New nuclear weapons make 4K gaming a normal practice ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080 review

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang once announced at the GTX 1080 launch conference that the GTX 1080, which uses the new Pascal architecture, will crush all GPUs under its own Maxwell architecture. Compared with NVIDIA's previous generation product, the GTX 980 Ti, the GTX 1080 will exaggerately improve the overall performance by 40%.

As of June, we already know that AMD's Polaris graphics card RX 480 did not go the black technology route again, but honestly chose GDDR5 as the video memory. The GTX 1080 using GDDR5X can finally be proud of itself, allowing NVIDIA to come out of the black technology HBM video memory of FURY X.

Now that internal and external problems have been resolved, it seems that GTX 1080 has no obstacles on its way to dominating the civilian-grade graphics card market.

Recently, ASUS's ROG STRIX GTX 1080 was released as a non-public version graphics card with a family background. We might as well use this graphics card to verify whether this new generation of NVIDIA graphics card has the superior performance as Huang Renxun said.

Raptor meets ROG GTX 1080

Speaking of the appearance of this ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080, this is the first graphics card that combines the ROG Republic of Gamers series and the STRIX Raptor series. Obviously, lighting effects and air cooling must be the two most prominent features.

As a product of ASUS ROG series, how can ROG STRIX GTX 1080 not play with lighting effects? In addition to the three sets of strip lights placed on the front fan frame, the huge "Eye of the Loser" almost occupies half of the space of ASUS's characteristic integrated steel plate on the back of the graphics card. ROG STRIX GTX 1080 is equipped with the new Aura RGB lighting effect, and the combination of various lighting effects is richer than before.

As a member of the Raptor family, the ultimate air cooling is definitely a major feature of this card. The STRIX GTX 1080 uses DirectCU III heat pipe direct contact three-fan cooling technology, together with the patented blade shape design, which is the selling point of the ASUS Raptor family. The excellent heat dissipation performance of this structure has been verified in the previous generation Raptor GTX 980 Ti.

Of course, the three fans of the Raptor series usually make the graphics card longer than the public version. The ROG STRIX GTX 1080 is 29.8 x 13.4 x4 cm, which is a bit longer than the public version of 26.7cm, and is not much different from the STRIX GTX 980 Ti's 30.5cm.  

As for the interface part, ROG STRIX GTX 1080 has two DP interfaces, one DVI interface and two HDMI interfaces. One of the HDMI interfaces is called a VR-friendly interface. Compared with STRIX GTX 980 Ti, there is one less DP interface. I believe it should not have any impact on most users.

The power supply uses a 6pin+8pin power interface, which is different from the 8pin+8pin of STRIX GTX 980 Ti.

It seems not difficult to understand that there is an extra 6-pin power interface compared to the public version. The base frequency of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 is as high as 1759MHz, which is higher than the 1733MHz of the public version GTX 1080 after overclocking. In addition to the power consumption of the faith light, a single 8-pin power interface is obviously unable to meet such a load.  

ROG STRIX GTX 1080 basic data at a glance

The three fans of the ancestors are outstanding and the performance is better than the public version of GTX1080

In order to test this top-level NVIDIA graphics card, a test platform worthy of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 was specially assembled.  

ASUS's own Z170 motherboard is equipped with two G.SKILL 8G 3000MHz memory sticks, and the Core i7-6700k, a top-level civilian CPU, is enough for ROG STRIX GTX 1080 to squander. The Windows 10 system can also unleash the performance of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 to support directX 12.

Although according to convention we should first experience whether its rendering function is powerful, the extreme air cooling of the Raptor series is really deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Based on the fact that the public version of GTX 1080 can control the temperature of the graphics card at 85 degrees Celsius, can ROG STRIX GTX 1080 create exciting data?  

Standby mode  

Status after 10 minutes of baking

The core temperature of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 is 45 degrees Celsius when idle, while the surface is only 33 degrees Celsius. After 10 minutes of Furmark baking, the 68 degrees Celsius core temperature displayed on the software shocked everyone. The surface temperature of only 63 degrees Celsius means that even if you touch the surface of the graphics card directly with your hand, you will not be burned.

Compared with the public version, which may also experience frequency reduction due to overheating, ROG STRIX GTX 1080 can be said to have perfectly brought into play the advantages of the ancestral genes of the raptor, so that we don't have to worry about performance loss caused by temperature.  

What's more interesting is that as the temperature rises, the three fans of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 will increase their speed in stages according to a certain level. Under the premise that the actual heat dissipation capacity is strong, this fan algorithm can balance the balance of heat dissipation and power consumption, thereby achieving a certain energy-saving effect.

The battle between the new and old flagships shows a 40% performance improvement?

I still remember the ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti I tested last year, which ran "GTA5" at nearly 60fps at 4K resolution with full special effects turned on. As a similar product, can the ROG STRIX GTX 1080, as NVIDIA's CEO Huang Renxun claims, raise this data to an extremely high level?  

