Bengal Rig 5 – GTX 980 Ti to GTX 1080 Ti Upgrade

Bengal Rig 4 - GTX 980 Ti to GTX 1080 Ti Upgrade

Introduction

As a review site we always try and ensure that our comparisons are as stable as possible so that you can make the best informed decision about the benefits of any particular upgrade. There is, after all, no point in chopping and changing the base system and the types of benchmarks we use because then you wont have a clue how it translates to your own system.

When the opportunity arose to upgrade the graphical prowess of the Bengal Rig it also gave us the perfect opportunity to show you what type of benefits you could expect if you made the leap. Identical drivers, identical system, identical games at identical settings. The only differences will be that between the 980 Ti and the 1080 Ti. 

Previously the Bengal Rig had a PNY GTX 980 Ti XLR8 in it, but with the recent acquisition of a 1440P 144Hz monitor it was beginning to both struggle in performance terms and regularly deafening me with the fans working overtime trying to keep it cool. There is little point in having such a beast of a monitor if you can’t utilise it to its fullest and the GTX 1080 Ti seemed like the perfect opportunity to improve the performance whilst also, hopefully, reducing the noise level. If you followed our review of the Palit GameRock you’ll know that the bluey-purple scheme doesn’t exactly match the black and orange of the Bengal rig. Fortunately Tom is well versed in repainting things and so took the chance to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

System Specifications

Palit GTX 1080 Ti GameRock
ASUS Maximus VIII Assembly
Intel Core i7-6700K
32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum Special Edition
Kingston HyperX Predator 480GB M.2
Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 850W
Cooler Master Nepton 280L AIO
Corsair 120SP and AF Quiet Edition
NZXT Switch 810

Normally our graphics cards are tested on our X99 setup, which is perfect for ensuring minimal CPU bottlenecking. We know that most of you utilise quad-core CPUs though – as indeed do I – and so it’s going to be interesting to discover how this particular combination of components performs.

Read on to see the Palit in all its repainted glory.