The Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC is here, will it deliver or is just another card with a mouthful for a name!?
The Pascal architecture from Nvidia has been a total juggernaut burning every competition and record to cinders especially with it main stream and high end cards that keep on getting better and better with new models rolling out with time. Last we heard from Nvidia in the Pascal architecture was in form of the Titan X Pascal which well is a Titan in graphical performance but eight months since its release Nvidia brought out the GTX 1080 Ti the successor to the GTX 1080 dethroning the latter as the new flagship gaming oriented card.
Thanks to Asus India today we have with us our very first GTX 1080 Ti for review on the table and this is nothing but the very best the segment has to offer, we have with us the Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition for review.
Priced in at $800 or Rs 79,600 in India the Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition comes with an all new cooler design and is equipped with 3584 CUDA Cores, 224 Texture Units, a 352-bit memory controller and 11 GB of GDDR5X memory. The card is based on the same Pascal 16nm FinFet architecture & has the same GP102 GPU as the TITAN X Pascal, but the GTX 1080 Ti is slightly reconfigured and also features a GB less of that ultra fast GDDR5X memory.
The card is clocked in at 1569Mhz out of the box and 1595Mhz using the OC Mode while the memory is at 1376Mhz and 1389Mhz in the OC Mode, this gives the GTX 1080 Ti OC edition a massive 484GB/s of bandwidth which is enough to handle any title in the market at 4K resolution, finally!
What's in the Box?
Asus brings the ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti in a big-heavy cardboard box which is mainly black in color with hints of green on the sides. The STRIX and ROG logo along with the graphics card image occupy most of the real estate on the packing while the Aura and VR ready logos are printed clearly at the bottom and the very top right side.
On the back side the box boasts about the 3 years warranty that the card comes with along with various technical and physical features that then GTZ 1080 Ti comes loaded with such as the patented fan blade design, two times more contact area for the cooler, Aura sync etc.
Inside the outer cover you will find a big black box with the STRIX logo printed right in the center. Open this and you get a small envelop nestled inside a foam cavity under which the GTX 1080 Ti rests in a thick foam block wrapped in an anti static plastic bag.
On the accessories front the box included the Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC Graphics Card along with the driver DVD, user manual, ROG velcro cable ties and a power cable Y-splitter. All in all the packaging is to the point and protective enough to keep this beefy card safe and secure during transit.
Take a Closer Look
The GTX 1080 Ti from Asus is an elegant looking card with an all black matte finish and a triple fan design which looks old but is infact an all new cooler design to keep this card cool even under extreme loads.
The unit weights at 1.3Kg and measures in at 29.8x13.4x5.25 cm making it one of the longest and thickest cars you can find on the market today. Infact the card occupies two and a half expansion slots so keep this in mind before buying this card as it can pose an issue for ITX users going for a compact build.
At the back the backplate is smooth and decorated with abstract designs all over the surface and the Asus and STRIX logo near the top end. We also find the ROG eye logo at one corner which is RGB LED lit and imparts the signature ROG look to this GTX 1080 Ti from Asus.
The Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC will offer five display connectors; you'll spot two 1.2 certified Display Ports, two HDMI 2.0b connectors and a DVI port. The dual HDMI arrangement is done with VR in mind.
This sort of arrangement enables 4K displays at 120Hz, 5K displays at 60Hz, and 8K displays at 60Hz (using two cables) making the GTX 1080 Ti the best in class for UHD gaming, recording and streaming purposes.
The ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti uses a triple fan cooling solution with new IP5X dust resistant patented fan design for better-reliable cooling and air flow experience. There are six heatpipes embedded inside the thick aluminum heatsink with a nickle plated copper base that makes 40% more contact with the GPU surface for more efficient cooling with lower noise levels. these fans don't spin at upto 55°C and after that they start spinning in an ordered fashion with the right one spinning first followed by the center fan and then the last left fan when the temperature reached above 60°C to eliminate unnecessary noise. It is also sounds and looks kind of cool to me so a few extra brownie points for this kind of implementation.
At the bottom side the entire graphics card is clean with no heatpipe or anything protruding outside of the huge plastic shroud but just the PCIe connector at one end. While at the top we can see ssupport for power connectors and SLI connectors, yes you can even SLI this monster if you have the need and money well more of money than need I'd say!
The rear houses the LED strip header, as well as two extra fan headers that will spin attached chassis fans at the graphics card fan RPM. Fan headers are fine but having LED strip header on a graphics card is kind of odd as not only motherboards offer that in plenty these days but also if you connect one to these heads routing them across the chassis would be a headache if at all possible.
To power the Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC we have two 8-pin PCIe power connectors on top which make it cable of withdrawing a massive 375W on paper which is quite a lot over the 250W that is there on the reference model. You can expect a nice overclocking headroom with this much power just in case you are into overclocking or need to overclock this card at all.
Benchmarks and Overclocking
Installing the Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC was easy and it powered up like a breeze once we booted up the system.
GPUZ reported the correct frequencies with 1569Mhz on the clock and 1376Mhz on the memory.