ROG STRIX GTX 1080  

STRIX GTX 980 Ti

At first, GTX 980 Ti was the best in the market with the highest score of X8610 in 3DMark 11. This time, we used 3DMark to run the test, and the total performance score of 17661 was almost the same as the standard score of 17805 for 4K gaming PC. Combining the corresponding project scores of 3DMark 11 and 3DMark, the performance of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 has been improved by 23% compared with the previous generation of the same series.

Of course, simply looking at the running score may not be intuitive and reliable. Last year, we used "GTA5" and "The Witcher 3" to verify the GTX 980 Ti, and this year we also chose these two games for comparison.

Grand Theft Auto V  

At 1080P resolution, the default ROG STRIX GTX 1080 has an average frame rate of 187fps, while the STRIX GTX 980 Ti can only run at an average of 89fps even when overclocked. In this regard, the GTX 1080 has improved by 110%.

At 4K resolution, the improvement of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 is relatively less exaggerated. The average frame rate of 87fps is compared with the average of 58fps of STRIX GTX 980 Ti, and the gaming performance is improved by 50%.

The Witcher 3  

In the most popular graphics card test game before September last year, at 1080P resolution, STRIX GTX 980 Ti dominated with an average frame rate of 67fps. This time, ROG STRIX GTX 1080 delivered even more impressive data, with an average frame rate of 94fps, which greatly surpassed the previous generation of graphics cards, with an increase of nearly 50%.

In the 4K resolution project of "The Witcher 3" which was not tested last year, ROG STRIX GTX 1080 gave a good score of 42fps.

Of course, with the continuous release of excellent games in the past year, "GTA5" and "The Witcher 3" as "old veterans" can no longer represent the highest requirements for hardware performance of large-scale PC games. We specially selected two popular PC games recently: "Ark: Survival Evolved" and "Overwatch" as new test samples.

Overwatch  

As a competitive game produced by Blizzard, theoretically, the demand for graphics cards should not be as high as that of AAA games in the past year. Blizzard is also well-known in the industry for its ability to optimize games. However, at 4K resolution, "Overwatch" with full special effects turned on actually suppressed the frame rate to an average of 25fps.

Even if adjusted to 1080P, the frame rate is only 25fps. This somewhat abnormal phenomenon may be related to the rendering ratio in the options. The 200% rendering requirement seems too demanding when the effect is fully turned on. When we lowered this option, Overwatch returned to a fairly smooth high frame rate level.

Ark: Survival Evolved

As a sandbox game with a level of openness comparable to Minecraft, Ark's demand for real-time rendering is obviously higher than that of general games.  

At 1080P resolution, the frame rate of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 is stable at 39fps. At 4K resolution, the frame rate is greatly reduced to an average of 15fps. At this resolution, the picture smoothness can be guaranteed, but there will still be a certain delay in operation.

It is worth pointing out that this test did not install third-party optimization patches for Ark, in order to restore the most original game requirements. As we all know, the optimization of Ark itself is not excellent, and it is possible that there is no civilian-grade product on the market that can withstand such primitive optimization directly.

The head-on collision between Ark and ROG STRIX GTX 1080 actually shows that civilian-grade graphics cards still have a long way to go to completely dominate PC games. At least for now, Ark is a game that ROG STRIX GTX 1080 cannot completely control.

VR Testing  

Of course, as the GTX 1080 has been publicly announced to support VR, it is natural to have a VR test. This time, we use the VR Proformance Test on the Steam platform to evaluate the support level of ROG STRIX GTX 1080.

Needless to say, the results are very good. The almost full compatibility indicates that this graphics card can stably support most of the current VR software, and the equally near-full fidelity also highlights the performance of this graphics card in VR.

However, as far as the development of VR itself is concerned, the current VR technology is still in its initial stage, and software advancement is the current development direction. In the words of Huang Renxun, it will take 10 years for hardware manufacturers to truly make a mature VR product.

GTX1080 marks the arrival of 4K gaming era

According to ASUS officials, ROG STRIX GTX 1080 will be released at a price of 5999 RMB, which is 10% more expensive than the public version of 5399 RMB. Of course, the Raptor series has always had this ratio.

Comparing vertically with ASUS's own flagship products, the 40% performance improvement is just enough to replace the flagship graphics card STRIX GTX 980 Ti from a year ago. In terms of price, ASUS still sells STRIX GTX 980 Ti at 5799RMB. For players, the burden of upgrading is actually not heavy and is worth considering.  

The biggest contribution of ROG STRIX GTX 1080 to current PC games is that it can push the frame rate of 4K resolution to a smooth level under the premise of full effects. Even if some games have certain operation delays and screen tearing, they can be compensated by reducing the screen effect by 5%~10%.

Nowadays, 4K has rapidly penetrated into various screen terminals. Enthusiast users should be eager to enjoy the ultimate 4K experience on the PC gaming side. It is just right to buy a ROG STRIX GTX 1080 to play 4K games.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.