Nvidia unveils cheaper and faster GeForce GTX 1080 GPU
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
After spending some several billion dollars on R&D, Nvidia has unveiled its new GeForce GTX 1080 graphics processing unit (GPU), which it said is built to deliver unprecedented performance and efficiency.
At a suggested retail cost of $599, the latest GPU comes in cheaper than its predecessors, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which retails for $649.99, and the GeForce GTX TITAN X, which is sold for $999.
According to Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, the latest high-end graphic processor is not only cheaper, but also faster than both the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and GeForce GTX TITAN X. He said it has twice the performance and three times the efficiency, with its performance rated at 9 teraflops and packing 8 gigabytes of GDDR5X memory.
Relative VR gaming performance
"It's insane. The 1080 is insane, It's almost irresponsible amounts of performance," Huang told the DreamHack gamer gathering in Austin, Texas on Friday night. "This is the future of graphics, available today. 1080 is the new king."
The GeForce GTX 1080 is the first gaming GPU based on Nvidia's Pascal architecture, which the technology giant said is purpose-built to be the engine of computers that learn, see, and simulate the world.
"These gains in performance and power efficiency are enabled by the marvels of the Pascal architecture," the company said. "The first of these marvels is the introduction of cutting-edge 16nm FinFET chip construction. This new, smaller chip design uses fewer watts of power and emits less heat, enabling us to crank up the core clock speed of the GPU, which is key for increasing a graphics card's performance."
Under the hood, the GTX 1080 has 2,560 Nvidia Cuda cores, a memory speed of 10 gigabytes per second, memory bandwidth of 320 gigabytes per second, a maximum digital resolution of 7,680x4,320 at 60 hertz, and uses a 256-bit memory interface.
In addition to being VR ready, the new GPU supports Nvidia Ansel, a technology allowing the user to capture screenshots from any angle in high resolutions that the company said is 32 times larger than a standard computer's display. Ansel also allows the capturing of 360-degree screens for VR headsets, Google Cardboard, and desktop photospheres.
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080 is available May 27, 2016.
Additionally, the chip giant also announced that its $379 GeForce GTX 1070 sibling will be released on June 10, 2016, with its performance rated at 6.5 teraflops and packed with 8 gigabytes of GDDR5 memory.