Nvidia’s New Pascal Graphics Cards Blow Away the Competition

Gamers rejoice, for the new top graphic card is here. Nvidia has upped its game again, announcing two cards called the GTX 1080 and the 1070, though, it is the former which will inevitably get more attention. They are the first cards to fall under the ’10 series’ umbrella.

The cards feature the new Pascal microarchitecture of Nvidia and come after Nvidia has spent “several billion dollars” on research over the past few years. “It’s almost irresponsible amounts of performance,” as Nvidia puts.

As you’d expect, the card is around and around specs-galore. For one, it brings 2 times the performance, and 3 times the efficiency of the $1000 Titan X. It is faster than two GTX 980s running in SLI. These figures are not contentious as Doom was made to run at up to 200fps at 1080p during demo!

Not all specifications are out, but the card is built on a 16nm FinFET chip, a two-generation technological leap from 28nm, 2560 CUDA cores, a 256-bit memory bus, 320 GB/s memory bandwidth and brings 8 GB of new Micron GDDR5X VRAM with 10Gbps memory pipe. Performance will stand at around 9 TFLOPS from its 7.2 billion transistors.

Thanks to the efficiency Pascal has brought over Maxwell, the clock speeds have also risen to as much as 2144 MH but running at a temperature of 67 degree centigrade. The 1080 can run on just 180W of power with a single 8-pin connector.

There’ll be added benefits for VR with features like VR Works Audio, VR PhysX and VR Touch. There’s also the Simultaneous Multi-Projection and Ansel. The 1070 is no slouch either, with performance of up to 6.5 TFLOPS with its 7.2 billion transistors, 8 GB GDDR5 RAM and the same 16nm FinFET manufacturing procedure.

The new cards come with a new fan design, replacing the one introduced back in 2013. It now uses vapor chamber cooling for a more silent profile. Ports for the card include 1 DL-DVI-D port, 1 HDMI port and 3 DisplayPorts 1.2.

Despite being more powerful than anything on the market, the card won’t cost a ridiculous figure. Compared to the $1000 Titan X, the new GTX 1080 will retail at $599. The GTX 1080 will cost $379. Both will have special “Foundation Edition” cards (which is essentially a newer, fancier name for reference cards), costing $699 and $449 respectively.

That price is $50 costlier than the cards they replace but for the kind of performance boost on show here, it is clear that the difference is more than made up here.


  • The performance is mind blowing. But only game addict will buy it for around Rs.70,000

    • one of the MOSt badly optimized games… but yeah , im sure it’ll destroy that game

  • The price to performance ratio of the GTX 1070 is the best one I have seen from Nvidia in all these years. It is definitely giving me impetus to retire my trusty old GTX 460 after 7 years of service. :p

      • Hahah..yup. Ran all the games well until, Witcher III, Arkham Knight and Rise of the Tomb Raider. So saw no reason to upgrade…but now things have changed :D

        • you’re v.lucky man , im yet to own a proper gaming PC :/

          i long to play all the AAA games …

          • I get the feeling mate, I am at the same point right about now. My PC is relatively outdated for newer resource-intensive games. So, as of now, I am stuck with Fifa 14 :D Hopefully I will invest some in a gig that is going to stay true for at least the next 5-6 years. :)

            • you meant Rig , dint you :D ?

              yeah … i really hate it when a PC you’ve spent so much time with finally starts to show its age in terms of lags , forced downgrades of Graphics Settings and even over the edge CPU/GPU usage …

              btw i also played FIFA 14 on this laptop before its GPU started Overheating ( yeah , its driving me crazy with repetitive slow-downs and the like) , had a killer team fully home-grown and academy trained in Manager Mode (its the only mode i play in any Fifa game ) with a few great transfers. Tragically i had to give up on that due to an OS installation glitch…. im hoping fortune to be kinder to me and atleast allow me a PC which can run Fifa 17 , so i can start with the manager mode in it and continue spotting talents :D

              do Tell me your build when you’re planning to purchase it … would be great to have discussion with a fellow PC games ( btw , you’re PC Master Race .. right ?)

              • Hahah yeah…the good ol’ rig. :D

                Exactly, that’s kind of a drawback to PC gaming. Your hardware isn’t built to last very long. And the component prices go down like crazy with every new iteration. So, investing in a PC gig is like grabbing a white elephant and keeping it in your room, if you get my drift! ;)

                You seem like a true Fifa aficionado. I am more into casual Fifa gaming with my mates and siblings. Cause its pretty much the only game I can play again and again on my outdated rig without getting bored!! Coming to think of it, Rocket League is another one :p
                Btw it is sad to hear about your data loss, next time keep a back up of your Fifa profile folder (its in My Documents). I have reinstalled Fifa 14 a couple of times and each time I didn’t have to start over because I just copy paste the backed up data!!

