Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 Graphics Card Review

Introduction The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti rapidly became a firm favourite among hardware enthusiasts due to the exceptional Windforce 3X cooling solution and impressive factory overclocks. Even though it was eventually superseded by the Gigabyte XTREME GAMING GTX 980Ti as the company's flagship offering, the astounding build quality bodes well for future G1 branded products. NVIDIA's Pascal architecture was always heralded as the next major leap in graphics performance and greatly benefits from the new 16nm FinFET manufacturing process. Thankfully, the GTX 1080 provides a significant boost in framerates compared to the previous generation and consumer demand remains unbelievably high despite hefty retail prices. Custom models from a number of hardware vendors have entered the market as an alternative to NVIDIA's Founders Editions. Apart from the budget blower designs, these units offer reduced temperatures, quieter operation and enhanced overclocking headroom. Today, we're taking a look at the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 which utilises a base clock of 1721MHz and 1860MHz boost when selecting the OC profile. This is a very important piece of information in lieu of the recent controversy surround press samples and the default mode. Please note, the Gaming profile consists of a 1695MHz base and 1835MHz boost. On both profiles, the memory has a 10MHz factory overclock. Judging by the quoted specification, this isn't the fastest GTX 1080 model we've reviewed and I'm interested to see how it fares compared to the competition. Specifications Packing and Accessories The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 comes in a stunning box sporting the iconic eye design and lists key features of the Pascal architecture including Ansel. Not only that, small icons detail the graphics card's cooling solution and overclocked specification. On the rear section, there's an explanation of the Windforce 3X cooling system, GPU Gauntlet chip sorting and customizable RGB illumination. In terms of accessories, the graphics card is bundled with a quick guide, and driver/software disk. A Closer Look Gigabyte has adopted a stylish black and orange theme which remains flexible enough to be a suitable addition to a wide range of builds. Unlike the overdone red and black colour scheme, the orange highlights add a new twist and I believe this combination works incredibly well. Also, the understated design is refreshing and evokes a sophisticated feel, especially when compared to rival products which go overboard with RGB lighting. One of the most glaring elements to take note of is the GPU's lightweight construction. This should reduce GPU droop and apply less pressure on the PCI-E slot. Additionally, the graphics card measures H41mm x L280mm x W144mm. On a more technical note, the company's Windforce 3X cooling solution has been deployed which revolves around 3 copper composite heat-pipes, a dense heatsink fin array and high-angled fan blades. These custom-engineered fans offer exceptional airflow while reducing turbulence. In theory, this provides a better noise to performance ratio and allow the end-user to enjoy a lower thermal output. Furthermore, the composite heat-pipes combine both thermal conductivity and phase transition to effectivity manage heat transfer between two solid surfaces. The composite heat-pipes coincide of axial grooves, sintered powder, a hollow pipe and liquid. According to Gigabyte, this enhances the cooling capacity by a staggering 29%. The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 opts for 8+2 power phases and ultra-durable materials to reduce the MOSFET operating temperatures and deliver a more reliable voltage output. Furthermore, the highest-grade chokes, capacitors and thick PCB contribute to a longer lifespan. Here we can see the graphics card sports a fairly simplistic backplate design which adds rigidity to prevent unwanted droop. The backplate thickness is good too, making the product feel like a premium piece of hardware. Gigabyte's unique fan design is split by the triangle edge and guides smoothly through the 3D stripe curve on the fan's surface. This increases the airflow by 23% compared to traditional fans. Gigabyte has decided to stick with the default single 8-pin connector on this model and believe an extra 6-pin wouldn't improve the card's overclocking headroom. Connectivity-wise, the graphics card has a single dual-link DVI-D, three DisplayPort 1.4, and one HDMI 2.0b. Once powered on, the Gigabyte logo illuminates and cycles through each colour within the RGB spectrum. The lighting can be customised via Gigabyte's XTREME GAMING ENGINE software and includes a number of effects such as static, breathing and flashing. Saying that, the options at your disposal are fairly limited and I'd like to see more transitions added in the near future. Also, the Fan Stop logo becomes annoying quite quickly and it tends to detract from the graphics card's elegant design. Testing & Methodology Here is the test system we used for all graphics card reviews and game performance analysis: Hardware Motherboard - Gigabyte X99-Gaming G1 WiFi LGA 2011-3 Motherboard Processor - Intel Core i7 5820K at Stock 3.3GHz RAM - 16GB (4 X 4GB) Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz CPU Cooler - Thermaltake Water 3.0 with Gelid GC-Extreme Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 1200W Main Storage Drive - Crucial M550 512GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Displays - AOC U2868PQU 4K Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit Additional Hardware "Killawatt” style electricity usage meter wall plug Precision Gold N05CC Decibel meter Drivers The latest drivers are always used at the time of testing, but please note reviews undergo a scheduling process. This means a new driver could be released on the day of publication. However, this is unavoidable and disclosing the