pascal | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 07 Mar 2024 11:18:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png pascal | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Remedy ships update for Alan Wake 2 with new optimisations to support older GPUs https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/remedy-ships-update-for-alan-wake-2-with-new-optimisations-to-support-older-gpus/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/remedy-ships-update-for-alan-wake-2-with-new-optimisations-to-support-older-gpus/#respond Wed, 06 Mar 2024 16:55:53 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=650706 Alan Wake 2 was a pretty demanding game at launch, but after spending some additional time optimising the game further, Remedy now has the game at a point where it can actually lower the game's PC system requirements.  The minimum PC system requirements for Alan Wake 2 have now been updated, recommending an RX 5600 …

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Alan Wake 2 was a pretty demanding game at launch, but after spending some additional time optimising the game further, Remedy now has the game at a point where it can actually lower the game's PC system requirements. 

The minimum PC system requirements for Alan Wake 2 have now been updated, recommending an RX 5600 XT or GeForce GTX 1070 to play the game at 1080p with low settings. The new optimisations are all present in the game's new 1.0.16.1 update, which is now available to all PC players. Currently, Alan Wake 2 is exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

Initially, Remedy had not recommending older GTX 10 series or RX 5000 series graphics cards due to the use of DirectX 12 Ultimate features like mesh shading, which aren't officially supported on those GPUs. However, it has since improved rendering without mesh shaders and as a result, those with older systems will now be able to play the game.

The game is still an intensive one to run, so do keep that in mind. Getting 60FPS on a GTX 10 series GPU will likely be a struggle.

New performance improvements will also impact newer GPUs. Digital Foundry has done some testing with the new patch already, benchmarking the older Pascal-era GPUs, as well as newer GPUs like the RTX 4070. In the case of the RTX 4070, they noted a 14 percent performance uplift.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I'm still working my way through Alan Wake 2 after switching away from Xbox to the PC version. Have you tried the game with the new update? Have you noticed improved performance? 

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GTX 1060 vs RX 480 vs RX 580 – Pascal vs Polaris in 2021! https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/gtx-1060-vs-rx-480-vs-rx-580-pascal-vs-polaris-in-2021/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/gtx-1060-vs-rx-480-vs-rx-580-pascal-vs-polaris-in-2021/#respond Fri, 18 Jun 2021 11:00:02 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=520169 It's time for battle - GTX 1060 vs RX 480 vs RX 580 in 2021 - FIGHT!

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It may be hard to believe, but we are approaching the fifth anniversary of the GTX 1060's original launch, and the same can be said for AMD's RX 480. Both GPUs have acquired somewhat of a legendary status within the PC community, with the GTX 1060 still ranking as the single most popular GPU according to Steam's Hardware Survey. It's high time, then, to revisit these GPUs and find out which has aged most gracefully in 2021.

Alongside the GTX 1060 6GB and the RX 480 8GB, we're also including the RX 580 8GB, the card that superseded the RX 480 when it launched in April 2017. All three GPUs have been tested in twenty games, at 1080p and 1440p resolutions. Do note that we opted to use ‘High' settings in most games, instead of ‘Very High' or ‘Ultra' settings, to ensure the data presented is both more realistic, and more useful, for this calibre of graphics card.

Test System

We test using a custom built system from PCSpecialist, based on Intel’s Comet Lake-S platform. You can read more about it over HERE, and configure your own system from PCSpecialist HERE.

CPU
Intel Core i9-10900K
Overclocked to 5.1GHz on all cores
Motherboard
 ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero Wi-Fi
Memory
 Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3600MHz (4 X 8GB)
CL 18-22-22-42
Graphics Card
Varies
System Drive
  500GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2
Games Drive 2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5″ SSD
Chassis Fractal Meshify S2 Blackout Tempered Glass
CPU Cooler
 Corsair H115i RGB Platinum Hydro Series
Power Supply
 Corsair 1200W HX Series Modular 80 Plus Platinum
Operating System
Windows 10 2004

For the cards used, Nvidia's GTX 1060 Founders Edition is joined by the AMD RX 480 8GB reference card. There was no reference model for the RX 580 however, so we are using the Sapphire's Pulse model. The latest drivers at the time of testing were used, so for Nvidia that was the 466.77 driver, and for AMD we used the Adrenalin 21.5.2 driver. All twenty games are as follows, ordered alphabetically.

Game benchmarks

Kicking off with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, we're testing with the High preset. At 1080p it's all very close between the three GPUs we're testing, with the RX 580 proving nominally faster than the GTX 1060, but only by a single frame on average. Relatively speaking, that gap does increase at 1440p, with the RX 580 proving 5% faster than the GTX 1060, buts that's only a difference of 2FPS. No GPU was able to prevent the 1% lows dipping below 30FPS at this resolution either.

Next up is Borderlands 3 and once more the GTX 1060 and RX 480 are absolutely neck-and-neck here, both delivering fractionally less than 50FPS on average. The RX 580 delivers an extra 7% performance compared to the 1060, but again, whether you'd notice that extra 3.6FPS is another matter. At 1440p, the GTX 1060 falls away, actually coming in 12% slower than the RX 480, though neither GPU is delivering particularly smooth frame rates at this resolution.

Remedy's Control is next and this is a very interesting one. Over the last couple of years it's become a bit of a poster child for Nvidia, as the game is heavily optimised for the Turing and Ampere architectures. It seems Pascal wasn't quite given the same attention however, as the RX 580 crushes the 1060 here – the AMD GPU is actually 20% faster at 1080p. At 1440p, the results do get compressed somewhat, but the RX 480 and 580 are still convincing winners here, something I certainly didn't expect when testing this title.

Meanwhile, for Cyberpunk 2077 we opted for High settings, but that really is too stern a test for these GPUs, even at 1080p. For what it's worth, both Polaris GPUs deliver higher frame rates than the GTX 1060 across the board, but the results are so compressed it hardly matters. You'd definitely want to drop down to medium, or even low settings with this calibre of GPU when playing Cyberpunk.

Next up is one of the more recently-released games we are testing, and it's Days Gone. Using the High preset, all three GPUs are good for an average of 60FPS at 1080p. The RX 580 is fractionally faster than the 1060, but by less than 3%, so it really is too close to call. That also goes for 1440p, where we're getting a very playable experience from any of the GPUs tested, with the GTX 1060 slotting in between the RX 480 and the 580.

Death Stranding is a particularly well optimised title and we were actually able to get away with maximum settings here, with all three GPUs still averaging over 60FPS at 1080p – so that's really not a bad showing for cards that are 4-5 years old. The RX 580 is strongest at 1440p, delivering about a 10% boost over the GTX 1060, though the RX 480 sits much closer to its Pascal rival.

Moving on, Doom Eternal is arguably the first game we've tested where there's a real, tangible difference between these three GPUs, as the Polaris cards absolutely crush it here. The RX 480, for instance, is 23% faster than the GTX 1060, while the RX 580 turns that into a huge 36% advantage. You are still getting a great gaming experience from the 1060, it's just the AMD cards are that much faster. The same goes for 1440p, where the 1060 is still averaging over 60FPS, but the RX 580 is 42% faster, delivering just shy of 90FPS.

As for F1 2020, despite being highly impressive in terms of the visuals, this game delivers great performance, with all three cards tested hitting over 100FPS at 1080p. Once more though, it is the Polaris GPUs coming out on top, though the RX 480 and 1060 are basically neck and neck. That's the same at 1080p or 1440p, with the RX 580 coming on strongest at the latter resolution, where its 10% faster than the GTX 1060.

Next is Far Cry New Dawn, and despite being a DX11 title, it's the AMD GPUs which are again the faster cards here, when typically we'd expect Nvidia to be stronger. The GTX 1060 is 6% slower than the RX 480 for instance, while it's 9% behind the RX 580 at 1080p. The AMD GPUs do even better at 1440p as well, with the RX 580 beating the 1060 by a 14% margin, though it is still worth pointing out the GTX 1060 is still doing a great job here when using the High preset.

Gears 5 however, gives the GTX 1060 its first clear victory over the two Polaris GPUs. At 1080p it proves a whopping 25% faster than the RX 480, though that is cut to 16% when compared to the RX 580, and this is despite Gears being an AMD-sponsored titled. At 1440p, both AMD GPUs catch up significantly however, with just a 2FPS difference between the 1060 and the 580 now, though the 1060 is still decently faster than the 480.

Hitman 3 is another new title released in 2021, but it still runs very well on these GPUs when using high settings. The GTX 1060 and RX 480 are as fast as each other at 1080p, with the RX 580 just edging ahead by a few frames. Not much changes as we step up to 1440p either, the RX 580 is 15% faster than the GTX 1060, but that's a difference of less than 7FPS.

Horizon Zero Dawn is another very close one, with the GTX 1060 just about coming in the fastest of the three GPUs, but I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference when actually gaming. Horizon is also a little too demanding for these cards at 1440p, so you'd want to dial back the settings a bit more to get the frame rates higher.

Moving onto Metro Exodus, this is another title where we see a clear advantage to the GTX 1060. It's 14% faster than the RX 580, increasing to 23% when compared to the RX 480, all at 1080p using the High preset. Things are definitely closer at 1440p, but it's still Team Green that has the advantage in this one, with a 9% lead for the 1060 over the RX 580.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the complete opposite however, this time it is Team Red in the ascendancy. We are once more seeing double-digit leads for the Polaris GPUs, with the RX 480 proving 21% faster than the GTX 1060 at 1080p. The scaling stays pretty consistent at 1440p as well, though frame rates are lower here, and we can see the GTX 1060 is unable to keep he 1% lows above 30FPS using these settings.

Resident Evil Village continues that trend. GTX 1060 still delivers a very smooth experience at 1080p, but the RX 480 is 23% faster, while the RX 580 is a whopping 30% faster here. The Polaris GPUs deliver a much smoother experience at 1440p too, averaging close to the 60FPS mark, while the GTX 1060 just cannot keep up. Once more, the RX 580 is over 30% faster, so it's definitely a win for AMD.

Next is Shadow of the Tomb Raider and this is a game where all three GPUs perform much closer together. The RX 480 is still just about faster than the GTX 1060 at both 1080p and 1440p, but there's really not a lot in it. The RX 580 however, is between 11-16% faster, though the real-world frame rate difference doesn't seem as significant as those percentages might suggest.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is actually pretty similar to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, just in reverse. That means the GTX 1060 is the fastest GPU of the three we've tested, but it's still not going to make much of a difference either way. That's particularly the case at 1440p, where it's just 6% faster than the RX 580, though it's 16% faster than the RX 480.

