Good time to pick up a 1080Ti?

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stashix

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 25, 2016
Messages
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I've got the upgrade itch again.
Currently running the rig in sig, but I'm thinking about passing the 1080 to a friend an getting a 1080Ti instead.
A month ago I was already decided to wait out for Volta, but now I'm doubting it again - the launch of 1070Ti makes me wonder if smaller Volta would come before around May next year, plus I want to finally play through the Witcher series over Christmas (just finishing the last book) and it doesn't look like my card is going to handle the fur at 2560x1440 (was watching some videos and the hair effects on monsters look really pretty).

What do my [H]elders think?
 
I finally made the upgrade from an R9 390, lol, and it was a big one. Seems like a pretty important iteration in the cycle to me. FWIW, I sold my previous card, for about 70% of what I paid for it originally, which made the upgrade cost only $500, got lucky and got an MSI Armor OC when they first dropped, didn't have any overheat problems for a while, but finally hit 90c once, which was a great excuse to watercool.

Now I'm running 1924 mhz, hitting 50c, and having no problem maintaining 60fps with Destiny 2, at 4k, with HDR, on a Samsung ks8000, which looks incredible. Even though I'm still using a Core i5 3570k, at stock clock.

I did finally hit a CPU bottleneck last night trying to run at 96hz on an OC'd Qnix IPS at 1440p with MSAA. Usually it was stable at 96, but under certain situations, it would hit 100% cpu and drop frame rate, but the GPU was at 75%. I later read that MSAA is somewhat shit in Destiny 2 atm, so I'm thinking that was the cause. Either way, I'll use it as an excuse to upgrade MB/CPU now, as soon as I can get a Core i7-8700k in stock. Didn't have any issue with FXAA at 4k however.


That's at pretty much max settings except DOF turned down from max to high, or whatever.


Anyway, long story short, since I was interested in 4k, it was a no brainer to wait out the 1080ti, I haven't seen anything it wont handle at max settings yet, in 1440p, on the OC'd models at least. Will the 20xx models be significant upgrades? Yes, likely, but if they are, you can expect them not to release until May/June, and not be available until July in any quantity or later, if the 1080ti release is any evidence, and from what I've been reading, people consider this iteration while clearly significant, to not be as crazy successful as expected. All this to say, unless you'e ok waiting another year, go ahead and upgrade IMO.


Big question for me now, is whether to SLI lol. Considering one of those 120hz g-sync 34" UWQHD displays from AW/Dell, and wondering if I'll be able to maintain the FPS with the single card.
 
I think most people are thinking Q2 for Volta mid size die in actual quantities. Then the Titan, then a few months later the volta 1080ti successor. Might get 9-12 months out of it before it's successor shows up? (Ignoring the Titan V)
 
For 2560x1440 go for it! One 1080 for that res I needed a little more umph and is why I went with 1080 sli.

So grab that 1080ti and be happy!
 
stashix said:
I've got the upgrade itch again.
Currently running the rig in sig, but I'm thinking about passing the 1080 to a friend an getting a 1080Ti instead.
A month ago I was already decided to wait out for Volta, but now I'm doubting it again - the launch of 1070Ti makes me wonder if smaller Volta would come before around May next year, plus I want to finally play through the Witcher series over Christmas (just finishing the last book) and it doesn't look like my card is going to handle the fur at 2560x1440 (was watching some videos and the hair effects on monsters look really pretty).

What do my [H]elders think?
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I was literally in the exact same position and asked the same question as you a few days ago here
https://hardforum.com/threads/worth-upgrading-to-gtx-1080-ti.1946401/

I thought long and hard before that, and decided to take the plunge. Ended up purchasing the Asus GTX 1080 Ti ROG Strix.

Could not be happier and did not regret my decision at all. Even though my previous GTX 1080 G1 Gaming was comfortably handling games. There were a few titles where it slightly dipped below the 60fps minimum mark and I would had to lower a setting or two even at a modest 1440p resolution.
Since upgrading to the 1080 Ti, I can vouch there's a definite noticeable performance increase. I'm talking a factor of 25% to 40% depending on the game. The minimum framerate for every single game now is comfortably over 60fps.

