Is the 1080Ti worth an extra £300/$400+ over a 1080

[Tcshad]

Hey there guys!
I'm looking at building a 'substantial' rig, I haven't upgraded since my 2500k and 290x combo from way back in the day.

My parts so far are:
Intel i7-8700k,

Asus ROG Maximus X Hero (wi-fi),

Corsair 3000MHz DDR4 2x8GB,

Coolermaster Mastercase H500P Mesh,

Coolermaster Hyper 212-evo (have one spare, will possibly be delidding / watercooling come summer when I have a bit more time)

Seasonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650W
All storage etc being moved over, quite considerable amount. Will be getting a M.2 NVMe drive, again in summer.

Question time, the 1080 is available for £550:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/GIGABYTE-NVIDIA-GeForce-1080-GAMING-Black/dp/B01GCAW1IA/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1523793404&sr=1-6&keywords=gtx+1080
 

OR the 1080Ti is available for £850

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-GeForce-Express-Graphics/dp/B06XWXQX6T/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1523793488&sr=1-4&keywords=gtx+1080ti

I'm trying to keep the costs as low as possible with going for good parts for the future (eg the maximus x hero, the 8700k etc), but don't know whether with the GPU price hikes, £300 is a reasonable expenditure difference between these two cards.

Any advice would be super sweet!

Tom

[Hydra453]

I have a 1080 myself and if you have a high refresh rate monitor and play some demanding titles then I'd definitely go with the ti. 

[Morgan MLGman]

8 minutes ago, Hydra453 said:

I have a 1080 myself and if you have a high refresh rate monitor and play some demanding titles then I'd definitely go with the ti. 

In your case you're limited by a weak CPU, a 1080 is plenty for 1440p so I'd consider a 1080Ti only if you're going for 4K 60Hz or 1440p 144Hz gaming

[Tcshad]

Just to add to my post, I'm a computer science teacher, an avid gamer, plus I'm also a content creator for different companies etc, so I'll be using this machine for gaming, programming tasks, editing and rendering up to 4k footage etc.
So would you recommend the 1080Ti? If so, is there any 1080Tis I should avoid, or should I just go for the cheapest one?

[Hydra453]

1 hour ago, Tcshad said:

Just to add to my post, I'm a computer science teacher, an avid gamer, plus I'm also a content creator for different companies etc, so I'll be using this machine for gaming, programming tasks, editing and rendering up to 4k footage etc.
So would you recommend the 1080Ti? If so, is there any 1080Tis I should avoid, or should I just go for the cheapest one?

In that case then there is no doubt then to go with a 1080ti. It'll be 110% worth it for the future.

 

Highly recommend an Asus strix card, but they can be pricy so watch soms videos and do some research before buying.

[Hydra453]

1 hour ago, Morgan MLGman said:

In your case you're limited by a weak CPU, a 1080 is plenty for 1440p so I'd consider a 1080Ti only if you're going for 4K 60Hz or 1440p 144Hz gaming

Im planning on getting a 7700k soon.

[linuxhua]

2 hours ago, Tcshad said:

Just to add to my post, I'm a computer science teacher, an avid gamer, plus I'm also a content creator for different companies etc, so I'll be using this machine for gaming, programming tasks, editing and rendering up to 4k footage etc.
So would you recommend the 1080Ti? If so, is there any 1080Tis I should avoid, or should I just go for the cheapest one?

is worth,gtx1080ti have 3584sp,which is 1.4 times than gtx1080's scale,it should be going well in 4K 60Hz,and 2k 144Hz monitor,if 1080ti can't handle your demand,then i just can't get any alternative solution for you.as for brand,personally I would recommand EVGA,zotac and asus rog series,but,really,base on your budget and make a decision 

[johnukguy]

If you are going to pay this much over the price of a normal 1080, then mine with the card and you'll make back it's cost within a year and a half or so.