And Total War Saga: Troy shows an almost identical trend to Jedi: Fallen Order, with the GTX 1060 sitting top of the pile, but only a touch ahead of the RX 580. The RX 480 is further back though, proving 13% slower than the 1060 at 1080p. That doesn't really change either as we step up to 1440p, the frame rates are obviously lower, but the scaling is pretty consistent.

Our penultimate game is going to be Watch Dogs: Legion, and once more we're looking at a very close affair. The RX 580 is nominally faster at 1080p, but whether you'd notice 58FPS versus 54FPS is another matter entirely. It does pull away from the GTX 1060 by a 13% margin at 1440p, but that's still a real-world difference of just 5FPS.

Lastly, we close with another strong victory for Team Red. In Wolfenstein: Youngblood, the RX 580 proves 13% faster than the GTX 1060, and that's actually true of both the 1080p and 1440p results. The GTX 1060 is much closer to the RX 480 however, and you would have to say the frame rates are still exceptionally good no matter which of these three GPUs you are using.

Average results

Rounding out the games testing with a look at the average results, it's probably not a surprise to see things are as close as they are. Over the twenty games we tested, at 1080p there is less than a single percentage point difference between the GTX 1060 and RX 480, five years on from their release. The RX 580 is the fastest of the three GPUs however, coming in 8% ahead of the GTX 1060, but it's still not a crushing victory. That does increase at 1440p however, to a 12% margin over the 1060, while the RX 480 also proves 4% faster than Nvidia's card at that resolution.

One thing we did also log over the course of the twenty games, was power draw. Measuring power of just the graphics card, we can see the GTX 1060 is easily the least power-hungry GPU, drawing about 45W less than the RX 480, and 65W less than the RX 580 at 1080p.

Interestingly, that means the GTX 1060 is easily the most efficient of these three GPUs, delivering 42% more performance per Watt when compared to the RX 480, increasing to 52% against the RX 580.

It's certainly something, but to give you an idea of the real-world cost involved – let's say you game for 3 hours a day, 365 days a year. Based on the average UK cost of electricity (18.54p/kWh as of December 2019), the total yearly cost for each of three GPUs is as follows:

  • GTX 1060 6GB: £21.28 per year.
  • RX 480 8GB: £30.81 per year.
  • RX 580 8GB: £34.71 per year.

So while it can certainly add up over time, and there also other considerations such as heat, the difference in operating cost based on the efficiency numbers isn't as large as you might think.

Closing Thoughts

Thus concludes our ‘Pascal vs Polaris' revisit. Five years on (or four, in the case of the RX 580), it has been fascinating to see how these cards perform today. As shown, AMD’s RX 580 has aged the best of the three GPUs we tested, but I really do think it’s quite impressive just how well the GTX 1060 and RX 480 are still able to manage in 2021 – 60FPS gameplay is very achievable at 1080p when using high image quality settings, even in the latest games, and that really is good going.

One thing I did notice though, while there's not a lot of difference between all three GPUs in most of the games we tested, in the titles where the RX 480 and RX 580 came in faster than the GTX 1060, it tended to be by a larger margin than the games where the GTX 1060 proved the faster card.

Take the likes of Doom Eternal, Red Dead Redemption 2, Control and Resident Evil Village – there the RX 580 came in 20%, 30%, even 40% faster than the GTX 1060. On the other hand, the GTX 1060 was at most 16% faster than the RX 580, and that was in Gears 5. Granted, on most occasions the GTX 1060 was still doing very well, but there are a handful of examples where the AMD GPUs just delivers that next level of performance.

Interestingly, the GTX 1060 does seem to be selling for slightly less on eBay UK, with prices typically around the £220-230 mark. The RX 480 meanwhile is more like £280, with the RX 580 pushing up to about £300 and sometimes higher.

If you’re really desperate for a new GPU now, personally I’d go for the GTX 1060 and save the cash for when current-gen GPUs are available at more reasonable prices. That will depend on what games you play, as you may feel it worthwhile to spend more to get more, particularly if you mostly play the likes of Doom Eternal or Red Dead Redemption 2.

The main takeaway, however, really has to be just how great it is to see all three of these GPUs still delivering very solid performance in 2021.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Do you own one of these GPUs? If so, how's it holding up for you? Current-gen cards are clearly faster, but it's impressive to see there's still life left in these 5 year-old GPUs.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPUs are being resupplied to board partners https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-gpus-are-being-resupplied-to-board-partners/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/joao-silva/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-gpus-are-being-resupplied-to-board-partners/#respond Thu, 11 Feb 2021 12:04:25 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=504217 It looks like the GTX 1050 Ti is making a comeback. Nvidia is resupplying AiBs with GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPUs and some retailers have begun re-stocking them to help meet demand for entry-level graphics cards.  Back in January, we shared the news that AiBs have been receiving stock for RTX 2060 and 2060 Super …

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It looks like the GTX 1050 Ti is making a comeback. Nvidia is resupplying AiBs with GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPUs and some retailers have begun re-stocking them to help meet demand for entry-level graphics cards. 

Back in January, we shared the news that AiBs have been receiving stock for RTX 2060 and 2060 Super GPUs for a relaunch. These are 2-year old mid-range GPUs that are expected to be available again, priced between €300 and €400, but we haven't noticed any surge in stock for these SKUs yet. On the other hand, GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards have already been spotted in UK and US retailers.

According to the video uploaded by TechYesCity, the GTX 1050 Ti GPUs have been unavailable since 2019, but as seen on OverclockersUK and Newegg, they are back on the market. Featuring the GP107 GPU with 768 CUDA cores and 4GB of GDD5 memory, the GTX 1050 Ti is back, but it is a bit pricier than we remember.

So why would Nvidia bring back the GTX 1050 TI? A couple of theories come to mind. First, it comes with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, which is not subject to shortages, unlike GDDR6 memory at the moment. This means stockpiling GTX 1650 and above cards is difficult at the moment. The other theory is that given it only has 4GB of memory, miners aren't going to be interested in buying up all of the available GTX 1050 Ti stock.

In the UK, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti cards start at £188.99 at OverclockersUK. On Newegg, the cheapest GTX 1050 Ti goes for $229.99.

KitGuru says: Would you buy a 4-years old graphics card today? Considering their release date and performance, are they worth the price retailers are asking for?

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Nvidia cuts Q4 earnings estimates due to ‘lower than expected’ Turing sales https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-cuts-q4-earnings-estimates-due-to-lower-than-expected-turing-sales/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-cuts-q4-earnings-estimates-due-to-lower-than-expected-turing-sales/#respond Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:51:49 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=402222 Nvidia lowers Q4 financial expectations following "lower than expected" sales for high-end Turing graphics cards.

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Back in November, Nvidia reported lower than expected earnings due to the crypto mining market drying up and an over supply of leftover Pascal GPUs. Now a couple of months later, the situation hasn't improved much, with Nvidia today readjusting its expected Q4 earnings and admitting that Turing sales are lower than expected.

In a press release issued today, Nvidia updated its financial guidance for Q4 in the 2019 financial year. Nvidia states that it has had “weaker than forecasted sales” in the gaming and datacenter markets. While the hit from excess Pascal inventory fell “largely inline with management's expectations”, the sales of “certain high-end GPUs using Nvidia's new Turing architecture were lower than expected”.

High-end Turing/RTX graphics cards aren't flying off the shelves as swiftly as past generations. Nvidia thinks that “some customers may have delayed their purchase while waiting for lower price points and further demonstrations of RTX technology in actual games”. I'm inclined to agree with Nvidia on both counts there, as prices are spectacularly high this time around and we still have very few games supporting ray-tracing or DLSS- Shadow of the Tomb Raider owners are still waiting on an ETA for the RTX update and Battlefield V has yet to have DLSS patched in.

On the datacenter front, Nvidia says that “a number of deals in the company's forecast did not close in the last month” of Q4, which also had an impact on projected revenue for the quarter. Right now, Nvidia, has reduced its Q4 earnings guidance from $2.7 billion to $2.2 billion. Nvidia stock has dipped by around 15 percent following the announcement.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia has taken some hits over the last couple of quarters. We don't know if this will result in price drops or sales for Turing GPUs any time soon, but perhaps increased competition from AMD's upcoming Radeon VII GPU will spur things along. Were any of you considering an RTX GPU upgrade this year? Are you waiting for pricing to come down first, or would you be happy to fork out the full price is more RTX titles were readily available? 

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Nvidia will detail its “next-gen” mainstream GPUs in August https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-will-detail-its-next-gen-mainstream-gpus-in-august/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/damien-cox/nvidia-will-detail-its-next-gen-mainstream-gpus-in-august/#respond Thu, 31 May 2018 13:42:58 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=374902 Nvidia has kept mum on its next generation graphics processing units (GPUs) for quite some time, but it looks like more information is on its way in August. It has been spotted that the Green Team is pencilled in as the opening graphics presentation during this year’s Hot Chips convention, with its new GPU as …

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Nvidia has kept mum on its next generation graphics processing units (GPUs) for quite some time, but it looks like more information is on its way in August. It has been spotted that the Green Team is pencilled in as the opening graphics presentation during this year’s Hot Chips convention, with its new GPU as the main focal point.

Although Nvidia will be appearing multiple times throughout the conference during its three-day run from August 19th to the 21st, its first Monday conference being titled “NVIDIA’s Next Generation Mainstream GPU” leaves little to the imagination as to when we will definitively get more information on the mysterious new cards.

“We will hear from the CPU and GPU giants: AMD featuring their next-gen client chip, NVIDIA with their next-gen GPU, and Intel with an interesting die-stacked CPU with iGPU plus stacked dGPU,” reads the Hot Chips press release.

It is currently unknown as to whether this will pertain to new architecture, much like the leap from Nvidia’s Maxwell within the GTX 900 series to Pascal seen in the GTX 10 Series, or whether it will be a Pascal Refresh.

Lots of names have been floating around without clarification, from Volta, which we got a first look at with the GTX Titan V, to Turing and even Ampere. Whatever architecture it is based on, GDDR6 is expected to make an appearance in some capacity as the memory enters production within the next couple of months.

Hot Chips is known for its in-depth talks, meaning that Nvidia’s next-generation GPU might see the light of day before the conference, or even launch on the 20th August. Nvidia will also be appearing at Gamescom just one day later, marking August the month to watch for the Green Team.

KitGuru Says: Those still in the market for an upgrade might want to hold off a little longer, it seems. Despite having adopted a Pascal card myself, I am looking forward to know what Nvidia has in store for its next-generation. What are you hoping from the next line of Nvidia GPUs?

