engineers are moved to focus on those. Same for the software house. When they see there's a model the majority of customers use, it makes sense to spend hours optimizing and testing that model. It's simply a business evaluation.

So, these days, as long a game runs without crashing or bugs on a 7xx model, Nvidia is happy. While they focus their optimization to take care of the newer models. With time, those dev-hours will be moved from the 9xx models to the 10xx models, and naturally the gap between those videocards will increase, as it will increase the hardware requirements on the games.

If two years ago a 770 was the standard for high settings 1080p/60fps, now the performance is halved and that slot is owned by a 970. Wait another two years and you'll need a 1070 to aim at a similar target of high settings 1080p/60fps. (unless VR and the new consoles make it even worse)

There are usually a number of different factors at play, but that's the end result you see.
Again, Maxwell and Pascal are basically one architecture. Moving something from Maxwell to Pascal won't affect Maxwell as much as it did with Kepler.

Even still the whole "lack of optimization" argument is stupid as there's only so much you can do with driver optimization anyway. Kepler is struggling because it was created for workloads which doesn't exist today, it was never supposed to be running console GCN code. That's the main reason why it struggles in some titles these days, not some lack of driver support or optimizations.

Guru3D review painted an interest picture on the OLD KINGS

If you keep your purchases for 2-3 years before upgrading, you should take notice

Now you should explain what's this has to do with Pascal reviews.
 

nOoblet16

Member
Again, Maxwell and Pascal are basically one architecture. Moving something from Maxwell to Pascal won't affect Maxwell as much as it did with Kepler.

Even still the whole "lack of optimization" argument is stupid as there's only so much you can do with driver optimization anyway. Kepler is struggling because it was created for workloads which doesn't exist today, it was never supposed to be running console GCN code. That's the main reason why it struggles in some titles these days, not some lack of driver support or optimizations.



Now you should explain what's this has to do with Pascal reviews.

Which workloads would that be?

And is it because it came out the same year as PS4Bone and as such was made without the knowledge of how PS4Bone games would be coded?
 

Sevenfold

Member
I think I can skip this gen, unless the 1080ti is 4k 60 with headroom, I'm happy in 980ti land.
I game on a 55" 1080p tv, and downsample what I can from 1440p which is everything with barely a concession. At 2160p I'm hardly noticing the difference in IQ possibly because I use 18% smoothing for DSR. 2160p without smoothing introduces a slight, but noticeable shimmer (tv is good and game mode) when slow panning (4 pixels to choose from?)
So given choice of gaming on a tv, distance from it, and happiness with DSR and 1440p I can't see a reason to upgrade yet. I think the 1080ti will be a great all in one VR solution for gen 1 at least, and founder shittiness aside, the 1070 is going to be in a lot of PCs for 1080p gaming.
 

spyshagg

Should not be allowed to breed
nvidia knew all consoles went with GCN years before they released. About the same year their own negotiations failed with sony/ms, circa 2008-2009? yeah.
 

Renekton

Member
Which workloads would that be?

And is it because it came out the same year as PS4Bone and as such was made without the knowledge of how PS4Bone games would be coded?
I don't understand the workloads either... shouldn't a game just be making calls to DirectX in Xbone just like in PC?
 

Pit

Member
If not 4K or Wide, you may need to OC the CPU to prevent it becoming a bottleneck.

They will, though if you're playing at 1080p you'll be CPU limited, and you'd see pretty healthy gains going to a newer CPU. I assume yours is overclocked a good bit anyway.

If you're playing at higher resolutions you'll probably be GPU limited in most titles, so it's less important.

Given the choice between a new CPU or a 1080 for your 3570k, I'd go for the 1080 (assuming you don't have, e.g. a 980 Ti right now...).

There are some people hellbent on upgrading CPUs in this thread but I|m gonna say OC your CPU (I got mine to 4,2 GH by just adjusting the multiplier without any voltage stuff so that's essentially a free built-in OC), upgrade your GPU and then see where that gets you. Depending on resolutions and preferred framerate there's a high chance you won't notice anything.

If you do, well you can always upgrade your CPU later.

Obiously the smartest thing would be to wait a bit and see if sites put out benchmarks with different CPUs for example.

Thx for the replies. Got my 3570k at 4.0 so ill push her up a few more. I have a 970, should be a worth while upgrade. I am planning to go 1440p after I get the card, then grab a monitor.
 

BigTnaples

Todd Howard's Secret GAF Account
Is there any review where they test Simultaneous Multi-Projection, specifically for VR?



This is what I was looking forward too, but it's looking more like it would have to be patched in on a game by game basis. Unless I am wrong..?
 

thuway

Member
No problem. Every buyer should be aware

I've noticed something similar with my 280X. It's like whenever a new game launches, the AMD cards seem to be truncated in comparison, over time they.... eventually get up to and exceed performance of the Nvidia cards. If AMD continues this trend (and I'm watching for Doom performance numbers) - I may purchase a Polaris GPU at a value price point.
 
I don't care anymore. I will upgrade from GTX 780 to 1080; I would obviously get the 1080ti but I can't wait and skip summer because of that (I might sell the 1080 and upgrade if I find a good deal).
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Reminder: I called it.

I just didn't call the long, ridiculous price gouging that is forcing us to wait.
 

Kysen

Member
The wait for the AIB cards is going to be hard. I just don't like blower fans and that reference design doing 80c+ in benchmarks is worrying.
 
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