GRAPHICSCARDS Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti $710

GRAPHICS CARDS ARE in a bit of an odd state right now. For the last 18 months, Nvidia has been left unchallenged, with AMD only providing any hint of competition in the mid-range. The RX 500 refresh was little more than a badge swap, and Vega a dud—a disappointing high-end solution, overhyped to its own detriment (although it struts its stuff nicely when it comes to cryptocurrency mining, annoyingly).

So, how does the land lie if you’re looking to invest in a high-end GPU? How do you power a 4K gaming rig in today’s market? Well, fortunately, Nvidia hasn’t been resting on its laurels, and is still focused on trying to capture as much of that market share as it can. At the start of this year, it dropped the bombshell that is the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, and hasn’t really looked back.

Think of it as a cut-down Titan Xp, a warhorse of a GPU focused solely on gaming, but coming in at a far more attractive price point. The differences are slim, with its 1GB of GDDR5X being one of the few things cut from the titanic juggernaut. The Titan Xp is ever so slightly more powerful— about 15 percent or so—but it also costs $500 more, making it a superfluous product aimed

solely at the affluent, or those who need the Titan’s very specific developer skill set, as limited as it is.