Almost have the necessary funds to throw at a 1080 and to be honest Evga is my brand of choice although Asus, MSI and Gigabyte are all at the same price. Does it really matter at the end of the day?
It makes no difference when it comes to a reference card, Glenn. When it comes down to custom PCBs, for me it is the one with the best warranty/after sales service that wins out unless it is for a specific purpose such as record breaking on LN2. I'd stick with EVGA if you're happy with them, they're solid and even allow for cards to be RMA'd knowingly that they have had their cooler removed! In fact, you can RMA them with them being under subzero usage too, provided there's no physical damage. Top company, if you ask me!
EVGA for warranty, in my opinion. Others may of course vary, but I'm fairly confident the general view is that the EVGA warranty is decent.
That pretty much sums up my thoughts though I have never had to RMA a GPU I have read of Evga's great customer service. Thanks guys.
Zotac 5 year warranty. I don't like MSI. Their Twin Frozr bollocks was always hotter and noisier than Gigabyte. I'm on my 2nd Zotac design now and I'm sticking with them. I avoid any GPU with only 2 year warranty. 3 years would be absolute minimum.
Have had 4 twin frozr cards, 560TI, 670, 770 and 970 and all have been wonderful, cool and not noisy at all, have also had a 560ti gigabyte windforce which was barely any difference cooler wise to the frozr.
I had two MSI 560Ti Twin Frozr II's and they ran hotter and noisier than my friend's Giga 560ti. My case has always been well ventilated with lots of case fans... I'm afraid I have to insist that my own personal experience accurately reflects the rest of the world.
You can insist all you like, mine ran fine, as you say in a well ventilated case. Plus all 3 other cards run fine. Not gonna get in willy waving contest about it
Have the cash now but not in any real hurry to buy as the current 980 is handling games just fine. I wondered though if there is likely to be any price drop in the foreseeable future as £600+ is a fair bit to spend on a single component?
Founders edition will be that price for the life of the product according to Nvidia. Custom board cards should eventually settle around £550 is my estimate.
What does Founders Edition actually mean? Edit: Found the answer. http://www.pcgamer.com/what-exactly-is-nvidias-gtx-1080-founders-edition/
I can't see the reference card dropping in price, it might fluctuate a bit, until the release of AMD's competing product Vega. Last rumours I saw for Vega said October or 2017 but take that with some seasoning. If you're going for the reference card, keep in mind that the performance may be less than a lot of reviews out there as most I have read have tested the card on an open bench, delaying or possibly avoiding any thermal throttling. That's not to say the card isn't fast, as it is, but more of a heads up that it could perform worse than the reviews. P.S. On the flip side, if you read a review where it thermal throttles, the card could perform better if you provide it with better cooling.
Manufacturer warranty is a big one. EVGA seems really good for it depending on how high end you're going in their lineup, and on the other end of the spectrum I've heard more RMA horror stories about ASUS than I can keep track of. On the card itself, I'd be checking reviews for extra power phases* and trying to find out whether the cooler goes passive when idle. There's also a price difference, EVGA typically won't be the first thing that comes up when you sort the listings by price, but it might be worth the small premium for the warranty alone. In my experience Gigabyte is one of the board partners who's willing to push the price down to the bottom, which is handy because I've found their stuff to be very reliable over the years. *Some have said that the throttling on the Founder's Edition 1080 might have something to do with the power phases, not just the stock firmware, but I'm not sure how true that actually is.
1) Zero-fan mode. If the fans don't shut off when it's under ~50C (or whatever) then ignore it. Several manuf. offer this now and since most after market cards have 2/3 fans you're basically denying yourself a quieter PC 90% of the time. My whole X99 setup is semi-fanless, it's wonderful. 2) Decent after sales support. Do they fix it when things go wrong? How fast? Being without a card for weeks is a no-no. 3) Nice design and some useful features. Gotta have a nice rear backplate imo. That Galax is holysheetballs ugly. 4) Half-decent warranty. To be honest, after 3 years I don't really care. Does anyone have 2 year now? The depreciation kind of makes it not worth it imo.
!). Three cards I have looked at, including Evga, have not mentioned Zero-fan mode. So how do I find out this info. 3) Galax? Another question. I have a Carbide 240 case which I have raised by adding feet, these, and wondered would it be OK to have a GPU other than a reference type as I am concerned about the amount of heat being flung into the case. Currently I have two intake (front) and 2 exhaust (top) with space for 2 80mm in the rear and 2 120mm in the floor of the case. My only problem is these would need to be connected directly to the PSU, given that there are only 2 PWM fan connections on the mobo. Or could I use something like this? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-w...kE3SYfrr0lEyqkwCSZ_3eTwVydqqMoKxsKxoCQHPw_wcB or this? http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog...cU2VxGKLaORxzHKUcacwED2iIpVkj7qpBPhoC2T3w_wcB
Galax = KFA2. Same company different brands for EU/Asia/USA. MSI and ASUS usually have, my Galax/KFA2 960 does and iirc EVGA does on some cards. ASUS calls it 0db and MSI calls it ZERO FROZR The Strix 1080 has two 4-pin fan connectors that tie in its GPU fan control directly into case fans FYI. EDIT: Found it: https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/ROG-STRIX-GTX1080-O8G-GAMING/
