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The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming was designed with VR gaming in mind

By Koh Wanzi - on 8 Jun 2016, 10:25am

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming was designed with VR gaming in mind

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming

We saw a flurry of announcements pertaining to custom versions of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 in the run-up to Computex 2016, but that doesn’t mean that brands are done showing off their wares. At Taipei, Gigabyte’s new Xtreme Gaming card was spotted, and the company has now officially announced what will be its new flagship graphics card.

Gigabyte first debuted its Xtreme Gaming line of graphics cards in September last year with the GeForce GTX 950 Xtreme Gaming, and the series represents the very best of what the company has to offer.

Oddly enough, even though the product page for the card is already live, Gigabyte has left out details on the card’s clock speeds. However, we do know that it is nonetheless built for overclocking, with a custom PCB and two 8-pin power connectors for more power.

The signature WindForce cooler has been beefed up as well. The GeForce GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming introduced a new fan configuration, where the middle fan in the triple-fan cooler would spin in reverse to lower turbulence and help better direct air through the card, and the new card builds on that with a recessed central fan that is overlapped by the outer fans.

Gigabyte calls this WindForce Stack Cooling, and it is what allows Gigabyte to fit three large double ball-bearing 100mm fans on board without significantly increasing the card’s length. According to Gigabyte, this helps to maximize coverage of the heatsink for more robust cooling as well.

Six composite copper heatpipes are in turn responsible for drawing heat away from the GPU.

But its considerable cooling apparatus aside, the card’s distinguishing features really lie in what it offers to VR gamers. These take the form of two additional HDMI connectors at the front of the card (EVGA has done something similar before), which makes it easier for gamers to route cables to a front panel device and connect their VR headset to the front of their PC.

Gigabyte is even releasing a Premium Pack comprising the GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming and a handful of VR-oriented accessories like a 5.25-inch VR-Link front bay device with HDMI and USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI extension bracket, and an Xtreme Gaming version of one of NVIDIA’s new high bandwidth SLI bridges. But wait, there’s more, and the Premium Pack also includes things like an Xtreme Gaming mouse pad, wrist band, and logo sticker to round out the package.

Of course, Gigabyte isn’t missing out on the RGB lighting, which is pretty much one of the hottest trends in hardware now. The GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming has an illuminated “X” across the middle fan, in addition to a lighted Gigabyte logo on the top and a light that indicates when the semi-passive fans are not spinning. Each of these lights can be customized with a range of colors and lighting effects through the new Xtreme Engine utility.

There’s no word yet on price or availability.

Source: Gigabyte

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