GTX 1070 vs. 1080 For VR & 4K Future Proofing

MyNewRig · Jun 17, 2016

So i am building a gaming rig that should last me a good 3 years or so, i have a 4K TV and would probably get a VR set down the road.

The GTX 1070 is in my comfort zone price-wise i can buy it without breaking the bank, the 1080 on the other hand is massively overpriced here in Europe, costs €800+ which is an utterly ridiculous amount to pay for a GPU.

The thing is that the GTX 1070 can barely do 4K with medium-high setting and AA turned off, and is not a great VR card, could fall short of 2nd Gen. VR requirements.

I am afraid that if i get the GTX 1070 now that i would have to upgrade 6 months or so down the road to reach optimal performance levels.

Should i spend way over my GPU budget and go for an €800+ GTX 1080 or should i wait (probably until 2017) and get a 1080Ti or a 1080 for a more reasonable price, or even probably Vega?

The market is filled with so much disruptive innovations, changes and paper lunches that it is harder than ever to decide on a new PC purchase, please help

rgd1101 · Jun 17, 2016

Since nothing is future proof, buy what you can afford

MyNewRig · Jun 17, 2016

I kind of know my "future" requirements/needs so i can predict what performance levels i might need, i can obviously afford both cards, but the 1070 i can afford comfortably and the 1080 i can afford with much pain

The actual question, is the 1070 even "barely good enough" as a 4K/VR card or would i be buying an obviously under-powered card for my needs the next 2-3 years?

fabiodrm · Jun 17, 2016

they are not announced as 4K cards, they are announced as VR Cards only.

Maybe 1080TI will be announced as "full" 4K ready. (4k 60FPS)

HyperCat · Jun 17, 2016

The GTX 1070 can run 4K with Medium and MAYBE high settings and get 60fps. "The thing is that the GTX 1070 can barely do 4K with medium-high setting and AA turned off" this sounds silly, barely do 4K with medium settings? . The GTX 980Ti is a great VR card and ive seen many people getting a 980Ti with a HTC Vive. so you are saying that a Titan X is bad for VR and 4K? a GTX 980Ti is a great/good GPU for 4K so a 1070 is same or better.

HyperCat · Jun 17, 2016

fabiodrm :

yes it is, the GTX 1080 is a 4K card.

MyNewRig · Jun 17, 2016

HyperCat :

I am not sure what you think is "silly" i had an MSI Gaming 980Ti myself which i got rid of because it ran too hot and too noisy for my taste, it could not do 4K@60FPS on almost ALL titles with high settings and AA turned off, in Wolfenstein i could turn 2X MSAA and get an average of 40-45FPS, that is about it, so it is a barely a 4K card, it can run stuff in 4K but does not provide an optimal performance.

And when you say "great for VR" you are talking about he current cut-down Gen.1 VR experiences which will not last for long, soon enough when VR games start having richer more detailed environments in Gen.2 the likes of the 1070 & 980Ti will not be close to achieving 90+ FPS required for proper immersion.

HyperCat · Jun 18, 2016

MyNewRig :

So you are saying that people need to buy a Titan X or GTX 1080 to play in 4K and VR? MSI 980Ti is one of the best and your 980Ti ran "too hot and noisy for your taste"?
So what are you expecting from a 980Ti? If you think a 980Ti is hot and noisy, you havent used an AMD card and you call 40fps high settings 4K for "barely"? Do you know how demanding 4K is? Its your choice, if you can afford a 1080 and MUST have 60fps high settings 4K buy it then. I have owned an Nvidia GT320 and i could only get 16-20 fps on low settings 1080p and you are dissatisfied with High settings 40-45 fps 4K????? I mean you just make GTX 1070 sound like a shitty card when its one of the best in the market.

MyNewRig · Jun 18, 2016

HyperCat :

Yes 980Ti is noisy and hot compared to the cut-down 970/980 variants, my MSI 980Ti's fan used to ramp up to almost 100% during 4K gaming dumping much heat inside the case making case fans run at 100% as well and the entire system sounding like a vacuum cleaner during 4K gaming sessions, the MSI 970 i had before it was whisper quite and much cooler during stressful gameplay, and i used AMD cards, the Sapphire Radeon 7970 Ghz edition ran much cooler and quieter during taxing workloads than an MSI 980Ti.

yes technically speaking 40FPS in 4K is barely good enough coz it fails to pass the 60FPS threshold for an optimal experience, so it can run stuff in 4K but it is not a 4K card, i don't care how demanding 4K rendering is, facts are still facts.