driver versions used is the most transparent way of informing the reader about current performance levels. Games Throughout the testing procedure, we always use demanding presets to stress graphics cards to their absolute limits. However, in the interest of fairness, any technology which favours either AMD or NVIDIA is disabled. More specifically, this refers to PhysX, Hairworks and more. Additionally, we also disable all forms of AA to gauge performance levels which aren't impacted by complex AA. Theoretically, we could have employed FXAA because it only has a minor impact on the frame-rate, but many users strongly dislike the hazy image this causes. Apart from the details mentioned above, all settings remain at the maximum values. On another note, we previously used Grand Theft Auto V in the testing process and it's a popular title. However, there's been some strange anomalies in the minimum frame-rate which mean I'm not confident in the benchmark's accuracy. Since I've taken the helm as graphics card reviewer, I wanted to put fairness at the heart of each article and ensure there's a good balance between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 games. This allows us to properly analyse each graphics card as focusing on sponsored titles from a particular vendor will always result in an inaccurate picture. Unfortunately, popular monitoring software like FRAPS cannot display the frame-rate in real time and poses a problem when observing performance numbers. Thankfully, it's still possible to use FRAPS's Min/Avg/Max function which we've found offers the most reliable monitoring compared to other methods. If you have any suggestions to aid the benchmarking process, please let us know so we can constantly improve the procedure. Selecting strenuous presets especially at higher resolutions can cause hitching and other performance problems on graphics cards with lower amounts of video memory. For example, Rise of the Tomb Raider's Very High textures really requires 6GB of RAM to maintain a smooth frame-rate. In theory, we could run the benchmarks at the High setting but this defeats the purpose of high-end graphics cards which are designed to cope with the absolute best graphics on the market. Furthermore, the notion of enthusiast cards sporting less than 6GB memory will become less of an issue in the future. Of course, whenever we're tackling more affordable GPUs, the settings will be altered accordingly. To reiterate, all settings are set to their maximum values apart from AA and vendor exclusive technologies. Sometimes, selecting the maximum preset doesn't combine all the best settings, so we double check these and manually confirm the highest graphical preset has been enabled. The only one important aspect to mention revolves around Exclusive FullScreen in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Judging by the thorough testing, the frame-rate is much better when using this particular mode. Software Ashes of the Singularity (DirectX 12) Doom Far Cry Primal Hitman (DirectX 12) Rise of the Tomb Raider 3DMark Unigine Valley Unigine Heaven CPU-ID HWMonitor TechPowerUp GPU-Z Luxmark Synthetic Benchmarks During our testing, we use a range of readily available synthetic benchmarking tools which are free to download from the respective websites. We do this so the readers can download and compared to our results. Download links are contained within the "Software" subheading. Noise Everyone has their own reasonable noise level when it comes to comes to components in a computer. Some can handle all fans at 100% load to keep temperatures down, some want a completely silent computer. To properly gauge the noise output of a graphics card, we position a Precision Gold N05CC Decibel meter from two metres away and take an average reading. Power Consumption With electricity becoming increasingly expensive across most parts of the world the need for computer components to become power efficient has never been more relevant. Graphics cards are often the most power-hungry components of a desktop system so having an efficient graphics card is very important to keeping power bills under control. Power is often correlated to heat and so lower power consumption means a graphics card is likely to run slightly cooler and put out less heat into your system meaning your other components will run cooler with improved longevity. AMD and NVIDIA have both made power consumption an integral part of the way graphics cards dynamically overclock so the need for graphics card vendors to use efficient VRM and PCB designs is becoming important to maximise performance. We take power readings after 5 minutes of two different load scenarios: desktop idle and Unigine Heaven load. Temperatures The cooling solution which graphics card vendors choose to implement is one of the main differences that consumers have to contend with when choosing a graphics cards. Apart from their acoustic properties, the thermal properties of graphics card coolers are extremely important. Lower temperatures are always better and with AMD and NVIDIA opting to use dynamic overclocking algorithms that take temperature into account it is important that graphics card vendors use high-performance cooling solutions in order to maximise performance. The era of graphics cards reaching dangerous temperatures are now in the past but the importance of lower temperatures still remains. Lower temperatures mean better stability, longer component longevity and lower fan speeds .We take temperature readings after 5 minutes of two different load scenarios: desktop idle and Unigine Heaven load. We always record actual temperatures and make any adjustments for changes in the thermal testing environment. 