Nvidia clearly had VR gaming in mind when it launched its GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1070 graphics cards, both based on Pascal and both offering better than Titan X performance for less money. Taking things a step further, Gigabyte announced its customized GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming (GV-N1080XTREME-8GD) card with Power Pack accessories. We'll get to those in a moment.
The card itself sports Gigabyte's new Windforce Stack Cooling cooler. It's similar to Gigabyte's Windforce 3X cooler with three cooling fans that cover the length of the graphics card, but in this new iteration the center fan is recessed to allow the blades of the other two fans to sit above it, and spins in the opposite direction. Gigabyte says this patent-pending arrangement helps reduce turbulence.
All three fans are 100mm. They also sport re-engineered sickle fan blades that pull in more air and half a dozen composite copper heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU. According to Gigabyte, the result is 10 percent more airflow than conventional triple-fan coolers and an overall improvement in thermals by 4 percent compared to the previous version.
Gigabyte doesn't list speeds for its new card, though we imagine it will be equally fast as the company's G1 Gaming edition. That card feature a base 1,695MHz clockspeed and boost 1,835MHz clockspeed in Gaming mode, and base and boost clockspeeds of 1,721MHz and 1,860MHz, respectively, in OC mode.
What makes this card stand out other than the redesigned cooler is the addition of two HDMI ports by way of the Xtreme VR Link. The pitch is that the added output flexibility allows you to can connect multiple VR devices while using an HDMI monitor.
Gigabyte's also offering a Premium Pack that includes a 5.25-inch drive bay with front-facing HDMI and USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI extension bracket, SLI bridge, mouse pad, wrist band, and logo sticker.
No word yet on price or availability.