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CES: Zotac’s new MEK 1 mini PC combines Coffee Lake and Pascal in a small package https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/matthew-wilson/ces-zotacs-new-mek-1-mini-pc-combines-coffee-lake-and-pascal-in-a-small-package/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/matthew-wilson/ces-zotacs-new-mek-1-mini-pc-combines-coffee-lake-and-pascal-in-a-small-package/#respond Wed, 10 Jan 2018 16:26:20 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=360291 At CES today, we had the chance to swing by the Zotac booth, where they were showing off a new and improved MEK 1 mini gaming PC. The original Mek 1 PC launched quite recently based around Intel's 7th Gen Kaby Lake processors. However, the new version we saw today makes the jump to Coffee …

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At CES today, we had the chance to swing by the Zotac booth, where they were showing off a new and improved MEK 1 mini gaming PC. The original Mek 1 PC launched quite recently based around Intel's 7th Gen Kaby Lake processors. However, the new version we saw today makes the jump to Coffee Lake.

The new MEK 1 will feature an 8th Gen Coffee Lake Core i7 processor, which naturally means that a new motherboard will also be in place with a revised chipset to support it.

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Graphics card options range from the GTX 1060, 1070Ti and GTX 1080. The version we saw demoed today was the GTX 1070Ti model, sporting 16GB of DDR4 2400MHz RAM. The chassis measures in at just 414mm long by 118mm wide, so there is a lot of power shrunk down into a small package.

Other features include a 450W power supply, a 240GB SSD and a 1TB HDD for additional storage. Some versions of this system will come bundled with a keyboard and mouse, giving you almost everything you need to get up and running out of the box.

We don't have exact pricing just yet, but we were told that the new MEK 1 mini PC will cost somewhere in the region of $1400 to $1650.

KitGuru Says: Zotac has been experimenting with mini PCs for a few years now and this looks to be its most powerful yet. Have any of you ever considered downsizing from a full size desktop to something smaller and more portable? What do you think of the MEK 1?

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Nvidia brings machine learning software to TITAN GPUs https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-brings-machine-learning-software-to-titan-gpus/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-brings-machine-learning-software-to-titan-gpus/#respond Wed, 06 Dec 2017 11:01:06 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=356883 This week, Nvidia has expanded the pool of GPUs that can take advantage of the Nvidia GPU Cloud, allowing developers and data scientists to build and test machine learning systems on their own PCs before moving on to something more powerful. The software tool released this week means that TITAN owners can now take advantage …

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This week, Nvidia has expanded the pool of GPUs that can take advantage of the Nvidia GPU Cloud, allowing developers and data scientists to build and test machine learning systems on their own PCs before moving on to something more powerful. The software tool released this week means that TITAN owners can now take advantage of machine learning and the Nvidia GPU Cloud at home.

The Nvidia GPU Cloud provides researchers with software containers that are designed to be a fast execution environment for training machine learning algorithms. These software containers are already available for use on DGX Station computers along with cloud instances powered by Nvidia Volta chips running in Amazon Web Services servers.

nvidia-titan-x-pascal-key-image-e1470146723755.jpg

Now, customers can use this software on the Pascal TITAN series of graphics cards, it won't pack as much of a punch but it will serve as a good way for researchers to test things at home and start tinkering with machine learning before deploying it on a larger scale.

As VentureBeat points out, this should help people iterate on machine learning systems faster and drive the AI field forward. This news was announced at the Conference on Neural Information Processing systems which is taking place this week.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia has been putting a lot of work into machine learning and AI development over the last few years. By bringing compatibility to cheaper, consumer-grade hardware, development should be pushed further.

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Nvidia’s GTX 1070Ti will reportedly launch on the 26th of October https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidias-gtx-1070ti-will-reportedly-launch-on-the-26th-of-october/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidias-gtx-1070ti-will-reportedly-launch-on-the-26th-of-october/#comments Fri, 29 Sep 2017 09:29:22 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=348137 Over the last few weeks, we have begun seeing some mysterious rumours detailing a new graphics card from Nvidia- the GTX 1070Ti. Now, we seem to have a release date too...

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Over the last few weeks, we have begun seeing some mysterious rumours detailing a new graphics card from Nvidia- the GTX 1070Ti. This card is said to fill the price and performance gap between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 in order to combat RX Vega. Now thanks to new reports this week, we know when to expect this GPU's arrival.

I'm still fairly sceptical when it comes to the GTX 1070Ti but this week, two sources are claiming a late October release date for the card. Sources speaking with Videocardz have claimed a late October launch, meanwhile the folks at Nordic Hardware managed to get a more specific date- the 26th of October.

The GTX 1070Ti should retail for around $400 in the US, with 8GB of GDDR5 memory, more CUDA cores and higher clock speeds compared to the non-Ti version of the card. Currently, the 1070Ti is expected to have around 2432 CUDA cores, which is a significant jump from the GTX 1070's 1920 CUDA cores and not far off the GTX 1080's 2560 CUDA cores.

We have already heard this week that board partners are already working on custom cooled variants of this GPU, so there may be some ready to launch at the end of next month.

KitGuru Says: It is starting to seem more and more likely that the GTX 1070Ti is real. Given that there is only so much room in terms of performance between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080, this is going to be an interesting launch to follow over the coming weeks. 

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Rumour claims a GTX 1070Ti may be on the way https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/rumour-claims-a-gtx-1070ti-may-be-on-the-way/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/rumour-claims-a-gtx-1070ti-may-be-on-the-way/#comments Thu, 14 Sep 2017 12:33:06 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=346731 With the RX Vega now out in the wild and Nvidia remaining tight lipped about Volta, there has been a lack of graphics card news recently. However, one new rumour did pop up this week, pointing towards the existence of a GTX 1070Ti, presumably to combat against the RX Vega 56. This week, the following …

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With the RX Vega now out in the wild and Nvidia remaining tight lipped about Volta, there has been a lack of graphics card news recently. However, one new rumour did pop up this week, pointing towards the existence of a GTX 1070Ti, presumably to combat against the RX Vega 56.

This week, the following image appeared on the Chinese forum, Baidu, appearing to show a system configuration featuring an Intel Core i7-7700K and curiously enough, a GTX 1070Ti.

Click image to enlarge. 

According to the report on Videocardz, the 1070Ti is supposed to feature around 2304 CUDA cores, which seems very hard to believe given how close that would come to the GTX 1080. The GTX 1070TI is also listed as being a STRIX O8G model from Asus.

We are unsure where this image was taken, so this could be causing an unecessary stir. It could have just been a typo. It is also worth noting that we did hear some GTX 1060Ti rumours last year that didn't pan out, so this could be another case of that.

KitGuru Says: In my opinion, it would make more sense for Nvidia to just lower prices of the GTX 1080 and 1070 a bit to combat Vega, rather than introducing another card to the stack. There is only so much wiggle room between the 1070 and 1080 as it is. What do you guys think of this rumour? Do you think Nvidia should add another Pascal card to its lineup this late in the cycle? 

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Nvidia launches driver update to boost Titan Xp performance in professional apps https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-launches-driver-update-to-boost-titan-xp-performance-in-professional-apps/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidia-launches-driver-update-to-boost-titan-xp-performance-in-professional-apps/#comments Tue, 01 Aug 2017 12:45:12 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=342458 Nvidia aims to make the Titan Xp more appealing to professionals ahead of AMD's Radeon Pro Vega rollout.

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Over the last 48 hours, AMD has been dominating hardware news thanks to the launch of the RX Vega as well as some new Radeon Pro Vega cards. Now in what appears to be a well timed effort to combat AMD’s new Radeon Pro cards, Nvidia has launched a driver update to boost the performance of the Titan Xp graphics card in creative professional apps.

Nvidia made the announcement on its own blog yesterday, though surprisingly it has been kept fairly quiet so far. The post doesn’t give us many technical details, but it does claim that the latest Titan Xp driver can boost the GPU’s performance in applications like Maya by up to three times.

This seems to indicate that Nvidia did purposefully hold back Titan Xp performance in some applications in an effort to not cannibalise sales of the Quadro line, which is Nvidia’s ‘professional’ graphics card range.

Here’s Nvidia’s quote on the driver: “We built TITAN Xp for people who design and create — and, of course, play games. And it’s always getting better. Our latest driver — available today — delivers 3x more performance in applications like Maya to help you create and design faster than ever.”

From there, the post just goes on to remind us all of the external GPU adaptor options available for the Titan Xp. Hopefully we will see some Titan Xp owners dive in to the performance benefits this driver brought to pro-grade apps.

Update: A Reddit user over on r/Nvidia benchmarked this new driver with an original Titan X (Pascal) and came back with some interesting numbers. Here are the performance gains in several apps following this update:

  • Catia – 72% Increase
  • Creo – 107% Increase
  • Energy – 54% Increase
  • Medical – 53% Increase
  • SNX – 654% Increase
  • Solidworks – 95% Increase

The card used was not the newer Titan Xp but the results should be fairly similar.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia’s news release was very light on details but the timing seems fairly obvious. Nvidia wants to give the Titan Xp a bit of a boost ahead of Vega’s rollout.

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ASUS GTX 1080 ROG Strix OC 11Gbps Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ryan-martin/asus-gtx-1080-rog-strix-oc-11gbps-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ryan-martin/asus-gtx-1080-rog-strix-oc-11gbps-review/#comments Thu, 01 Jun 2017 08:29:51 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=335758 An excellent GTX 1080 in all regards, but encroaching on GTX 1080 Ti prices.

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Nvidia graphics card partners have refreshed a number of GTX 1080 models to take advantage of faster 11Gbps Micron memory. ASUS were one of the first companies to participate in the new scheme from Nvidia that was announced at its 2017 GDC conference.

ASUS joins MSI in creating a new model specifically for 11Gbps memory modules. Nvidia partners are only allowed to include these uprated memory modules in overclocked models and so ASUS has rolled out the new memory configuration with its Republic of Gamers Strix OC graphics card.

In particular the model on test today is the ROG-STRIX-GTX1080-O8G-11GBPS, which causes the ROG-STRIX-GTX1080-O8G-GAMING to become End of Life (EOL) even if the newer ASUS 11Gbps model has slightly lower out-of-the-box frequencies. The slightly slower-clocked GTX 1080 Advanced Gaming, ROG-STRIX-GTX1080-A8G-GAMING, continues to remain on sale albeit at a more competitive price point and retaining the standard 10Gbps memory configuration.

There are a number of other ASUS GTX 1080 models in the picture, which can get a little confusing – but for all intents and purposes this refreshed model is the best ASUS GTX 1080 currently on sale. Frequencies aside the 11Gbps ASUS card is highly similar to the ASUS GTX 1080 ROG Strix A8G KitGuru tested last year.

This means it has a high performance cooling solution, backplate, full RGB functionality, GPU-controlled 4-pin fan headers and a PCB assembled using the ASUS Auto-Extreme production process.

