Introduction

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 was released this summer and impressed with incredible performance and even more incredible power efficiency. The GeForce GTX 1080 is based on NVIDIA's "Pascal" architecture. This architecture sees the streaming multiprocessors (SMs), the indivisible subunits of an NVIDIA GPU, get even more dedicated components, which increases their performance. NVIDIA claims to have "meticulously" designed the GPU architecture to be as energy efficient as possible given the silicon fab node and is leveraging the 16 nm FinFET node at TSMC for "Pascal."

The GTX 1080 features more CUDA cores than its predecessor – 2560 vs. 2048. It features even more TMUs (160 vs. 128) and, at 8 GB, double the memory. Memory technology sees a major update with NVIDIA's adoption of the GDDR5X memory standard. The memory is clocked at a staggering 10 GHz effective, which gives the GPU 320 GB/s of memory bandwidth over a 256-bit wide memory interface.



Today, we have with us for review the Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme Edition. The company's flagship GTX 1080, it uses a huge triple-slot cooler, premium components, and high clocks out of the box.

With a price of $689, the card is roughly $100 more expensive than the cheapest GTX 1080.

Packaging

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD
• Documentation
• 2x PCIe power cable

The Card

Zotac's card is huge and heavy, giving it an ultra-high quality feel. Many pieces visible from the top are made out of metal, unlike on many other cards. The front of the cooler is dominated by black and grey, while the back has lighter grey and yellow highlights, which, combined, doesn't look too harmonic. On the back, you will find a sturdy metal backplate that partially wraps around the card for more stability. Dimensions of the card are 31.0 cm x 13.5 cm.


Installation requires three slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include one DVI port, one HDMI port, and three DisplayPorts. Unlike previous NVIDIA cards, the DVI port no longer includes an analog signal, so you'll have to use an active adapter. NVIDIA also updated DisplayPort to be 1.2 certified and 1.3/1.4 ready, which enables support for 4K @ 120 Hz and 5K @ 60 Hz or 8K @ 60 Hz with two cables.

The GPU also comes with an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 2.0b compatible, which supports HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies. The GPU video encoding unit has been updated to support HEVC at 10-bit and 12-bit.


NVIDIA made some changes to SLI. Two-way SLI is now the only officially supported configuration for gaming. Three-way or Quad SLI can no longer be enabled in games; however, both do work in a few benchmarks. Also, for 4K at 60 Hz and above, NVIDIA recommends a new high-bandwidth SLI bridge called "SLI HB," which occupies both SLI fingers. The old bridges will work fine at lower resolutions.


Pictured above are the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back).

A Closer Look

The Zotac thermal solution uses six heatpipes and a copper base for optimum heat transfer. You can also see the thermal pads that cool the memory chips.


Once the main heatsink is removed, you can see how the backplate wraps around the PCB for more stability. Also visible is the small black heatsink for the VRM circuitry.


The backplate is made out of metal and protects the card against damage during installation and handling.


On the back of the card is a large super capacitor that stores energy, ready to be release quickly when voltages drop. This measurably helps smooth out voltage spikes, but is of no real benefit to the user. It doesn't improve efficiency, overclocking, temperatures or anything else; it's shiny, though.


Zotac upgraded the power input of their GTX 1080 to two 8-pins. This input configuration is specified for up to 375 watts of power draw.


The uP 95101 voltage controller is a new model for NVIDIA's recent cards. It does not support voltage control via I2C.


The GDDR5X memory chips are made by Micron and are marked with "D9TXS," which decodes to MT58K256M32JA-100. These are specified to run at 1250 MHz (10,000 MHz GDDR5X effective).


NVIDIA's GP104 graphics processor is the first consumer chip using the Pascal architecture. It is produced on a 16 nm process at TSMC, Taiwan, and has a transistor count of 7.1 billion and a die size of 314 mm².