Gigabyte gtx 1080 xtreme gaming review (analysis in Spanish)

We continue with our daily analysis and today we present to you the fabulous Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming with a new heatsink, a custom PCB that is to take off your hat, very high frequencies and a specific design for virtual glasses. Don't miss our review!

Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming technical features

Design and unboxing

Gigabyte makes a presentation to match this fantastic graphics card. Specifically, we have the Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming Premium, where we see on the cover and in the back area all the most important technical characteristics and its main novelties.

We find a first section that includes a mat, a quick guide, a thief for an 8-pin connection and a wrist strap.

In the second section next to the graphics card we find a SLI HB bridge, a rear connection, a sticker, a front panel with HDMI and USB connections and an adapter for a rear slot (since many boxes no longer have 5.25 ″ bays on the front).

Detail of the front connections of the external panel: two USB 3.0 connections and two HDMI connections for use from the front with the HTC Vive virtual glasses.

The Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming uses the most powerful chip of the moment: Pascal GP104-200 which It is manufactured in 16 nm FinFET and with a reduced size of 314 mm2. It is a chip with 7, 200 million transistors, which we can deduce that it is a masterpiece of engineering. It also incorporates a total of 2560 CUDA cores from this new architecture.

It is complemented by a total of 160 texturizing units (TMUs) and 64 crawling units (ROPs). The kernel works with three possible profiles, which we detail below:

• OC Mode: Boost: 1936 MHz / Base: 1784 MHz Gaming Mode: Boost: 1898 MHz / Base: 1759 MHz

There is also a third profile that allows undervolting and further lower the consumption of the graphics card. All profiles work with new GPU Boost 3.0 technology for top-notch performance.

The GDDR5X memory comes to replace the fatigue that the GDDR5 offered in the current ranges of graphics cards. With HBM memory discarded for the moment: manufacturing cost and few chips we see this new type of doped memory, which ensures us up to 5500 MHz with overclock. In total it has 8GB and they are more than enough to play in 2K and 4K UHD resolutions.

Rear view of the graphics card backplate.

The Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming incorporates the new Xtreme Cooling heatsink equipped with three double ball 10 cm fans in its structure. Unlike other models, incorporating 30 cm of cooling allows the air flow to be more direct and less spread to the aluminum grill.

As expected, the heatsink incorporates the “ Fan Stop ” technology, that is to say 0DB, which means that all the fans are at rest, until the 3D load begins and they are activated automatically.

The heatsink also incorporates an RGB lighting system on its front and upper area, which is personalized with 16.8 million colors and various effects (see software section).

Detail of the SLI connectors for the new SLI HB bridge.

For a good power it incorporates two 8-pin power connections.

Its famous front HDMI connections, which allows you to connect virtual glasses from the front panel. Quite a luxury to have maximum comfort in our team.

Finally we show you the rear connections made up of:

• 1 DVI connection. 3 Displayport connections. 1 HDMI connections.

PCB and internal components

To remove the heatsink we must remove four screws located on the chip and three other screws located in the power supply phases. This is the view of the heatsink, as we see incorporates 5 copper heatpipes, quality thermal pad and a copper surface to cool both the chip and the memories.

The Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming features a custom PCB with 12 + 2 power phases and Ultra Durable components. It also has Xtreme Protection technology, what is it for? It is amazing, because it supports dust, insects, greater heating, a leak of water in our liquid cooling and corrosion. Cool, right? ?

Finally we leave you some photos of the PCB in more detail, we hope it is to your liking.

Test bench and performance tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	i7-6700k @ 4200 Mhz..
Base plate:	Asus Maximus VIII Formula.
Memory:	32GB Kingston Fury DDR4 @ 3000 Mhz
Heatsink	Cryorig H7 heatsink
HDD	Samsung 850 EVO SSD.
Graphic card	Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming
Power supply	Corsair AX860i

For benchmarks we will use the following titles:

• 3DMark Fire Strike normal.3DMark Fire Strike version 4K.Heaven 4.0.Doom 4.Overwatch.Tomb Raider.Battlefield 4.

All tests have been passed with the filters to the maximum unless we indicate otherwise. In order to have adequate performance, we have carried out three types of tests: the first is the most common at Full HD 1920 x 1080, the second resolution is making the leap to 2K or 1440P (2560 x 1440P) gamers and the most enthusiastic with 4K (3840 x 2160). The operating system we have used has been Windows 10 Pro 64 bit and the latest drivers available from the Nvidia website.

What are we looking for in the tests?