Out of the box the ASUS graphics card will run in Gaming mode, the default mode, which gives a 1695MHz base and 1835MHz boost, with 11010MHz memory. Installing the ASUS GPU Tweak II software will enable the end user to toggle an OC mode that increases frequencies to 1721MHz base, 1860Mhz boost and 11100MHz memory.

Pricing is higher than most of its rivals with ASUS selling its new 11Gbps GTX 1080 close to the £600 level in the United Kingdom – somewhat exuberant pricing given that GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards currently start from around £650.

GPU  ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC 11Gbps  ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC (08G) ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC (A8G) Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
Base Clock
 1695 MHz 1759 MHz 1670 MHz  1607 MHz
GPU Boost Clock  1835 MHz 1898 MHz  1809 MHz  1733 MHz
Memory Clock Effective
 11010 MHz 10010 MHz  10010 MHz 10010 MHz
Memory Bandwidth  352.3 GB/s  320.3 GB/s  320.3 GB/s  320.3 GB/s
Price (£)  £600  EOL  £530-580  £480+

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Computex: Nvidia’s Max-Q will make gaming laptops as thin as the MacBook Air https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/computex-nvidias-max-q-will-make-gaming-laptops-as-thin-as-the-macbook-air/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/computex-nvidias-max-q-will-make-gaming-laptops-as-thin-as-the-macbook-air/#comments Tue, 30 May 2017 10:59:10 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=336044 Not only did we get some major announcements from Intel at Computex today but Nvidia has also taken to the stage with a rather bold announcement. Today, Nvidia introduced Max-Q, a new GPU design that aims to redefine gaming laptops by making them thinner, quieter and faster. This is essentially a GTX 1080 slim enough …

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Not only did we get some major announcements from Intel at Computex today but Nvidia has also taken to the stage with a rather bold announcement. Today, Nvidia introduced Max-Q, a new GPU design that aims to redefine gaming laptops by making them thinner, quieter and faster. This is essentially a GTX 1080 slim enough to slot into a laptop as thin as the MacBook Air, bringing huge performance gains to thin and light laptops.

As always, there is scientific significance to the nomenclature Nvidia has chosen. Max-Q is defined as the point at which the aerodynamic stress on a rocket in atmospheric flight is maximised. As a result, rockets are engineered around what is known as Max-Q. Nvidia's philosophy is similar, using the Max-Q GPU design as the centre of a new generation of gaming laptops. This results in a high-performance gaming platform that can measure in at just 18mm thin, while delivering 70 percent more gaming power than what is currently available in this form factor.

GTX 1080 is already a very efficient graphics card but with Max-Q, Nvidia has found a way to optimise Pascal even further for higher peak efficiency, lower voltages and an optimised clock speed curve. The entire laptop is precisely engineered around the Max-Q GPU, to ensure thermal stability. This will all be backed up by driver improvements on the software side.

So how is an 18mm thick laptop supposed to keep a GTX 1080 cool? Well according to Nvidia, Max-Q designed laptops are engineered with new thermal and electrical designs to help in this area but there is also something on the software side to help. Nvidia has announced ‘WhisperMode Technology', which will pace a game's frame rate and adjust graphics settings to help reduce the overall load on the GPU. This in turn will also help the laptop stay quiet as there will be less need for the fans to kick up.

Max-Q gaming laptops will come in GTX 1080, 1070 and 1060 designs, with the first laptops set to ship on the 27th of June. Nvidia has already teamed up with a range of laptop makers to ensure a good rollout, so expect to see Max-Q laptops from Alienware, ASUS, Acer, Gigabyte, HP, MSI, Maingear, PC Specialist and more.

KitGuru Says: If any of you have seen a MacBook Air in person before, then you know how incredibly thin it is. With that in mind, I would love to see a laptop that size with a capable GPU packed inside. Still, I would worry about heat with such a powerful GPU in that enclosed space, so it will be interesting to get a peek inside one of these laptops when they arrive.

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MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus 8GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ryan-martin/msi-gtx-1080-gaming-x-plus-8gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ryan-martin/msi-gtx-1080-gaming-x-plus-8gb-review/#comments Sat, 27 May 2017 12:56:17 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=335278 Faster 11Gbps GDDR5X memory for the GTX 1080 is here, we take a look at the MSI Gaming X Plus.

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The GTX 1080 has been out since mid-2016 and in the wake of a number of high-end releases, including the GTX 1080 Ti  and the Titan Xp, Nvidia has refreshed the GTX 1080 to keep it competitive and in the minds of consumers. MSI's Gaming X Plus is the first of the refreshed GTX 1080s KitGuru has had a chance to assess.

The only noteworthy change between MSI's GTX 1080 Gaming X and the new GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus is a faster memory configuration, made possible by more capable Micron GDDR5X memory chips. The stock memory throughput is now 11 Gbps, instead of 10 Gbps, and that 10 per cent boost to memory bandwidth will give newer GTX 1080s a slight advantage over last year's models as well as making them closer in performance to GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards.

There is little to differentiate these 11 Gbps GTX 1080s from last year's models so expect graphics card vendors to simply re-release their GTX 1080 board designs with faster memory from the factory, slowly phasing down production of units with 10 Gbps memory. Most vendors seem to be choosing to add a new model with some signifier as to the faster memory in the name, MSI has used Plus while ASUS is more to the point including 11 Gbps in the model name.

MSI's GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus is identical to the GTX 1080 Gaming X in terms of its cooling solution, PCB and feature set. That's no bad thing either since our review of that card revealed it to be an excellent graphics card – low noise and temperatures, strong performance and solid build quality.

GPU-Z confirms the 10 per cent boost in memory frequency. MSI has also matched clock speeds between the Gaming X and Gaming X Plus so any performance boost is exclusively from the faster memory, rather than any other factors. A quick scour of UK retailers shows us that pricing is more or less identical between the models, if anything, the older model seems to be more expensive at many retailers which is a peculiar situation.

The overall deal with MSI's new 11 Gbps graphics card is made even sweeter by the fact MSI is running a cashback promotion at the moment, until the end of May, which is giving UK buyers £43 off the price of all of its GTX 1080 graphics cards.

GPU MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
Base Clock
 1683 MHz 1683 MHz 1607 MHz
GPU Boost Clock  1822 MHz  1822 MHz 1733 MHz
Memory Clock Effective
 11010 MHz  10010 MHz 10010 MHz
Memory Bandwidth  352.3 GB/s  320.3 GB/s  320.3 GB/s
Price (£)  £520 £520  £480+

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Nvidia will release a GT 1030 graphics chip after all https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/paul-taylor/nvidia-will-release-a-gt-1030-graphics-chip-after-all/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/paul-taylor/nvidia-will-release-a-gt-1030-graphics-chip-after-all/#comments Fri, 28 Apr 2017 02:37:22 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=332015 Whether it is pressure from AMD, or just some revenue-mining tactic, it seems that Nvidia will indeed release a GT 1030 graphics card, the cheapest of the cheap in the Pascal family. Chinese website Expreview has grabbed some pics that reveal Nvidia has indeed developed a GP108 iteration of its Pascal microarchitecture, aimed at the …

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Whether it is pressure from AMD, or just some revenue-mining tactic, it seems that Nvidia will indeed release a GT 1030 graphics card, the cheapest of the cheap in the Pascal family.

Chinese website Expreview has grabbed some pics that reveal Nvidia has indeed developed a GP108 iteration of its Pascal microarchitecture, aimed at the sub-$100 segment, a segment where AMD, just last week, announced its own product offers in the form of the Radeon RX 550 graphics card. The card is the GT 1030, and there are some interesting details on the matter.

Source: Expreview

The image leaks show a GP108-300-A1 die shot, a fairly tiny core which is reported to have just 132mm2, built on TSMC's 14nm process, with 32 TMUs and 16 ROPs, but an anemic 64-bit memory bus connected to 2GB or 4GB GDDR5. The card is further reported to draw just 30W from the PCIe bus, which means it will be devoid of any power connectors. It is also reported to be a strictly digital video card, with no analogue (VGA) output.

Performance on these cards will be nothing to phone home about, of course, and should grant you reasonable casual gaming experiences, on par with eSports titles.

As we mentioned above, the GT 1030 will address the sub-$100 segment which is currently populated by the recently released Radeon RX 550. Expreview says that May 17th is the launch date for the GT 1030.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia will leave no market segment unturned to face off with AMD. Going into this market, where margins are tiny and success is measured by your competitor's loss, is clearly a tactical move on Nvidia's side to match, or undercut, AMD's offers.

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Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition 11GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ryan-martin/gigabyte-aorus-gtx-1080-ti-xtreme-edition-11gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ryan-martin/gigabyte-aorus-gtx-1080-ti-xtreme-edition-11gb-review/#comments Fri, 21 Apr 2017 07:10:19 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=330521 A monstrous graphics card for a monstrous budget. We check out the Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition.

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Nvidia's GTX Titan Xp aside the fastest single GPU graphics card of the moment aimed at gamers and PC enthusiasts is the GTX 1080 Ti. Not content with the default performance Gigabyte, using it's burgeoning Aorus brand, has given the GTX 1080 Ti an “Xtreme Edition” makeover.

The Aorus branding of select Gigabyte graphics cards is a new strategy for 2017 with Gigabyte seeking to develop a prestige brand to better compete with rivals. Presumably, the objective is to cultivate a brand following, loyalty and reputation for excellence similar to the Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand under ASUS.

Irrespective of Gigabyte's strategy and intentions, what Aorus has delivered can only be described as a halo graphics card product. Aorus has opted for one of the most aggressive overclocks on the market for a GTX 1080 Ti at 1607 MHz base clock, up from 1480 MHz on the stock Nvidia model, as well as an overclock to the memory.

Unfortunately for Aorus it has been narrowly beaten to the title of fastest GTX 1080 Ti on sale by Zotac, it's GTX 1080 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition ships at 1645 MHz base clock, 1759 MHz boost clock, from the factory.

Aorus claws some of that frequency back with a special OC mode that can only be enabled by installing the Aorus OC utility. This increases the core frequency to 1632 (1746) MHz and 11448 MHz for the memory. It's not all about clock speeds though as the Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition has other tricks up its sleeves.

The first of those is bringing back the triple slot and triple fan cooler which is big and brash, but surprisingly effective as we'll see later on. Gigabyte has also embellished the card with a 12 + 2 phase VRM, RGB lighting in multiple locations across the card, a semi-passive fan mode, a special VR HDMI port and Aorus is now using a fully automated PCB assembly process which gives a better overall construction quality. Readers may already be familiar with the ASUS take on this technology which it dubs Auto Extreme.

