Last updated on August 22nd, 2017
Game addicts, you’ve probably been hearing a lot of fuss about the upcoming Nvidia Pascal GPU- GTX 1080. Be our guest to also add GTX 1070 in the list. Nvidia has also recently claimed that the two new cards will showcase a performance of ten times higher than the predecessor- Maxwell based cards. In fact, the details regarding the GPUs have been already revealed, with the GTX 1080’s benchmark results already out.
What is Pascal? What’s new?
Pascal, the successor of Maxwell, is the current architecture adopted in the flagship GTX 10 series and various models of Tesla. Well, that’s what anyone can guess but we should know how Pascal is better or the technologies implemented to increase performance of its GPUs. So, here’s a list of technologies that differentiates Pascal from its predecessors.
HBM2
So, you must have heard about HBM (stacked memory) cards by AMD that were unveiled last year namely, the R9 Fury X. For your knowledge, HBM2 is more like an upgraded and tweaked version of HBM that will exhibit a bandwidth of more than 1TB/s and memory capacities upto 32 GB!
16 nm FinFET tech
The Pascal architecture has been so efficiently designed that it can support 16nm transistors in its GPU’s. The FinFET technology further will lead to a significant decrease in power consumption, faster clock speeds and less heat dissipation.
FP16/Half Precision Compute
It’s just like an add-on that is not much helpful in gaming but can prove to be very useful in low-powered and light mobile devices/notebooks all thanks to its high power efficiency.
NV Link
Remember Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE)? Well, NVLink High Speed Interconnect is something similar as well as faster, and according to Nvidia, it outsmarts the PCIE 3.0 in terms of speed by a magnitude of max 12 times. Better watch the video yourself for your better understanding.
The Flagship Cards
The two flagship Nvidia Pascal GPU s, GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, together mark a giant leap in the GPU industry. According to the company, both the cards have the capabilities to beat the Titan X. Whether or not its applicable for the 1070, the GTX 1080 benchmark results have already proved so.
Specifications
The GTX 1080 with 2560 CUDA cores and clock speed achievable upto 1733 MHz certainly sounds like a beast compared to the Maxwell based GTX 980. The 256-bit card showcases an 8 GB GDDR5X memory supplemented by a memory clock of 10 Gb/s and a memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s. Definitely, with these specs, 1080 surely looks like a killer. The gallery below depicts the complete specs of the card.
Of course, how can we forget another beast that has yet to draw out its wild card? The perfect sequel to its predecessor, GTX 1070 is equipped with 8 GB GDDR5 memory supported by a memory bandwidth of 256 GB/s and memory speed upto 8 Gbps. Yup, it’s 256-bit once again. Refer the gallery below for its specs.
Benchmark results
Although, Nvidia has revealed its own benchmark results of the two flagship Pascal GPUs, we can’t rely on them alone. Let’s see what the two cards have to show.
Images might not be enough for you, so why not watch the benchmark videos showcasing the performance of 1080 compared to the other cards?
We thank Digital Foundry for uploading such a nice and informative video. Well, isn’t it evident now that GTX 1080 is a monster? Even the GTX Titan-X doesn’t stand a chance. Wait, there’s 4K benchmark too! Wow let’s have some more fun!
The only sarcastic thing that I noticed here is, GTX 980 struggles a hell lot to maintain even 30 fps and behold… the GTX 1080 yet again becomes the champion!
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What’s the right thing to do now?
The Nvidia Pascal GPU- GTX 1080 has been priced at $599 (Founders Edition-$699) while the 1070 has got a price tag of around $380 (Founders Edition- $449). Well, it’s evident that you can’t rely on a single benchmark result alone, that’s why we provided you with multiple ones from different news sources and media channels. But still it’s amusing to know, that how in the heck Titan X is hit straight out of the park by 1080, despite the former’s specs? Is this the power of Pascal? Or, is this just a dream?
If you’re planning to upgrade soon enough and have the required budget, then we would definitely recommend you to get the 1080 as soon as you can. If the budget doesn’t cut it, you will be still in a position to buy the 1070. Well, if you aren’t in a hurry, then please wait till the fall, when AMD unveils its new series of HBM2 cards featuring 14nm FinFET transistors. Then, I guess there will be a slight twist in the story.
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