First, the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS the more fluid the game will go. To differentiate the quality a bit, we leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS, but we will also have the minimum Fps in the tests that were thus possible:

FRAMES BY SECONDS
Frames for Seconds. (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 - 40 FPS	Playable
40 - 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Fairly Good or Excellent

Synthetic benchmarks

As always we have passed the three most important tests in synthetic benchmarks: normal 3DMARK, its 4K version and the Heaven 4 version. The results are far superior to the rest of the GTX 1080 that we have analyzed, since it comes standardized at stable 2 GHz.

Game Testing

We have decided to make the leap to checking various games manually. The reason? Very simple, we want to give a much more realistic vision and cover tests with current games. Since we make an effort, it is consistent with the level of the website and that of our readers.

Testing in Full HD games

Testing in 2K games

Testing in 4K games

XTREME GAMING ENGINE software

As we already showed you with the Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 Gaming, they have incorporated new software for power management, fan control, lighting system and graphics card overclocking . In the first option it allows us to create different profiles and in them adjust the frequency of our graphics card. With the XTREME GAMING ENGINE we have carried out all our overclocking tests .

We also have an advanced overclocking option, which allows us to choose between three configurations created by the Gigabyte team : OC Mode, Gaming Mode and ECO Mode. In each of them we have different values ​​that make the card slightly more powerful or energetically efficient. Although as we always recommend, it is best to overclock yourselves?

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Another of the most interesting options are the profiles for the fan speed. We find it a great option and that 100% adjustable to our needs.

To finish with the software, the lighting system takes on great importance in this graphics card. From this application it will allow us to adjust effects, colors, brightness and even options on the SLI HB bridge. We loved it!!!

Overclock and first impressions

Note: Remember that overclocking or manipulation carries a risk, we and any manufacturer are not responsible for improper use, use the head and always do so at your own risk.

We have increased overclocking capacity by +45 MHz in the core, memory by +500 MHz, TDP and maximum voltage. The result is really good, getting a great score compared to the stock. But everything can be said that the graphics card comes quite "doped" as standard: 2000 MHz and the overclocking is quite slight.

When NVIDIA or the Gigabyte itself unblock the graphics card voltage we will easily see it in stable 2200 MHz. It is all a beauty manufactured by the Gigabyte R&D team.

Temperature and consumption

Consumption lives up to expectations set at 68 W idle and 272 W at full performance. Our team consists of an Intel Core i7-6700K, 32 GB of DDR4 memory, 480 GB SSD and a high performance heatsink.

Once we overclock at rest, it reaches 71W on average at rest and 315W at maximum power.

The temperatures of the Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming are excellent, since we have obtained 43 ºC since the fans are in passive mode until any game or 3D application is activated, they do not turn on. While playing we do not exceed 52 ºC at maximum power. Since the overclock has been so mild, temperatures only rise to a maximum of 57ºC. We expected nothing less of this monstrous heatsink.

Final words and conclusion about Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming

The Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming is one of the best graphics cards on the market , since it has everything you could ask for: power, cooling, aesthetically beautiful, a good bundle and with very high clocks as standard.

In our test bench we have seen a much higher performance compared to the GTX 1080 Founders Edition that we analyzed just a few weeks ago and it is positioned as the best graphics card on the market by far. Its 12 + 2 power supply phases, its management / monitoring software and its excellent cooling make it a very long-lasting graphics card.

If it is true that we would have liked to exceed 2.1 GHz but today it is very difficult, because the voltage is blocked by Nvidia. Although the amounts we have received offers us 1-2 more FPS as standard, they are always welcome.

Currently it can be found in some online stores for 850 euros, it is clear that it is not a cheap price but being a PREMIUM product we see its justified price. It also has a 4 year warranty! One more plus to take into account this graphics card.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ FIRST HEATSINK.	- PRICE MAY BE A PROBLEM FOR MANY CONSUMERS.
+ IDEAL FOR VIRTUAL REALITY.
+ ALLOWS A GOOD OVERCLOCK AND STANDARD COMES WITH 2 GHZ.
+4 YEARS OF GUARANTEE.
+ VERY COMPLETE BUNDLE: WRIST, CONNECTIONS FOR FRONT PANEL AND IDEAL FOR VIRTUAL REALITY.

And after carefully evaluating both the evidence and the product, Professional Review awards him the platinum medal:

Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming

COMPONENT QUALITY

DISSIPATION

GAMING EXPERIENCE

SONORITY

PRICE

9.5 / 10

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