GTX 1080 vs 1080 Ti – Which is better?
For any gamer, it is truly a delight for him to play all the games at the highest resolutions while turning up the settings all the way up to the maximum. The experience of playing games at 2k or even 4k with everything maxed out is one of a kind and it will undoubtedly be enjoyed by every gamer. The thought of playing games at the highest settings alone gives one Goosebumps. That being said, one is going to need a really beefy Graphics Card if he desires to play all the games at the maximum settings because a mid-tier Graphics Card won’t be able to pull a job like this. Only the very high end and top-tier GPUs can perform a task like this smoothly. Talking about high-end GPUs; NVIDIA has some high-end GPUs of its own like the GTX 1080 and its bigger brother The GTX 1080ti. We get it that the two GPUs are really massive and pretty beefy but what exactly is the difference between them? Well, let’s find out.
4K screens are much cheaper than before and the graphics cards are also keeping up with this resolution, which is why 4K gaming is getting mainstream. Nvidia GTX 1080 is a great contestant for this level of gaming and users can enjoy games at high graphical settings with a smooth frame rate of 60 FPS. However, many newly released games are giving a hard time to this graphics card, such as Assassins Creed Odyssey, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and a few more, forcing the user to reduce the graphics settings a bit to achieve a stable and smooth frame rate.
Meanwhile, GTX 1080 Ti provides a seamless gaming experience in these games even at high settings. If you are not much of a fan of FPS taxing settings such as Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing techniques then we will recommend you to consider buying the GTX 1080. On the other hand, if you want the maximum visual fidelity and do not want to upgrade your graphics card for a couple of years, then GTX 1080 Ti will be your best bet.
High refresh-rate gaming is a sweet and shocking experience for everyone. One cannot revert to 60-Hz screens after adjusting to such a high refresh-rate screen. Now, most of the 144-Hz screens have a lower resolution of 1080p although 1440p monitors are also getting mainstream in the market. If you own a 1080p 144-Hz screen then both of these graphics cards should be able to synchronize the FPS in any game to the refresh rate of your screen. But, on a 1440p screen, things get a bit complicated. Achieving such a high FPS at 1440p is, in fact, more demanding than gaming at 4K 60-Hz and GTX 1080 Ti should be your only choice if you want a persistent 120+ FPS in the games.
There is also a tricky thing about 144-Hz gaming. Most of the people can differentiate between 60-FPS and 144-FPS easily but differentiating between 100-Hz and 144-Hz can be a bit difficult, or, we can say that 100-Hz is 1enough for most of the people for casual gaming. If that is the case for you, then GTX 1080 should also be considered as it will provide around 100 FPS in AAA titles at 1440p resolution. Moreover, using an Adaptive Sync screen can be a big plus point in such a case.
GTX 1080
Many people prefer ultra-wide screens as they provide a better gaming experience altogether. Ultra-wide gaming screens are getting popular such as Asus PG348Q, Acer Predator X34, and Alienware AW3418DW. These screens provide a 100-Hz refresh rate along with a resolution of 3440×1440, which is the sweet spot for many gamers. The performance of GTX 1080 is very promising with these screens and around 75+ FPS can be easily achieved, even in the latest games. However, it is not future proof and 2019 games are already giving a hard time to this bad boy. You should consider this graphics card if you are satisfied with such performance or you want to relive your experience with a bit older games such as Witcher 3, Grand Theft Auto 5 or Rise of the Tomb Raider.
GTX 1080 Ti
Meanwhile, Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti provides a top-notch experience with such screens and even the latest games can be maxed-out easily, providing a stable frame-rate. If you are sure that visuals of a game are more important than the price tags then you should go shopping for this immediately as many retailers are selling this graphics card at a discount.
Everybody wants a high-end graphics card such as GTX 1080 Ti but things get out of hand when there is a limited budget. Hereby, we provide you with a great alternative to such a problem. If you are short on budget, then instead of buying a 1080 Ti, you can get a powerful edition of GTX 1080 which will provide you a great boost over a standard GTX 1080 and your performance would be much closer to a GTX 1080 Ti. You can also overclock your GTX 1080 to provide you with a significant improvement over the factory clocked graphics card.
The funny thing is that this strategy can also be implemented in a 180-degree phase. You can consider buying a cheap version of GTX 1080 Ti, especially a blower-style version which are very cheap, thus saving you a lot of money but you still end up getting similar or slightly lower performance.
On a side note, if you’re thinking to go for the 1080 Ti already then check out our in-depth review of the best GTX 1080 Ti variants you can buy as of now.
