ASUS Geforce GTX 1080 Founders Edition
The ASUS Geforce GTX 1080 Founders Edition is the same as any other Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 Founders Edition card, with the only difference being product packaging and bundled offer. ASUS is bundling a 15-day premium subscription to World of Warships, a team-based, free-to-play online multiplayer game featuring aspects similar to World of Tanks and World of Warplanes, only this time about military ships. The game was released in September 2015 and received an 81 percent on Metacritic.
The ASUS version of the Founders Edition card features Nvidia’s reference clockspeeds of a 1607MHz base clock (1733MHz Boost), 10Gbps GDDR5X memory bandwidth and power consumption up to 225W over a single 8-pin PCI-E power connector. ASUS supports overclocking using its GPU Tweak II software and related driver.
Pricing and availability
The Founders Edition features measures 10.5 inches long, 4.376 inches tall and 1.5 inches thick (267 x 111 x 38mm) and features one DVI output, one HDMI 2.0b output, and three DisplayPort 1.2 outputs (DisplayPort 1.4 Ready). It supports a maximum digital resolution of 5120x3200 (WHXGA 16:10).
The company’s version of the Geforce GTX 1080 Founders Edition is currently on backorder at a $699 MSRP. More stock is expected to arrive at or around the suggested price by mid-June.
ASUS ROG Strix Geforce GTX 1080 – 1.94GHz Boost clock
ASUS ROG Strix Geforce GTX 1080
The ASUS ROG Strix Geforce GTX 1080 is the company’s gaming and enthusiast-grade flagship first-generation Pascal GPU. The card has two operational modes – Gaming Mode and OC Mode. The first mode features a 1759MHz base clock (1898MHz Boost), while the second features a 1784MHz base clock (1936MHz Boost). Memory is clocked at 10Gbps in both modes. This results in about a 10 percent performance increase over the Founders Edition.
ROG STRIX-GTX1080-O8G-GAMING
Just like its ROG Strix Geforce GTX 980 Ti that was released last year, the ROG Strix Geforce GTX 1080 features the company’s third-generation DirectCu III cooling technology. With this design, the heatpipes are able to achieve up to 30 percent more performance over Nvidia’s Founders Edition reference design. ASUS also uses triple “zero-decibel” fans and claims to improve static pressure over the heatsink by 105 percent while operating three times quieter than Geforce GTX 1080 Founders Edition cards.
The card also features a power consumption level as high as 300W (up from the reference 180W), available by using an additional 6-pin PCI-E power connector featured alongside the standard 8-pin connector. ASUS has also substituted one of Nvidia’s reference DisplayPort connectors for a secondary HDMI 2.0b port to allow simultaneous connectivity of VR headsets and other devices without having to swap cables.
The company claims its 1.94GHz Boost clock translates to around 6.5 percent higher performance in 3DMark Firestrike Extreme and 7.4 percent higher performance in Hitman compared to the Founders Edition.
A more notable design on this gaming card versus the competition is the addition of two 4-pin fan headers controlled by the GPU itself that can be connected to system fans. This is effectively another way of offloading fan power from the motherboard and routing it through the GPU’s additional 6-pin PCI-E connector for added flexibility.
Just like its ROG Strix motherboard line, ASUS supports Aura lighting effects with these cards. This allows users to set LED color based on GPU temperature patterns, music playback, strobing, breathing, patterned color cycles and standard single-color mode.
The ASUS ROG Strix Geforce GTX 1080 measures 11.73 inches long, 5.28 inches tall and 1.75 inches thick (298 x 134 x 40mm) and features one DVI output, two HDMI 2.0b outputs, and two DisplayPort 1.2 outputs (DisplayPort 1.4 Ready). It supports a maximum digital resolution of 5120x3200 (WHXGA 16:10). Due to its length, this card may not fit in every Extended ATX or larger case so it may be important to double check any required dimensions prior to consideration.
The company’s flagship gaming and enthusiast-grade ROG Strix Geforce GTX 1080 will be offered as two models – one with reference clockspeeds (1607MHz base clock / 1766MHz Turbo) for $619.99, and one with factory overclocked frequencies (1759MHz base clock / 1898MHz Boost in Gaming Mode / 1936MHz Boost in OC Mode) for $639.99. The models are labeled ROG STRIX-GTX1080-8G-GAMING (reference clocks) and ROG STRIX-GTX1080-O8G-GAMING (factory overclocked), respectively. Availability for both models is expected to begin June 4th.
Early benchmarks
On Saturday, der8auer from Overclocking.guide posted a YouTube video review of the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1080 in action under OC Mode (1936MHz Boost), complete with an overview of the PCB and some preliminary 3DMark Firestrike Extreme results. The test resulted in a score of 10,503 using factory overclocked frequencies without any additional overclocking involved.
ASUS ROG Strix Geforce GTX 1080 PCB (via der8auer)
ASUS ROG Strix Geforce GTX 1080 scores 10,503 in 3DMark Firestrike Extreme (via der8auer)
