The NVIDIA GTX 1080 boasts 'irresponsible amounts of performance'

At a special event in Austin, Texas, NVIDIA has unveiled its latest high-end GPU, the GTX 1080. And it carries "irresponsible amounts of performance." As illustrated on stage by CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, the GTX 1080 and its Pascal architecture boasts more power than a Titan X, while consuming a fraction of the power.

Pascal has been several years and several billion dollars in the making and is the most advanced architecture that NVIDIA has ever produced. The new card also boasts brand new, "G5X" memory, which offers a significant increase in performance over GDDR5. The 1080 is described as more powerful than a pair of GTX 980 cards in SLI, and around 25% up on last year's GTX 980 Ti.

Pretty serious stuff.

Perhaps as amazing as all the power is the 180W TDP of the GTX 1080. It was also shown to be running during an on stage demo with a 2114MHz GPU clock, 5508MHz memory clock on air cooling and all at just 67 degrees celsius in temperature. So we're getting a triple threat of power, power efficiency and being as cool as a cucumber. You can check out the full specs of the GTX 1080 right here

There's also a new SLI bridge to go with the 1080, if you're going to be using more than one for even more ridiculous power:

"NVIDIA's new SLI HB bridge doubles the available transfer bandwidth compared to the NVIDIA Maxwell™ architecture. Delivering silky-smooth gameplay, it's the best way to experience surround gaming—and it's only compatible with the GeForce GTX 1080."

The GTX 1080 will be available for an MSRP of $599, with an NVIDIA Founders Edition available for $699. It'll be available around the world starting on May 27.

If you're looking for something a little cheaper, there will also be the GTX 1070 launching June 10. It, too, is more powerful than a Titan X, has 6.5 TFLOPS and 8GB GDDR5 and it'll have an MSRP of just $379. NVIDIA will have a Founders Edition of this for purchase, too, at $449.

So not only did NVIDIA just wow everyone with the raw power of the new Pascal cards, the price is pretty crazy too. Especially considering the performance over the current generation cards. Have a look at our best graphics card picks to see how it compares.

Richard Devine
Managing Editor - Tech, Reviews

Richard Devine is a Managing Editor at Windows Central with over a decade of experience. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently, you'll find him steering the site's coverage of all manner of PC hardware and reviews. Find him on Mastodon at mstdn.social/@richdevine