My GTX 1080 Ti still runs everything I play, and these are the settings that keep it going in 2026

Published Nov 7, 2026, 8:00 PM EST Hamlin has been in the tech field for over nine years. Since 2017, his work has appeared on MakeUseOf, Android Police, OSXDaily, Beebom, and more. He served as the Senior Editor at Valnet's MakeUseOf for over two years before joining XDA. He uses a high-end gaming rig for desktop use and a MacBook for traveling, but dislikes some of the quirks of macOS. You're more likely to catch him at the gym or on a flight than anywhere else. Considering I have an RTX 4090 in my PC, you might think I'd have a hard time going back to a GTX 1080 Ti. But I still have my old PC at my parents' place, and that card hasn't given me any reason to replace it yet. For the occasional weekend I spend there, it's more than enough for the games I regularly play without feeling like I'm missing out on too much. The one upgrade I made to that build was the CPU. When I upgraded to the 9800X3D this year, I moved my 5800X3D into the old PC, and that improved my 1% lows. Of course, a faster CPU won't make an almost decade-old GPU perform like it's half as old. I'm still dealing with a graphics card that doesn't support DLSS or hardware-accelerated ray tracing, so I have to make compromises and rely on workarounds to get decent performance out of it in newer games. But getting to that point isn't all that hard, which is why I still feel like I can get a couple more years out of this legendary GPU. Dialing down settings and resolution goes a long way But you probably saw this coming from a mile away The GTX 1080 Ti, when it launched back in 2017, was considered a 4K-class GPU. Fast-forward to 2026, and I wouldn't be comfortable calling it a 1440p card. Sure, some titles are still playable at 1440p, but the word "playable" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. And let's not forget it performs roughly on par with the RTX 3060 12GB. So, 1080p is what I consider the sweet spot for this GPU, but even then, some newer AAA titles like Assassin's Creed: Shadows can struggle to hit 60FPS even at low settings. If I know the game is demanding, I usually start with 1080p/Low and work my way up from there depending on the frame rate I'm getting in MSI Afterburner. I've found that I can often get away with turning up texture quality, though, thanks to that 11GB of VRAM. Shadows, reflections, and volumetric effects are very GPU-intensive, so I keep them on low unless I'm getting close to 100FPS. I do crank up CPU-heavy settings like crowd density and draw distance, since I know my 5800X3D is still no slouch. Sometimes, upscaling is a non-negotiable No DLSS? No problem! Nvidia may have left the GTX 1080 Ti behind on RTX-era features like DLSS, but that doesn't mean upscaling is a no-go. I can still use AMD's FSR 3.1 in supported titles to improve my frame rates. That's what I did to hit 60FPS in Assassin's Creed: Shadows. I stick to FSR Quality, though, because I don't want my game running internally at anything lower than 720p. FSR 3.1 already looks worse than DLSS 4.5 on my RTX 4090, so the last thing I want is to sacrifice even more image quality, especially since I'm gaming at 1080p instead of 4K. Even if a game doesn't support FSR, I'm not out of options. For instance, I use Lossless Scaling for both upscaling and frame generation when a game lacks native support. Also, if a game only supports DLSS, then I use OptiScaler to replace it with FSR or XeSS. I stick to upscaling for multiplayer shooters and use frame generation on slower single-player titles as long as I get at least 50FPS natively. I know those extra frames don't improve responsiveness, but I still like the extra smoothness when I'm focusing on the story. The GTX 1080 Ti is too old for some games That list will only grow, but I'm not trying to play every new release The GTX 1080 Ti launched a year before Nvidia introduced hardware-accelerated ray tracing with its RTX 20-series GPUs. That really puts it at a disadvantage nine years later, and there's no workaround since it simply doesn't have the necessary hardware. Some games, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and DOOM: The Dark Ages, refuse to run without a GPU that supports hardware ray tracing. I've never bothered playing those games even on my RTX 4090, so it's no big deal, but I do believe that list will only grow as time goes by. But I'm not trying to play every new game that comes out on a GPU that's almost a decade old. There's a reason why I have it installed in my second PC. I just want something that can handle the games I regularly play whenever I visit my parents. I mostly play first-person shooters like Valorant and Battlefield 6, and for that, this card still gets the job done. In fact, I get around 80FPS on average in Battlefield 6 at 1440p/Low without any upscaling or frame generation. But since I like to target over 100FPS in multiplayer titles, I still stick to 1080p. I'll worry about compatibility when the games I enjoy force me to upgrade. I'll ditch it at some point, but not yet At the end of the day, this is a GPU from 2017, so running into limitations nine years later shouldn't surprise me. Still, considering its raw performance is roughly on par with the RTX 3060 12GB that Nvidia brought back this year, I don't see a reason to upgrade just yet. I'm sure I'll move my RTX 4090 into this build when I upgrade the GPU on my main rig, but I don't see that happening anytime soon, especially at current street prices. For now, the GTX 1080 Ti doesn't give me any problems, and that's all that matters.