Graphics Cards - Page 224

When NVIDIA revealed the GeForce GTX 1080, they used the Founders Edition card which sells for $699 and overclocked its GP104 GPU to 2.1GHz on the vapor chamber-cooled video card. We all suspected the AIB partners would have some insane models, and we were right.

There will reportedly be four versions of the GeForce GTX 1080: the Founder's Edition (reference edition), the normal AIB card (air cooled), the custom AIB card (air cooled) and then the custom AIB cards (watercooled). ZOTAC, Colorful, ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE and countless others will have some super-powered GTX 1080 video cards to show off, with the rumor that GIGABYTE's upcoming Xtreme Gaming GTX 1080 should reach 2.4GHz on the GPU, all in air - and if that's true, get ready to have your mind blown.

The tease of a liquid cooled GeForce GTX 1080 with its GPU clocked at 2.5GHz should be enough for anyone to be impressed, as it'll allow for 4K 60FPS gaming without a problem. We should expect a few AIB partners to have some insane designs, shown off at Computex 2016 in two weeks time.

We heard whispers just before the GeForce GTX 1080 unveiling that AMD would be pricing its Polaris 10-based Radeon video card at around $299, while providing 390X performance - and thanks to the spiffy 14nm FinFET process, it'll do so at half the TDP.

Considering that the Radeon R9 290X is a 290W card, we should expect the Polaris 10-based Radeon cards to do the same performance but at just 150W. We should expect the cards to fall somewhere between 110-135W depending on the GPU itself, and how many stream processors are enabled. It's similar to what we saw during the RTG event last December, but the bigger surprise is that it'll rock 'up to 8GB GDDR5(X)'. Will AMD use GDDR5X? We'll find out soon enough.

We should also expect the Polaris 10 cards to have 256-bit wide memory buses, which should see Polaris 10-based Radeon video cards competing directly against the GeForce GTX 1070 - and that's great. I was talking with AMD's Roy Taylor at their Capsaicin event during the Game Developers Conference, and he asked what I think they should do - and I said do exactly this. Hit the mainstream, and hit it hard. AMD can't compete against the discrete GPU market share with NVIDIA as they only have 20% of the market - but the mainstream market is more elusive, there are more units sold and more profits to be made. It's the bread and butter of video cards, and it looks like AMD is hitting that exact sweet spot.

Colorful has just announced one of the first GeForce GTX 1080 video cards, based on the reference (or is that now Founder's Edition) model.

Colorful's first GeForce GTX 1080 is based on the GP104 GPU with the usual 2560 CUDA cores, 1607MHz GPU clock (Boost of 1733MHz). We have 8GB of GDDR5X memory clocked at 10GHz on the 256-bit memory bus. We should expect some serious speed from it, with some great overclocking headroom. But, Colorful has teased its custom design GeForce GTX 1080 for Computex, which has me beyond excited.

Colorful's GeForce GTX 980 Ti iGame video card - beautiful!

While my GeForce GTX 1080 sits on my shelf about to be installed into my Core i7-5960X system for my review (now that I'm about to download the drivers) there are now some leaked benchmark numbers, courtesy of VideoCardz. Remember these are leaked benchmarks, we're just reporting on them. But, this is about what we expect to see from our results, too.

The GTX 1080 destroys everything else, including the Titan X, GTX 980 Ti and everything AMD has to throw at it - the Radeon R9 Fury X, R9 Fury and R9 390X. The GeForce GTX 1080 had its GP104-powered GPU sitting between 1860-1886MHz, thanks to GPU Boost 3.0. That chart though, wow - AMD must be looking at every single number now.

Not too long now, guys!

NVIDIA revealed its next-gen GeForce GTX 1080 video card last week, but if there's an AIB partner I'm excited to see release a custom version, it's ZOTAC. The latest leak on ZOTAC is of their GeForce GTX 1080 PGF, with PGF standing for Prime Gamer Force, and will be ZOTAC's most powerful series.

The first renders of ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 1080 PGF are here, with a huge illuminated backplate, which can be controlled through the new app. A custom PCB looks to be featured, with it being much wider than the reference design, and you can even see the OC+ module at the end of the card like the company's awesome Extreme video cards. But what can all of this additional cooling do? Well, that's where the next image comes into play.

ZOTAC is refreshing its FireStorm overclocking utility, where you can control both cards in SLI, apply 'Z-Elves' presets, and change the animations of the GTX 1080 LEDs. But, look at the overclock on the 8GB of GDDR5X - it's hitting 5650MHz (11.3GHz) with bandwidth of 361GB/sec over its 256-bit memory bus.

With the reveal of the GeForce GTX 1080 behind us, VideoCardz is reporting that they have images of the new GeForce GTX SLI HB bridge that was unveiled last week.

You might remember NVIDIA unveiled a new High-Bandwidth SLI bridge that has much more going on inside of it than previous SLI bridges. The new bridge "doubles the available transfer bandwidth compared to the NVIDIA Maxwell architecture. Delivering silky-smooth gameplay, it's the best way to experience surround gaming - and it's only compatible with the GeForce GTX 1080".

