Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Gigabyte’s GTX 1080 Xtreme Edition GPU may zoom past Founder’s Edition model

By

gigabyte aorus overclocked gtx 1080 revealed xtreme edition 8g
Image used with permission by copyright holder
This week during the DreamHack Leipzig 2017 convention in Germany, Gigabyte held a special press event to showcase new products to be released under the Aorus label. The portfolio included six new gaming motherboards for the Intel Z270 chipset, new laptops, and a new graphics card: the Aorus GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Edition 8G slated to hit store shelves soon.

According to the specifications, the new card is overclocked right out of the box, offering two modes: Gaming and Overclocked. Here are the speeds for the graphics chip, the accompanying 8GB of on-board GDDR5X video memory, and also the reference GTX 1080 board just for comparison:

Recommended Videos
GPU Memory
Nvidia’s Reference Base Speed: 1,607MHz 10,000MHz
Nvidia’s Reference Boost Speed: 1,733MHz N/A
Gaming Mode Base Speed: 1,759MHz 10,206MHz
Gaming Mode Boost Speed: 1,898MHz N/A
Overclocked Mode Base Speed: 1,784MHz 10,400MHz
Overclocked Mode Boost Speed: 1,936MHz N/A

Now here are the remaining hardware specs of the new card:

Architecture: Pascal
Process technology: 16nm
CUDA Cores: 2,560
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth: 320GB per second
Card Bus: PCI Express 3.0 x16
I/O Ports (Standard Mode): 1x Dual-Link DVI-D
3x DisplayPort 1.4
1x HDMI 2.0b
I/O Ports (VR Mode): 3x DisplayPort 1.4
3x HDMI 2.0b
Digital max resolution: 7,680 x 4,320 @ 60Hz
Multi-view: 4
Recommended Power Supply: 500 watts with two 8-pin external connectors

According to Gigabyte, the GTX 1080 Aorus Xtreme Edition 8G outperforms the GTX 1080 Founder’s Edition and the GTX 980Ti reference card in three popular PC games. In a 64-bit Windows 7 test bed featuring an Intel i7-4790K processor, 16GB of system memory, and a 128GB SSD, the card was found to be 5 percent faster than the Founder’s Edition card in Overwatch, 10 percent faster in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and 5 percent faster in Grand Theft Auto V.

Keeping the card cool under the overclocked conditions is the job of the company’s Windforce “stacked” cooling system, consisting of three 100mm fans residing over two large, finned heatsinks. Along with heat pipes, a large copper base plate resides on the front of the card to dissipate most of the heat away from the graphics chip and on-board memory via direct contact. Another large copper plate resides on the back to pull heat away from the back of the graphics chip.

On the lighting front, the card has an illuminated Aorus logo on the side, an illuminated logo on the back, and four stripes converging to the Aorus logo residing over the middle cooling fan. Configurable through Gigabyte’s free software, users can choose the right colors to match the system’s overall color scheme, and select from five lighting effects consisting of Cycling, Consistent, Flash, Dual Flash, and Breathing.

The card also includes an Aorus VR Link component, which Gigabyte boasts as the only output technology currently on the market that supports four display combinations for virtual reality without the need for an additional adapter. Aorus VR Link adds two HDMI ports to the side of the card, enabling the following video output configurations:

Setup 1 Setup 2 Setup 3 Setup 4
VR Headset (HDMI) VR Headset (HDMI) VR Headset (HDMI) VR Headset (HDMI)
DisplayPort HDMI HDMI HDMI
DisplayPort HDMI DisplayPort
DisplayPort DisplayPort

Right now, there’s no official word on availability and pricing, but the company is expected to launch the card in February for somewhere around $800 here in the United States. The card will come with a 4-year warranty that must be activated by registering the card online.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kevin Parrish
Kevin Parrish
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
Blue Screen of Death: What it means and what to do if you get one
The Blue Screen of Death seen on a laptop.

The BSOD, or Blue Screen of Death, is an iconic error screen that anyone who's ever used a Windows PC has liekly come across at one time or another. It's no fun, and it can mean there's a problem with your PC that needs fixing. But in most cases, it's just one of those things that crops up, and simply keeping your PC updated will be enough to prevent it from coming up again.

Here's everything you need to know about BSODs and what to do if youget one.
What is a BSOD?
The stop error screen, or as it's colloquially known for its blue coloring, the BSOD, is an error screen that appears when something has gone critically wrong with your PC. It doesn't mean it's fundamentally broken, but it means something has gone so wrong with it that it can no longer function and needs to reboot to get working again.

Read more
Best Samsung Galaxy deals: S24, Buds, Watches and more
The Galaxy Z Fold 4's Cover Screen.

Samsung’s Galaxy lineup is made up of several different types of devices, and if you’re in the market for some savings, you’ll often find Samsung Galaxy tech among the best headphone deals, the best smartwatch deals, the best tablet deals, and the best phone deals. With so many different devices among the Galaxy lineup, and with so many Samsung Galaxy deals out there for the picking, we rounded up what we feel are the best Samsung Galaxy deals to shop right now. Reading onward you’ll find discounts on some of the best tablets, best smartwatches, and best wireless earbuds the Samsung Galaxy lineup has to offer, as well as some impressive discounts on Galaxy phones.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 -- $97, was $150

If you're looking for headphone deals but you want an alternative to Apple's AirPods, you should consider the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2. The wireless earbuds have great battery life that's made even better with an included charging case. While some of the other Galaxy Buds out there include the Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds Pro, and Galaxy Buds+, but with the Galaxy Buds 2's active noise-cancelation you can block out unwanted sounds and keep your focus on whatever you’re working on, watching, or listening to. You can also control the headphones with touch controls on each earbud, and they connect easily to any Bluetooth device.

Read more
Best Microsoft Office deals: Get Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for free
Students using Microsoft Office software on their laptops outside.

While the fight of Microsoft vs Google when it comes to office apps might be never-ending, if you're the sort of person who prefers dealing with Microsoft, you'll be happy to know that there are quite a few good deals you can take advantage of. As you may know, most of Microsoft's apps have gone under one rather expensive subscription service, Microsoft 365, but you can still get older parts of the suite for relatively good prices. In fact, you can even get a free trial of Microsoft Word to test it out, although you'd still need to pay to get the full suite of tools.
Best Microsoft Office deals
Microsoft Office is a pay once, receive once service. You don't have to pay recurring monthly fees to use it, but the software also never updates. For what it's worth, the Microsoft Office packages are labelled "2021", so they're all fairly recent but also ripe for a good deal. With the exception of AI integrations, not much has really changed in the past couple of years when it comes to your basic document creation and these programs should continue to be effective for years to come. Depending on what package you get, you'll get access to different apps, based on the needs of the target audience. For example, Microsoft Office Home & Student 2021 keeps it lean and cool and with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint being the only apps included.

Here are our favorite deals for the classic Microsoft Office experience:

Read more