At this rate Nvidia is content due to barely any competition from AMD, and with the current cards still selling well, they don't have much incentive to release faster cards in this case Volta.
Even if they do release their next batch of cards early next year, I'm betting it's going to be more of a refresh pascal that will not be much faster than the 1080 Ti. If I have to guess when Volta will be released it'll be more in the line of August/September.
 
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pencea said:
I was literally in the exact same position and asked the same question as you a few days ago here
https://hardforum.com/threads/worth-upgrading-to-gtx-1080-ti.1946401/

I thought long and hard before that, and decided to take the plunge. Ended purchasing the Asus GTX 1080 Ti ROG Strix.

Could not be happier and did not regret my decision at all. Even though my previous GTX 1080 G1 Gaming was comfortably handling games. There was a few titles where it slightly dipped below the 60fps minimum mark and I would had to lower a setting or two even at a modest 1440p resolution.
Since upgrading to the 1080 Ti, I can vouch there's a definite noticeable performance increase. I'm talking a factor of 25% to 40%. The minimum framerate for every single game now is comfortably over the 60fps.

At this rate Nvidia is content due to barely any competition from AMD, and with the current cards still selling well, they don't have much incentive to release faster cards in this case Volta.
Even if they do release their next batch of cards early next year, I'm betting it's going to be more of a refresh pascal that will not be much faster than the 1080 Ti. If I have to guess when Volta will be released it'll be more in the line of August/September.
Click to expand...


Yeah and once it does hit you can just wait for the ti version as you'll be just fine with the 1080ti for a long while with its 11gb cram as it's no where getting maxed out today!
 
Thanks guys, you've convinced me, I'm getting a 1080Ti.

Now I only need to decide which model - I'm leaning towards EVGA FTW3 for the warranty (it's only about ~40€ more than the rest), Gigabyte Auros, Asus Strix or Palit SuperJetstream. MSI is out for the incredibly vain reason of having a red accented shroud.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
The FTW3 cooler is pretty crappy though.
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From the reviews I've read it's a bit noisier than the competition. I don't exactly have a boner for EVGA though, I'm absolutely willing to get a different card. Had some Gigabyte and Asus cards in the past and never had a problem with either.
Palit is kinda intriguing - same card as the Gainward GS, just with different colors, and it's a bit cheaper than the competition.
 
The MSI watercooled version went on sale for US$709 out the door earlier in the week, mine arrives Monday.

I realize that Nvidia (and eventually AMD) will exceed the 1080Ti's performance with something cheaper with lower power draw in the future, but that doesn't worry me much. I'll be happy to have something fast enough to top out 1440p120+, and to get started with VR and/or 4k120 when those become available.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
The MSI watercooled version went on sale for US$709 out the door earlier in the week, mine arrives Monday.

I realize that Nvidia (and eventually AMD) will exceed the 1080Ti's performance with something cheaper with lower power draw in the future, but that doesn't worry me much. I'll be happy to have something fast enough to top out 1440p120+, and to get started with VR and/or 4k120 when those become available.
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Hybrid or waterblock?
Yeah, there's always something new coming up down the line, but I think a 1080Ti is going to coast me quite nicely at 1440p60 until big Volta. By then I'll probably switch to 4k.
 
Ouch- I just checked Newegg, looks like I got a decent deal, but I do understand that supply and demand of both consumer products and currencies can cause havoc on prices around the world. Here's hoping things stabilize for you guys!
 
The FTW3 blue and green models on Newegg went on sale for $600 yesterday, lasted about 5 minutes. :/
 
as a rule of thumb and using 20/20 hindsight the card to get at each generation is the *80ti for higher resolutions and the *70 for mid-end. So you are in for a long wait for Volta ti. Just get a 1080ti now and wait for a Volta ti at November 2018 or May 2019
 
On my 3rd evga ftw3 elite card in 4 days from microcenter. It's dances alot in clocks like a fe card which I don't understand and people have noticed it don't let you max out the power limit of 127% in the slave bios.Seems like it will only max at 117%. There's a big thread about it on evga.

