GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 FE Overclocking Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 FE Overclocking Review - In our combined overclocking review we will overclock the GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition and GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition video cards comparing default and overclocked gameplay performance. We will even throw in a TITAN X to see how much faster an overclocked GTX 1080 can offer over the previous performance champion.
 
The review keeps stating a $1000 video card. When was this card released? Feb 2015 Correct? Replace the $1000 video card comment with an over 1 year old graphics card and suddenly doesn't sound as good in my opinion. The 1080 sounds better when overclocked but the TItan X can overclock too.

Titan X is EOL and has been since these cards have been released. Custom factory OC 980tis can beat them easily with better power delivery to clock even higher. Bad comparison IMO.
 
I am not sure I understand this comment. The TITAN X was the fastest card in the market for over a year. That's pretty crazy in the GPU market.

I just don't see $1K just to be considered #1 for a year and then suddenly outperformed by 40% for a card that's over $300 cheaper being worth it. I never found value in the Titans unless you're literally trying to beat benchmark records or doing some workstation levels of processing.
 
I just don't see $1K just to be considered #1 for a year and then suddenly outperformed by 40% for a card that's over $300 cheaper being worth it. I never found value in the Titans unless you're literally trying to beat benchmark records or doing some workstation levels of processing.

Yeah, I mean that's the point. TITAN X has not been about value (they're the fastest/best, most insane, for ultra enthusiasts). Ti is also not about value (they're not fast for very long - next gen comes out right after them). If you want "value" at the high end, get an x70 on the NVIDIA side.

Next:

GTX 1070 @ 2046MHz vs GTX 980Ti @ 1475-1500MHz. With 4K results.

A value review, now that prices are dropping and the used market will have 980ti's below the 1070 MSRP.

Pointless, IMO. Unless you can get a 980 Ti for like $100 or more less than a 1070...better to have the newer architecture.
 
While it's sorta a bummer that there isn't that much headroom compared to prior generations, I'm sorta glad that the stock and factory OC cards are not that far from the ultimate ceiling as someone who has never OC'd their GPU. It might not be very [H] of me, but I'll take higher guaranteed stability over troubleshooting for little gain, now time to wait for 1070 prices to get reasonable.
 
Pointless, IMO. Unless you can get a 980 Ti for like $100 or more less than a 1070...better to have the newer architecture.

I think that was stated in my comment about the price drops, used market and current owners that maybe looking to upgrade. How is that pointless?
Some of us don't run to the newest arch because it could be a side grade, regardless of it's newness.
 
Why? If they bought a Titan X a week before the 1080 came out, then yes. Otherwise, they've been enjoying the benefits of a Titan X (higher settings, resolution, etc.) for more than a year.
Put another way, if you got a ~15% OC out of your Titan X, you spent 1000 to buy 1080 stock performance a year early. Given that the 1080 is $700, you only paid a $300 premium ($21 / month) to get that performance over a year early.
 
Good too see how the results work out. I don't think any one else has been comparing overclocked 1070s and 1080s. The fact that the overclocked 1070 comes up nearly to the stock 1080 is impressive.

P.S. Cool your jets Titan owners, the next Titan is right about the corner. You can buy that.
 
Really looking forward to some AIB reviews and available cards. The FE still seems like an early adopter tax. I'll change my mind on that if the AIB boards have the same OC performance, but at the very least I expect them to have a more stable OC and less fan noise while doing it. Seems like I'll get more for less by waiting at this point.
 
That poor Titan X and the souls who bought it.

Damn.

I own a titan-x. Don't regret it one bit. First off the benchmarks show a stock titan-x. Titan-x is a very good overclocker especially when under water. So can't really compare to the stock as the graphs say.

Now of course more importantly is I've had a titan-x since March of 2015... That's 1.25 years of gaming. I'm not sure how long people keep their gpus around here but lets say 2-3years. Extrapolate the money per time and you get about $415 (assuming the 3years). So my titan-x has about $600 worth of value left in it before I upgrade. This assumes a linear relationship of value over time. If I think I get more "value" out of the card early on that it would be even less. How much would it take me to replace it? Without the overclocked titan-x benchmarks it's hard to say but if my memory serves me right I got about 25% boost over stock (back when I cared to measure it). So that puts my particular titan-x above the 1070 and I would need to go for a 1080 to see any performance advantages.

