GTX 1080 Ti Still Holds Up, But Its Age Shows
The Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti, released in 2017, is still holding up in 1080p gaming ten years later. However, it shows its age in various areas.
A recent test by PC Games Hardware pitted the 1080 Ti against modern offerings to see how well it performs in 2026. The results show that while the 1080 Ti can still push close to 60 FPS in modern titles at 1080p resolution, it's slower than current-gen GPUs like the RTX 5050 and mid-range cards from the last five years.
The 1080 Ti's large VRAM buffer helps it win in some areas, but its aging architecture and 16nm process node make it inefficient. It wastes around 58% more energy under load compared to current-gen GPUs.
In recent titles that rely on technologies like upscaling and ray tracing, the GTX 1080 Ti falls back to software emulation, which is unplayable. Games such as DOOM: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones wouldn't even boot on this GPU.