3DMark In 3DMark Fire Strike, the graphics card manages very good scores but falls behind other GTX 1080 variants which employ higher factory overclocks. When tackling the 1440p benchmark, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 fares pretty well and the performance remains within an acceptable distance of the competition. During 4K testing, the GPU maintains its strong showing and posts superb synthetic results. Unigine Valley Throughout the Unigine Valley benchmark, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 offered consistent performance and wasn't too far behind its nearest rivals. Once the resolution is increased to 2560x1440, the gap diminishes somewhat and there's very little to choose between three GTX 1080 cards. Here we can see this pattern continues when running the benchmark on a 4K render and it's clear that the GTX 1080 is a league ahead of alternative products. Compute Performance In terms of compute performance, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 surpasses the Fury X by a noticeable amount but it's adrift of the GTX 980Ti. Ashes of the Singularity As you can see, the graphics card is able to maintain a stable frame-rate during the Ashes of the Singularity benchmark and almost defeats the ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1080. Both of these still struggle to match the Inno3D model which benefits from a very high boost clock above the quoted specification. Increasing the resolution to 1440p bunches the GTX 1080 cards closer together and it's evidently clear that the contrasting factory overclocks hardly makes a difference. Plus, the numbers are easily within a margin of error. When setting the testing monitor to 4K, the graphics card is tantalising close to the second position. On the other hand, the minimum frame-rate could be better and I'd prefer to see it nearer the 38 frames-per-second mark. Doom Doom might be one of the most exciting first-person shooters released for some time but it doesn't really pose a problem for high-end graphics cards. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see the performance numbers. For the first time, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 came out on top by the smallest of margins. Once the resolution is set to 1440p, the ranking order changes slightly but there's really nothing to choose between the three GTX 1080s. The graphics card just falls shy of reaching the magical 60 frames-per-second figure when playing the game on a 4K panel. Despite this, the overall performance is remarkably strong and within the range I initially expected. Far Cry Primal In Far Cry Primal, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 manages to achieve an excellent frame-rate and almost reaches the top spot. During 1440p testing, the graphics card falls a few frames behind the Inno3D GTX 1080 iChill X3 but it's not enough to warrant any concern. Additionally, the GPU actually reports a better minimum frame-rate than the competition. Once again, the narrow gap between three GTX 1080 editions means it's difficult to draw any conclusions. Evidently, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080's lower boost clock doesn't result in a major frame-rate drop. Hitman Next up is Hitman which often displays a large number of NPCs at one time and utilises the latest DirectX 12 API. As you can see, the graphics card never lets the game dip below 60 frames-per-second and can easily cope with the maximum preset. When playing Hitman on a 1440p monitor, the frame-rate remains extremely stable and within touching distance of competing GTX 1080 models. During 4K testing. the graphics card suddenly falls behind its nearest rivals and the gap was larger than expected. Nevertheless, it's still a good result and enough to maintain a smooth user-experience. Rise of the Tomb Raider Rather surprisingly, the graphics card's average frame-rate was significantly behind other GTX 1080 versions. This is puzzling and I ran the benchmark multiple times to see if the frame-rate would improve on different runs. Unfortunately, the result remained within the same area and wasn't able to compete with either the ASUS STRIX GTX 1080 or Inno3D GTX 1080 iChill X3. On a more positive note, the gap diminishes during 1440p testing and the frame-rate is more in-line with what I expected. Similarly, the graphics card upholds a good frame-rate when using a 4K monitor and isn't too far away from the higher-clocked competition. Overclocking and Overclocked Performance Overclocking the GTX 1080 can be challenging especially if you want to achieve a maximum boost clock around 2100MHz. Judging from my previous reviews, it's very unlikely for GTX 1080 samples to exceed this figure even when you apply more voltage. Here we can see the stock read-outs from the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 when utilising the OC profile. The 1936MHz recorded boost is good but it's behind some cards which have boosted beyond 2000MHz. Gigabyte's XTREME GAMING ENGINE utility contains everything you need to enhance performance in a stylish yet simple user-interface. Throughout the testing process, I managed to increase the core clock by 143MHz to 1839MHz which translates to a quoted boost of 1978MHz. On another note, the memory was set to 10650MHz with a small 16% change in voltage to aid stability. Of course, the power limit and temperature limit were set to the maximum values. Overall, this is a very good overclock and I'm particularly impressed with the large core clock gain. While the memory could have overclocked further, it's not a major issue. Once the overclocked settings had been applied, the boost clock shot up to a maximum reading of 2088MHz while the memory reached 1330.6MHz. Here is the GPU-Z screenshot which clearly displays the default configuration and improvements from manual overclocking: 3DMark The overclocked Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 surpasses the ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1080 OC which is amazing considering the price difference. Once again, the graphics card comes out on top and greatly benefits from the astonishing overclocking headroom. Evidently, it's a huge boost in performance compared to the stock OC mode. When running the 4K benchmark, the graphics card offers supreme performance and just