As computer hardware becomes cheaper and more powerful, leaps such such as NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTX 1080 are why it has never been a better time to be a PC gamer. The rise of virtual reality and the growing 4K trend makes the power and efficiency of the GTX 1080 heavily desirable. Not only that, but with a $599 price tag and claims by NVIDIA of faster speeds than the $1000 Titan X, the GTX 1080 is an incredible value for the most powerful graphics card on the market.
Running at over 1600 MHz and with 8GB of Micron’s new DDR5X RAM, it’s a massive megahertz bump which will hopefully spur other manufacturers to do the same and mirror the performance increases of modern day CPUs. By comparison, last year’s 980 Ti card came in at 1000MHz with 6GB of standard DDR5. Most of the GTX 1080’s performance upgrade can be accredited to NVIDIA’s new Pascal architecture making its consumer hardware debut in this card. The big benefit with Pascal is its 16nm FinFET transistor technology, allowing NVIDIA cards utilizing the new style to reach higher clock speeds as well as make their cards much more power efficient.
There are however, a few reasons to hold off on purchasing the 1080. The first of which is somewhat of a global rule to avoid instantly buying new releases. Lowered costs, updates, and better optimized drivers are just a few reasons why staying away from the bleeding edge of new products like this could be beneficial but since it is such a significant leap from previous generation hardware, some will gladly dive into the new card. For those looking to capitalize on the deals of last generation hardware now that the 1080 is casting such a monumental shadow, the 970 and 980 will be dipping to below $300 in the near future and will still provide excellent performance, although less so in the VR department. Additionally, AMD has also shown off its next generation graphics technology, Polaris, which looks to be just as powerful as Pascal. If a new GPU is something you’re looking for this summer however, Polaris specs and even appearances are still relatively unknown so it may not be an option until late 2016.
Bottom line, you can’t go wrong with the GTX 1080 if you have the cash and are looking for power in your gaming rig. It’s a sleek and capable piece of hardware that breaks the cycle of small, incremental improvements and is exactly what many users have been waiting for.
