Can`t wait for some gaming benchmarks. I think if it hits 40-50 FPS 4k in most demanding games, it`s very much a playable performance and a phenomenal feat for 1080ti at this price. Sure, let`s hope AMD can bring some challenge and make prices drop even lower, though I seriously doubt Vega can deliver.
Both the GTX-1080 and the Titan XP have been thoroughly benchmarked against the most popular games at highest graphical settings for 4K monitors. On some games (Titanfall 2 is one), Titan XP can't get much above 66 FPS at 4K. GTX-1080 falls into the mid-50's on Titanfall 2. There isn't much mystery here: the 1080 Ti will slot in between the Titan XP and the GTX-1080, probably closer to the Titan XP's performance.
But the only people who *really* think 60 FPS is just hunky-dory are console enthusiasts and casual PC gamers. Serious PC gamers at the high end crave much faster, butter-smooth frame rates. They can get those faster frame rates at 1440p, easily, with GTX-1070 and GTX-1080 GPUs. They can't get them at all at 4K at max graphical settings with any cards in this generation. GP-102 cards are better, but not *enough* better to change that equation.
My MSI hybrid GTX-1080 drives my 27" 1440p monitor at well over 90 FPS minimum for almost any game at highest graphical quality. Typical frame rates exceed 100 FPS. And at that resolution, the display is crisp, sharp, beautiful and I can read it.
I can't read 4K monitors at 27" or 28" at native resolution from three feet away. They're too small. Most 4K monitors on the market are capped at 60 hz, too. So adopting 4K in this generation of GPUs means slow frame rates *and* monitors I can't read. Until we get larger 4K monitors with higher refresh rates and faster GPUs to drive them, 1440p is the sweet spot for high-end gamers.
And sweet it is. 1440p displays are beautiful, they're commonly available with up to 144 hz refresh, and gaming has never looked so good. Yeah, one day, I'd like to get to 4K gaming, but not until the monitors are much larger, not capped at 60 hz, and GPUs appear on the market that can drive them at 90+ FPS, preferably more.
There are use cases for the 1080 Ti. Video editing is an example, where the better the GPU, the faster the work flow can be. But I don't lust after the 1080 Ti for gaming purposes. I don't need it for 1440p, and high-end 4K gaming just isn't here yet. It's getting closer, but it still hasn't arrived.
All of that analysis is aimed at single GPU systems. Some games support bridged GPUs adequately. If you are so inclined, you can use two or more bridged GPUs to play those games at higher frame rates at 4K. But 4K monitors capable of more than 60 hz refresh aren't common, and 4K monitors large enough to read easily at 3 feet away aren't here at all. If you have an unlimited budget, you will still come up short trying to get 4K monitors to match what you can do with 1440p monitors in this generation of tech.
I'm sure not complaining. At 1440p, gaming has never looked so good at the high end.