7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021

The GTX 1080 Ti is a gaming technology that harnesses the power to run heavy games at the common expense of cooling and power consumption. And it takes power to handle power. In fact, many gaming component companies are giving users the graphics card that fully brings out the performance of the 1080 Ti while keeping everything in place. From cooling technologies, to overall design, and even the visuals to boot, the video card for the GTX 1080 Ti is a piece of hardware that requires a meticulous inspection for the picky gamer. And we’re here to help you decide on what’s best and what’s cool for your system with these of the best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card.

ProductBrandNamePrice
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 15EVGAEVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC Black Edition GamingCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 16ASUSASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1080 TI 11GB VR Ready 5K HD Gaming Graphics CardCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 17GigabyteGigabyte AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition 11GB Graphic CardsCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 18MSIMSI GEFORCE GTX1080 TI GAMING X TRIOCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 19ZOTACZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AMP Extreme Core EditionCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 20NVIDIANvidia GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - FE Founder's EditionCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 21ZOTACZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini 11GB GDDR5XCheck Price on Amazon

* If you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. For more details, please visit our Privacy policy page.

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card

1. EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC Black Edition

With speed already a given, EVGA is focused on a different aspect that makes their GTX 1080 Ti a very attractive purchase in the market. Aside from the fact that they are promising a new era in gaming, they also want to assure their customers that they would have that peace of mind while grinding on their powerful games, thanks to a dependable cooling system that keeps everything at bay. iCX Cooling is not just about an element or a part, but it’s a system made of various components that go hand-in-hand to make that promise a fulfillment.

With statements that claim iCX is cooling system perfected, expect that you’ll be getting so much more upon purchase. In fact, the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC Black Edition was made to address the need of balancing between the performance of the GPU and the capabilities of power and memory that fuses everything to bring that drastic positive result to gaming quality. For starters, the design is created with attention to utilize space and flow. Just because the GPU is an important investment does not mean that other components can be left behind with slotting that hog other parts away from being included. However, EVGA video cards only take two slots, allowing other peripherals to be added in your rig setup.

Optimal cooling is achieved with a fin design that has two different types of construction: half-open to promote airflow passing through the graphics processing card, and L-shaped to provide surface contact for minimal shaking. Base plates are also modified with interlaced pin fins that lets heat dissipate with ample breathing room for components. Temperatures across the GPU are kept low with diecast plates that are integrated with the heatpipe, keeping vulnerable parts safe.

Have all of these features working with double ball bearing fans and your video card will not only cool faster, but it’s also bound to consume less power and keep overclocking capabilities working at safe temperatures, making your whole graphics unit last up to four times longer. With less tension comes more power to the GPU.

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card

2. Gigabyte AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition

We’re expecting the Gigabyte AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition to bring out the capabilities of the GTX Ti technology that’s 35% better than the GTX 1080. But the AORUS difference sets in with consideration to everything that’s within the graphics card. While some are mainly focused on enhancing the capabilities the graphics processing unit, Gigabyte considers giving the cooling experience for the whole card, including the MOSFET and the VRAM.  In order to achieve this feat, the central plate, where the GPU and other sensitive components are located, is sandwiched by a copper back plate and a copper base plate. Now these plates catch the heat that comes from the peripherals that work hard to provide gaming performance that meets the game. The copper plates absorb the heat from the front and rear ends of the GPU, and then powerfully cooled down by 3 100mm stack fans that works together with the whole graphics card.

Aside from the fans, AORUS takes pride in the architecture and design that comes with the immersive cooling system. The 3 fans are alternately spinning from one another in order to maximize the flow of air outward the video card, keeping the rest of the components cool and dependable. And even the fans are designed with fan edges with stripe curves on the fan blades, in order to command airflow with commendable effectivity. Angular fins, at first glance, may be a design setback because it traps the air in, hampering airflow that’s a common requirement to keep the graphics card cooled down. But because the cool air is coming from the outside going in, cooler air is trapped in the alternating and angular fins, making the whole system stable, both in the cooling aspect and in the minimal vibration and noise level. Heatpipes are also more than meets the eye. What’s inside the heatpipe are axial grooves that house cooling liquids, working together with sintered powder and cooling everything on a hollow pipe.

As for style, the Gigabyte AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition comes with RGB Fusion 2.0 that breathes life into the graphics card that’s all black and metallic. Choose over 5 modes of light display, as well as over 16.8 million color shades for that personalized touch. Do remember that once you’re able to purchase all of the Gigabyte gaming accessories, you’ll see how your set outshines the competition.

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card

3. MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio

The main offer presented by the MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio is its robust Mystic Light Sync that has one of the most powerful lighting customization software available in the industry. Surely, your graphics card is just one of the components that benefit in the lighting effects that’s graced for the game. But unlike other brands that aim for exclusivity, MSI does so much more with syncing your gear, even if they are from other RGB-display compatible brands.

