Is Nvidia GTX 1080 Still Good And Should You Buy It?

More than 6 years ago, Nvidia released one of their most popular graphics cards ever – Nvidia GTX 1080. Back in 2016, Nvidia GTX 1080 was just unbelievably good for that time. With 8GB of GDDR5X memory, 2560 cores, and 9 teraflops the Nvidia GTX 1080 just outperformed every graphics card that was released up to that day.

Now in 2023, obviously the situation is different. A lot of new better graphics cards arrived on the market, but one question is often asked – Is Nvidia still good in 2023, and should you buy it or go with something newer instead?

That’s the reason why I will test Nvidia GTX 1080 on my own today. I want to benchmark it and give you only the valuable results and the information.

Over the Internet, there is a lot of information spread, but my goal is just to test the important things and provide you with all that in one source.

Is Nvidia GTX 1080 Still Good And Should You Buy It? Short Topic Answer

Nvidia GTX 1080 is still a beast of the graphics card when it comes to daily use and gaming in 1080p and 1440p resolutions. Although this graphics card is more than 6 years old, it still has the capacity to outperform much newer graphics cards, especially if you pair it with a powerful processor.

Nvidia GTX 1080 Specification

Memory Size	8 GB
Bus Width	256 bit
Memory Type	GDDR5X
Cores	2560 cores
TMUs	160 TMUs
ROPs	64 ROPs
Graphics Processor	GP104

Best Nvidia GTX 1080 Offer At The Moment

Is Nvidia GTX 1080 Still Good For Gaming?

Is Nvidia GTX 1080 Still Good For 1080p Gaming?

For the first benchmark, I tested Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB in the most popular resolution – 1080p. Since I wanted to get the best possible results from this graphics card, I paired it with a powerful Intel Core I9 9900k. There won’t be any bottleneck from neither GPU nor CPU in this situation since they have about the same power and same years.

I tested them both in 5 different games and every game had increased graphics settings, so the load on the Nvidia GTX 1080 is even higher.

Since I tested some harder-to-run games, and on top of that I tested them on Ultra graphics details. You may find the fps a little bit low, but believe me when I said that GTX 1080 is still more than capable of gaming in 1080p.

As you can see in the table below, every game that I benchmarked averaged more than 60 fps as expected. Three out of 5 even averaged well above 100 fps which tells us that gaming at a higher refresh rate is more than possible with GTX 1080 if you adjust your settings the right way.

To cut the story, take a look at the table below.

Is Nvidia GTX 1080 Still Good For 1440p Gaming?

The second benchmark that I did with Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB is of course in the 1440p or better known as the 2k resolution.

Although the games are more and more demanding as time passes, I think that Nvidia GTX 1080 is still capable of achieving good results in 1440p resolution.

If you take a look at the table below, you will see that I once again paired Nvidia GTX 1080- with the Intel Core I9 9900k. Although we don’t need that powerful processor for 1440p resolution since the graphics card will do most of the job.

I tested the in the same 5 games that I played in 1080p resolution and I didn’t change the graphics preset so that way you can clearly see the difference.

As you can see in the table below, only Red Dead Redemption averaged less than 60 fps. Every other game performed really well considering that they were played on Ultra or Very High in 2k resolution.

Every game including RDR2 felt smooth and the overall experience was more than great.

Is Nvidia GTX 1080 Still Good For 4k Gaming?

For the last benchmark, I once again tested Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB with Intel I9 9900k but this time in 4k resolution. Considering that this GPU is 6 years old and most of the games that I tested were released after the GPU itself, I didn’t expect the best possible results.

Of course, the framerate would be noticeably higher if I didn’t test every game on Ultra/Very High graphics settings, but that was the only way to see the real image of this graphics card now.

As you can see in the table below, every game that I tested averaged less than 60 fps. Although the graphics details were increased, this tells us that the legendary Nvidia GTX 1080 is slowly aging and it’s not as good as it was a few years back.

Of course, you need to have in mind that 55 fps in 4k resolution is a much better experience than 55 fps in 1080p resolution. Overall almost every game felt smooth and playable, but the truth is that Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB won’t keep up with the modern title for much longer, at least in 4k resolution.

Best Processor To Pair With Nvidia GTX 1080

The best processor that you should pair with Nvidia GTX 1080 is Intel Core I7 9700k. With 8 cores and 8 threads, Intel I7 9700k will be a perfect fit for Nvidia GTX 1080 even in 2022. They will work very well together in any program, and gaming in all resolutions will be more than possible.

Best Intel Core I7 9700k Offer At The Moment

Is It Worth It Buying The Nvidia GTX 1080 Now?

If you are wondering should you buy Nvidia GTX 1080 in 2022, the answer is – it depends

If you find a good price on the used marketplace for the Nvidia GTX 1080 in 2022, you should definitely go for it. Nvidia GTX 1080 is an older GPU but it still has so much to offer, especially if you are a casual user and you don’t want to use it for hard-to-run programs and video games all the time

Should You Upgrade Your Nvidia GTX 1080?

Upgrading your Nvidia GTX 1080 in 2022 probably isn’t the best idea. This graphics card is still a beast for the 1080p resolution if it’s paired with a good processor. Instead, you should keep using it and wait until the graphics card prices drop to the normal price and then go for an upgrade.