GPU Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition  Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti Gaming OC 
Base Clock
 1480 MHz 1607 (1632) MHz  1569 (1594) MHz  1518 (1544) MHz
GPU Boost Clock  1582 MHz  1721 (1746) MHz  1683 (1708) MHz 1632 (1657) MHz
Memory Clock Effective
11010 MHz 11232 (11448) MHz  11010 MHz  11010 MHz
Memory Bandwidth  484 GB/s  494.2 (503.7) GB/s 484 GB/s 484 GB/s
Price (£)  from £700, $700  £810-860, $750  £760-800, $720 £740~760, $700

With a price tag about 10 to 15% higher than an entry level GTX 1080 Ti, the Gigabyte Aorus version locks horns with the ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti that KitGuru recently tested. In terms of price, clock speeds, build quality and overall features the two graphics cards are very similar indeed.

We tested the Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition in the out-of-the-box gaming mode, not OC mode.

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Hackintosh builders rejoice: Nvidia’s Pascal beta drivers for Mac have arrived https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/matthew-wilson/hackintosh-builders-rejoice-nvidias-pascal-beta-drivers-for-mac-have-arrived/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/matthew-wilson/hackintosh-builders-rejoice-nvidias-pascal-beta-drivers-for-mac-have-arrived/#comments Wed, 12 Apr 2017 14:30:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=329142 Update: Last week, Nvidia made a couple of big announcements, the first was the unveiling of the all new Titan Xp, while the second was a promise to finally bring Pascal supported GPU drivers to MacOS. Hackintosh builders and older Mac Pro owners have been locked out of Nvidia's GTX 10-series graphics cards since launch …

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Update: Last week, Nvidia made a couple of big announcements, the first was the unveiling of the all new Titan Xp, while the second was a promise to finally bring Pascal supported GPU drivers to MacOS. Hackintosh builders and older Mac Pro owners have been locked out of Nvidia's GTX 10-series graphics cards since launch but it seems Nvidia is looking to quickly rectify that, with new beta drivers now available.

Aside from a Hackintosh or old tower-style Mac Pro, you could also use an external GPU adapter to hook up a GTX 10-series GPU to a MacBook Pro, so there are options outside of desktops. In any case, if you are running GPU-intensive applications and your OS of choice happens to be macOS, then you now have some much more powerful GPU options available to you.

The beta drivers are available from Nvidia's website (link). Since these are unfinished, there may be a couple of issues.

Original Story: If you happen to have an older Mac Pro, or even a Hackintosh, then you will finally be able to upgrade your graphics card soon as Nvidia has announced that it will finally be updating its MacOS GPU drivers with support for Pascal. Nvidia hasn't updated its GPU drivers for Mac in a long time, meaning anyone looking to upgrade their GPU or build a Hackintosh from scratch would need to find an older Maxwell GPU.

Alongside the announcement of the brand new Titan Xp from Nvidia, the company also announced that new Mac drivers would be launching this month, giving those users the opportunity to upgrade to a GTX 10-series GPU, whether it be the Titan Xp, GTX 1080Ti, GTX 1080 or something more affordable like the GTX 1070 or GTX 1060.

“We’re making the new Titan Xp open to the Mac community with new Pascal drivers, coming this month. For the first time, this gives Mac users access to the immense horsepower delivered by our award-winning Pascal-powered GPUs”.

This means those using Macs as editing machines, or for other intensive workloads like CAD, will finally be able to benefit from the latest GPU tech from Nvidia.

KitGuru Says: I was actually looking into building a Hackintosh just recently, but was put off by the lack of Pascal GPU drivers. Fortunately, it looks like Nvidia is finally catching up in that regard.

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ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/asus-rog-strix-gtx-1050-ti-oc-4gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/asus-rog-strix-gtx-1050-ti-oc-4gb-review/#comments Fri, 31 Mar 2017 08:40:30 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=327692 ASUS puts a dual-fan cooler and sizeable overclock onto GTX 1050 Ti.

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ASUS has outfitted its ROG STRIX GTX 1050 Ti OC with a dual-fan cooler and a 90-100MHz overclock past Nvidia's rated frequencies. The addition of a 6-pin PCIe power connector is intended to aid the maximum GPU Boost core frequency during gaming, while the two 100mm fans force air over a well-sized heatsink. An RGB LED and user-controllable 4-pin chassis fan header are provided as quality points for this £170 GTX 1050 Ti.

A primarily plastic shroud is used to house the two 100mm fans. ASUS puts these fans into a 0dB operating mode meaning that they remain inactive until a GPU temperature of 55°C is reached. With the power efficiency of the GTX 1050 Ti GPU, that's longer into the gaming session than one might anticipate.

The ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1050 Ti OC operates at 1380MHz core clock and 1493MHz boost frequency, out of the box in its default Gaming Mode. These are increases of 90MHz and 100MHz, respectively, over Nvidia's reference frequencies. Memory speed is left unchanged at 7008MHz effective.

There is also an OC Mode that can be selected in ASUS' software. That mode pushes core frequency up to 1392MHz with a 1506MHz Boost clock. ASUS should ship the fastest mode by default instead of forcing users to install the vendor's software to get slightly higher performance.

We observed the core clock generally operating at 1797MHz or 1785MHz during 1080P gaming.

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Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition 11GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/nvidia-gtx-1080-ti-founders-edition-11gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/nvidia-gtx-1080-ti-founders-edition-11gb-review/#comments Thu, 09 Mar 2017 14:00:11 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=324165 Nvidia has chopped up its flagship Titan X GPU, increased the clock speed, and reduced price by £480.

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Nvidia's Titan X Pascal has been dominating at the top of GPU performance charts for a little over seven months, with the gap to the Santa Clara-based GPU maker's second-in-line GTX 1080 being a sizeable one. With AMD's high-end competitors still not available for public adoption, the enthusiast market is ready for a GTX 1080 Ti GPU to offer Titan X-like performance at a price point closer to that of a high-end offering, rather than an ultra-high-end (borderline silly-money) one.

Along comes the GTX 1080 Ti. Take the GP102 GPU used in a Titan X Pascal – chop off one twelfth of certain areas, bump up the core clock speed by 63MHz and you get the GTX 1080 Ti. Oh, and let's not forget a £480 price reduction thrown in for good measure. Of course, there's more to it than that basic overview. The cooler has been tweaked, power delivery components are changed, and you now get 11 Gigabytes of faster 11Gbps GDDR5X VRAM versus the Titan X Pascal's 12 Gigs of 10Gbps GDDR5X. Reading between the lines, the expectation of slightly higher performance than a Titan X Pascal, driven by a higher core clock and faster memory, for a £699 asking fee looks like a good proposition.

With Nvidia's announcement for the GTX 1080 Ti last week came a whole round of product stack shake-ups. Titan X Pascal said so-long, GTX 1080 got a $100 price shave which also pushed down GTX 1070 fees, and new GTX 1080 and GTX 1060 models with faster VRAM were shown to be inbound. ‘What was the driving force behind this series of changes?' I hear you asking. No, AMD hasn't released a new high-end – Vega – GPU (yet). Instead, it the was the promise of Titan X-level performance from the $699 GTX 1080 Ti.

If you have been craving a true 4K60 single-GPU solution and simply could not justify spending more than £1k on a Titan X Pascal, you may want to pay attention to the £699 GTX 1080 Ti (yes, UK punters will pay a straight dollar to pound amount). Nvidia is claiming that the new 11GB card delivers 35% higher performance than a GTX 1080, making it the GPU vendor's biggest leap for a Ti-branded card. Single-card high-resolution and high-refresh rate gaming looks to have been made more affordable. That's even before AMD has entered the market with Vega competition. Who'd have thought?

GP102 in its GTX 1080 Ti form.

Nvidia is calling GTX 1080 Tithe ultimate gamer GPU‘. Substantiating those claims is the application of the same 471mm2 GP102 GPU core found on the company's Titan X Pascal flagship consumer graphics card which is fabbed using a 16nm process. Nvidia adjusts the chip by disabling certain components which results in a one twelfth reduction to the number of ROPs, the amount of L2 cache, the associated memory bus width, and the quantity of VRAM. Those figures sit at 88 ROPs (vs Titan XP's 96), 2816 KB of L2 cache (vs Titan XP's 3072 KB), a 352-bit memory bus (vs Titan XP's 384-bit), and 11GB of GDDR5X VRAM (vs Titan XP's 12GB).

With a reduction in the number of on-chip components fighting for power and cooling comes headroom in the 250W TDP budget. Nvidia re-invests that TDP headroom by bumping the core clock up by 63MHz to 1480MHz which results in rated GPU Boost 3.0 frequency being improved by 61MHz to 1582MHz. This takes the GTX 1080 Ti's compute power to more than 11 TFLOPS.

Faster GDDR5X memory is also used. Compared to the Titan XP and its 10Gbps VRAM, the GTX 1080 Ti uses 11Gbps GDDR5X that Nvidia says it was able to achieve by working with DRAM partners to use advanced equalisation techniques, enhance signalling quality, and refine the data channel to the DRAM. The 10% increase in memory frequency versus Titan XP offsets GTX 1080 Ti's 8.3% reduction in bus width to give it greater memory bandwidth at 484GBps against Titan XP's 480GBps.

GPU Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB Nvidia GTX 1070 Nvidia GTX 1080 Nvidia GTX Titan X (Pascal) Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti
GPU Name GP106 GP104 GP104 GP102 GP102
Streaming Multiprocessors 10 15 20 28 28
GPU Cores 1280 1920 2560 3584  3584
Base Clock 1506 MHz 1506 MHz 1607 MHz 1417 MHz 1480 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1709 MHz 1683 MHz 1733 MHz 1531 MHz 1582 MHz
Total Video Memory 6GB GDDR5 8GB GDDR5 8GB GDDR5X 12GB GDDR5X 11GB GDDR5X
Texture Units 80 120 160 224 224
Texture fill rate 120.5 GT/s 180.7 GT/s 257.1 GT/s 317 GT/s 331.5 GT/s
Memory Clock 8Gbps effective 8 Gbps effective 10 Gbps effective 10 Gbps effective 11 Gbps effective
Memory Bandwidth 192.2 GB/s 256.3 GB/s 320 GB/s 480 GB/s 484 GB/s
Bus Width 192-bit 256-bit 256-bit 384-bit 352-bit
ROPs 48 64 64 96 88
Manufacturing Process 16nm 16nm 16nm 16nm 16nm
TDP 120 W 150 W 180 W 250 W 250 W
Power Connector(s) 1x 6-pin 1x 8-pin 1x 8-pin 1x 6-pin + 1×8-pin 1x 6-pin + 1×8-pin
Current UK Starting Price Approx. £230 Approx. £360 Approx. £470 £1,179 (End of Line) £699

Compared to Titan XP, the GP102 implementation for GTX 1080 Ti retains the 28 Streaming Multiprocessor Units (SMUs), 3584 CUDA cores, and 224 Texture Units. It is a 12 Billion transistor, 471mm2 GPU fabbed on TSMC's 16nm process technology. The 250 W TDP commands 6-pin plus 8-pin PCIe power connectors and a cooling solution that can keep pace up to the 83°C default (user-adjustable) thermal throttling point of GPU Boost 3.0 (the GPU's thermal threshold is 91°C).

