4K and 5K: GTX2080 or GTX1080Ti (or ???) - And how much will 8GB VRAM vs 11GB VRAM matter?

[Yukikaze]

So, I run 4K and 5K in parallel and game on both depending on the performance I am getting (or downscale to 1080p or 1440p at 4:1 on either monitor if needed). I currently have a highly overclocked GTX980Ti Strix, and I want to upgrade. Lesser cards don't seem to offer all that much of an upgrade, so I am not adding many of them as options to the poll.

I'll first state that I don't really play the highest end titles, so the RTX aspect of the 2XXX series is likely going to be lost on me (not that the performance with ray tracing enabled is anything to sing home about). Second, I don't care about high framerates - I prefer 50 FPS with a high resolution over 200FPS at a lower one and I don't have panels over 60hz, either. Third, the actual money spent isn't really much of a consideration, but the price/performance ratio somewhat is (in other words, if I could actually find a RTX2080Ti for 999$, I'd probably grab one, but paying 1,300 USD for one is overkill and then some, considering the performance gain over the RTX2080 or the 1080Ti). Fourth, I try to use my 5K screen as much as possible, so VRAM might be a leading consideration here, but I am not sure as I am not entirely aware of how much of a 8GB vs 11GB difference I'll notice.

The GTX1080Ti that seems to be semi-decently priced while being a good model are the Zotac AMP Extremes which seem to go around 600$ nowdays (there are blower-style cards for closer to 500$, but those are noisy). There are a few RTX2080s that hover around the 750$ mark new.

Anyways, please help me make up my mind. Thanks!

 

[Toothless]

Get the 1080ti and overclock it as far as you can.

 

[John Naylor]

If ya not in a rush, some changes are coming .... a) 10xx series card stock is diminishing, new 1080 Ti cards are now about the same as or more expensive than 2080s b) yields on 2xx are improving and c) pressure is building on the tariffs and talk now is about backing off. All of these will continue to push prices don over time.

The need for VRAM is over stated mostly because folks misinterpret the use of the various utilities which are presumed to measure it. No utility is capable of doing so. In all but the rarest of instances, 3 GB will be more than fine for 1080p and 6 GB for 1440p. If people are going to argue that 3 GB is not enough for 1080p (TPU test results say differently) , then 2160p (4 x 1080p) must need more than 12 GB. If thought is between the 1080 Ti and the 2080 you are looking at about a 14% performance difference.

The thing is ... 1080 Ti's are now expensive ... cheapest one on PC Partpicker is $755 and that's blower style so can not recommend. The EVGA model I can't recommend either at $805 ... after that it's $1500 and everything on newegg is $1,000 or more. The 2080s start at $750 ... the one I'd buy )MSI Gaming X) is $839 .... so even if ya take the EVGA 1080 Ti ... $805 x 1.14 = $918 ... clearly making the 2080 the better buy. If you are water cooling the $899 MSI Seahawk WK X is a proverbial "no brainer" as the typical $140 water block price, leaves you paying $760 for the AIB 2080.

Of course, this assumes that you want new.... if you wiling to go used, I see some AIB 1080 Tis as low as $330 but with current prices at retail, expect these to creep up. Many there at $900.

 

[eidairaman1]

Dont bother with nv 2000 series, steaming pile of green BS.

 

[jormungand]

i hope you find a new gtx 1080 ti under $700, cuz theres is none available. in USA i mean. i dont buy 2nd hand but maybe you dont care.
RTX series uhmmmm i keep saving my money. unless they go down on price ill say to wait. Eventually they will, IMO

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Vega 64

 

[Th3pwn3r]

The GTX1080Ti that seems to be semi-decently priced while being a good model are the Zotac AMP Extremes which seem to go around 600$ nowdays (

Anyways, please help me make up my mind. Thanks!

I have a 1080ti Amp Extreme and I'll tell you that you should look into another card. The Amp Extremes from Zotac run hotter than they can handle so I wouldn't recommend anyone getting one. Steve from Gamer Nexus touches upon it too and I didn't really listen to his warning, I should have. Oh well, I have until October 1st of 2019 to trade it in for the full value of what I paid I'll upgrade to something before that deadline.

 

[jormungand]

I have a 1080ti Amp Extreme and I'll tell you that you should look into another card. The Amp Extremes from Zotac run hotter than they can handle so I wouldn't recommend anyone getting one. Steve from Gamer Nexus touches upon it too and I didn't really listen to his warning, I should have. Oh well, I have until October 1st of 2019 to trade it in for the full value of what I paid I'll upgrade to something before that deadline.

i think that Steve refers like ....humongous heat sink and doesn't do the job.

 

[yotano211]

You can get a 1080ti on reddit hardwareswap for around $550 used.

 

[cucker tarlson]

is V64 new really $200 cheaper than used 1080Ti ? If so seems like a good deal, but I don't know much much faster the cheapest cooled vega is gonna be in comparison to an OC'd AIB 980Ti.

 

[Vya Domus]

I've noticed you're running an external GPU. In this case I don't recommend investing into an expensive GPU, you are not going to make full use of it. Unless you plan to eventually move onto a desktop.

 

[Vlada011]

Advice to wait more is only for people who have GPU.
I didn't I had GTX780Ti and I had time to wait only one more series to become cheaper and to buy used model.