Other then that I like it.

Out of the 3 cards 3 could over clock the fan to 13000mhz at least and my last one can only do about 12864nhz on the ram without artifacts or lock ups.

For clocks.. the first one liked 2063mhz, the 2nd seemed to want to do 2100mhz and the 3rd 2050 so far.

:/
 
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Nabbed a MSI Seahawk on NewEgg for $710 after $40 off plus had around $80 in CC rewards. Also comes with Destiny 2. Looking forward to popping it in and seeing what it can do.

Also been seeing some on sale for around ~$700 which isn't bad at all.
 
stashix said:
Thanks guys, you've convinced me, I'm getting a 1080Ti.

Now I only need to decide which model - I'm leaning towards EVGA FTW3 for the warranty (it's only about ~40€ more than the rest), Gigabyte Auros, Asus Strix or Palit SuperJetstream. MSI is out for the incredibly vain reason of having a red accented shroud.
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Having an MSI 1080ti Armor OC, I will caution you away from anything MSI. Their recent treatment of customers after releasing this card with a completely inadequate cooler, large numbers of which were regularly overheating past 90C, and then basically treating everyone on the forums like assholes for even asking about it (admittedly, this is the forum mods faults on MSI's forums, who are clearly fully indoctrinated fanboys/cult initiates), and refusing to acknowledge there's a problem, has turned me away from MSI permanently.

I'm very happy with my card now that it's watercooled, but they won't be getting my business again. It's pretty unethical how they've acted on this in my opinion.
 
I have a couple 1080TI in my gaming rig. They aren't water cooled.

You can't hear them - even in SLI for gaming, and they run cool.

I'm not sure I see the benefit of watercooling for the 1080TI with such good AIB partner cooling.

My cards are the EVGA 1080TI SC Black with the ICX cooler. I'd rank the ICX cooler as the best of any fan/heatsink video card I've ever owned. IMO - EVGA really hit it out of the park with ICX.

The reference blowers on the FE boards are louder when used in SLI (I started with those) but frankly - still not at all bad - not even to the point I felt watercooling would be necessary even on blowers.

For Vega - yes - watercooling is helpful. (tried a Vega 64 water cooled) (tried a pair of Vega 56 in crossfire too). The Vega blower fans get pretty loud without the watercooling. For 1080TI? No. Not a problem. Doesn't seem worth the added complexity/expense for watercooling the 1080TI unless you need to directly exhaust the hot air outside a case with minimal airflow.
 
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It's objectively the worst, save for maybe the MSI Armor. Has been the worst for many years now.
 
The hybrid cards look pretty nice, but I'm worried about resale with them.
In the end I think I'll go with the Gigabyte Auros, it's on sale here right now.
 
stashix said:
So I've ended up ordering a Gigabyte GTX 1080Ti Auros and a 8700k plus new motherboard. Don't judge me.
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That's the way to do it!! Enjoy the he'll out of it and man.. the beauty of that first post sound!

May she fire up the fire time.
 
Good time to pick up a 1080 Ti... depends on how much you're paying for it.

Looks like the Retail prices are about the same as they were on March 10th (release date). Only difference now is... there are promo codes from time to time, as well as EVGA refurbs maybe.

Shooting for a used one isn't a bad idea. EVGA for instance has a "Guest RMA" were if a card is defective within 3 years of the card going on sale date (which is march 10th), no receipt is required for an RMA. Keep in mind, this if it is DEFECTIVE.

For instance, you buy a used one and ends up being defective a month or two down the line, can always RMA it
 
I snagged a new Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1080Ti for $680, free shipping, included Destiny 2. Massdrop.
 
Ive been running 1080ti SLI off and on. Most of the time off. I play at 3440x1440 so its quite a lot of pixels to push. Needless to say getting SLI to work fancytfully all the time is an endless headache. Even setting a profile to single card sometimes makes games run like shit. I find I have to toggle it off on the driver level totally for games to be smooth again. But when its working SLI is an absolute MONSTER.
 
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