ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1080 Ti OC
March 2017Type
Graphics CardPrice
$749.99 USConclusion - The 1080 Ti Turns Everything All The Way Up To 11
Even with no competition, NVIDIA went ahead and bested themselves. For a whole year, they had the fastest consumer graphics card on the market, the GTX 1080. Sure they launched the Titan X but that behemoth sold for $1200 US and it wasn't a wise choice to get when economics are taken into consideration. The 1080 Ti launched and became the fastest graphics card on the planet. Soon afterwards, the 1080 Ti was made public in custom variants too, but at the same time, NVIDIA launched another Titan, now known as Titan Xp. That is another $1200 US graphics card and currently reigns supreme as the fastest on the planet, but our focus today is the GTX 1080 Ti ROG STRIX from ASUS.
The GTX 1080 Ti replaced the GTX 1080 as the fastest consumer graphics card at the same price of $699 US. The card I tested today goes for $749 US and you need to have a big wallet if you are buying one. At this price however, you get some of the fastest and most impressive gaming performance we have seen to date. It's 35% north of the GTX 1080, add more for the custom variants. The price point makes it seem really good once you get to know the performance potential.
In my testing, the ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti blew away all other cards. The GTX 1080, GTX 1070 are now to be considered as good mainstream, high-end options. For enthusiasts, the custom 1080 Ti is the way to go. It's 4K 60 FPS capable in many titles (if not all) and it gives us a glimpse at what to expect from future GPUs. My guess is that in just one generation, we will be able to see 4K 60 FPS performance on much more affordable products. What's worth noting is that the ROG STRIX 1080 Ti achieves this impressive feat without breaking the fundamentals of Pascal's impressive efficiency showcase.
Compared to the reference variant, the ROG STRIX promises better cooling performance, lower noise load and great aesthetics. While it does need more power, I got to see overall higher boost frequencies that were stable throughout the gaming benchmarks. The custom PCB further allowed for higher clocks out of an already factory overclocked graphics card and hitting over 2 GHz is no biggie for Pascal GPUs.
In the end, the ROG STRIX 1080 Ti provides a monumental increase in performance over the 980 Ti. Over the GTX 1080, it's a decent 30-40% gain considering this model but the GTX 1080 is still a very capable card on its own. Considering that, the ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC is indeed based on the ultimate gaming GPU and further provides users with a high-end, customization cooling solution that looks awesome.
Contents
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The ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC is an outrageously powerful graphics card that eats games at 4K resolution as if they were nothing. It has a beefy cooler, a powerful PCB and is capable of delivering the best gaming experience currently possible at $750 US.
- Up To 40% Faster Than GTX 1080 Founders Edition.
- GTX 980 Ti users will notice huge increase in performance.
- First card to achieve playable FPS at 4K resolution.
- Pascal GP102 GPU is big leap in terms of efficiency.
- Good overclocking potential, G5X delivers more than 500 GB/s bandwidth when overclocked.
- Factory Overclocked Out of Box. Ships with 3 profiles (Silent/Gaming/OC)
- ASUS DirectCU III heatsink offers great cooling.
- ASUS Wing-Blade fans feature 0dB operation under 55C.
- ASUS AURA Sync RGB Lighting system looks great.
- Backplate included (with ASUS AURA Sync).
- AURA Sync RGB header included on the PCB.
- Lot's of display connectivity, great for VR and multi-display PCs.
- Power connectors easy to access, come with LED indicators.
Pros
- Bulky design, may not fit inside most cases.
- Price is very high. ($749.99 US)
- Overclocking gains little performance gain.
Cons
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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