                Yeah, sure mate, will drop a line whenever I get around to getting my rig. And yes, I am PC master race, consoles are for peasants! :D

                Btw, couldn’t resist, but you meant ‘gamer’ in the second last line didn’t you? :D

                • haaha … yep , i meant gamer :D (guess typos are common with us well-versed in Keyboard controls, something the Peasants will never know about )

                  from what i’ve read and researched upon , as a PC gamer , there’s a few things which really guarantee a sense of longevity in your rig. FIRST , learn overclocking and buy an unlocked CPU , you can squeeze a few extra years out of it if you know your way around OC’ing (that said , i do NOT have the faintest idea how to overclock … im just scared of burning the whole Tower down :D ). Also stock up on Ram , preferably whatever is the best available clock speed of the memory withing your budget 16 GB is overkill while 8 Gigs is bare minimum right now , there’s also something about overclocking the rams but im not clear on that . thirdly , the GPU … great care must be taken to select and purchase the right one. a Good GPU which suits your resolution will last you long enough… esp something with lots of VRam and also , learn to overclock the GPU as well. also do NOT cheap out on PSU , go for the best and choose something which can provide enough power to all the components. lastly , water-cooling is v.beneficial but again i have no idea how to implement it and how much will it cost.

                  I didn’t lose my date per se , the files were there , but migration from win 7 to win 10 messed up the Fifa 14 installation and it started displaying black screen in the matches … i’d also forgotten my team’s setup and philosophy so i decided to scrap and go for Fifa 15 but upon installation i found out that my GPU could not run fifa 15 :'( … so that makes me yearn even more for a PC that can atleast respectably and stably handle the AAA titles at least !

                  not exactly a FIFA aficionado but more of a footballing one .. which is why i enjoy playing Manager :D building teams from scratch and achieving the magical and the extraordinary with under-dog teams is a beloved hobby and an expertise of mine :D
                  some of those moments were so good that they actually qualify as tales one can tell to their grand-children :D

                  be sure to give us a howler about your new build and nice meeting a Brother (thats the term PCMR uses to refer to fellow members , you obviously know that but this is for a third person’s understanding)

                  and as they say in the PCMR testament ; May your Temps be Low and Frames High !

                  • Man you type long stuff! :D

                    Anyways, I don’t think overclocking is the way to go unless you are ready to invest in cooling solutions (water pumps, thermal pastes, aftermarket coolers, and likes). I tried my hand at overclocking back in 2013 on my i3 540 and the same gtx 460. The performance gains were minimal while my temperatures kept soaring near the TDPs on my stock coolers. This is bad for the life for your hardware and I reverted back to stock clocks on both. So, I believing overclocking is pretty much an enthusiast thing than something that can concretely bolster your performance.

                    I sure can see your love for football from your DP!! Hopefully you can go one up on your earlier endeavors in Manager Mode, though from the sound of it, I believe you have already attained peak performance in MM. :p

                    Of course, brother (I didn’t know this PCMR vernacular though :D). Tentatively, I am thinking end-2016, start-2017 Insha Allah. Will def let you know.

                    • hahaa … yeah . its an old habit :D

                      guess i will avoid overclocking then , coz like i said , i don’t want to brick anything. and overheating is the LAST thing i want (esp with the current GPU’s temp antics). I understand that pastes , compounds and extra cooling solutions may cost quite upwards but i believe it is wiser to invest in some sort of cooling solution even if you are not O’cing , just to protect your ICs from the heat , esp in Pakistan.

                      yeah … it sure does feel like it , with Manager modes of FIFA 07 , 08 and 09 fully completed to peak (15 season’s the limit) , but with every new iteration of FIFA , there’s always something innovative and new to try out which keeps it fresh. Thanks for the kind wishes tho :)

                      FYI Brother , do subscribe to the PCMR and buildapc subreddits on reddit , if you haven’t already. they’re v.relevant to PC gamers and the like.

                      Take care :)

                    • Agreed. This is why I have attached an inlet-exhaust fan system in my current rig. It works quite well to keep the temps low in conjunction with the AC. However, I don’t think it will be as effective in a ‘pankha’ setting. :D

                      Not a big fan of reddit but will give it a shot. I like PG and OC Net forums more.

                      You too take care! Will drop a line about the rig build soon insha Allah!

                • Rocket League is MAD fun … the positive thing is .. it has revealed the mechanics of football to many people who were oblivious to the sport before… and cars … who doesnt love em ?! Fantastic concept and idea … a cult classic which may actually last for potentially eternity unless something more fun comes along !

                  btw you have a geniune copy of the game or did u pirate that like me :D ?

  • waiting for MORE budget friendly options … this is NOT ideal for Pakistani Consumers , who’ll prolly have to get involved in Body Organ Sales to afford ANY kind of gaming hardware !

    wait for AMD’s Polaris to beat this to the punch at HALF the price (or even lesser ! )


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