With Nvidias announcement from their CEO that we should not expect the 11 series card to debut for a "long time" Is it time to finally bite the bullet on a 1080ti? But just....ugh. I dont understand why they are being so hesitant on putting out these new cards? Correct me if I'm wrong but a 1080ti is not powerful enough to truly run most games maxed out at 4k 60fps? Thats what I gathered the last time I looked into upgrading my 970. What the shit? Is that actually true? If it is true its making the decision to not put out new cards even more baffling to me.

I want to upgrade my 970 as I have a 4k tv but I dont want to buy a card that I will have to replace sooner than later if the hottest card out right now can't do games at 4k 60fps. Im definitely at a loss here and I'm not sure which route to take. Any suggestions? Or testimonials to a 1080ti's true performance? Thanks

I bought a 1080ti about 6 months ago, coincidentally upgrading from a 970. Finding one at a reasonable price during the crypto-craze was the challenge! I can safely say it's a great card and you'll definitely feel the difference coming from an old 9 series. The question of whether its absolutely capable of running every game 4K 60 FPS... the answer is no, but it gets damns close, you'll probably have to do a bit of custom tweaking on graphic strenuous games, but results are never super disappointing.

It's impossible to know for sure when the 11 series is going to drop, if you have the money to spare, jump in. It's going to do you right for at least another 5 years.

I mean, some settings become worthless right? Like how much AA do you need at 4k? And you can always do 2k/60 on high end games and 4k/60 on things that run faster.

They're probably not being "hesitant" to put out cards. It's probably a real issue with production and there's literally nothing anyone can do.

@avantegardener: 5 years? :/ more like 3... and that's being optimistic.

Here's my thing about the concept of waiting for the next best thing in the tech world: You'll always be disappointed. You'll be disappointed after you buy a 1080 Ti and learn that the 1180 can outperform it by some margin, try to sell the 1080 Ti for the 1180, and then be disappointed again when the 1180 Ti comes out and the cycle just continues with the 12 series, 13 series, 14 series, and so on. And you'll be disappointed when the 11 series doesn't show up soon enough and all of the 1080 Ti's are gone and your 970 only having 3.5 GBs of VRAM will actually matter.

So, just buy the 1080 Ti and enjoy the performance you'll get, says a guy with a 1060.

Your probably right if you want to be right on the bleeding edge, but I think in 5 years it'll still be perfectly serviceable, and you can start thinking about you next upgrade.

I was going to upgrade my 1060 in August/September to the new series but after these comments I guess I’ll just hold off. I just feel weird thinking about going from a 1060 to a 1080 ti - I’ve never done a mid- series upgrade before. I’ve always gone up at least one generation with each new card.

I feel I'm gonna be on this 980ti for a long time...

The new cards will almost definitely launch this year. Nvidia has been waiting for the production of GDDR6 to ramp up/stockpile for their cards. And of course the CEO is going to say the new stuff is not going to launch for a while. Graphics card prices are finally starting to normalize and Nvidia has been purging their 10 series stock at MSRP the last couple of months. They want you to buy what they're selling now.

The next gen cards will in all likelihood be more powerful than the 1080 Ti, will be cheaper, and natively support next gen graphics technologies. Also, given the slowed development time between process nodes, we won't see the next next series launch any earlier than 2020. So, in my opinion you should wait.

I'm in an interesting situation because I have an old (now) Titan Black. I do not get to run games at ultra settings and high resolutions anymore. Far Cry 5 was High settings at 1080 for a decent fps.. But that worked well enough, I'm not dying. And older games like Dark Souls remastered run beautifully at 4k.

I paid too much for that Titan card, and I appreciate getting my money's worth, even if it's the situation dictating when I upgrade. I refuse to buy a 1080 ti, I will wait for the next gen card. But hopefully it won't be too long, and my geriatric Titan Black doesn't blow up. But everything runs so smooth, I bet I make it, even a year or near two.

But @falconer can be right, that wouldn't bother me at all.

@xanadu: Max settings on most pc games means enabling a few graphics settings that will cost you 5fps for minimal visual gain. As of right now its a balancing act. A 1080 ti will get you 4k 60fps at better than console quality graphics. You just can't enable ALL the bells and whistles(aka keep it at medium/high instead of ultra).

Hardware especially proccesor technologie your (GFX card is just a processor for rendering 3d stuff at the end.) Is having a rough time companies having trouble finding news ways to implement new technologies. So expect longer release windows. All of this could be fixed if dev would spend more time on optimizing there games to be honest :P.

You'd be lucky to get 60fps at 4k on high settings in most AAA games. You definitely won't be maxing anything out at that resolution, it's just too many pixels.

The difference here is the 1080Ti is over a year old, and only an incremental improvement on the 1080 which is 2 years old at this point. I am also waiting for the 11 series cards because the idea of shelling out upwards of £700 on a GPU that's over a year old and can't do 4k60 is insane to me. We are well overdue for the next generation, and GPU prices are still slightly hiked up because of crypto, so I think waiting for the next gen and getting a preorder in as early as possible (hopefully at RRP) will almost certainly not disappoint as much as caving in and buying 1080Ti now.

So then don't get a card? "Well overdue for the next generation" but like, that's like saying we need the ps5 and xbox one two tomorrow, even though the tech doesn't exist for it be any kind of meaningful upgrade? The 10 series of cards was already an issue to get out and then to have it be a "meaningful upgrade", it seems really consumer entitled to be like "I need this now wtf geforce". Also 4k wasn't really viable at all in the 900 series and suddenly it is, and that's also a complaint because it's not good enough?

