38score
#73 of 131
Overall rank

GeForce GTX 1080

4.5 · 932 votes
Best for 1080p esports gaming

As an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases.

VRAM
8 GB
CUDA
2,560
FP32
8.873 TF
Bandwidth
320 GB/s
TDP
180W
Boost
1733 MHz
Strengths at a Glance

How it stacks up to the flagship

Each metric is shown as a percentage of the GeForce RTX 5090 D, the strongest card we track.

FP32 compute8.873 TFLOPS8%
vs RTX 5090 D: 104.8 TFLOPS
Memory bandwidth320 GB/s18%
vs RTX 5090 D: 1790 GB/s
VRAM capacity8 GB25%
vs RTX 5090 D: 32 GB
Shading units2,56012%
vs RTX 5090 D: 21,760
Power efficiency16/10028%
vs RTX 5090 D: 58/100
Synthetic Benchmarks

Estimated benchmark results

Each result is shown as a share of the RTX 5090 D's score in the same test.

3DMark Time Spy13,680pts
vs RTX 5090 D: 36,000 pts
3DMark Port Royal (RT)7,020pts
vs RTX 5090 D: 18,000 pts
Blender (samples/min)1,976spm
vs RTX 5090 D: 5,200 spm
Geekbench Compute96,000pts
vs RTX 5090 D: 240,000 pts

Performance breakdown

Gaming38
Ray tracing39
AI / Compute40
Creator / 3D38
Power efficiency16
Real-World Gaming

FPS Across Resolutions

1080p · Ultra preset1440p · Ultra preset4K · Ultra preset
Cyberpunk 2077avg 49 fps
1080p
85
1440p
42
4K
20
Counter-Strike 2avg 110 fps
1080p
199
1440p
90
4K
42
Fortniteavg 110 fps
1080p
193
1440p
92
4K
45
Battlefield 5avg 88 fps
1080p
119
1440p
95
4K
51
Far Cry 5avg 72 fps
1080p
101
1440p
75
4K
41
Valorantavg 231 fps
1080p
218
1440p
247
4K
228

Average FPS across all PC games

1080p
118fps
1440p
71fps
4K
54fps

Cost per frame

Launch MSRP ($599) ÷ average FPS — lower is better.

1080p
$5.05
1440p
$8.34
4K
$11.02
Community Feedback

What Owners Say

Owners love how this card still handles 1440p gaming like a champ, even years later. The common gripe is that 8GB of VRAM feels tight for modern titles at higher settings.

Pros
  • Sips power, runs cool and quiet
  • Beats anything from the previous generation
  • Plays any modern game at high settings
  • Still holds up well for 1080p gaming
Cons
  • VRAM too low for modern games
  • Runs hot under sustained load
  • No ray tracing or DLSS support

Supported technologies

NVENCAV1 Encode

Full specifications

Graphics processor
Architecture
Pascal
Process node
16 nm
Transistors
7.2 B
SM Count
20
Release date
2016
Launch price
$599
Core configuration
CUDA Cores
2,560
TMUs
160
ROPs
64
L2 cache
2 MB
Memory
Size
8 GB
Type
GDDR5X
Bus width
256-bit
Bandwidth
320 GB/s
Memory clock
10 GB/s
Clocks & throughput
Base clock
1607 MHz
Boost clock
1733 MHz
FP32 (float)
8.873 TFLOPS
FP16 (half)
8.873 TFLOPS
Pixel rate
111 GPixel/s
Texture rate
277.3 GTexel/s
Board & power
TDP
180W
Suggested PSU
350W
Power connectors
1x 8-pin
Bus interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
Length
267 mm
Slot width
2-slot
Display & outputs
Max resolution
7680×4320
Outputs
DP 1.42, HDMI 2.0b, DL-DVI

API and SDK support

DirectX
12 (12_1)
Shader Model
6.4
OpenGL
4.5
OpenCL
1.2
Vulkan
1.2.131
CUDA
+
Verdict

Our verdict on the GTX 1080

A Pascal-era flagship that ran cool and quiet, but its 8GB VRAM now feels tight for modern games.

Get it if you're building a budget 1080p gaming rig and can snag one used for cheap. Skip it if you want modern features like ray tracing or plan to play newer games at high settings.

Buy it if…

  • You want great 1440p gaming without spending on a new card.
  • You need a cheap, used upgrade from an older GTX 900 series card.
  • You are building a VR-ready PC on a strict secondhand budget.
4.5

932 votes

Rate this GPU

Add your verdict