Not Ti

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For anyone who cares: 

Now can run max settings ( Hyper ) in MEC with no noticed stuttering. ( yet ). 
Can even see that glassy eyes texture on her now.
So little details those bring add up for the MEC fan. Plus the added fps. 
Small details are tied to specific settings. I dont know which controls the glassy eye texture.
But you need it on Hyper before it shows and a game restart after setting it ..

I tested the Mirror's Edge Catalyst "Resolution Scale" slider in 
Graphics settings. Was able to inch up higher than before without stutter.
However at Max resolution the 1080 gpu struggles:
it was sort of playable ( I play at screen size 1920x 1080. )  
By comparison the 1050 ti is a slide show at max resolution scale. 
So 1080 is a way better card than 1050 ti.
But not perfect by today standards. But an affordable upgrade from older stuff.
Hindsight being 20/20 I should have just paid a little more to get a ti version with more  vram. 
The only cards worth getting past that point is maybe the higher end Ryzen GPU's with 20 + vram
or Nvidia's 4070 super and 4080's.
Unless you can afford a Founders Edition of 4090 which is the ultimate
in graphics cards until the 50 series releases.  

Took a chance on a Used ebay  8GB 1080.  ( not ti ) upgrade. 
( from used old 1050 ti 4GB slow card.)
did some questionable research, read some forums, questioned the heck out of AI's
( Perplexity Ai and Claude AI. Im sure Chat-GPT could've been useful maybe ),
measured a few things ( incorrectly).


ps i threw this big card on my old 2015-17 ( Dell xps mobo
( around the same year the 1080 released, I think. )
every other part is dirt old from then. still "works".....

Threw the pc case out, because cant fit this card in there.
Took the peripheral plate off the 1080 gpu so it can lay "" level""
because i always do stuff half az. 
Now the Dell pc motherboard, power box, and power button and front usb ports,
and now this big three fan card is exposed 
( trying to balance so it don't Brake off under its own weight )
sitting flat all on a plastic crate and some other boxes for now. 

Getting the parts out of the Dell case was not easy.
a long screw driver and thin pillars ( or whatever could pass for one )
,  to unscrew two hex standoffs off the gpu so the thin plate could come off around the hdmi ports,
it can lock into the mobo without .  

 
You can't ; just throw on a new gpu and expect a pc to turn on.
Sometimes like in my case, need this Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) software.
Run that select the " New Card install " option in that software.
( "Do Not select safe boot". That option always messed my pc up ). Choose shutdown. Not restart.
Then it will uninstall your old card driver and turn PC off.

Then, put in the new card in place; and turn power on.
Downloaded the 1080 driver from NVIDIA site ( the beta app ).. if had not already.
luckily it worked.  for now.  already got a new mobo from ebay around the same price, a bit over 100$ so just under 2 maybe. 
Just need to research cpu's that can be tricky .

Again I should have just spent a little extra to get the 1080 ti version, with more v-ram. 
( if you buy used GPU's its probably good to replace it's thermal paste and thermal pads. 

screen shot using one .fx reshade sharpener to see the textures better...........The card that the 1080 replaced was the old 1050 ti which should never be used for gaming in my opinion. Instead its a great card for computer browsing the internet.  But nothing more than that. While its okay for basic photo editing the 1050 ti is just too slow. Again its okay for a small budget build to test out small form factor internet browsing pc's or whatever else you have in mind. But not serious gaming.