It's so tiny!
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Zotac has already produced “mini” versions of the Nvidia GTX 1060 and GTX 1070, which honestly doesn’t seem that tricky given efficient design of those GPUs. Now the company has outdone itself by cranking out a mini version of the flagship GTX 1080 Ti (See it on Newegg), which is an impressive feat since top-shelf GPUs such as this usually require cooling apparatuses the size of a marmot.
Not only is the Zotac GeForce GTX 10bo Ti Mini a full-blown GTX 1080 Ti without any neutering, the card even has a slightly higher boost clock compared to the Founder’s Edition. It’s still the base model Zotac card however, sitting just above the Founder’s Edition in the product stack, right below the Amp! and the oversized Amp! Extreme. At $749 it's $50 more expensive than the Founder's Edition, and about $10 to $20 less expensive than other "partner" cards from Asus, EVGA, et al. Let's dig into it:
Design and Features
As you can see in the above photo, this 1080 Ti is downright cute. It measures just 8.3" long, which is roughly two inches shorter than the Founder's Edition, and more than three inches shorter than a "partner" behemoth like the Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti OC. This allows it to fit in pretty much any SFF chassis as long as it's not a tiny little box. That's great news for SFF builders looking for maximum gaming performance who might have thought they were stuck with a GTX 1070 or a card of similar size and power.
Despite its waifish nature it's still a full-blown GTX 1080 Ti and has specs that are similar to other "partner" versions of the 1080 Ti, though it has less audacious features and cooling. Instead of a massive tri-fan setup like in the company's Amp! Extreme, it uses just two fans; one 90mm and the other 100mm. A copper contact block on the heatsink is attached to five 6mm copper heat pipes, which then connect to the aluminum heatsink, allowing the fans' wide blades to disperse heat effectively. Zotac calls its cooling solution Icestorm, which is a bit much, buy that's GPU marketing for you.
The GPU is also quite subtle in its appearance; a distinct difference from its Amp! Extreme card, which has an illuminated "Push the Limit!" logo along with generous helpings of yellow accents along with RGB lighting. Instead, the Mini is all gunmetal, with a simple white logo illuminate on the side. The card also features a pretty swank metal backplate.
The card uses dual eight-pin PCI Express connectors, and despite its size still has a full arsenal of connectors including three DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.0, and a lone dual-link DVI connector. It's also clocked slightly higher than the Founder's Edition. That card has a Boost Clock of 1582MHz, and the Mini goes up to 1620MHz. Naturally the GPU's auto-boosting technology will take it far beyond that, but it's good to know the Mini isn't a neutered version of the 1080 Ti.
Software
Zotac GPUs include a nifty software utility named Firestorm, and it's sort of a hybrid that looks like EVGA's PrecisionX and MSI's popular Afterburner. It sports GPU and memory clocks in an easy to read "wheel" on the left, with temperature and fan speed on the right, with controls in between. You can also click a "monitor" button and have a graph of all major settings pop out on the left side that shows changes over time. The software also grants you the ability to easily create a custom fan curve. Overall it's easy to use and works very well, but takes up a lot of screen space. Zotac mitigates this somewhat my allowing you to make the app transparent, and you can choose a setting anywhere from 10 to 100 percent if you want to leave it on your desktop. It would be better though if you could just close certain modules, or have them integrated into a smaller interface.
Benchmarks
To test the Zotac 1080 Ti Mini's mettle we threw it into the IGN test bench to see how she ran. Our test system is hand-built and is running an Asus motherboard paired with an Intel Core i7-7700K CPU (non-overclocked), 8GB of RAM, and an Intel SSD. We tested at three resolutions, using the highest possible settings with no anti-aliasing in each game.
As you can see from the chats, the Zotac Mini is just as fast as its compatriots, or at least close enough to call it extremely close in all tests. Though it is precisely as powerful in the majority of tests I ran in several it was roughly five percent slower than the monstrous GPUs from Asus and EVGA, which dwarf the diminutive Zotac card. Overall, that's not too hefty of a price to pay, especially when this GPU is already running beyond 60fps at 4k resolution in all tests. It's still a very powerful GPU, no doubt, and its overall power has only been diminished every so slightly by its smaller cooling apparatus. Just like we said in other reviews of GTX 1080 Tis, they are all basically as fast as one another, so the real differences boil down to form factor, lighting, and software.
Overclocking
As you might have guessed, the Zotac Mini isn't much of a beast when it comes to overclocking. Its smaller size and less extravagant cooling makes it run a bit hotter than some of its girthier competitors, so it's just as hot as the Founder's Edition. What that means in practice is whereas monster GPUs like the EVGA SC2 and Asus ROG Strix versions run about 70C under load, the Zotac Mini runs at 84C, which is exactly the same as the Founder's Edition, making it essentially a card that runs as hot as Nvidia wants the card to be. It's all within spec, in other words. You can also lower temps a bit by turning fan speeds up a bit in the Firestorm software, but you'll pay for it with some audible fan noise.
Right out of the box with no adjustments the Zotac GTX 1080 Ti Mini ran at 1,822MHz under load, which is about 100MHz lower than what I saw with the MSI, Asus, and EVGA variants of this GPU. This naturally led to a bit lower overclock overall, and I was only able to juice it up to 1923Mhz stable. When it got to around 1950MHz games would either crash or refuse to run. Overall this is a bit lower than average, as most high-end cards can get up to around 2GHz typically. That said, it's not too shabby for a pint-sized GPU and in the real world, a 75MHz clock speed difference won't add up to 1 or 2fps in any game.
Purchasing Guide
The Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini has an MSRP of $749. Thanks to the cryptocurrency craze it's very hard to find, but keep trying and it'll eventually pop back up in stock. For now Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini is exclusive to Newegg:
• See the Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini on Newegg
The Verdict
The Zotac Mini gives up very little performance in exchange for a massive reduction in size, making it a must-have for well-heeled small form factor gaming rigs. It runs a bit hot and is louder than the larger and more expensive versions, but again, that's part of the deal on a card this size. It's still a great GPU overall, and certainly stands out in a field of gargantuan competitors.
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