They also deployed an award-winning design that aims to cool the video card for taking care of performance demands at those deciding gaming moments. The Torx 2.0 fan is designed to generate air pressure that’s 22% better than ordinary GPU fans. This is achieved through two kinds of fan blades that work within Torx – one being a standard fan, and the other a dispersion fan. These two kinds of fan blades are alternately crafted in order to maintain airflow, while pushing down air that quickly cools components that are under the fan. Have these blades operated with double ball bearings and you’ll experience not just quiet, but efficient cooling that creates more output with lesser power consumption.

MSI is also deploying its famous temperature-sensitive fan function technology that enables the cooling system when reaching certain heat points and disables the fans when operation is not as difficult for the GPU. Zero Frozr does just that, giving you a guarantee that your graphics card is secure when the going gets tough.

The heatsink in the video card is a unique offer against some of its competitors. This time around, the MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio is using wave-curved cooling fins that splits airflow. With focus on having the air distributed across the system at a faster pace, greatly influenced by the three fans, heat dissipation area cooling is achieved 10% faster and better than traditional heatsink design. They also deployed two curved super pipes and four smooth-square heat pipes to suppress heat from reaching the video board. The heat pipes are then separated by a solid baseplate that’s made from nickel-plated copper. And to sum up the sink combo, a premium thermal compound is placed on the GPU baseplate so the processor keeps its cool in those very hot gaming moments.

But there’s no stopping the cooling technology, which can also be found on the processor board. Aside from making the main strip rugged and resistant to bending due to excessive heat, MSI also added a Memory Cooling Plate that enables the processor to perform better during overclocking, and lessening the likeability to shut down due to heating problems. The whole circuit board is ranked Military Class thanks to its super ferrite chokes, Hi-C CAPs, as well as Japanese solid caps that helps with protecting smaller components from heat damage.

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card

4. ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition

One of the perks of having your gaming peripherals modified for the ROG line is that it gets additional boost, aside from better construction and assembly that ASUS provides for its gaming line of accessories and gears. The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition is also an improved version of the same graphics card from the Founders Edition. In fact, the overall performance is so good that it can handle extreme and ultra graphics settings, on HD quality, with faster frame speed processing apart from its counterparts.

As for the design, ASUS took on the risk of making the GPU a little bigger at 2.5 slots for the sake of better cooling and performance. Major of the size allocation is for giving the graphics card some room for heat dissipation, 40% bigger than others, offering faster cooling that can be reached 30% faster compared with other smaller GPUs. And because of the design, you’re expecting quiet gaming performance that’s 300% better. But what’s in the finer details?

The copper heat spreader is constructed by ASUS’ exclusive MaxContact technology, making the spreader come in contact with the GPU, two times better, resulting to a more efficient thermal transfer. The fan design is nothing like any other – with the wing blade meticulously crafted to have pressure compressed to the edges, increasing airflow to a maximum. And because ASUS fans are IP5X dust-resistant, you can expect the cooling fans to last longer, contributing to a more stable cooling system that can perform well amidst tough gaming.

In order to achieve cooling that’s applicable to the whole graphics card, ASUS engineers have incorporated a super alloy that can reinforce the whole unit, challenging the borders of reliability in spite of heating that usually shortens the lifespan of the GPU. The same alloy enables the video card to achieve superb efficiency, reduce power loss, and achieve cooling that’s 50% better than previous models.

As expected, the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition comes with the Aura Sync, giving even your graphics card some face to show in the midst of the heating competition. With both the fan section and the backplate showing colors through strategically-placed locations, your GPU can display millions of colors that can be customized along with lighting effects that go along with the rest of your armada – gaming mouse, headphone, the whole motherboard, and even your monitor, if you’re blessed with some cash to stash the whole gear.

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card

5. ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AMP Extreme Core Edition

Zotac may not be a staple brand to many, but just as others who desire to harness the GTX 1080’s game-changing standards, they have also created a graphics card that utilizes the NVIDIA Pascal architecture and brought in their personal details into the machine. It’s also backed up with over 11GB of GDDR5X memory like the rest of the competition. So, what’s the ZOTAC difference?

It deploys a lighting system called Spectra, which has three zones that colors the logo on the side for the first zone, the three edge lines close to the fans on the second zone, and the logo name located on the back plate for the third zone. And because the frame of the graphics card is shaded in gunmetal, you’ll easily notice how the colors stand out within your rig. Customize your lighting styles and color shades through the FireStorm system. But the gunmetal shade is not just for color, which also represents how the armor actually looks and feels like – with impression that the video card is meant to endure the harshest of gaming conditions under extreme heat.

IceStorm, as how Zotac calls their cooling system in this particular AMP Extreme model, is focused on keeping things quiet while still maintaining operating temperatures that keep the gaming going. Each IceStorm component is focused on using direct copper contact, from the back plate, absorbing and dispersing heat away from the graphics processing unit, to the copper heat pipes embedded with the aluminum fins. All of the heat being taken in the copper components are then blown away by the three Metallic Exoarmor 90mm wide fan blades.