Cards are not classified in terms of "best" and "shitty", cards on the other hand are classified in terms of performance resolution targets so a great card in one resolution/use-case is not so great in another.

970/980 are great 1080p Cards

1070/TitanX are great 1440p Cards

1080 is an okay 4K Card

1080Ti should be a great 4K card

the above classifications are based on consistent 60FPS experience across the board.

What you have owned or what performance you got from your hardware can not be used as benchmark for "shittiness" and "greatness"!

jtk2515 · Jun 18, 2016

I would not get a 1080 for a 4k@60fps card. Also if your at 100% GPU utilization on your 980ti and your fan speed is >70% it will be loud. That's why there are reviews on the cards that will give you decibel readings. I Have a swiftech 220 x2 watercooling on my 6700k for this same reason. You bought The 980ti without the more expensive cooling options so yes if your at 80-100% GPU your going to have to listen to that high rpm fan.
At stock a 1070 with beat a 980ti
An decent Oced 980ti will beat a decent OCed 1070FE.

I see no reason to buy a 1070 if you have a 980ti. I also cannot recommend a 1080 for 4k settings. I would wait for a 1080ti.

MyNewRig · Jun 18, 2016

jtk2515 :

I sold the 980Ti a while back when it still held its value in anticipation of the more power-efficient Pascal because i could not stand the vacuum cleaning sound effects i was having during gaming and i have been without a gaming PC for a while now ...

I been waiting for better components to achieve my 4K@60 target in a power efficient manner, but did not expect the 1080/1070 to be that much overpriced in Europe compared to previous generations, and now there is the potential to wait for the 1080Ti as well which could be another half a year.

I am not sure what is the best strategy to deal with this situation. thinking of grabbing an RX 480 next month just to get me through that waiting period and meanwhile i could use it in 1080p/1440p until the 1080Ti comes out.

My options are:

get a 1070 and forget about great 4K gaming for another year.

get 1080 and keep it for a couple of years but problem is, it is so damn overpriced right now.

get RX 480 and sell it as soon as the 1080Ti comes out, buy that and keep it for 3 years, should be a good enough 4K card for a while.

I am really not sure what the correct decision is

fabiodrm · Jun 20, 2016

HyperCat :

i know they can run all recent games at 4k without any problem, but i mean they arent announced as "4k60fps everything and more" cards.

the main focus is VR in this generation.

Embra · Jun 20, 2016

rgd1101 :

^ This!

1080 is the best card out right now, bigger cards to come with larger $$.

Warmacblu · Jun 20, 2016

How about this? Purchase a nice 3rd party GTX 1070 and enjoy 1440p gaming for a while and purchase a nice 3rd party GTX 1170/1270 when they inevitably come to market. By then, 4K gaming may be more accessible and VR (if it turns out to not be a fad) will be more mature.

TheOtherOne · Jun 20, 2016

Warmacblu :

^^^ This.

These cards still use GDDR5 memory. Get a good 1070 and it should last you until "real" NextGen cards show up.

MyNewRig · Jun 21, 2016

How about i don't overpay for the freaking 1070 (if they still insist on selling it 25% above its MSRP for the few coming weeks) and snap an RX 480 8GB for €300 which looks like a steal in that price range, sell it next summer and get a true next-gen 4K card like the 1080 Ti or AMD Vega? both should exceed the 10 GFLOPS marks which makes them true 4K@60FPS?

Warmacblu · Jun 22, 2016

MyNewRig :

That could work as well. I didn't think you were considering AMD cards because you only mentioned nVIDIA products. Reviews for the RX 480 should arrive shortly so you will be able to determine if that card will satisfy your needs for the next year or so.

sshortguy1 · Sep 18, 2016

the rx 480 is considered to low end of a graphic cards for 4k resolutions , the gtx 1080 would be best for 4k on a single card use , but done my homework with going SLI on the 1080 isn't doing any justice , so I went with 2 gtx 1070s in SLI and maxed everything out on all my games and getting over 100 FPS on my 4k monitor so the gtx 1070s would be the perfect gpu sor sli rendering 100 + FPS in 4k
those that are concerned with heat issues they work good under pressure my gtx 970s would run for about 5 hrs and will overheat and get a unstable pictures , but on my 1070s I ran gpu-z and the temps were at 80c in SLI with no issues with the pictures at all

GTX 1070 vs. 1080 For VR & 4K Future Proofing

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