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Reviews<br />
3DMark Fire Strike Ultra<br />
Alien: Isolation 1080p Ultra<br />
Thief 1080p Ultra<br />
VRMark Blue Room<br />
11GB, but it runs 10 percent quicker<br />
at 11GHz. These higher frequencies<br />
are likely thanks to that improved<br />
dualFET power supply. The table<br />
opposite is a quick summary of how<br />
it compares to the 1080 and its<br />
predecessor, the 980 Ti.<br />
So, the 1080 Ti makes the Titan X<br />
irrelevant for gamers, as it is £300<br />
cheaper. But it doesn’t make the<br />
1080 irrelevant, mainly thanks to<br />
its large price drop, which makes it<br />
much better value than before.<br />
The 1080 Ti is faster, but unless<br />
you want to pay that extra £200 to<br />
turn up the quality to maximum at<br />
4K or run a multi-monitor set-up,<br />
you could easily get away with a<br />
1080 and still play at 4K.<br />
If you’re coming from a GTX<br />
980 Ti, the 1080 Ti is – in some<br />
cases – twice as fast. On average,<br />
it’s roughly 60 percent quicker.<br />
That’s a massive increase, and you<br />
will need that extra performance<br />
if you’ve just bought a 4K monitor<br />
or a VR headset. But, as we’ve said,<br />
you’ll still enjoy around a 30 percent<br />
boost by upgrading to the cheaper<br />
1080. Plus, the 1080 uses around<br />
70W less than the 980 Ti and 1080<br />
Ti, which might be a big advantage<br />
if you’re running near the limit of<br />
your power supply’s wattage.<br />
Performance<br />
We used a slightly different test<br />
rig than our usual one, so we can’t<br />
compare performance to other<br />
graphics cards we’ve reviewed.<br />
But we did retest the GTX 1080<br />
alongside the Ti so you can see<br />
exactly how much quicker it is in<br />
some popular benchmarks and<br />
games (see above). The rig has<br />
16GB of DDR4 RAM, an Intel Core<br />
i7-4770K CPU, an Intel motherboard<br />
and a Crucial BX200 240GB SSD.<br />
Should you buy<br />
a GTX 1080 Ti?<br />
Clearly this is a very fast graphics<br />
card. But buying one right now is<br />
perhaps not the most sensible thing<br />
to do. AMD’s Radeon RX Vega cards<br />
will launch in a couple of months,<br />
and could – as Ryzen has done for<br />
Intel processors – make Nvidia’s<br />
offerings look expensive. But until<br />
we know how fast the flagship<br />
Vega card goes, we can’t know for<br />
sure. If you absolutely have to buy<br />
a graphics card right now, the GTX<br />
1080 Ti is an excellent choice.<br />
Verdict<br />
The GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition<br />
is expensive, but offers stunning<br />
performance. Manufacturer<br />
overclocked versions will arrive<br />
soon and may be better value, but<br />
you can overclock the card easily<br />
yourself. If you’re not planning to<br />
buy a VR headset, you can save<br />
money and buy a GTX 1080, but if<br />
you can afford it, the 1080 Ti still<br />
offers good value and will be more<br />
future-proof. J Jim Martin<br />
<strong>July</strong> <strong>2017</strong> www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews 57
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