Long story short, you can keep waiting and never buy anything because something better will always be out eventually. Titan-x owners who bought early got their money's worth (or atleast I think I did). The ones who bought post 980ti intro were probably a little foolish, but there are benefits to 12gb of ram.. So who knows. Either way I think I'll keep my titan-x till the 1180 or whatever comes out. 1080 while better than titan-x is not leaps and bounds. It's a great GPU for people looking to buy now on previous generations, but I think a lot of people with 980ti or titan-x should just skip this generation entirely. I would hope next gen to be able to do handle 4k on single GPU. With everything current we are still talking about turning up a few more knobs on 1440p. Nothing worth crying over or rushing out to upgrade.
 
Really looking forward to some AIB reviews and available cards. The FE still seems like an early adopter tax. I'll change my mind on that if the AIB boards have the same OC performance, but at the very least I expect them to have a more stable OC and less fan noise while doing it. Seems like I'll get more for less by waiting at this point.


So far the FE is beating some AIB versions on air and proving the 8 pin connector isn't the limiting factor.
 
I think that was stated in my comment about the price drops, used market and current owners that maybe looking to upgrade. How is that pointless?
Some of us don't run to the newest arch because it could be a side grade, regardless of it's newness.

The 980 Ti to 1080 jump is tough, because the 980 Ti used market has tanked. TITAN X worked pretty well...only cost me $375 to upgrade.

P.S. Cool your jets Titan owners, the next Titan is right about the corner. You can buy that.

Will be doing that! And selling my 1080 SLI.
 
So far the FE is beating some AIB versions on air and proving the 8 pin connector isn't the limiting factor.

I've been out of the loop for so long with PCs and whatnot so this is legitimately me asking.....

Why would the single 8-pin connector be limiting? The last PC I built used a 7800 GTX and I don't believe power connectors where anywhere near where they ended up after that.

I've actually got a new build that just came in and now I'm just waiting for 1070 stock so I can buy one of those and throw it in.
 
I'm guessing that it could be 10 years till the next node change (10nm or 7nm), so the 10x models will hold their value pretty well, compared to buying a Titan in 2015.
 
I'm guessing that it could be 10 years till the next node change (10nm or 7nm), so the 10x models will hold their value pretty well, compared to buying a Titan in 2015.
Seeing this said over and over again is funny to me. I have had Titan X SLI for a good while now and have enjoyed the performance those give me at 4K. Do you really think anyone buys a $1000 video card as an investment? They buy those because they have disposable income sitting around and want the performance at that time. This "I feel sorry for those that bought a Titan X" just comes across as sour grapes to some extent. The Titan X buyer has been enjoying an exceptionally performing video card for a year or so now.
 
Totally agree with Kyle. I bought the 690 in May 2012 for $1000 and I'm still using it today. If I could go back in time, I'd buy it all over again. Wish there was a 1090 in the works...
 
Comparing these results with your 980ti overclocked article is rather interesting. It's almost as if there is no value for the 1080 FE's unless you want overclock them. Fallout 4 on the 1080FE is less than 1 frame faster than an MSI 980ti Lightning? Only 4 frames faster in Rise of Tomb Raider. Of course, once you overclock the FE you will gain 10.

I would have expected the new non overclocked Pascal architecture to be able to handily beat an oc'd 980ti. So it sounds like their is no IPC gain at all, just raw speed increases. The 1080 FE's are clocked 300+ MHz faster than an oc'd 980ti and only beating them by a few frames. What am I missing here?
 
Comparing these results with your 980ti overclocked article is rather interesting. It's almost as if there is no value for the 1080 FE's unless you want overclock them. Fallout 4 on the 1080FE is less than 1 frame faster than an MSI 980ti Lightning? Only 4 frames faster in Rise of Tomb Raider. Of course, once you overclock the FE you will gain 10.

I would have expected the new non overclocked Pascal architecture to be able to handily beat an oc'd 980ti. So it sounds like their is no IPC gain at all, just raw speed increases. The 1080 FE's are clocked 300+ MHz faster than an oc'd 980ti and only beating them by a few frames. What am I missing here?

The fact that the 1080 is a cut down GPU die - fewer hamsters in the wheel turning it. Which is why it takes a higher frequency to get there.
 
Comparing these results with your 980ti overclocked article is rather interesting. It's almost as if there is no value for the 1080 FE's unless you want overclock them. Fallout 4 on the 1080FE is less than 1 frame faster than an MSI 980ti Lightning? Only 4 frames faster in Rise of Tomb Raider. Of course, once you overclock the FE you will gain 10.

