The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition is launching today with semi and fully custom models to follow in weeks. NVIDIA packs in the power of the Pascal-based Titan X but with higher clock speeds in the new GeForce card, which is now dubbed as the fastest in the market and only for $699.

To get straight to the basics, here is a look at the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition and the internal tweaks that NVIDIA has made to make it the fastest card in the market. With a review embargo finally lifted, the card is not only fast but powerful as well achieving 60 frames per second at 4K resolution. NVIDIA's claims of delivering 35 percent boost in performance compared to last year's flagship card, the GTX 1080, is just a conservative estimate that may even be higher once the card is in the wild. Looking at the cards technical specs, the GTX 1080 Ti shares many similarities to the monster Titan X preferred by compute users.

To start, both cards are based on the GP102 but the GTX 1080 Ti has fewer ROP counts with only 88 from Titan X's 96. It also packs 11GB of bleeding-edge technology GDDR5X memory with a 352-bit bus, while the Titan X has 12GB and 384-bits. However, NVIDIA is not hesitant to assert that the GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition is slightly faster than the more expensive $1,200 Titan X. The new card compensates with a higher GPU and memory clock speeds that produce a much greater memory bandwidth and only for $699 since NVIDIA opted to remove the premium and has the same MSRP as other custom models, Anandtech reported.

Experts would say that it slays the Titan X, but compute users may still have need of that extra 1GB and would still buy the card while many would logically opt for the more powerful but cheaper card, Ars Technica reported. Like the Titan X, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition also requires 250-watt TDP, which requires an 8-pin and 6-opin connector. NVIDIA also made some changes to the power delivery system and opted to use a 7-phase 2x dual-FET power design to push clock speeds higher at 2GHz overclocking speeds according to PC World. This requires an efficient cooling and NVIDIA aimed to double the airflow in the card even if it means removing the DVI connector, but the green team was thoughtful enough to include a DisplayPort-to-DVI cable into the box.

The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition does not deviate in looks from its predecessors using the same backplate with a removable section for a multi-card or SLI setups. However, NVIDIA could have redesigned a better and more efficient cooler than its blower-style cooler, but thankfully custom variants will be released soon from NVIDIA partners like Asus, Zotac, and EVGA. Moreover, NVIDIA also throws in a valuable software like the updated DirectX 12 support as well as the GeForce 378.78 WHQL Game-Ready driver that gives a boost to games using DX12.

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Topics NVIDIA, Gtx 1080