GTX 1080 Ti isn't quite GTX 1080-and-a-half, as Titan X Pascal could crudely be described. But it isn't far off that level of raw numerical data on the specification sheet, either. In return for a 70W (39%) increase in TDP versus GTX 1080 and a ~£200 higher price tag, adopters are returned with the promise of 35% higher performance at the GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition's operating specifications.

For more details on the technologies found in Nvidia's Pascal-based graphics cards, please read our launch review of the GTX 1080 HERE.

Note: GPU-Z is not yet updated to show accurate specifications for the GTX 1080 Ti.

Nvidia rates the GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition Boost frequency at 1582MHz. During our testing, we observed GPU Boost 3.0 taking the core speed as high as around 1860MHz before either power- or thermal-induced throttling kicked in. We will not be surprised to see after-market, custom-cooled, factory-overclocked cards from board partners hitting more than 1900MHz in gaming usage out-of-the-box.

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Nvidia announces GTX 1080 Ti: Faster than a Titan X, $699 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidia-announces-gtx-1080-ti/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/nvidia-announces-gtx-1080-ti/#comments Wed, 01 Mar 2017 04:00:11 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=323526 Nvidia has launched the long-rumoured GTX 1080 Ti - $699 and faster than a Titan X.

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I'm here in San Francisco and Nvidia has just launched the long-rumoured GTX 1080 Ti. While I and other tech journos got a sneak preview of the card earlier in the day, Jen-Hsun of Nvidia made the announcement public in an event live-streamed from The Regency Centre.

To cut right to the chase, the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti is very similar, in terms of on-paper specs and physical appearance, to the Titan X (P). Both cards have 3584 CUDA cores, 28 SMs, 224 texture units and 12 billion transistors.

However, the 1080 Ti does have less ROPs – 88 – while the Titan X has 96. This suggests that the 1080 Ti is essentially a Titan X but with a single memory chip disabled. This would explain why the 1080 Ti has 11GB of GDDR5X VRAM, too, compared with the 12GB found on the Titan X.

(Editorial continues after the gallery.)

GTX 1080 Ti Announcement Gallery

(Pictures taken by Dominic Moass: Copyright KitGuru.)

Above you can see all the slides shown by Nvidia at the 1080 Ti press event in San Francisco today.

Going into more detail about some highlighted features, let's start with the memory. Nvidia told us that the 1080 Ti uses ‘next-gen' GDDR5X VRAM from Micron that operates over a 352-bit bus – slightly less than the 384-bit bus found on the Titan X. However, the next-gen GDDR5X memory is faster than the Titan X's VRAM, thanks to its 11Gbps (effective) transfer rate. It is this faster GDDR5X – plus the chip's overclocking headroom – which, Nvidia says, makes the 1080 Ti faster than a Titan X.

In terms of VRAM capacity, the 1080 Ti features 11GB of memory. It may be a strange number, but it makes sense as the 1080 Ti uses the same GP102 chip as the Titan X but with a single memory controller disabled. Nvidia were keen to emphasise that more and more games are now using more and more VRAM, though, so the added capacity over the GTX 1080 should offer tangible benefits.

Importantly, the 1080 Ti should offer a solid boost in game performance over a GTX 1080, too. According to Nvidia's testing – which we will validate ourselves in our own review – the 1080 Ti performs 35% faster than a 1080, making it the ‘best Ti ever' in terms of relative performance between all the xx80 and the xx80 Ti cards.

Speaking of performance, the 1080 Ti is helped by the fact that its out-of-the-box boost clock is around 1600MHz, while it was also demonstrated with its core clock running beyond 2GHz, remaining perfectly stable.

Nvidia has also tweaked the Founders Edition cooler to offer better thermal performance at lower noise levels. This could be useful for those with small-form-factor systems, or those who want to run 2 cards in SLI.

One last area of interest is that the Founders Edition cards will have the same MSRP as third-party cards from companies such as EVGA, ASUS and Gigabyte. This marks a change in strategy from Nvidia, as, at launch, the GTX 1080 Founders Edition had a $100 premium over third-party cards.

Perhaps the most impressive thing is the price. It costs just $699 – nearly half the price of the Titan X at launch, but offering better performance. We will have to wait for a confirmed UK price, but given the weak state of the pound, anything below £649 is probably unrealistic.

Jen-Hsun announced it will be available from next week.

KitGuru says: For $699, the 1080 Ti looks fantastic. Faster than a Titan X, it should offer top-notch 4K gaming performance. Stay tuned for our review coming soon!

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PNY GTX 1070 XLR8 OC 8GB Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/pny-gtx-1070-xlr8-oc-8gb-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/pny-gtx-1070-xlr8-oc-8gb-review/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2017 12:42:10 +0000 http://dev.kitguru.net/?p=319921 We examine PNY’s ~£450 GTX 1070 XLR8 OC to see if it can compete with market leaders

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Nvidia’s GTX 1070 graphics card remains the go-to option for 1440p gaming enthusiast due to a (current) lack of modern competition from AMD and the sheer expense of the GTX 1080 and Titan X Pascal chips. More than half-a-year after its launch and the GTX 1070 is still managing to hold its price in the UK, aided by the political events of 2016. We examine PNY’s ~£450 GTX 1070 XLR8 OC to see how the company’s triple-fan cooler and aggressive core overclock tackle modern games.

 

Going with a gamer-orientated style from yesteryear, PNY colours the GTX 1070 XLR8 OC’s triple fan cooler in a red and black style. Red LEDs are also fitted to the board and activate continuously when one’s system is powered on. If you like red in your system, PNY has made a good start on this card.

Good news for tinkerers who may be toying with the prospect of watercooling in the future, PNY uses the same reference GTX 1070 PCB for its XLR8 OC card. You get the same 4+1 phase power delivery system and single 8-pin PCIe power connector feeding the GP104 GPU and 8GB of GDDR5 memory.

Despite the included backplate, there are no flashy RGBs or 0dB fan operating modes for the GTX 1070 XLR8 OC so PNY is clearly relying upon build quality and straight-up performance to win over buyers.

PNY overclocks the core to 1607MHz (1797MHz Boost) which is an aggressive increase from the 1506MHz/1683MHz reference GTX 1070 FE frequencies. Memory is left unchanged at 8Gbps effective.

As shown in the MSI Afterburner screenshot above, PNY’s GTX 1070 XLR8 OC will happily hover around and just above the 1900MHz GPU Core clock mark under gaming conditions. The higher the resolution, the lower the boost speed, but even at 4K the card would sit around 1911MHz.

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Report claims GTX 1050 on the way but Pascal supply remains tight https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/report-claims-gtx-1050-on-the-way-but-pascal-supply-remains-tight/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/report-claims-gtx-1050-on-the-way-but-pascal-supply-remains-tight/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2016 16:49:57 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=305687 While many people have been fortunate enough to get hold of a shiny new Pascal graphics card over the last few months, plenty of retailers are seeing cards flying out of stock almost as fast as they can get them in. This is apparently down to Pascal supplies remaining “tight”, according to a report this …

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While many people have been fortunate enough to get hold of a shiny new Pascal graphics card over the last few months, plenty of retailers are seeing cards flying out of stock almost as fast as they can get them in. This is apparently down to Pascal supplies remaining “tight”, according to a report this week but that isn't slowing down Nvidia's market expansion, as apparently the GTX 1050 is arriving very soon.

At this point, Nvidia has launched the GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and two version of the GTX 1060. However, according to Digitimes's sources, demand is still so high that board partners like Asus, Gigabyte and MSI are having to aggressively push for more supply from Nvidia to keep up.

gallery-2

Despite that, the situation does seem to be improving. For example, if you wanted a GTX 1080, Amazon UK is expecting to get new stock on certain models as soon as next week, specialist retailers like OCUK have quite a bit of stock in. The story is similar for the GTX 1070 and GTX 1060. Obviously, things may differ dramatically in other countries.

Aside from that though, we can expect a new member of the Pascal family to arrive soon- the GTX 1050. We previously saw the leaked specifications for this GPU and at the time, it was claimed that it would be launching in mid-October. However, according to Digitimes, a reveal could happen as early as this month. However, nothing is official just yet, so take this news with a pinch of salt.

KitGuru Says: I was in the market for a GTX 1080 soon after launch and it was a real struggle to get hold of one, to the point where a lot of retailers bumped up prices for many models. Things do seem to be improving here in the UK as far as stock goes but that may not be true for every country. Have you guys been looking to get a new Pascal graphics card? Did any of you have to wait long to get hold of one?

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MSI overhauls its laptop lineup with Pascal and new cooling https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/leo-waldock/msi-overhauls-its-laptop-lineup-with-pascal-and-new-cooling/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/leo-waldock/msi-overhauls-its-laptop-lineup-with-pascal-and-new-cooling/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2016 16:20:33 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=303509 This week, we were invited back to Taipei for MSI's latest launch event during which the company unveiled a whole load of new laptops, ranging from beasts like the GT83VR Titan SLI, which features dual GTX 1080s, all the way down to some more sensible GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 options. There was certainly a …

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This week, we were invited back to Taipei for MSI's latest launch event during which the company unveiled a whole load of new laptops, ranging from beasts like the GT83VR Titan SLI, which features dual GTX 1080s, all the way down to some more sensible GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 options. There was certainly a lot of ground to cover, but we have rounded up the important details.

We have already been given the run down on Pascal graphics for laptops during Nvidia's own event. You can catch up on those details, HERE. However, in this piece, we will be going over what MSI brings to the table in its effort to ‘shatter the desktop performance cliche', which is more or less the company's way of saying: ‘Think you need a desktop PC? Nah, a laptop could do nicely.’

【MSI Laptop Press Conference-5】

Many of the features on show for MSI's new laptops are familiar to the last generation, which seems fair as we don't really need to overhaul a SteelSeries keyboard, Super RAID 4 or Nahimic Audio each year. However, these Pascal GPUs are not too far off their desktop counterparts and that power needs to be controlled with new cooling solutions.

Cooler Boost Titan Cooler Boost Trinity

MSI began showing off its new ‘Cooler Boost Trinity' and ‘Cooler Boost Titan' technology this week. The former is an all-new three-fan cooler, while the latter is designed to cater to dual-GPU laptop systems. Both new coolers also need to be able to tame the heat of an M.2 SSD, which can get toasty and experience performance fluctuations if not controlled properly.