falls behind the overclocked ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1080. Saying that, it's by such a small margin that the ranking order could change when re-testing. Noise, Power Consumption and Temperatures Noise During idle conditions, the graphics card utilises a 0dB fan mode which means it's completely silent and the only noise you will hear stems from other components. Under load, the noise output remains decent but it's certainly louder than other premium cooling solutions. This is somewhat disappointing and I'd like to see a more gentle fan curve used because the temperatures remain low, which I'll go on to discuss very soon. Power Consumption As you might expect, the GTX 1080 is incredibly efficient and hardly consumes any power even when paired with an X99 testing rig. Temperatures The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080's cooling solution is brilliant and the GPU core is well under the card's thermal limits. Final Thoughts Price Annoyingly, it's difficult to pinpoint GTX 1080 prices with confidence because they seem to rise quite sharply and change at a rapid pace. In the UK, retailers are set to increase graphics card prices due to Sterling devaluation and they've probably already done this to a degree. However, once the stock for the next quarter is paid for, it will be at the new Sterling level which if it remains the same, is around 1.30 to the USD. If you're unaware, many UK technology retailers purchase stock in USD and this is why you might experience sharp price rises. Not only that, the GTX 1080 is incredibly popular and vendors are aware they can charge more than the Founders Edition for enhanced clocks and better cooling hardware. At the time of writing, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 is available from Overclockers UK for £679.99 including free shipping. This is cheaper than the ASUS STRIX GAMING OC which retails for an eye-watering £749.99. Saying that, it's more expensive than the Inno3D GTX 1080 iChill X3 which I absolutely adored and costs £659.99. Clearly, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 is competitively priced and this will make it an attractive proposition for those who require NVIDIA's flagship today. Overview In direct contrast to the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980Ti, the company has adopted a new colour scheme inspired by the XTREME GAMING brand. Unlike many of their competitors, Gigabyte decided to dismiss the overdone red and black theme and include orange accents on their latest G1 Gaming graphics card. This compliments the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080's neutral black design extremely well and results in a very elegant appearance. The orange streaks add some colour to the product without it being too ostentatious. Not only that, the RGB lighting has been implemented in a subtle manner and seems classier than rival products. On the other hand, I would like to see more transitional effects to ensure those who enjoy flashier designs can enable them without any problems. As expected, the graphics card utilises premium components such as an 8+2 power delivery, dense aluminium heatsink and 3 copper composite heatpipes. Additionally, Gigabyte's custom fans offer 23% extra airflow compared to traditional fans and feature high-angled blades. Also, they turn off completely during idle usage scenarios and operate independently based on thermal loads. This means when the temperatures increase slightly, only one of the fans will switch on when needed. Of course, during demanding games, all three fans start spinning to maintain good thermals. Speaking of thermals, the graphics card's tried-and-tested Windforce 3X cooling system is sublime although the noise output is louder than I'd like. Thankfully, the temperatures remain extremely low and there's enough headroom to create a custom fan profile and find a better balance between noise and temperatures. By default, the graphics card opts for a decent factory overclock which is particularly the case when selecting the OC profile. Saying that, it's slower than the Inno3D GTX 1080 iChill X3 while being more expensive according to the current market prices. On the sample I received, there is loads of overclocking headroom which allowed me to increase the base clock by 143MHz. This is a much larger boost than I've managed on any of the other GTX 1080 cards and allowed the GPU to score very highly once overclocked. The maximum recorded boost clock increased by a staggering 152MHz and wasn't far from the magical 2100MHz figure. Ideally, I would have liked the memory to overclock further but it's still a decent improvement at 10650MHz over the stock figure. The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080's performance before overclocking is admirable and competes pretty well against the ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1080 and Inno3D GTX 1080 iChill X3. Granted the lower-end factory overclock made it fall behind by a few frames in certain games but it's not enough to diminish the user-experience. In some cases, the difference was so small that it falls within a margin of error. Whatever the case, it's clear that the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 can uphold a fluid frame-rate even when paired with a 4K display. Pros Beautiful aesthetic design Cheaper than some AIB GTX 1080 models Exceptional performance Great cooling apparatus Reliable power delivery Study backplate Superb overclocking headroom UK warranty base Cons Not the quietest GTX 1080 on the market RGB lighting customization is a bit basic "The Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 offers fantastic performance, low temperatures and has loads of overclocking headroom. Additionally, the sophisticated appearance and competitive price make it one of the best custom variants of the GTX 1080 you can buy." Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 Graphics Card Review Thank you Gigabyte for providing us with this review sample.