For benchmarking the graphics card our new test bench was as follows -
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 @3.6Ghz
Motherboard: Asus X370 Crosshair VI Hero
RAM: GALAX HOF 32GB 3600Mhz
Cooler: Stock AMD Wraith RGB Air Cooler
Graphics Card: Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition
Storage: Kingston A400 256GB
Secondary Storage: Corsair Neutron XTi 480GB
Power Supply: Corsair AX860i 860W
Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Overclocking the STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC was a simple process and using the Asus GPU Tweak II or any other utility yielded the same results. The highest frequency with respect to performance gains that we could obtain on our sample was 1669Mhz on the clock and 1586Mhz on the memory, anything above this either gave poor results, white dots or even system freeze. Overclocking is dependent largely upon your sample so your results would largely depend upon your card. Overclocking wise its a great yield with 6.3% increase on the clock and 15.2% on the memory, I'm sure more is possible but I couldn't take it any further due to the limited time that I got with this card but nonetheless I'm happy with what I've got here.
AIDA64 Extreme edition GPGPU
The AIDA64 GPGPU test not only calculates the read, write and copy speed of the graphics card and processor but is also very useful in observing the SHA-1 Hash and AES-256 score. These are indications of how well the GPU can handle number crunching or real life image or video rendering. Higher score shows a better card.
3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy
Fire Strike and Time Spy by 3D Mark is a test suit that plays a cinematic scene to determine the FPS, GPU temperature and CPU temperature scaling everything via a cumulative score. It is a great tool to benchmark your GPU since the render is mostly GPU & memory dependent.
Battlefield 1
The latest installation to the Battlefield franchise and mind it the grandest one of them all aswell, Battlefield 1 is a prequel to the infamous Battlefield 1942 placing the players right in the middle of World War 1. Based on the latest Frostbite Engine by EA-DICE, Battlefield 1 takes advantage of DirectX 12 with asynchronous compute to weave together richly detailed worlds. It is heavily taxing on current-generation hardware, and you're handsomely rewarded for investing more into your graphics setup. Settings are at Ultra preset with full HD resolution.
Ashes of the Singularity
We've used the in-built benchmarking tool and the result is shown in an average of all the graphical tests conducted over various locations and topographies of the game. DX12 API, Quality set to Extreme, 4xMSAA and everything else to high.
Prey
After releasing the excellent Dishonored 2 France-based Arkane Studios hits it out of the park again with Prey, a first-person shooter published by Bethesda Softworks as a reboot from 11 years ago.
Unveiled at E3 2016, Prey uses the CryEngine graphics engine and audio from Audiokinetic's Wave Works Interactive Sound Engine (Wwise). It is exclusively DX11 based so no DX12 or Vulkan testing is possible.
Rise of The Tomb Raider
The latest installation of Lara Croft in the spectacular Rise of the Tomb Raider 2016 with stunning graphics and rich location makes it a great game to benchmark with while enjoying in the due course! We used DX12 and settings were at Ultimate on full HD resolution.
Call of Duty: WWII
Call of Duty: WWII is a first-person shooter video game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. Not only is it a a gamer's delight but a graphics card nightmare when all the settings are cranked up offering real life graphics and optimized gameplay.
GTA V
Grand Theft Auto V is an open world, action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. If you like open world adventure then this is something that you don't wanna miss with great graphics, catchy story line and unlimited potential for mods that keep coming in and out every now and then on the web. Our settings are as follows with very high quality, 16xAF, 2xMSAA and FXAA enabled.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is an action-adventure first-person shooter video game developed by Machine Games and published by Bethesda Softworks. Not only doe it put you in the shoes of a futuristic armored suit, yey suits are back, but also gives you the ability to mow down everyone with all guns blazing! The game is well optimized but beats down upon the graphics card at all settings cranked up resulting in high power draw and heat generation.
The Evil Within 2
The Evil Within 2 is a third-person survival horror video game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. I personally love playing this game these days in dark room specifically, your preferences might be otherwise. Great gameplay and a well optimized graphical engine make sit a treat for the gamer aswell as for their graphics cad.
Noise & Temperature
The fans on the Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition don't spin till the card hits 55°C or more. We recorded the maximum temperature in Celsius that our card hit during extensive gaming & sound was measured in decibels from a distance of 3 feet. This was performed for both stock and overclocked speeds.
My Verdict
The GTX 1080 Ti from Nvidia in itself is a winner no doubt with little to no cons but the Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition takes it a notch further with its plethora of technical and physical features. Talking about aesthetics the card is absolutely beautiful & elegant with its all black shroud and immaculate implementation of RGB LEDs which is neither too less nor is a Christmas tree! This makes it suitable for almost all builds where you wan tto show off your card using a riser cable or just simply put it fans down and flaunt the huge ROG eye logo at the back.
Asus has done a great job by changing the DirectCU cooler and using the new one as it surely does what its meant to do that is keeping the card cool even under extensive loads without generating unnecessary noises provided you have a good air flow in your case since the GTX 1080 Tis generate a lot of heat under load. Its raw gaming performance is unmatched especially in the UHD domain from what I've heard and seen in other reviews, sadly I couldn't test it on such high resolutions.Overclocking wise the card is not a slouch either and yields some impressive results with minor tweaks. This is all thanks to the 10+2 phase power delivery system that it uses along with the dual 8-pin power connectors which give it enough headroom to do so.
"The Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition is a gem of a card with a price tag like the same and is recommended to anyone who is looking for a 4K delight provided he can afford one! It ticks all the right boxes and is near perfect with the right blend of raw performance and tank like looks!"
Pros - - Looks great
- Exceptional performance
- Overclocks well
- Runs cool under load
- Quiet cooling solution
- A bit expensive
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