[minervx]

5 hours ago, johnukguy said:

If you are going to pay this much over the price of a normal 1080, then mine with the card and you'll make back it's cost within a year and a half or so.

i wouldn't do anything mid or long term in crypto's at the moment.

 

in a bull market, mining is not as profitable as just buying the coins at once in the first place.

[Tcshad]

Thanks guys! I ended up buying the ROG Strix 1080Ti!
 

[Tcshad]

I also switched out the Seasonic PSU for a Corsair RMx series, as it turns out the Seasonic one was a pre-order and the item isn't released yet. I'm an idiot.

[johnukguy]

4 hours ago, minervx said:

i wouldn't do anything mid or long term in crypto's at the moment.

 

in a bull market, mining is not as profitable as just buying the coins at once in the first place.

Quite true but the OP, like most of us, probably doesn't have a spare grand to throw into buying crypto as well as buying a GPU, which will pay for itself within about a year if he mines with it and he's bought the GPU anyway, so it's irrelevant, may as well make the cost back if you can.

[Toysrme]

Some advice would be:
1) You don't have a good enough PSU to run a good overclock on a 1080Ti and CPU and run a system. A good 1080Ti overclock is going to draw 330-400w by itself depending on how far you can take it. An i7-8700k taken to the Intel voltage spec if you want to run 5.2-5.4ghz is going to eat up another 250w
2) It's a complete waste of your money to buy a Maximus, or other similar high tier motherboards when it won't overclock any better than a $140-160usd Asus motherboard. They have the SAME power delivery... They will overclock all the same. Just paying for bling factor. Which is meaningless. You won't have a major CPU upgrade on that platform "years down the road" and a 1080Ti is more bling than a 1080+bling-ier motherboard
3) Go water. Any 240mm + rad AIO is going to destroy that air cooler once the real overclocking starts.

Yes, a 1080Ti is a better buy than a 1080. It's legitimately 50% more horsepower and will hold some used market value for longer.
Any brand other than EVGA or PNY. Their failure rates are stratospherically higher than others. EVGA is only saved by good support, but at this point Gigabyte & Asus have great support so that's not really a "plus" at this point in time. Gigabyte always has the best cards. Strong air coolers & always the best power delivery (EVGA's epic failure point) MSI/Asus/Zotac tie for second. (Preference a 3-fan card & hope for a good chip & ram).

 

 

 

Also, a 1080Ti is not going to pay for itself in a year mining; especially with UK power costs. You'd be lucky to make half the cost back in 365 days. (This is coming from a US miner with cheap power selling off 25x 1080Ti's and a 1080). Don't let the 6 week long bull market rush fool anyone. A 1080Ti was down to mining $3 a day for 2 months before the rush & is making $2 tops after the rush.
You'd be very lucky to mine £300, I think you should, but keep the fan speed high and the current down unless there are more $10-14/day booms like in Dec-Jan. Pascal is out of production and replacement cards are taking longer & longer to get. Consider that's if you let it mine 24/7! You're not! You'll be mining even less time because you'll be using the computer!

[Tcshad]

I don't care about mining or earning money back that way, I'll be honest.

Also, a 650W PSU is perfectly fine for what I'm looking at, I'm not going to run a crazy overclock on the GPU, I have no need too go to crazy with that. Also I don't have a need for the 8700k to go that high either, 4.9GHz max for me. I have a 650W in my other rig which was used for overclocking benchmarking (back in the day), and that runs fine with a 290X max overclocked on it, and that thing is basically a space heater with added power.

I bought the ROG Strix 1080Ti.

I literally got the Maximus board because I've always wanted a Maximus board, that was literally my inner child making me make that choice... it's all good!

Also the cooler is a temporary solution until summer, I'm custom water cooling it (not for the overclocking benefits most do, just because it looks nice and I want it to be a showpoint in my house) haha. Don't want to spend any significant amount on a "temporary" cooler. The water cooling is going to be powered separately to the main system.