But performance improvement and total picture of RTX2080Ti didn't worth of waiting 12-16 months.
I didn't want to buy at the end of 2019 maybe even Q1 2020 only 25% better performance than GPU launched in May 2016.
In normal condition I would wait, some 60-70% stronger GPU worth 900-1000$, I mean than I would maybe add more money for new... But 2018 year will be remembered at least in my situation as moment when I couldn't afford high end GeForce any more and I need to turn to alternative and used models.

I measure score on my default Poseidon and RTX2080 FE and RTX2080Ti FE.Poseidon is obvious better score than RTX2080FE, but difference between RTX2080Ti FE and my Poseidon is just little bigger than my card and RTX2080 FE. NVIDIA was forced to OC their cards and on that way increase performance difference because all tests measure Founders Pascal vs Founders Turing. But for Founders Turing you need to pay extra 100$ because she was overclocked by NVIDIA and other brands with same PCB have decrease clock.

I mean... I don't know what to say... This is moment when you ask self, what they think about us, they thought we are idiots and some people ignore reality.
Spend almost i9-9820X for difference between used GTX1080Ti and RTX2080Ti... That's serious bad decision to miss one i9-9820X and GTX1080Ti and choose brand new RTX2080Ti.
Don't say now, GTX1080Ti Strix used cost 550-600 euro, new RTX2080Ti cost 1350-1400-1450 up to 1500 euro, less than 30% difference. That's worse spent 1K in IT industry now, you can't spent worse 1K except to install 128GB DDR4 for gaming.

 

[mohammed2006]

I had zotic 1080ti amp extreme which died on me and the dealer could not find replacement because of shortage so he refunded me and i add money to buy msi 2080 trio x i was shocked the 2080 trio x was slower me 3dmark 11 score went from 30800 to 29200 and i notice nearly 7% lower frame rates. When uder load the zotic 1080ti amp extreme torbo bost to 2000 while the msi 2080 turbo to 1950 although in specifications it should torbo to 1860. If i ware any one of you ill buy 1080ti faster and cheaper.

 

[cucker tarlson]

they go back and forth, if you're playing at 4k you may see 1080ti pull slightly ahead but if you take a wider scope of games they'd be equal. how much did you have to pay in addition to what you got from the refund ?

 

[Yukikaze]

is V64 new really $200 cheaper than used 1080Ti ? If so seems like a good deal, but I don't know much much faster the cheapest cooled vega is gonna be in comparison to an OC'd AIB 980Ti.

Yeah, there were quite a few ~400$ Vegas new on Newegg this weekend, and I suspect they'd be even cheaper when the sales hit, but I am not sure if it is worth the expense to go from a 980Ti to a Vega64.

To summarize, it looks like either a used GTX1080Ti (hopefully around the 500$ mark, I've seen one go for 480$ on /r/hardwareswap, but people tend to pounce at those damn quick), or just wait. I'll probably just go with the latter, and wait to see what the future brings, unless there's some amazing Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal that rolls along and I grab something for cheap.

Thank you for all your replies!

 

[Th3pwn3r]

i think that Steve refers like ....humongous heat sink and doesn't do the job.

Poor VRM cooling I believe.

 

[M2B]

We all saw what heppened to GTX 780Ti, when the 900 series GPUs launched it was faster than GTX 970 and only 7 percent slower than 980, heck it was even beating GTX 980 in certain games but it simply can't compete with the 970 in modern games.
You sure get my point.
8GB buffer might cause some issues in certain games in the future, but overall RTX 2080 is a better option in my opinion.

 

[Ruru]

1080 Ti any day before those overpriced junks.

 

[27MaD]

Here we go again.........

 

[ppn]

In some cases 2070 struggles even without filling the whole 8GB, 6-7GB. barely 60FPs at 4K. 2080 is not much better for asking 50% more. 11GB might be good for extra large texture pack, but can it run properly, there is no clear cut and nobody can predict.

Avoid this generation and SH. 7nm EUV is the way to go.

 

[Vlada011]

I had zotic 1080ti amp extreme which died on me and the dealer could not find replacement because of shortage so he refunded me and i add money to buy msi 2080 trio x i was shocked the 2080 trio x was slower me 3dmark 11 score went from 30800 to 29200 and i notice nearly 7% lower frame rates. When uder load the zotic 1080ti amp extreme torbo bost to 2000 while the msi 2080 turbo to 1950 although in specifications it should torbo to 1860. If i ware any one of you ill buy 1080ti faster and cheaper.

I measure my GTX1080Ti with ASUS RTX2080 Turbo+200 overclocked and+500 memory.
So much overclocked is faster RTX2080. For 500 points in Firestrike Xtreme. Now if you have luck to hit +200

I don't know but RTX2080 definitely not worth same money as GTX1080Ti and RTX2080Ti not worth more than 800$.
If you have chance to buy GTX1080Ti go for. If you buy nicely overclocked model you have same performance as RTX2080 Founders Edition, maybe even little more.
But price should be below 600, 550-560-580, and card should have at least half of warranty period. Not less than year. If you find with 2 years than great. I found with 22 months warranty 580 euro Poseidon. Now is plan to price of full cover waterblock drop on 70-80 or to buy used one.Compatibility, Phanteks Glacier, Bitspower, EKWB.
Only reason why would change for RTX2080 is Heatkiller waterblock. But if I replace mine for Founders Edition GTX1080Ti I lose exactly 1000 points in Time Spy Graphic. Only switch from Poseidon to FE. That's not worth Heatkiller waterblock.