F E at u r e Today’s best upgrades
Graphics Cards Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti www.nvidia.com Graphics cards are in a bit of an odd state right now. Nvidia has been left unchallenged, with AMD only providing any hint of competition in the mid-range. The RX 500 refresh was little more than a badge swap, and Vega a dud – a disappointing high-end solution, overhyped to its own detriment (although it struts its stuff nicely when it comes to cryptocurrency mining, annoyingly). So, how does the land lie if you’re looking to invest in a high-end GPU? How do you power a 4K gaming rig in today’s market? Well, fortunately, Nvidia hasn’t been resting on its laurels, and is still focused on trying to capture as much of that market share as it can. Recently it dropped the bombshell that is the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. Think of it as a cut-down Titan Xp, a warhorse of a GPU focused solely on gaming, but coming in at a far more attractive price point. The differences are slim, with its 1GB of GDDR5X being
ADVANCED
one of the few things cut. The Titan Xp is slightly more powerful – about 15 per cent or so – but it also costs £500 more, making it a superfluous product aimed solely at the affluent, or those who need the Titan’s very specific developer skill set, as limited as it is.
T O TA L £679
Graphics card Benchmarks High-End 4K GPUs (Over £550)
Nvidia Titan Xp
MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G www.msi.com
Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Reference AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 PNY GTX 1080 XLR8 OC
Once upon a time, the card to have was the GTX 660 Ti. It was cost-effective, powerful for its day, and clocked like a champ. However, as the battle lines widen, and GPU prices extend ever upward, our idea of what a mid-range card actually includes has inevitably increased, too. The GTX 1070 is a prime example. With performance matching the height of Maxwell’s frame-rendering capabilities, it’s a card that makes the once-premium 9 series Titan X affordable, cutting the price by 66 per cent. MSI’s Gaming X variant provides a fine balance between noise reduction and thermal management. There’s no superfluous RGB lighting here apart from a hint of background colour. Couple that with a powerful stack of 8GB GDDR5X and its bunker-busting Pascal GPU, and the GTX 1070 dominates 1440p with ease, providing average frame rates well into the 60fps range that every enthusiast with a gaming habit covets. 22
Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080
Mid-Range 1440p GPUs (£300–£550)
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Nvidia GTX 1080 Reference MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G
MID_RANGE
T O TA L £549
Nvidia GTX 1070 Reference Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8GB
Budget 1080p GPUs (£120–£300)
Gigabyte Aorus RX 570 4GB
as the battle lines widen, our idea of what a midrange card includes has inevitably increased
Zotac GTX 1060 AMP Edition EVGA GTX 1060 3GB SC Gaming Asus ROG Strix GTX 1050 Ti 4GB EVGA GTX 1050 Ti SC Gaming 4GB