Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080 won't launch until May 27th, with custom variants from the company's board partners coming out later in June. However, Gigabyte & Galax have shown absolutely no intentions to wait until then to tell the world that they've got some pretty cool, no pun intended, custom cooled and factory overclocked GTX 1080 cards on the way.
It's important to quickly mention a few important distinctions between the GTX 1080 graphics card that Nvidia will be launching on May 27th and the cards that Gigabyte and Galax have ready in the wings, slated to come out in June. The GTX 1080 version that's launching on May 27 is the "Founder's Edition". Which is the reference designed model featuring Nvidia's new air cooler with the periphral blower fan, the vapor chamber and metallic exoskeleton. The Founder's Edition GTX 1080 will sell for $699, $100 more than the official MSRP for the custom GTX 1080 cards that Nvidia's partners will be launching later in June.
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Founder's Edition
This means that $599 GTX 1080 graphics cards will not be available until and unless Nvidia's partners choose to launch a custom GTX 1080 and price it accordingly. This brings us to the custom GTX 1080 graphics cards that Gigabyte and Galax have teased just hours ago.
Gigabyte Teases Its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 XTREME GAMING, Launching In June
Let's start off with what Gigabyte has in store for us this June. The company is teasing a next generation graphics card that carries the company's "XTREME GAMING" branding. This means over-engineered power deliver circuitry for some truly jaw dropping overclocks and an elaborate cooling solution to keep everything running cool and quiet while you enjoy those overclocks in your favorite game. The image below posted by Gigabyte via its official XTREME GAMING facebook page with the following comment :
Hey Gigabyte Fans!
We've got something coming 😉
Details coming soon
Gigabyte launched XTREME GAMING versions of the GTX 980 Ti, GTX 980 as well as the GTX 970. All of which were the highest clocked variants in the Gigabyte line-up. So we're potentially, no... likely, looking at GTX 1080 that will boost to 2Ghz+ right out of the box. After all these custom cards had historically always been better overclockers than Nvidia's reference designed cards. So if even Nvidia's reference GTX 1080 was demoed running at 2.1Ghz+ we can only imagine what these custom beasts can do.
GALAX Teases Yet Unannounced Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 & GTX 1070 Graphics Cards
Galax also treated us to a tease of its next generation custom cooled GeForce GTX 1000 series graphics cards. Although Galax is acting a little bit more coy with its tease. The company shared the GIF below on its facebook page along with the following comment :
What's your next prey? This hunter will show himself in the next generation of GALAX graphics card, are you looking forward to meeting him?
Reviews for Nvidia's reference GeForce GTX 1080 "Founder's Edition" cards are coming May 17th, 10 days before these reference designed cards will hit the shelves, with custom varients following later in June. We learned yesterday that Nvidia has already sent over review samples of the GTX 1080 to tech journalists who will have plenty of time to run the card through its paces. So Mark that May 17 date on your calendars folks!
Official Geforce GTX 1080 and Geforce GTX 1070 Specifications
| WCCFTech | Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 | Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Pascal | Pascal |
| Transistors | 7.2 Billion | 7.2 Billion |
| CUDA Cores | 2560 | 1920 |
| Core Clock | 1607 Mhz | TBA |
| Boost Clock | 1733 Mhz | 1683 Mhz |
| Memory Type | G5X (GDDR5X) | GDDR5 |
| Memory Speed | 10 Gbps | 8 Gbps |
| Memory Configuration | 8GB | 8GB |
| Bus Width | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 320 GB/s | 256 GB/s |
| Multi Projection | Yes | Yes |
| HB SLI Bridge Support | Yes | Yes |
| Nvidia GPU Boost | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| DirectX 12 Feature Level | 12_1 | 12_1 |
| OpenGL | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Vulkan API | Yes | Yes |
| Maximum Digital Resolution | 7680x4320@60Hz | 7680x4320@60Hz |
| Display Connectors | DP 1.42, HDMI 2.0b, DL-DVI | DP 1.42, HDMI 2.0b, DL-DVI |
| HDCP | 2.2 | 2.2 |
| Power Draw | 180W | 150W |
| Power Connector | Single 8-Pin | Single 8-Pin |
| Maximum Operating Temp | 94 C | 94 C |
| Partner Price (MSRP) | $599 | $379 |
| FE Price (MSRP) | $699 | $449 |
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