The tallest connector has just 4 fingers, which means it'll work with only two GTX 1080s in SLI. While an EVGA employee has confirmed that the new GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 video cards only work in 2-way SLI.

Inno3D has unveiled their GeForce GTX 1080, which comes in a nice custom box and will include 3DMark, VRMark and even a mouse mat in the box.

We should expect Inno3D to show off its new GeForce GTX 1080 video card at Computex 2016, teasing its new GP104 core and 8GB of new GDDR5X RAM which is clocked at a huge 10GHz.

As for technical specifications:

During the recent NVIDIA Editor's Day, we were introduced to the new GeForce GTX 1080 video card, but after the event (which was under NDA) I sat down with some of the biggest tech YouTuber's to talk about the new GTX 1080.

In the video above, JayzTwoCents used Luke from Linus Tech Tips' video as Luke cut it down to a few minutes of our discussion. This chat between us (which was shot at like 3am) was over an hour long, and so many people asked for the full discussion and here it is. It was a glorious thing to sit with these awesome guys, so check out the discussion between us - the video goes for 31 minutes, so go get a snack and a drink!

JayzTwoCents

The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is already a ridiculously beautiful card, but when it's naked and has its PCB exposed, I can't help but twitch with awe.

The NVIDIA PG413 board has 5+1 power phase, which is more than the 4+1 system on the GTX 980, but less than the GTX 980 Ti with its 6+2 phase power. The PCB on the GTX 1080 is very similar to the GTX 980 rather than the GTX 980 Ti, as both cards share 8 memory module layout per side. There's a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, but NVIDIA has left room for another so that AIB partners can go crazy.

There are two SLI fingers on the GeForce GTX 1080 that will handle the new SLI HB (High-Bandwidth) bridge, too.

AMD seems to be in a spot of trouble right now, with NVIDIA revealing its new GeForce GTX 1080 video card, and then the rumors that AIB partners won't have Polaris-based cards to show off at Computex 2016. Well, it has gotten worse, with the company reportedly dragging its next-gen Vega GPU into October 2016, from early 2017.

Why? Most likely because its Polaris 10 and Polaris 11 offerings aren't enough to beat NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1080 - so they'll need to bring in the big guns to combat it, without considering NVIDIA has its HBM2-based GTX 1080 Ti and Titan X successor to reveal in the near future. Vega was promised for early 2017 on the latest roadmap unveiled during their Capsaicin event, where it will be a flagship GCN 4.0-based beast with HBM2 and an unknown amount of stream processors and other technology.

Polaris 10 won't be that special, as the company has said it'll be a 'mainstream part' which will most likely not be able to beat the GeForce GTX 1080 - as I said in my editorial here. The Radeon R9 390X is still a ridiculously good card, and the Fury X won't be replaced with a Polaris-based offering anytime soon. Polaris 10 should be able to match the GTX 1070, but at a price of $299 which is what we've heard from multiple sources in the industry now. The GTX 1070 is priced at $379, so the mid-range fight is going to be a good one for consumers and gamers.

NVIDIA has blown away gamers across the world with its reveal of the GeForce GTX 1080 last week, but now we're hearing about partner cards and we're beginning to get super excited. Remember that we're actually giving away an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 'Founder's Edition' video card, and so much more in our global giveaway!

GIGABYTE has taken to its Xtreme Gaming Facebook page, teasing the above image and "Hey GIGABYTE Fans! We've got something coming! ;) Details coming soon". Quite the tease, considering that NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 Founder's Edition is already ridiculously fast. GIGABYTE makes some of the best custom video cards on the market, so we're pretty excited to see what they can do with the GTX 1080 - especially with its newly shrunken 16nm FinFET technology, super-fast GDDR5X and exciting new Pascal architecture from NVIDIA.

Since taking the position of reviewing video cards here at TweakTown, I've yet to get a GIGABYTE model into review. Hopefully this changes with the new generation cards, and we can begin getting in some samples. I was hanging out with Jay of JayzTwoCents on YouTube, and he was telling me how much he loves his GIGABYTE video cards, but I haven't gotten my hands-on any yet. Now is my time! Let's do this, GIGABYTE!

Micron reached out to me over email today, ushering me into the knowledge that their exciting new GDDR5X memory has entered mass production. GDDR5X is the new memory powering the next-gen GeForce GTX 1080 video card that NVIDIA unveiled last week.

GDDR5X represents a huge leap in bandwidth, without having to shift over to the new HBM2 standard. GDDR5X provides 10Gbps of bandwidth, and when coupled with the 256-bit memory bus on the GTX 1080, results in 320GB/sec of memory bandwidth. Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA said at the GeForce GTX 1080 launch event: "This memory is so fast. It is so fast ... G5X, the fastest GDDR memory in the world".

We will see many partner cards based on the GTX 1080 at Computex, which kicks off in two weeks time.

