Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Benchmarks: A 4K Gaming Beast

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Nvidia's newest graphics card, the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti, will deliver some of the smoothest 4K gameplay you can get from a gaming PC.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, one of the company's most powerful graphics cards to date, is here. Nvidia claims it's the biggest performance leap from a standard GTX card to an upgraded Ti model thus far.

It costs $699 for the Founder's Edition, and partners will soon have their own cards. So how does it perform?

While we haven't had the opportunity to test any pre-built gaming systems with a 1080 Ti yet, our sister sites Tom's Hardware and Anandtech ran detailed tests on the new card with otherwise similar builds to see how it compares to the rest of Nvidia's lineup and AMD's Radeon R9 Fury X. Be sure to check out their full reviews for far more details and tests on even more games. Also note that Nvidia has released a driver that supports 1080 Ti, which also adds DX12 enhancements.

The numbers don't lie: the 1080 Ti goes toe-to-toe with the Titan X while playing games at both 1440p and 4K. The 11GB of VRAM and cooler operating temperatures sure don't hurt. Let's check out the benchmarks:

Grand Theft Auto V

On the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark, the GTX 1080 Ti ran at 100.2 frames per second, falling just behind the Titan X (104.4 fps). The elder GTX 1080 ran at 79.1 fps.


Bump up GTA V to 4K and the 1080 Ti came out on top at 54.9 fps, while the Titan X reached 54.4 fps. The GTX 1080 rendered the game at 40.4 fps.

Metro: Last Light

On the Metro: Last Light benchmark at 1440p, the Titan X was less than a frame ahead of the 1080 Ti. The former card rendered the game at 118.3 fps, while the latter played at 117.9 fps. The GTX 1080 was still nice and smooth at 99 fps.

In 4K, the 1080 Ti took the lead at 70.8 fps, while the Titan X played the game at 70.3 fps. The GTX 1080 rendered it at 56.2 fps.

Ashes of the Singularity

On the real-time strategy game Ashes of the Singularity at 1440p, the 1080 Ti came out on top again at 71.7 fps, while the Titan X reached 69.7 fps. The 1080 hit 55.6 fps, and, on this game, the Radeon R9 Fury X beat out some of Nvidia's offerings.

The 1080 Ti kept its lead on Ashes at 4K, playing the game at a smooth 59.5 fps. The Titan hit 58.2 fps and the 1080 played at 44.2 fps.       

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Rise of the Tomb Raider

Anandtech tested the 1080 Ti against the 1080 on the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark. At 1440p and very high settings, the former card reached 119.6 fps, while the latter card hit 95.1 fps.

At 4K, the 1080 Ti rendered the game at 65.6 fps compared to the 1080's 49.4 fps.

Hitman

On the Hitman benchmark at 1440p with ultra settings and DirectX 12, the 1080 Ti ran at 128.1 fps, while the regular 1080 played at 106.4 fps.

At 4K resolution, the newer card reached 77.5 fps and the older card played at 62.3 fps.

The Witcher 3

The 1080 Ti ran the Witcher 3 at 100.9 fps at 1440p and ultra settings (but without HairWorks), and the original 1080 played the game at 77.2 fps.


The 1080 Ti played the game at 60.1 fps at 4K resolution, compared to the 1080's 45.4 fps.

Overall

The GTX 1080 Ti proved to be a monster of a GPU in testing, and it will handle any game you throw at it, even in 4K. It matches the insanely powerful Titan X (which, admittedly, is meant more for AI and machine learning) and will power VR experiences without a hitch. The price is steep, but gaming PCs with the 1080 Ti will easily be the most formidable on the market.

Andrew E. Freedman
Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is an editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming as well as keeping up with the latest news. He holds a M.S. in Journalism (Digital Media) from Columbia University. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Kotaku, PCMag, Complex, Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag among others.