One of the GTX 1080s main party tricks is the power connectors, being only a single eight pin PSU connector required. The minimum requirements for the GTX 1080 from a power point of view is now 500W PSU rather than a 600W PSU for the GTX 980 Ti. The power requirement has also dropped to 180w from the 250w demanded by the GTX 980 Ti, impressive.
Probably one of the main talking points from the GTX 1080 launch was the SLi debate. There is still some confusion around what is supported, when and how. From what we know now, two cards are supported by default but 3-way and 4-way SLi will be application specific such as synthetic benchmarks.
The Nvidia website states “SLi HB Bridge Supported” which differs from the GTX 980 Ti specification page which states a clearly “Yes (4-way)” in answer to the SLi question. There’s something coming from Nvidia that no one really expected, we will just need to wait to find out.
The size of the EVGA GTX 1080 Founders edition is average for a high-end card. 10.5″ in length, it’s shorter than the Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP! Edition and longer than the stubby XFX Radeon R9 Fury X.
Nvidia have managed to make this reference card the same length as the GTX 980 Ti, so if you are thinking of upgrading and don’t want any space hassles, the GTX 1080 will slot straight in to place and sill also save you a power cable to boot. In fact, the dimensions are identical to the GTX 980 Ti and GTX 980, so your physical upgrade path will be plain sailing. Overall, although the card is a reference design and has a classy look and feel, if a little boring overall. The details are really nice and angular top design does manage to make the difference over the old reference design.
EVGA Nvidia GTX 1080 Founders Edition Graphics Card Review
Package and Bundle - 8
Performance - 9.5
Price - 8.5
Consumer Experience - 9.5
8.9
Nvidia may have dropped the ball a little with the release drivers, and the subsequent drivers that game to fix the issues, but there's no doubt, the Nvidia GTX 1080 Founders Edition is a stellar performance, and the VGA GTX 1080 Founders Edition exercises the GPU core perfectly.