NVIDIA announced its GeForce GTX 1080 in the last 24 hours, with ZOTAC becoming the first AIB partner to release the GTX 1080 into the world.

The new GeForce GTX 1080 rocks the exciting 16nm FinFET-based GP104 GPU, 8GB of GDDR5X @ 10GHz, 2560 CUDA cores, and more. As for detailed specs, this is what you'll get:

We should expect the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 to hit shelves on May 27.

NVIDIA has just announced its new Pascal-based GeForce video cards, with the new GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 being unveiled a few hours ago in Austin, Texas.

We live-tweeted the entire thing, but now that I have some time in my hotel room to decompress, here's a quick rundown of what to expect from the new GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. There are only a few differences between the GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070, but boy is the GTX 1080 a freakin' monster.

NVIDIA has built the new GeForce 1000 series cards on the new 16nm FinFET process, with the new Pascal architecture making its debut in the consumer world alongside GDDR5X. GDDR5X is a huge improvement over GDDR5, arriving with a huge 10GHz clock speed - up from the 7GHz available from GDDR5. But what about tech specs?

We just reported on leaked benchmarks and details of the upcoming GeForce GTX 1080, but now we have some better confirmation of the cooler on the Pascal-based video card.

NVIDIA has recently updated its GeForce website, providing a new background that teased the new GeForce GTX 1080/1070 cooler design. The new 'Polygonal' cooler succeeds the NVTTM design, which we've been posting about for a while now.

The folks at VideoCardz picked it up and have the picture above. It's a sweet looking design, which reminds me of a racecar for some reason - and that is really getting my engine going.

NVIDIA is expected to unveil its next-gen GeForce GTX 1080 video card in the next 48 hours, with the latest rumor being quite exciting indeed - the GTX 1080 will reportedly rock 8GB of GDDR5X, at an insane 10GHz.

As it stands, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti has 6GB of GDDR5 (no X) at 7GHz. The last rumors stated the new card would hit 8GHz, but 10GHz provides around 320GB/sec of memory bandwidth - if the GTX 1080 keeps its 256-bit memory bus. If it's knocked up to 384-bit, well - then we should be very excited.

Not only that, but there are now leaked benchmarks teasing 3DMark 11 performance. The new GeForce GTX 1080 performed well in the 3DMark 11 Performance test at 720p, scoring 27,683 points - comparing this to overclocked GTX 980 Ti cards which score between 23,000 and 25,000 - that's not too bad at all. It's not the insane jump people were expecting, but this is the GTX 1080 and not the bigger GTX 1080 Ti that will find its way to reality in the future.

Monday's NVIDIA drivers prepared you for the Forza Motorsport 6: Apex beta which launches later today, and now AMD's drivers are doing the same.

Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.5.1 features up to 27% better performance in the highly anticipated racing title than what you'd see with 16.4.2 when using the R9 Fury X. If you don't own a Fury X, other cards should see similar increases.

As for known issues, AMD notes game crashes and launch failures caused by its overlay, so try disabling it for now if you've been experiencing this behaviour. Another big one is flickering in Witcher 3 while using Crossfire; with any luck it will be fixed next driver release.

NVIDIA's big reveal of its next-gen GeForce video cards is just days away, with the company teasing select members of the press with its 'Order of 10' mystery. What is the 'Order of 10' mystery you ask? Well, it's a teaser and countdown to the GeForce 1000 series reveal.

First off, some tech press received a mystery box that led them to the site orderof10.com, with a hexagon image with each side the equivalent of a piece puzzle. The site could be accessed by entering a code from the triangle that is found inside of the box, which was also sent to tech sites. The box has a '10' logo embedded on the front, with a single triangle with the code found inside.

GamersNexus found another link that led to a reveal countdown that ends on Friday, May 6. This is the day that NVIDIA will reportedly unveil its next-gen cards, but the puzzle is an interesting piece of marketing. The six pages on the site were: Collision, Structure, Circles, Compute, Vision, and Astronomy. Each puzzle leads to the next, solving the entire mystery.

There's a tremendous amount of excitement surrounding the upcoming Polaris P10 and P11 GPUs, as there rightfully should be. This marks a sort of subtle change in direction for AMD for some time. If rumors are true about the size and relative expected raw power of these two chips, then neither represent a true successor to Fiji, but will instead be a faster an far more power efficient Hawaii, which still continues to grow its performance with additional driver releases.

With both AMD and NVIDIA set to unveil their next-gen consumer video cards in the next month, AMD's position on VR is being solidified.

According to AMD's Corporate Vice President, Alliances, Content & VR, Roy Taylor, said that Polaris is being aimed at VR gaming PCs. With the minimum PC specs for VR kicking off with the Radeon R9 290, AMD has a great position in front of itself to nail VR gaming with Polaris.

AMD is trying to offer a great card for VR, and the upcoming Radeon R9 490X (which it should arrive as) will be a hugely popular card. We should expect 30-50% more performance over the R9 390X thanks to the new 14nm FinFET process, the new Polaris architecture and the possible use of GDDR5X.