But the behavior of the said fans is functioning based on how Freeze is set up and customized. Designed to make your video card fan last for months and years from common gaming wear and tear, Freeze makes it possible to specifically gauge and detect operating temperatures in your card as a whole, and enables the fan only when necessary. Otherwise, it slows down and stops when heating is maintained at safety levels, promoting energy efficiency with minimal drawbacks on power consumption.

All control within the graphics card is possible with the POWER BOOST component – a control chip that regulates both electrical current situations and deviation responses. Upon activation, usually triggered through reaching extremes in power distribution, fan operation, or temperature maintenance, it keeps everything down to a more manageable level that lessens ripple noise and fluctuations. Zotac redefines boosting to more than just about multiplying properties, while keeping sanity for the whole system. Stack it together with 16 + 2 power phases and you know that performance is well distributed within the circuit board. With more turbines come efficiency that lessens the load on other components, giving the GPU more room to perform even on overclocking.

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card

6. NVidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti – FE Founder’s Edition

With all other companies clamoring over the technology NVidia is presenting to the gaming world, they, of course, come with a graphics card that’s all about performance, less on the frills, and more on the nerdy stuff, with minimal intervention on the nitpicky details such as lighting or overrated cooling components. By all means, the Founder’s Edition is game ready with gaming horsepower that excels significantly against its previous GTX 980 Ti across VR and resource-hungry games.

Upon first glance, you’ll obviously notice that compared to its counterparts from other computer companies like MSI, Asus, and others, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti-FE is much smaller, has lesser components, no lighting systems, and consumes lesser space. But that’s where the irony is coming from. More focused on using materials and components in minimal quantity over optimal quality, the innovative design found on the Founder’s Edition is beyond imagination. It comes with just one radial fan, which tells that everything else is what makes this particular video card tick. The body is made of die-cast aluminum and holds only 7 phases of a power supply that’s all dualFET. But dig this. Even with just one fan, thermal issues are contained with an advanced vapor chamber that cools everything down to manageable levels.

With consuming only two slots at the rig setup, NVidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founder’s Edition is a crowd favorite when the main focus of the assembly would be more on performance, sans the outward “intimidation” that comes through beating lights and pulsating beats. The simplicity is just plain surprising that many gamers, computer professionals, and even critics are surprised at how something so basic-looking could pack a punch without the buffed components or huge bulging parts. In fact, Nvidia’s version of the GTX 1080 Ti is unmatched because of the engineering that takes out the best in the GPU. Less is more. In this case, lesser parts with performance at par to that of its counterparts.

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card

7. ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini

The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini is included in this list without question as it holds the title of being the “Smallest full-function GeForce GTX 1080 Ti” in the world that’s completely incomparable to whatever is in the market. And because gamers have been used to seeing the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti on bigger models that consumes more than 2 slots and uses huge 2, sometimes 3 fans on a full-scale frame, it’s just fascinating how Zotac was able to harness the 1080 Ti performance with something so small.

Because of the remarkable size this video card is having, it fits to almost all of the systems available in the market, regardless of size or the number of stacks and slots other components may seem to take. Spanning to only 8.3 inches long, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini houses two huge fans with one being 90mm and 100mm on the other. And no, the fans are not even overlapping at this point, a usual design diversion to other video cards that have three fans.

The IceStorm system in this specific Zontac model is simpler, with the two fans going on the same direction, promoting lesser delay time for keeping the heat in the copper components to stay. Zontac also included a direct copper cold block contact on the GPU that instantly absorbs the heat as it goes out of the graphics processor. The fans are made flat and wide to maximize airflow with minimal tension on the bearings. This also lessens the vibrations created by the pressure that’s supposed to be created by the fan blades, which commonly impacts the cooling system based on the angle of the blades. But with a smaller frame to work on, with a wide and not-so-long array aluminum heat sink, it’s an intelligent decision to keep things simple. With five 6mm copper heat pipes to cool down, there’s no issue with how the fan is designed in this model.

Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card: What’s best for you

The GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card is already costly to begin with, so budget is no longer an issue. However, if you’re looking for performance that goes with your style, look for the card that has a system that lets you customize everything you need. Do also consider the existing resources you have, as certain models take up space, as well as fitting that may work or not work on your rig setup. It’s more on personal preference if your card’s for performance, for show, or for both.

ProductBrandNamePrice
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 15EVGAEVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC Black Edition GamingCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 16ASUSASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1080 TI 11GB VR Ready 5K HD Gaming Graphics CardCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 17GigabyteGigabyte AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition 11GB Graphic CardsCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 18MSIMSI GEFORCE GTX1080 TI GAMING X TRIOCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 19ZOTACZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AMP Extreme Core EditionCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 20NVIDIANvidia GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - FE Founder's EditionCheck Price on Amazon
7 Best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card for 2021 21ZOTACZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini 11GB GDDR5XCheck Price on Amazon

* If you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. For more details, please visit our Privacy policy page.

Leave a Comment