Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti release date, news and rumors

It’s very likely that Nvidia will soon launch the GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, a powerful follow-up to last year’s GTX 1080.

It’s expected to boast even more power to push cutting-edge gaming graphics in native 4K resolution, and while it’s likely to be based on the same Pascal GPU architecture as the GTX 1080, it should still be a decent upgrade over the older (yet still very powerful) GPU.

We’re assuming that Nvidia continues its pattern of releasing a mainline GPU series (along with an incredibly powerful Titan variant) one year, then following up with a more powerful Ti variant the next year.

So, if you’re looking forward to a GPU that’s more powerful than the GTX 1080, and more affordable than the Titan X, then read on to find out all the news, rumors and release date information we know so far about the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The latest addition to Nvidia’s top of the range graphics cards
• When's it out? Recent rumors suggest late March 2017
• What will it cost? Quite a bit, probably over $600 (£500, AU$800)

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti release date

Hottest leaks:

• Could be announced on February 28
• Rumors point to late March release

Going by previous release schedules we expect Nvidia to unveil the GTX 1080 Ti in the first half of 2017, and recent rumors appear to back this up.

Nvidia has sent out invitations for a press event in San Francisco on February 28, promising a showcase of ‘awesome’ PC gaming hardware – so it’s very possible that this is the date when Nvidia will reveal the GTX 1080 Ti.

The timing of this coincides with the Game Developers Conference (GDC), also held in San Francisco, and AMD is likely to announce its rival graphics cards using the Vega architecture, so Nvidia may be looking to steal some of AMD’s thunder.

There have also been rumours that the GTX 1080 Ti will make an appearance at PAX East in Boston a few weeks later, on March 10.

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti price

Hottest leaks:

• Between $600 and $1,200 (£500 and £1,100, AU$800 and $1,500)

There haven’t been a huge amount of leaks or rumors about the price of the GTX 1080 Ti so far, but that won’t stop us speculating!

We can actually use a bit of educated guesswork to try and figure out the likely price tag of the GTX 1080 Ti. The card is probably going to sit between the GTX 1080 and the Titan X in terms power, so it’s likely the price will be somewhere between those two cards – so between $600 and $1,200 (£500 and £1,100, AU$800 and AU$1,500)

That’s quite a wide price range, but going by previous ‘Ti’ releases we can’t see it being as cheap as the GTX 1080 or as expensive as the Titan X, so we’d say around the $850 (£700, AU$1,100) mark is probable. Sadly, it’s very likely that this is going to be an expensive graphics card.

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti specs

Hottest leaks:

• 10GB GDDR5 memory
• 1503MHz base clock
• 3,328 CUDA cores

Seeing what Nvidia has up its sleeve when it comes to its latest all-powerful graphics card is always exciting.

Rumors of the Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti specifications began swirling last year, with Videocardz.com reporting on a shipping listing for an unnamed graphics card going by the identity PG611 SKU 10, with the PG611 board being equipped with Nvidia’s GP102 GPU, which is also used by the Titan X. 

It also states that the card has 10GB of GDDR memory. That’s a hefty amount, and more than the GTX 1080’s 8GB, although less than the 12GB that comes with the Titan X. 

According to the leak, the 1080 Ti will supposedly have a base clock of 1503MHz (with a boost to 1623MHz) and 3,328 CUDA cores (not much less in comparison to the Titan X’s 3,584 cores, and more than the GTX 1080’s 2,560). 

It’s likely that whatever the spec, Nivida will be looking to make 4K resolution at 60fps (frames per second) on a single GTX 1080 Ti a reality, so we can rest assured that this will be a mightily powerful GPU.

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti: what we want to see

As we mentioned above, being able to run the latest and greatest games at 3840 × 2160 (4K) resolutions at a rock-steady 60fps on a single card is a very exciting prospect, so we want to see the GTX 1080 Ti being capable of that.

While we’re bracing ourselves for a steep price tag, we can still hope that it will be towards the lower end of our estimates.

Overall, we’d love to see a graphics card that radically pushes gaming graphics and effects forwards, and offers a decent upgrade over the already impressive GTX 1080. 

Will the GTX 1080 Ti manage that, or will we have to wait until next year for the GTX 1100 series? Only time will tell.

February 17, 2017 at 09:18PM
Matt Hanson