Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsCurrently the best of the best for gaming. Keeps nice and cool, nice and quiet, and looks awesome with LED lighting.
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2017
I am not the biggest gamer that ever lived, but I recently bought the HTC Vive virtual reality system, and I wanted a video card that could handle that, and whatever other games I wanted, so I wouldn't have to update to a new card in a year or less. I looked at other cards, and this card was better than 2 of the next best cards, but priced at less than 2x the price. So, the choice was obvious: Buy two competing cards, spending more money, getting less performance, or buying this card.
I run all my games on a 4K UHD monitor, and I use the highest settings. I have never seen a visible lag, or pixilation, it is just flawless. As for the virtual reality, it is amazing, with this card there is no comprehensible lag between motion and update on the display. It is so incredibly immersive. I have to assume this card has a lot to do with just how great this experience is. If you are considering getting the Titan, or this, get THIS. If you ever need a little boost then you buy a second 1080, and put it in SLI mode. The two 1080's are still cheaper than the Titan, and I guarantee you that this is the only card you will need for a while. With DDR4 memory, 4Ghz CPU, M.2 HDD, and this card there is nothing this machine cannot do. You can enable every setting, to the max, 4K resolution, and this card just happily takes it. The STRIX supports overclocking via their app, so you can squeeze out a little more if you need it, but I seriously doubt you will need if for quite a while.
I have played with the app, it lets you overclock as you want, and it lets you set the fan thresholds, and colors, etc. I tried overclocking a bit, and it worked just fine, but I haven't found a game that it couldn't handle without overclocking, so I don't bother to actually use it. You can create different profiles, so you can easily turn on or off the overclocking. I set the fan to be quiet, but I don't set it at the 0db setting. I prefer a little fan noise and keeping my card nice and cool. However, in the case that I have I cannot hear the fan, so it really doesn't matter.
I set the colors to match the motherboard, case, keyboard and mouse. Now my computer looks like a work of art. It is something I display proudly as it is just so friggin cool.
The specs speak for themselves. 8GB of VRAM is impressive, especially that it is GDDR5, running at 1,825Mhz at 256-bits in width. That is a sick memory throughput. The new Titan is the only card that I know of that can beat this one in compute power, but it is not as good for gaming as this. The number of CUDA cores is staggering, something like 2560+. This video card is a true supercomputer in and of itself. But, it plays games like they're nothing. It just works, on the highest setting, at 4K resolution, or in Vive VR, and it doesn't even get hot. It usually runs like 40-50C at the most when playing the most taxing games. Keeping it nice and cool will ensure a long life span.
I don't know what else I can say. If you want to play the newest and best games, this is the card for you. Whether you are a true overclocker, or just want to drop in the card and forget it, this is the card for you. If you have a fancy machine, with LED lighting, and an open side panel, this is the card for you. I had originally bought the reference model of the 1080, but I changed to the ROG version for the better fans, and more sturdy heat sink.
Another great feature is the number of video ports this has. It has 2 UHD HDMI ports, two full sized display port ports and a DVI port. I use one of the DP with my HTC Vive, and one of the HDMI with my Samsung 28" 4K UHD monitor.
Pros: Incredible performance, as good or better than 2 of the next best cards. Supports SLI for 2 or three cards. Has 8GB of GDDR5 memory, and over 300 CUDA core. Plays the newest games in 4K UHD with >60fps and never lags or stutters. 2 HDMI and one DP for multiple monitors, or VR. Works perfect with HTC Vive.
Cons: It is a bit pricey. But, when you figure you would need to of the next best card to compete, it is really not that bad.