It looks like MSI is off to a great start putting its range together as well. The company manufacturers its laptops inside its own plants, rather than outsourcing, giving them greater control over production. On top of that, Joseph Hsu, President of MSI, told KitGuru that they were ‘first in line for supplies from Nvidia' and experienced ‘no supply chain problems' so there shouldn't be any long droughts in availability.

GE72VR-pic-2 GT73VR-pic-2

One of the big features MSI is keen to push this generation is the inclusion of 120Hz and even 5ms near-IPS panels. We are waiting on clarification about exactly what ‘near-IPS' means and are betting the KitGuru tenner on some variant of VA technology. These beefy 10-series GPUs should pair up nicely with a high refresh rate display and near-IPS will attract many who value colour accuracy over response times.

We learned a little about laptop TDPs, with the GTX 1060 having a maximum power draw of 180W. Meanwhile laptops sporting the GTX 1070 will need a 230W adapter, and the GTX 1080 will need a 330W one.

Due to the usual restraints you would expect from a laptop, overclocking functionality is limited to the GT series, which comes with beefier cooling. The fastest models in this range will have an additional preset to boost GPU clock speeds up to 350MHz over stock, which is substantially more.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: We will be kicking off our MSI laptop reviews with the GT62VR very soon, so keep an eye out for that. It seems that MSI has pulled out the stops this generation, delivering new laptops that could truly replace a desktop in terms of both performance and portability. 

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MSI pushes laptop gaming with high end GTX 10 series notebooks https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/jon-martindale/msi-pushes-laptop-gaming-with-high-end-gtx-10-series-notebooks/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/jon-martindale/msi-pushes-laptop-gaming-with-high-end-gtx-10-series-notebooks/#respond Thu, 18 Aug 2016 11:08:08 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=303372 Gaming on the go is set to get a lot more impressive with this generation of mobile chips from Nvidia, and MSI, like many manufacturers, is looking to take advantage of that. It has a new line of gaming notebooks, each sporting new mobile Pascal GPUs, high-end displays and powerful processors, to deliver desktop-level gaming …

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Gaming on the go is set to get a lot more impressive with this generation of mobile chips from Nvidia, and MSI, like many manufacturers, is looking to take advantage of that. It has a new line of gaming notebooks, each sporting new mobile Pascal GPUs, high-end displays and powerful processors, to deliver desktop-level gaming power in a laptop package.

We first heard about these new notebooks last week, where MSI teased the use of 4K displays, high refresh rate panels, innovative cooling solutions and much more, but we didn't know what GPUs they would have then. That was because Nvidia had yet to announce its new Pascal mobile line up. Once it did so this week, it's safe to say many of us were impressed.

So what can you expect in MSI's laptops now that we know these GPUs exist? The MSI GT72VR Titan SLI can come with either a single GTX 1080, or a pair of SLI linked GTX 1070s under the hood. That's paired up with a 120HZ, 5ms display and an Intel Core i7 6820HK processor .

titanlaunch

If that's not enough for you though, there's always the MSI GT83VR Titan SLI which can pair up dual GTX 1080s under the hood, for a ridiculous level of graphical power in a single screen set up, whether desktop or laptop.

Of course that sort of set up is mostly overkill, even if you're playing the most intensive of VR games. The GT72VR and GT62VR Dominator series laptops come with either a GTX 1070 or GTX 1060, both of which should be more than capable of handling all of the latest games.

MSI also expands this Pascal equipped line up with a couple of thinner variants, as well as those designed with streaming in mind, by bundling in a Killer LAN chip.

For more information on the range, check out the product launch page here.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: That is a lot of new laptops to chew over. I can't help but feel that just a couple with configurable hardware would be easier to digest. 

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nVidia launches Pascal graphics for laptops https://www.kitguru.net/components/leo-waldock/nvidia-launches-pascal-graphics-for-laptops/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/leo-waldock/nvidia-launches-pascal-graphics-for-laptops/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2016 08:00:48 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=302847 Nvidia has launched GeForce GTX 10 series graphics chips for notebooks and the big news is that these are full Pascal chips, rather than M (for mobile) parts. We are still waiting for the full specs from Nvidia but as things stand we have some basic details on the first three models GTX 1080, 1070 …

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Nvidia has launched GeForce GTX 10 series graphics chips for notebooks and the big news is that these are full Pascal chips, rather than M (for mobile) parts.

We are still waiting for the full specs from Nvidia but as things stand we have some basic details on the first three models GTX 1080, 1070 and 1060:-

  • GTX 1080, 2560 cores, 1733MHz boost, 8GB memory, 10Gbps GDDR5X (replaces GTX 980 TDP)
  • GTX 1070, 2048 cores, 1645MHz boost, 8GB memory, 8Gbps (replaces GTX 980M TDP)
  • GTX 1060, 1280 cores, 1670MHz boost, 6GB memory, 8Gbps (replaces GTX 970M TDP)

Desktop parts for reference:-

  • GTX 1080, 2560 cores, 1733MHz boost
  • GTX 1070, 1920 cores, 1683MHz boost
  • GTX 1060, 1280 cores, 1708MHz boost

Base clock speeds and typical clock speeds are a bit vague, and we consider those quoted boost speeds are best thought of as ‘up to’ figures. The reason we are being cautious is that the thermal design of a laptop has a critical impact on CPU and GPU speeds. To add further room for confusion Nvidia is positively encouraging its laptop partners (Sager, Gigabyte, Lenovo, Clevo, EVGA, Alienware, Asus, MSI, HP, Acer, Razer, Origin and XMG, globally, plus the likes of PC Specialist in the UK) to overclock the heck out of GTX 1080.

Maxwell could overclock by 80-100MHz however we are told Pascal can overclock 200, 250 or maybe 300MHz. Notebooks do not support over-volting so results will vary as Nvidia involuntarily proved. During a briefing where cameras were banned they showed Doom running with a +225MHz overclock and the demo crashed twice. They had clearly practised this demo, presumably successfully, and when they returned to the demo later it ran successfully without any further explanation.

At launch GTX 1080 can be overclocked and 1070 and 1060 overclocking will follow a couple of months later i.e. they launch at stock clocks. It seems clear that cheaper GPUs such as GTX 1050 will launch in time.

The layout of the various GPUs does not follow exactly the same configuration as the desktop Pascal chips. GTX 1070 stands out as the mobile chip has 2,048 cores operating up to 1,645MHz while the desktop GTX 1070 has 1,920 cores that run up to 1,683MHz. In other words the new mobile chip has a slightly higher count of CUDA cores that operate at a slightly lower clock speed. Nvidia told KitGuru ‘it just worked out better that way.’

Nvidia refused to discuss TDPs for the new GPUs. They did, however, state that GPU performance should be within ten percent of the desktop Founders Edition which sounds pretty darn impressive.

Gaming on battery power is entirely possible (VR requires mains power) however the life of your battery will clearly be a limiting factor. Nvidia’s BatteryBoost software has been redefined and they claim up to 30 percent more gaming on battery with Pascal. You can cap the frame rate at a chosen point between 30fps and 60fps, or simply disable BatteryBoost and go for maximum performance

Nvidia is pushing G-Sync displays at 120Hz and 2,560×1,400 resolution and we were told there will be at least one panel that is both 120Hz and 2,560×1,400. Nvidia seems to be making very little effort to push 4K displays on gaming laptops and we can entirely see their point.

Yes, they said, you can play games at 4K and 60fps with High Quality settings however 1080p, 120Hz and 120fps in some games is likely to give you a better gaming experience.

The sooner we have a Pascal gaming laptop on review the better and then we can see for ourselves.

In the meantime, here's a selection of the laptops and features that were on show at the launch. To show off the LED lighting on some models they were in ‘low light' areas:-

Asus GL502
GTX 1060
G-Sync
Asus-GL502

MSI GT73
GTX 1080
120Hz Display
G-Sync available
VR-MSI-GT-73-pic-1
 MSI-GT73-pic-3 MSI-GT73-pic-1

MSI GS43
GTX 1060
Thin form factor
VR-MSI-GS43-pic-1
VR-MSI-GS43-pic-2

HP Omen
GTX 1070
With optional G-Sync
VR-HP-Omen-pic-3
VR-HP-Omen-pic-1 VR-HP-Omen-pic-4

Acer Predator 15
GTX 1070
With G-Sync
Acer-Predator-15-pic-1

Asus G752
GTX 1070
120Hz display
G-Sync available
Asus-G752-pic-1
Asus-G752-pic-7  Asus-G752-pic-3

Clevo P775
GTX 1080
4K Display
G-Sync
Clevo-P775-pic-1

EVGA SC17
GTX 1070
4K Display
G-Sync available
EVGA-SC17-pic-3 EVGA-SC17-pic-2

MSI GS63
GTX 1060
4K Display
Thin form factor
MSI-GS63-pic-1 MSI-GS63-pic-4 MSI-GS63-pic-5

MSI GT62
GTX 1070
G-Sync
MSI-GT62-pic-2 MSI-GT62-pic-4 MSI-GT62-pic-5

MSI GT72
GTX 1070
120Hz
G-Sync available
MSI-GT72-pic-1 MSI-GT72-pic-4 MSI-GT72-pic-7

Razer Blade
GTX 1060
Thin form factor
Razer-Blade-pic-1

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Nvidia released a new ‘Game Ready’ driver for No Man’s Sky https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jon-martindale/nvidia-released-a-new-game-ready-driver-for-no-mans-sky/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jon-martindale/nvidia-released-a-new-game-ready-driver-for-no-mans-sky/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2016 07:50:35 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=303148 Nvidia has released a new “Game Ready” driver for both No Man's Sky, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Obduction, F1 2016, and the Paragon Open Beta, giving gamers with green branded hardware, a leg up in those various games. As with every driver release though, this one comes with a few bug fixes too. Of course the …

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Nvidia has released a new “Game Ready” driver for both No Man's Sky, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Obduction, F1 2016, and the Paragon Open Beta, giving gamers with green branded hardware, a leg up in those various games. As with every driver release though, this one comes with a few bug fixes too.

Of course the official name for this release isn't anything to do with any particular game. Technically it's titled the 372.54 WHQL certified driver, but the above games are what's important, because those are the experiences that are going to benefit the most from its release.

nomanssky

This release adds an SLI profile for No Man's Sky, making it possible to double down on your graphical hardware for the game. Nvidia does warn however, that if your CPU is weak, using SLI in the game could lead to bottlenecking. You have been warned.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Obduction, F1 2016 and Paragon also have new profiles in this release, as well as a number of optimisations to make them perform better on Nvidia hardware.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd9LP6RGh5Q']

Along with improvements in individual games, this release also adds support for Pascal hardware in laptops, with mobile versions of the GTX 1080, 1070 and 1060 all now being slotted into notebooks around the world.

