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Gaming Benchmarks
Alien: Isolation
Clearly, Alien: Isolation isn't a hardware-taxing game, and the Gigabyte Gaming GT can play it above 60FPS at the highest settings, even at 3840 x 2160. Not surprisingly, it performs better than our test bed (equipped with a GTX 1070) with its factory-overclocked GPU. Even if the CPU were a factor in this game's performance, the increased GPU clock rate pushes it 3-5 FPS higher than our reference-clocked test rig at all tested resolutions.
Ashes of the Singularity
We test Ashes of the Singularity at its most demanding settings, so it's no surprise that the performance deltas between GTX 1070 and GTX 1080-equipped systems are minimalistic at higher resolutions, where the CPU becomes the limiting factor. Even at 1080p, the factory-overclocked Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming graphics card in the Gaming GT desktop is less that 10 FPS away from the best-performing GTX 1080 system. This isn't an impressive achievement on this game with these settings, but the fact that the Gigabyte Gaming GT is competitive with these other, more expensive systems is.
Bioshock Infinite
By now, the pecking order of these systems should be fairly clear. However, the Gigabyte Gaming GT comes withing striking distance of the Acer Predator G1's average framerate in Bioshock Infinite at 1920 x 1080 by a margin of only 3.02 FPS. In a game like this, CPU horsepower (clockrate, to be exact) can limit framerates at lower resolutions (where the GPU doesn't work so hard), so its no surprise that the Gigabyte Gaming GT's Core i7-6700K gave it legs against the Acer's Core i7-6700 (the max turbo frequency of the latter is the base clock for the K-series chip) at 1080p.
As you turn up the resolution, the performance gap between the Gaming GT and the Predator G1 becomes wider. Also, the gains made by the factory-overclocked GPU become less defined against our Founder's Edition GTX 1070. By the time we reach 3840 x 2160, the Gigabyte Gaming GT barely manages to keep its lead over our similarly configured reference platform.
DiRT Rally
Similar to Bioshock, our test settings for DiRT Rally make for almost indiscernible (at least, to the human eye) results between GTX 1070 and GTX 1080-equipped PCs. The Gigabyte Gaming GT takes its familiar position in the lineup at all tested resolutions, besting our GTX 1070 reference rig and providing excellent framerates at 1920 x 1080 (83.44 FPS) and 2560 x 1440 (59.51 FPS). At 4K, the entire lineup struggles to make it above 30 FPS, but backing down the AA and details would make the game quite enjoyable (instead of just barely playable).
Grand Theft Auto V
GTAV is another power-hungry game, but the Gigabyte Gaming GT puts up a respectable fight against our GTX 1070 test rig, beating it (albeit barely) at all tested resolutions. At 1080p, it comes within a few (3.19) FPS of the Predator G1, but loosening up on the CPU-intensive game settings will change that. Even so, as you turn up the resolution, that performance gap fades away as the graphics cards become the bottleneck.
GRID Autosport
At its maximum settings, GRID Autosport hardly stresses platforms as powerful as these, but performance improvements (or detriments) to both the CPU and GPU can adversely affect framerates. For instance, the usual placement of these systems gets broken up, with the Gigabyte Gaming GT besting both the Acer Predator G1 and our GTX 1080 test rig at 2560 x 1440, in addition to snagging a win against the Predator at 1080p. Both of these sport GTX 1080s, and the reason for this is undoubtedly CPU performance. However, at 3840 x 2160, the GPU starts to become the bottleneck and the systems line up as you'd expect them to.
Hitman
Switching to another DX12 benchmark, the Gigabyte performs as we'd expect it to in Hitman; it surpasses our reference-clocked GTX 1070 test rig and stays neck and neck with it at all tested resolutions. However, it's interesting to note that the Gaming GT also yields the lowest minimum framerates, a phenomenon that could be a result of CPU power throttling (not reaching boost state or faulting when trying) that we suspect the BIOS controls.
Metro: Last Light Redux
If there were ever a perfect game benchmark that could really nail GPU performance, then Metro: Last Light Redux is it. The Gigabyte Gaming GT desktop exhibits lower minimum framerates at 1080p. However, this clears up as you turn the resolution dial up, and the factory-overclocked graphics card ensures that its average framerate will exceed our Founder's Edition GTX 1070 in this GPU-intensive benchmark at any given resolution.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
The Gigabyte Gaming GT desktop PC once again bridges the performance gap between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080-equipped systems with its above-average GPU clock rate (it's going against reference-clocked GPUs). Again, these are the most-demanding settings available for Rise of the Tomb Raider, and backing down on CPU-intensive effects would greatly improve framerates. However, the pecking order would remain unchanged.
The Division
Although the Gigabyte Gaming GT bests our GTX 1070 test rig (by 0.1 FPS) at 1920 x 1080, it falls behind by a small fraction at 2560 x 1440 and 3840 x 2160. The Division is a DX12 benchmark, and as such, CPU performance can play a role. Monitoring our CPU frequency during our tests revealed similar behavior as with our 3DMark runs; the CPU simply isn't entering boost state as frequently as our test rig at stock settings. The temperatures are in check, so we're going to point our fingers at the locked BIOS and BRIX-style power phases for this one. Despite this, the performance is still on par for the hardware inside, with excellent framerates at 1080p and 1440p. At 4K, most of these systems barely make it over 30 FPS, but the Gaming GT notably finishes farthest from it.
Thief
As with other games, the Gigabyte Gaming GT finishes up our test suite strong by besting our reference bench (with a GTX 1070) at all tested resolutions in the Thief benchmark. However, before the door closed, the Gaming GT beat down the Predator G1 one last time at 1920 x 1080, scoring a better average and minimum framerate than its GTX 1080-equipped competition. Although the Predator G1 may be a somewhat easy target by now, don't worry. The natural order of things gets restored as you turn up the resolution. However, even at 4K, Thief is quite playable on the Gigabyte Gaming GT.
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