NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 10 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 10 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 10 GB: A Legend of the Past in the Reality of 2025

An Overview of Features, Limitations, and Relevance in the Era of New Technologies


1. Architecture and Key Features: The Legacy of Pascal

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, released in 2017, remains a cult classic thanks to its Pascal architecture. This GPU was built on a 16nm TSMC manufacturing process, providing an excellent balance between performance and energy efficiency for its time.

Key Features:

- 3584 CUDA Cores — the foundation for computational tasks in gaming and professional applications.

- Simultaneous Multi-Projection Technology — enhanced handling of multi-display configurations and VR.

- NVIDIA Ansel — the ability to create 360° screenshots and post-processing.

Limitations in 2025:

- Lack of RT and Tensor Cores — no hardware support for ray tracing (RTX) and DLSS.

- Outdated APIs — OpenGL 4.5 and DirectX 12 (Feature Level 12_1), which may lead to issues in new games.


2. Memory: GDDR5X and High Bandwidth

The GTX 1080 Ti features 11 GB of GDDR5X memory (the text mentions 10 GB, likely a typo) with a 352-bit memory bus. Its bandwidth of 484 GB/s remains adequate in 2025 for gaming at 1440p and 4K with high textures.

Features:

- The memory capacity allows for handling heavy projects in 3D editing software (e.g., Blender or Maya).

- In modern games with ultra settings, 11 GB may be maxed out (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty or Starfield), but it suffices for most projects.


3. Gaming Performance: What Can GTX 1080 Ti Do in 2025?

The card continues to demonstrate respectable results, especially at 1440p. FPS examples (at medium/high settings):

- Cyberpunk 2077: 45-50 FPS (1440p, no RT).

- Hogwarts Legacy: 55-60 FPS (1080p, FSR Quality).

- Apex Legends: 100-120 FPS (1440p).

Resolutions:

- 1080p: Comfortable gaming in most projects.

- 1440p: Optimal choice for a balance of quality and performance.

- 4K: Requires lowering settings or using FSR 2.0/3.0.

Ray Tracing: Not supported natively. In games with RT effects (e.g., Alan Wake 2), FPS drops below 30 even at 1080p.


4. Professional Tasks: CUDA in Action

Thanks to its 3584 CUDA cores, the card is well-suited for:

- Video Editing: Accelerated rendering in Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve (but lags behind modern RTX 40xx cards).

- 3D Modeling: Working in Blender (Cycles) and AutoCAD — rendering is performed 2-3 times slower than on RTX 3060.

- Scientific Computing: Support for CUDA and OpenCL is relevant for machine learning on basic models, but without Tensor Cores, efficiency is low.

Advice: For professional tasks, it’s better to pay extra for RTX cards with greater VRAM.


5. Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation: Operating Nuances

- TDP: 250 W. A power supply of at least 600 W is needed for stable operation (with some margin).

- Cooling:

- Reference models (blower-style) are noisy — it’s better to choose custom versions (ASUS ROG Strix, MSI Gaming X).

- A case with good ventilation (3-4 fans) is recommended.

Important: In 2025, many power supplies have switched to the ATX 3.0 standard — a PCIe 8-pin adapter will be necessary for compatibility with the GTX 1080 Ti.


6. Comparison with Competitors: The Battle of Generations

- NVIDIA RTX 3060 12 GB: 20-30% faster in games with DLSS, supports RTX. Price — $299.

- AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 GB: Performs better at 4K thanks to FSR 3.0, but underperforms in DX11 projects. Price — $329.

- New GTX 1080 Ti (if you can find one): Estimated price of $150-200 (only leftover stock on the market).

Conclusion: The GTX 1080 Ti excels in the budget segment but falls short in modern technologies.


7. Practical Tips: How to Avoid Problems

- Power Supply: 600-650 W from Corsair, Seasonic, or Be Quiet!.

- Compatibility:

- Motherboards with PCIe 3.0 x16 (works on PCIe 4.0 without performance loss).

- Not suitable for compact cases without good cooling.

- Drivers: NVIDIA support ceased in 2024. For Windows 11 and new games, errors may occur — use modified drivers (e.g., from the NVCleanInstall community).


8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Affordable price on the second-hand market.

- High performance in older and some new games.

- 11 GB of memory for texture handling.

Cons:

- No support for RTX, DLSS, or FSR 3 Frame Generation.

- High power consumption.

- Lack of warranty and new drivers.


9. Final Conclusion: Who Should Consider GTX 1080 Ti in 2025?

This graphics card is suitable for:

- Budget-conscious gamers who are ready to play at 1440p without ultra settings.

- Retro hardware enthusiasts building PCs for games from the 2010s.

- A temporary solution before buying a modern model.

Alternative: If your budget is $300-400, it’s better to consider the RTX 3060 or RX 7600 XT — they will provide support for new technologies and long-term relevance.


Conclusion

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a legend that still finds its fans even after 8 years. However, in 2025, it should be viewed as a temporary or niche solution rather than a cornerstone for a future gaming PC.

Basic

Label Name
NVIDIA
Platform
Desktop
Model Name
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 10 GB
Generation
GeForce 10
Base Clock
1557MHz
Boost Clock
1670MHz
Bus Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
Transistors
11,800 million
TMUs
?
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.
200
Foundry
TSMC
Process Size
16 nm
Architecture
Pascal

Memory Specifications

Memory Size
10GB
Memory Type
GDDR5X
Memory Bus
?
The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.
384bit
Memory Clock
1376MHz
Bandwidth
?
Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.
528.4 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate
?
Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.
133.6 GPixel/s
Texture Rate
?
Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.
334.0 GTexel/s
FP16 (half)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.
167.0 GFLOPS
FP64 (double)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
334.0 GFLOPS
FP32 (float)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
10.904 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count
?
Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.
25
Shading Units
?
The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.
3200
L1 Cache
48 KB (per SM)
L2 Cache
0MB
TDP
250W
Vulkan Version
?
Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.
1.3
OpenCL Version
3.0
OpenGL
4.6
DirectX
12 (12_1)
CUDA
6.1
Power Connectors
1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Shader Model
6.7
ROPs
?
The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.
80
Suggested PSU
600W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)
Score
10.904 TFLOPS
Blender
Score
610
OctaneBench
Score
133

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS
11.907 +9.2%
11.281 +3.5%
10.608 -2.7%
10.114 -7.2%
Blender
2115.71 +246.8%
1222 +100.3%
323 -47%
126 -79.3%