Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ArcticStorm Mini Review - Introduction

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ArcticStorm Mini
Get ready for a small chilled graphics card!

It is time to take and test the smallest and best cooled that Zotac has available, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ArcticStorm Mini. This liquid cooled graphics card comes 100% customized with factory tweaks, simply hook it into your liquid cooling loop and go massive on cooling performance. Ahw yeah!

It is among the fastest graphics card your money can get you, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti based on Pascal architecture. Armed with 11 GB of GDDR5X graphics memory and an all-new GP102-350 GPU, we are certain we're gonna break some records today. It has been eight months since Nvidia released the first GP102 based product, the Titan X. To date, a hugely impressive graphics card that will resemble what we review today and very similar on a lot of levels. Really, the 1080 Ti is the Titan X, just with one GB of that GDDR5X memory less and the one ROP partition tied to it. So let me break it down swiftly and quickly; the new high-end GTX 1080 Ti features 3584 CUDA Cores, 224 Texture Units, a 352-bit memory controller and 11 GB of faster (11 Gbps) GDDR5X memory. The card has the same "GP102" GPU as the TITAN X Pascal, but the GTX 1080 Ti was slightly reconfigured. Most interesting is the 352-bit wide GDDR5X memory interface, this was not expected. This translates into 11 memory chips on the card which run at 11 GHz (GDDR5X-effective), the memory bandwidth is 484 GB/s. This invokes the change in ROP count to 88 (from 96 on the TITAN X Pascal), and the TMU count of 224. The Pascal based unit is a bit of a beast alright, the GPU die size is 471 sq mm. If you look at the wider product stack, then a GeForce GTX 1080 has 2,560 shader processors, the GeForce GTX 1070 has 1,920 shader processors, the GeForce GTX 1060 has 1,280 of them. The Nvidia GeForce 1080 Ti has 3,584 shader processors active inside that GP102 GPU, I say active here deliberately as it still isn't even a fully enabled GPU. This means it has 28 SMs active (28 streaming multi-processors x 128 shader cores (2x64). The cards will be equipped with fast GDDR5X memory as well for this 11 GB model. That memory is tied to a 352-bit wide bus locked in at 11 GHz (GDDR5X-effective). The combination of that memory type and clock frequency gives the 1080 Ti an effective memory bandwidth of 484 GB/s. 

ZOTAC is releasing the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ArcticStorm Mini in a smaller form factor. A small, roughly 20 cm, PCB has been fitted with a really good water-block, full cover as well as being subtle LED lit.
 

 
Armed with compactly designed looks, you will see a product today that has been overhauled and designed with all custom power phase design and a rather serious cooling system. It has factory tweaked clock speeds and back-plate. This Pascal 102 GPU empowered product keeps its cool at under the 50 Degrees C, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ArcticStorm Mini comes with a factory overclock. This is the 11 GB edition that comes factory clocked faster for you. But have a peek at the product we test today and then head onwards into the review. We'll show you that in the photo-shoot of course. Yeah, we have a lot to talk about alright. Let's dive into the review.