Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Edition 8 GB Review

Name: Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Edition 8 GB
Brand: ZOTAC

W1zzard

on Aug 12th, 2016,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: ZOTAC

(43 Comments) »

Introduction

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 was released earlier this summer and impressed with incredible performance and even more incredible power efficiency. The GeForce GTX 1080 is based on NVIDIA's "Pascal" architecture. This architecture sees the streaming multiprocessors (SMs), the indivisible subunits of an NVIDIA GPU, get even more dedicated components, which increases their performance. NVIDIA claims to have "meticulously" designed the GPU architecture to be as energy efficient as possible given the silicon fab node and is leveraging the 16 nm FinFET node at TSMC for "Pascal."

The GTX 1080 features more CUDA cores than its predecessor – 2560 vs. 2048. It features even more TMUs (160 vs. 128) and, at 8 GB, double the memory. Memory technology sees a major update with NVIDIA's adoption of the GDDR5X memory standard. The memory is clocked at a staggering 10 GHz effective, which gives the GPU 320 GB/s of memory bandwidth over a 256-bit wide memory interface.

To learn more about the architecture and new GeForce features, check out our launch-day review of the GeForce GTX 1080.

Today, we have the Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 AMP! Edition on our test bench, the company's second-highest clocked custom-design GTX 1080. Zotac's other models are the AMP! Extreme, which comes with a bigger cooler and higher clocks, Arctic Storm, which is designed for watercooling, and the Founders Edition reference design.

Zotac uses a dual-slot, dual fan cooler on the GTX 1080 AMP! Edition, which is almost completely made out of metal, giving the card a high-quality look and feel. Priced at $670, which is around $30 cheaper than the Founders Edition, it is one of the cheaper GTX 1080s out there.

GeForce GTX 1080 Market Segment Analysis
	Radeon R9 Fury X	GeForce GTX 980 Ti	GeForce GTX Titan X	GeForce GTX 1070	GeForce GTX 1080	ZOTAC GTX 1080 Amp!
Shader Units	4096	2816	3072	1920	2560	2560
ROPs	64	96	96	64	64	64
Graphics Processor	Fiji	GM200	GM200	GP104	GP104	GP104
Transistors	8900M	8000M	8000M	7200M	7200M	7200M
Memory Size	4 GB	6 GB	12 GB	8 GB	8 GB	8 GB
Memory Bus Width	4096 bit	384 bit	384 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit
Core Clock	1050 MHz	1000 MHz+	1000 MHz+	1506 MHz+	1607 MHz+	1683 MHz+
Memory Clock	500 MHz	1750 MHz	1750 MHz	2002 MHz	1251 MHz	1251 MHz
Price	$600	$440	$1150	$380 / $450	$600 / $700	$670

Packaging

You will receive:

Graphics card
Driver CD + documentation
2x PCIe power cable

The Card

Zotac is using a large dual fan cooler on their new design, the large dark grey parts made of metal, which definitely adds to the quality. The checkerboard textured pieces are out of well-made plastic. On the back, you find a sturdy metal backplate. Dimensions of the card are 29 cm x 14 cm.

Installation requires two slots in your system.

Display connectivity options include a DVI port, an HDMI port, and three DisplayPorts. Unlike previous NVIDIA cards, the DVI port no longer includes the analog signal, so you'll have to use an active adapter. NVIDIA also updated DisplayPort to be 1.2 certified and 1.3/1.4 ready, which enables support for 4K @ 120 Hz and 5K @ 60 Hz, or 8K @ 60 Hz with two cables.

The GPU also comes with an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 2.0b compatible, which supports HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies. The GPU video encoding unit has been updated to support HEVC at 10-bit and 12-bit.

NVIDIA made some changes to SLI. Two-way SLI is now the only officially supported configuration for gaming. Three-way or Quad SLI can no longer be enabled in games; however, both do work in a few benchmarks. Also, for 4K at 60 Hz and above, NVIDIA recommends a new high-bandwidth SLI bridge called "SLI HB," which occupies both SLI fingers. The old bridges will work fine at lower resolutions.