| # | Preview | Name | Memory speed | Fans | Number of slots | Purchase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | 11264MB | 2 x 120 mm | 2 | Check Price |
| 2 |  | Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti | 1632 MHz | 3 x 90 mm | 2 | Check Price |
| 3 |  | Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1080ti | 11010 MHz | 3 x 100 mm | 2.5 | Check Price |
| 4 |  | ZOTAC GTX 1080 Ti AMP Extreme Edition | 11264 MHz | 3 x 100 mm | 3 | Check Price |
| 5 |  | MSI Geforce Gtx 1080 TI Gaming X | 1683 MHz | 2 x 100 mm | 2 | Check Price |
| # | 1 |
| Preview | |
| Name | EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti |
| Memory speed | 11264MB |
| Fans | 2 x 120 mm |
| Number of slots | 2 |
| Purchase | Check Price |
| # | 2 |
| Preview | |
| Name | Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti |
| Memory speed | 1632 MHz |
| Fans | 3 x 90 mm |
| Number of slots | 2 |
| Purchase | Check Price |
| # | 3 |
| Preview | |
| Name | Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1080ti |
| Memory speed | 11010 MHz |
| Fans | 3 x 100 mm |
| Number of slots | 2.5 |
| Purchase | Check Price |
| # | 4 |
| Preview | |
| Name | ZOTAC GTX 1080 Ti AMP Extreme Edition |
| Memory speed | 11264 MHz |
| Fans | 3 x 100 mm |
| Number of slots | 3 |
| Purchase | Check Price |
| # | 5 |
| Preview | |
| Name | MSI Geforce Gtx 1080 TI Gaming X |
| Memory speed | 1683 MHz |
| Fans | 2 x 100 mm |
| Number of slots | 2 |
| Purchase | Check Price |
Last Update on 2024-12-21 at 19:24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
GTX 1080
The GTX 1080 is a high-end Graphics Card that was built on the 16nm process and was powered by the NVIDIA’s architecture called the “Pascal”. The GTX 1080 replaced the previous high-end GPU from NVIDIA which was none other than the GTX 980. When the GTX 1080 came out it definitely made a huge impact on the gaming world and it was crowned as the “New King for Gaming” in no time. The GTX 1080 came packed with 2560 CUDA cores. 64 ROPs, 8GB of GDDR5X VRAM, 160 texture units and a GPU boost clock of 1733MHz.
This Graphics Card from NVIDIA is totally a beast when it comes to playing all the modern AAA titles at 1080p or even at 2k resolution, but does it also hold up when it is paired with a 4k monitor? Well, if I were to put it simply then the answer would be No. The GTX 1080 can play all the games in the highest settings possible if you are gaming at 1080p or 1440p but if you are going to turn it up a notch and start playing the games at 4k resolution then the GTX 1080 will not be able to play all the games at the best frames per second. You will feel the games lagging at times and even some massive FPS drops would be seen when playing at 4k resolution. That being said it doesn’t mean that the GTX 1080 is a weak GPU, this GPU cannot be considered as a “Weak GPU” at least as of yet. The GPU does a great job in playing almost everything you throw at it as long as it is in 1440p or 1080p. In fact, it is one of the best choices out there and maybe the best if you are planning to play all the games at 1440p resolution. It can also handle a little bit of 4k but it is not really a recommendation when it comes to playing everything at 4k.
GTX 1080 Ti
As the name suggests The GTX 1080 Ti is actually a bigger, better and a beefier version of the original GTX 1080. As soon as the GTX 1080 Ti was launched it was considered as the best GPU for gaming at 4k. This was actually the main selling point of this card and this card was a huge success because it would destroy absolutely each and everything you throw at it and it didn’t even matter what resolution you were playing it at. The GTX 1080 Ti could play all the games at 4k that too at decent frame rates and without you needing to make a sacrifice regarding texture quality. The performance of the GTX 1080 Ti was unbelievable and it still holds up when it comes to 4k, even against the new giants The RTX 2080 and the RTX 2080 Ti, playing almost every game at almost 60 Frames per second more or less.
The GTX 1080 Ti also featured the same Pascal architecture but it was obviously an upgraded version of the GTX 1080 and so it came with a mind-blowing number of CUDA Cores inside it. It came with 3584 CUDA cores and with 12 billion transistors, while it had a Boost clock of 1582MHz and a Base clock of 1480 MHz it had a whopping 11 GB GDDR5X of Memory Capacity, with a Memory bus of 352-bit. The GTX 1080 Ti was pretty much similar to the top tier GPU of NVIDIA “The Titan X”. As a matter of fact, the GTX 1080 Ti has the same number of transistors and also the same number of CUDA Cores as in the Titan X. Talking about Specifications; here are the specifications of the GTX 1080 Ti
That being said, the GTX 1080 Ti was definitely a big step up if you were upgrading from the older 1080. The 1080 Ti was better than its smaller brother in every aspect, whether it be specifications or performance. The GTX 1080 Ti was found to be outclassing the GTX 1080 in every aspect. But all of that doesn’t come in at a cheaper price. The GTX 1080 Ti is still a very pricey Graphics Card even in 2019 and it is definitely still a beast on its own.
Conclusion
From what we have concluded is that both the Graphics Cards are very powerful, even in today’s world and both are definitely NVIDIA’s high-end GPUs but we know that GTX 1080 cannot really endure the heavy 4k gaming and a performance decrease would definitely be seen in some games at 4k resolution but what it can do is that it can do some light 4k gaming and what it does best is to play all the modern titles at 1440p. There is no doubt that the GTX 1080 is a total beast when it comes to 1440p gaming and it is also a better choice if you are someone who games at 1440p, meaning that it will cost you less and will perform up to the mark. However if you are someone who is looking to take their gaming to the next level and you want to experience all the gaming at 4k resolution then you might want to opt for the GTX 1080 Ti as it is a better choice for 4k gaming, but with that you would also have to spend more money as the GTX 1080 Ti is not really a budget Graphics Card and also not affordable by everyone. On top of that if you really want to experience 4k gaming then you should also have a beefy CPU so that the 1080 Ti wouldn’t bottleneck with it and so you can experience the real 4k gaming on PC.