I would have expected the new non overclocked Pascal architecture to be able to handily beat an oc'd 980ti. So it sounds like their is no IPC gain at all, just raw speed increases. The 1080 FE's are clocked 300+ MHz faster than an oc'd 980ti and only beating them by a few frames. What am I missing here?

Size of chip - one is 314mm^2 and other is 600mm^2 monster. Real replacement to 980ti will come later.
 
Comparing these results with your 980ti overclocked article is rather interesting. It's almost as if there is no value for the 1080 FE's unless you want overclock them. Fallout 4 on the 1080FE is less than 1 frame faster than an MSI 980ti Lightning? Only 4 frames faster in Rise of Tomb Raider. Of course, once you overclock the FE you will gain 10.

I would have expected the new non overclocked Pascal architecture to be able to handily beat an oc'd 980ti. So it sounds like their is no IPC gain at all, just raw speed increases. The 1080 FE's are clocked 300+ MHz faster than an oc'd 980ti and only beating them by a few frames. What am I missing here?


It's not a new uarch. Its a node shrink, with the benefits of a node shrink. Think a shrunken Maxwell. iirc
 
970 was closer to to 980 in performance even when overclocked, makes me wonder if Nvidia did this intentionally this gen. Overclocked vs overclocked I have to say that the +24 % performance over the 1070 makes me feel that my choice for the 1080 FE worked out well for me. Replacing 2 GTX 980s for a more Hassle-Free single GPU setup and losing as little performance as possible seems like a good move for what I do.
 
Put another way, if you got a ~15% OC out of your Titan X, you spent 1000 to buy 1080 stock performance a year early. Given that the 1080 is $700, you only paid a $300 premium ($21 / month) to get that performance over a year early.

With that math, I would have bought a Titan X aswell.
Of course with a 980Ti OC, you can say you would have nearly have 1080 performance as well for the same price a year earlier.

I can see the 1080Ti being the card to have. $799 FE anyone?
 
The graphs almost look "fake" considering how even the spacing is between 1070 FE stock to 1080 FE OC'd. Did nVidia just do that good of a job this time around in terms of setting up their HW to ensure there was no "buy a step lower and OC and be as good as the next higher?"
 
Nice article, Kyle.

Seems Nvidia took a great new chip and couldn't have screwed up the release more if they had tried. With any luck the "Founders Edition" fiasco dies with this release and we never hear about it again.
 
Comparison was spot on. Killer review. It makes me hope that a 1060 comes out and 2 in SLI will hedge out the 1080 for less cash.
 
I got my Titan X (had 2, but sold one a while back) pretty much on release. It overclocks from 1000 mhz to 1450 mhz, so I'm guessing it would still beat an OC 1080? Not saying it's a bang-for-the-buck card, but I feel like it's hung in there quite nicely
 
I'm guessing that it could be 10 years till the next node change (10nm or 7nm), so the 10x models will hold their value pretty well, compared to buying a Titan in 2015.

I agree there will probably be less of a performance jump between the 1000 series and 1100 series than there was between 900 and 1000 series, but I doubt GPU progress will slow to a crawl the way CPUs have. They are still getting used to the new process node, and will probably be able to extract more performance out of it now that they know how it works, and improve yields/make bigger chips.

GTX 680 and 980TI are both 28nm cards and the difference between them is dramatic: GPU 2015 Benchmarks - Compare Products on AnandTech

Also I don't think people who bought Titan X for $1000 were really trying to save money or get the best possible value. They just wanted the fastest hardware available, and they got it.
 
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I got my Titan X (had 2, but sold one a while back) pretty much on release. It overclocks from 1000 mhz to 1450 mhz, so I'm guessing it would still beat an OC 1080? Not saying it's a bang-for-the-buck card, but I feel like it's hung in there quite nicely

It will come close to stock 1080 performance, just like an overclocked 980 Ti does.
 
Man have we been spoiled by nvidia and its boost clocks.

I knew somehow it would backfire sooner or later.

People complain that the 1080/1070 can "only" reach 2ghz. That's about 250 mhz OC, but the stock clock is 1.6 ghz. So in reality its more like 500mhz OC.

From what I've seen, the 1080 doesn't throttle under boost clock when OC and for the most part stay pretty close to its Max OC. Now that's impressive.

Even more. According to Guru3d, there's potential for better and more stable OC with Boost 3.0.

I do have a rant. Reference model aka FE sucks . I mean previous Reference models never had the best cooling but I least I didn't have to pay an extra $100 for it.
 
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