Also, your CPU is likely to bottleneck the 11 series cards anyways.

This exactly. I agree. Easily could last 5 years if you're okay with not always being on the top, top high end.

If your requirement is max settings at 4k/60 on every game, that card doesn't exist right now so your choice is easy. If you would enjoy significantly better performance right now, you can have that right now with a 1080Ti, but there's always something around the corner. I got my 1080Ti a few months ago and couldn't be happier. I don't see the jump from 10-11 being as big as 9-10 was anyway.

I upgraded from a 1070, because I found a 1080Ti for MSRP at a time when used 1070's were selling for $600.

Maybe see what the 1180 offers (I bet still not ultra at 4k/60). Maybe if it's still a ways off it could be a bigger jump than I'm expecting. If you don't get an 1180 in the first 6-9 months, you start hearing rumors about the 1280 just around the corner. If the goal is a specific resolution at a specific framerate, then you'll get there eventually by waiting long enough.

If you absolutely need something now, buy something now. But new video cards are coming soon (it could be in two months, it could be in 5-6 months).

@bollard said:

Well, if rumors are true and that "a long time from now" means August, then okay; bad call on my part since I can wait two months for a new card. But if "a long time from now" means 2019, then that's up to the OP's level of patience: either continue to wait it out with a 970, or get the 1080 Ti and then wait for the 12 series or whatever AMD may offer at the time.

But, looking at things that have been show at various recent trade shows and have more solid if not confirmed release dates: monitors, 4K monitors running at 144Hz with HDR and G-Sync are becoming more of a thing with Acer and ASUS leading that charge. So, waiting for a new graphics card makes total scene to me now, but only because the release time-frame for new monitors is significantly more solid than rumors and speculation about new GPUs.

@facelessvixen: Well, no one is running anything at 4k/anything approaching 144 without a HEAVILY optimized game, an old game or garbage optimized settings; unless they plan on doing some sli and that's is it's own thing. I agree with your original points though. If someone wants to PLAY A GAME NOW with better settings/resolution/framerate, buy the card now. If you are looking for a major generational shift upgrade from what you have and you don't need it, wait. Any other answer honestly is some hogwash.

If a 1080ti isn't strong enough, the 1180 might not be enough of a boost if much of one at all, so what are you waiting on? Or maybe it is a lot stronger, but the TI version of that 1180 is just around the corner and looks to be a bump in 25% framerates, guess you should've waited huh? Oops you waited for the 1180ti and it's just a small increase around the same price point, while you played games with your 4 year old card at low framerates for no reason.

It's literally been a circle ever since these cards have been a thing. If you need it now for games now, buy now; if you don't, wait until games you play make you want to.

are the prices still inflated? If so then yes, wait for the 11 series then buy a 10 series for cheaper.

@oursin_360: You can buy a 1080 and 1080ti for $600/$750 respectively on newegg right now. That's not quite msrp or a deal, but I have seen lower prices than that in sale ads here and there recently.

Is it terrible this just makes me happy my 980 won't be totally obsolete any time soon?

And that's why I usually don't bother with speculating about cards that haven't even been announced yet because the confirmed info that we collectively have on them at this time is between jack and shit (but MAL's forums have been down for over a week so I'm bored and desperate for attention). And I might trigger some PCMR people by saying this, but that's also why I personally don't bother with having a high end system since the differences between "very high" and "ultra" are negligible. Frame rates beyond 60 I can rationalize, but the differences between high or very high water compared to ultra, no. So, I still stand by my first post in that disappointment is inevitable no mater what move is made, as you more or less reiterated, while my second post was me just trying to rationalize waiting for the 11 series, which also has some logistical facilities 'cause the tech world loves making people feel stupid.

Seriously. I like PC gaming, but also fuck PC gaming at times like this. If I don't care about video editing, graphic design or digital illustration, I would have stuck with consoles and shitty laptops.

4K max settings is kind of a pipe dream until the next jump comes. But you can get close she enough to not care, with a 1080ti. I had one and it ran like a charm.

That said, I sold my PC 6 months ago, titles may be more intensive going forward, but I was very happy with its 4K 60 capabilities and it’s 1440p 144hz capabilities.

I’m not sure why new cards are taking so long, or when they will come from nvidia but it may be worth looking into next gen AMD cards as well.

In favor of the 1080ti I’ll say this: I noticed a very significant difference between my 980ti and my 1080ti especially at 4K. Upgrading from a 970 to a 1080ti would be a SUBSTANTIAL improvement and I doubt the 1180ti would be worth an extended wait for 4K alone.

My vote would be to get the 1080ti and you might have to drop a couple settings to enjoy 4K but you really won’t notice much difference and the 4K upgrade will be worth a lot more than some minor shadow quality downgrades.

However I would guess the wait will be within 6 months, so weigh those two elements and again look at what AMD may have coming up and go from there.

AMDs next GPU codenamed Navi ain't coming until 2019 Q2 and it isn't even targeting the high-end. That leaves Nvidia as the only one pushing the high end for gaming users.

If their press briefings aren't titled

"HEY! LISTEN!"

we've failed.

Well thanks for the input everyone. I was probably hoping for a more uniform opinion but that's cool! I think what I am personally going to end up doing is to continue waiting. However, If I see a really good deal on a 1080ti between now and then I'll probably pick that up instead. My 970 is more than fine for gaming at 1080p 60fps and I have a ps4 pro if I really feel like playing a game in "4k" whatever that actually means on PS4 Pro. Thanks again, duders!