Bug fixes in this release include Witcher 3 SLI shadow bugs, Netflix Windows Store app stuttering in full-screen and high-GPU clock speeds no longer occur if two DisplayPorts are used.

If you'd like to download the new driver, you can grab it here.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Keep your drivers updated guys. I'm terrible for it, but there's always extra performance to be found, especially if you're playing the latest and greatest games. 

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MSI is counting down to its next gen gaming notebooks https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/matthew-wilson/msi-is-counting-down-to-its-next-gen-gaming-notebooks/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/notebook/matthew-wilson/msi-is-counting-down-to-its-next-gen-gaming-notebooks/#respond Tue, 09 Aug 2016 20:04:08 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=302253 It looks like MSI is preparing for a big launch next week by teasing its next generation gaming notebooks which aim to “shatter the desktop performance cliche” by cramming in more power than ever before and offering ‘VR Ready' graphics across the entire range. MSI has launched a new countdown website, at the end of …

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It looks like MSI is preparing for a big launch next week by teasing its next generation gaming notebooks which aim to “shatter the desktop performance cliche” by cramming in more power than ever before and offering ‘VR Ready' graphics across the entire range.

MSI has launched a new countdown website, at the end of which all will be revealed but for now, we have a few details ahead of time. For starters, MSI is planning on making its GT, GS, GE and GP series of gaming notebooks ‘VR Ready', new products will also be equipped with new cooling designs and offer higher gaming performance with help from Core i7 CPUs.

MSI

Interestingly enough, there is no mention of what GPUs we may see in these new gaming laptops. However, as previously reported, Nvidia is currently rumoured to be announcing its new Pascal mobile-series GPUs soon, so perhaps MSI's new laptops will make use of this new technology, but we won't know for sure until official announcements are made.

Aside from that, MSI is promising its usual batch of features, including innovative cooler designs, 4K displays, or even 120Hz IPS panels on some models. The usual SteelSeries RGB keyboards will make an appearance and Dynaudio will be powering the speakers to get the best sound possible. Keep an eye on the countdown site for more information when the final announcement drops.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Given the rumours surrounding the upcoming Pascal mobile GPUs, it seems fair to speculate that MSI's new notebook lineup may feature these new chips. Either way, we'll know next week when the countdown timer hits zero. 

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Nvidia’s Pascal Titan X has launched, UK pricing revealed https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidias-pascal-titan-x-has-launched-uk-pricing-revealed/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidias-pascal-titan-x-has-launched-uk-pricing-revealed/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2016 14:07:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=301339 Just a couple of weeks ago, Nvidia dropped the surprise announcement of the new Titan X, based on the new Pascal architecture equipped with 3584 CUDA Cores, 11 TFLOPS of compute power and 12GB of GDDR5X VRAM. Today, this monstrous graphics card officially launched, meaning you can now buy one … if you can afford …

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Just a couple of weeks ago, Nvidia dropped the surprise announcement of the new Titan X, based on the new Pascal architecture equipped with 3584 CUDA Cores, 11 TFLOPS of compute power and 12GB of GDDR5X VRAM. Today, this monstrous graphics card officially launched, meaning you can now buy one … if you can afford it.

Unlike past Titan GPUs, the new Pascal-based Titan X will only be available directly through Nvidia’s online store, so you won’t be able to find an Asus, EVGA or MSI version, nor will you be able to officially buy from other retailers like SCAN or OCUK. It also looks like many reviewers haven’t got their hands on samples yet so benchmarks might not be here for a bit longer.

nvidia-titan-x-pascal-key-image

The new Titan X will be available from today. We already know that the card will launch at $1200 in the US. Meanwhile, here in the UK, the card will set you back £1099, or around €1300-€1350 in other European countries.

While we don’t have benchmarks just yet, Nvidia is pitching the new Titan X as 60 percent faster than the previous Maxwell-powered version.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE. 

KitGuru Says: The new Pascal Titan X is shaping up to be quite the power house judging by its specifications. However, it would have been nice to see some launch day reviews. I for one would like to see how this card handles 4K gaming. Are any of you currently running a Titan? Would you upgrade to the latest version?

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Nvidia’s M-series Pascal GPUs rumoured to launch at Gamescom https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidias-m-series-pascal-gpus-rumoured-to-launch-at-gamescom/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/matthew-wilson/nvidias-m-series-pascal-gpus-rumoured-to-launch-at-gamescom/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:22:18 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=301212 While we won’t be getting the Pascal Titan launch at Gamescom this month as previously rumoured (spoiler, it already happened), we will apparently see Nvidia’s M-series of Pascal graphics chips for the first time if new reports this week are to be believed. Rumours surrounding Nvidia’s laptop GPU plans for this generation have been circulating …

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While we won’t be getting the Pascal Titan launch at Gamescom this month as previously rumoured (spoiler, it already happened), we will apparently see Nvidia’s M-series of Pascal graphics chips for the first time if new reports this week are to be believed. Rumours surrounding Nvidia’s laptop GPU plans for this generation have been circulating for a while but we may get some confirmation in just a few weeks’ time.

This particular rumour originated from sources speaking with DigiTimes. According to the report, Nvidia plans to unveil Mobile Pascal at Gamescom, which takes place between the 17th and the 21st of August in Germany. Several partners including ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte are also said to show up with new laptop models equipped with new Pascal GPUs.

Maxwell_GM204_DIE_3D_V17_Final-1024x576

The report indicates that we will see the full line-up at Gamescom too, including the GTX 1080m, GTX 1070m and GTX 1060m. It is worth noting that we have heard conflicting reports surrounding Nvidia’s new mobile GPU naming scheme, so it may not end up including the m prefix at the end.

Nvidia made a big push for laptop gaming with Maxwell, improving efficiency to the point that a full-blown desktop GTX 980 could be put inside of a laptop. Pascal has improved in this area even further, so the mobile versions of the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 may end up performing very similarly to their desktop counterparts. However, we won’t know for sure until we see some benchmarks.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE. 

KitGuru Says: DigiTimes isn’t always a reliable with its sources so take this news with a pinch of salt. That said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some new Pascal-equipped gaming laptops on show at Gamescom this year.

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Nvidia launches Pascal Quadro Cards, with GTX 1080 beating power https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jon-martindale/nvidia-launches-pascal-quadro-cards-with-gtx-1080-beating-power/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jon-martindale/nvidia-launches-pascal-quadro-cards-with-gtx-1080-beating-power/#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2016 14:01:40 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=300579 Nvidia has debuted a new pair of graphics cards as part of its Pascal line up, but these ones aren't designed to give you ungodly frame rates in the latest and greatest games, these ones are for the business users. Workstations, renderers and situations that require more power than a GTX Titan X can put …

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Nvidia has debuted a new pair of graphics cards as part of its Pascal line up, but these ones aren't designed to give you ungodly frame rates in the latest and greatest games, these ones are for the business users. Workstations, renderers and situations that require more power than a GTX Titan X can put out, could all benefit from teaming up with the new Quadro P5000 and P6000.

These cards are being shown off by Nvidia for the first time at this year's SIGGRAPH conference, where visitors will get a chance to see both cards up close, with live demos of 4K videos being stitched together in real time, to create seamless 360 degree movies.

The former of the two cards is, as you might expect, the smaller one – but that doesn't mean it's weak. Able to output just shy of nine teraflops of power, the P5000 is no push over. It comes equipped with 2,560 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR5X.

quadrop6000-03

Nvidia didn't give us any details on what the clock speeds for both the memory and core are, but we do know that the P5000 draws 180w of power, which isn't too hectic.

Its bigger brother the P6000 though, draws a much heftier 250w, because it puts out as much as 12 teraflops of floating point performance. That's thanks to its monstrous 3,840 CUDA cores, combined with 24GB of GDDR5X memory.

Both of these GPUs are compatible with Nvidia's VR works, and they're being pitched as good hardware for use in making new 360 degree video, as well as developing virtual reality games. The P6000 and P5000 also support Nvidia Opitx 4, Nvidia's Ray Tracing engine.

KitGuru Says: Complete overkill for any gamer and certainly not optimised for the tasks within your average game, but it's hard not to salivate at those specifications. 

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Nvidia unveils Pascal GTX Titan X a month early https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jon-martindale/nvidia-unveils-pascal-gtx-titan-x-a-month-early/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/jon-martindale/nvidia-unveils-pascal-gtx-titan-x-a-month-early/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2016 08:58:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=300163 By all accounts, Nvidia was expected to unveil its uber-high-end Pascal GTX Titan-X at Gamescom in August, but out of the blue it dropped last night. Nvidia came bearing images, specs and a swanky video trailer. At this point it would be weird if hardware launched without one. Nvidia terms this new GPU, the “Ultimate graphics …

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By all accounts, Nvidia was expected to unveil its uber-high-end Pascal GTX Titan-X at Gamescom in August, but out of the blue it dropped last night. Nvidia came bearing images, specs and a swanky video trailer. At this point it would be weird if hardware launched without one.

Nvidia terms this new GPU, the “Ultimate graphics card,” which until the rumoured GTX 1080Ti comes out at some point in the future, is certainly the case for professionals and consumers alike. But as with previous generations of the Titan, expect a giant price tag to come alongside those monstrous specifications.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y02kptTItj8′]

The new Titan X not only makes last generation's Titan X look rather poor in comparison, but it decimates the recently released GTX 1080 too. The new Titan sports 3,584 CUDA cores – 500 more than the last-gen Titan, and more than a thousand more than the GTX 1080.

The GPU itself runs at a base clock of 1,417MHz, boosting up to 1,531Mhz, which helps deliver a ridiculous 11Tflops of performance. 12GB of onboard GDDR5X and a 384bit memory interface help it deliver 480GBps of bandwidth too – close to 50 per cent more than the Maxwell Titan X (thanks VideoCardz).

titanxpascal

Of course all of this comes at a power cost. Titans are notorious power sinks and this generation's is no different. The TDP of the Titan X is 250w using a six and eight pin connector, the same as the Maxwell Titan X, but 70w more than the GTX 1080 – this is not a GPU for a super-efficient system.

It's not for those without deep pockets either. When Nvidia launches the GTX Titan X on 2nd August, it will cost $1,200. That's more than £900 and you know we'd get screwed on the VAT and import, so expect this card to set you back more than £1,000 when it's released.

There may be cheaper alternatives down the line and this could be a Founders Edition like other cards we've seen, but we wouldn't expect it to drop much.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have any of you ever owned a Titan? I bought a HTC Vive, but this sort of money to make games and benchmarks run a bit better than cards that cost so much less, always seems impossible to justify. 

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