Zotac and EVGA Reveal Custom GeForce GTX 1080 Designs
by Daniel Williams on May 27, 2016 9:00 AM EST
A few weeks back we saw the announcement of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080. NVIDIA put the founders cards on sale first, with third-party cards set to be released later. As we approach the sale date of the 1080 we can now lift the covers on the solutions other vendors will be releasing. Today features cards from both Zotac and EVGA.
Zotac will be releasing two custom version of the GeForce GTX 1080, the GeForce GTX 1080 Amp Edition and Amp Extreme. Both cards will receive their own revision of their Icestorm cooler. The key differences between the two for the cooler is that the the AMP Edition (pictured above) sports five heatpipes and two 100mm fans, while the AMP Extreme will have six heatpipes, three 90mm fans, and those fans will have a new design aimed at reducing the dead spot in the middle of the fan. Zotac claims that on the latter this will increase airflow and reduce noise.
Speaking of noise, both cards will have a 0 dB fan idle mode that they call Freeze, which stops the fan under low load situations. Each of these cards will be wearing what Zotac calls “Carbon Exoarmor”. Featuring a full backplate, a metal fan shroud, and what appears to be carbon fiber highlights.
To aid with fitting these cards in with any build these cards will feature Zotac’s all new Spectra lighting system. Meaning that these cards will have RGB LED’s on both the front and back of the card, and will be fully adjustable from the redesigned FireStorm App. Pricing and availability for these cards is not yet known.
EVGA’s entry into the ring is the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 SC Gaming ACX 3.0. What this will mean is a card that carries the third iteration of their ACX 3.0 Cooler Featuring a 0 dB fan idle mode, RGB lighting, and a load of heatsink changes. EVGA is specific on two features of this cooler including their Straight Heat Pipe 3.0 technology which they say increase heat pipe and copper contact to increase cooling. They also note a cooling plate, a.k.a. heat spreader, that sits between the PCB and the heatsink to cool memory and MOSFETs.
| GTX 1080 Specification Comparison | ||||||
| EVGA GTX 1080 SC Gaming |
GTX 1080 Founders Edition |
|||||
| Core Clock | 1708MHz | 1607MHz | ||||
| Boost Clock | 1847MHz | 1733MHz | ||||
| Memory Clock | 10Gbps GDDR5X | 10Gbps GDDR5X | ||||
| VRAM | 8GB | 8GB | ||||
| TDP | 180W | 180W | ||||
| Launch Date | Early June | 5/27/2016 | ||||
| Launch Price | MSRP: $649.99 | MSRP: $699 | ||||
Worth noting for these numbers is increased base and boost clocks to the tune of about 6%. A moderate but practical difference. Aside from that we are looking at the standard memory and memory speeds. EVGA will also be releasing Precision X 6.0 to Coincide with the upcoming release. The EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 card will release in early June for $649.99.
As the incoming hardware approaches we can look forward to learning more of what the market will bring us. Today saw the announcement of cards from Zotac and EVGA, though I’m sure we’re bound to see many more releases as summer comes upon us. Be sure to keep an eye out here in the coming weeks as review samples start to trickle in.
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usernametaken76 - Monday, May 30, 2016 - link
You were trolling, weren't you?SlyNine - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link
Dam I'll take it. That'll be great for some vr if the add more memory and bus speed. 8k vr here I comeSpetsnazAntiVIP - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link
Definitely going to wait for the EVGA card here. NVIDIA can go fly a kite with that $100 early adopter's tax BS.Flunk - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link
Why wouldn't you? You'd have to be an idiot to buy the sucker edition.mordhau5 - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link
I'm in the process of talking my friend into canceling his FE preorder. What madness the 1080 has wrought on normally sensible people!brucek2 - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link
Many of these aftermarket cards will turn out to be fine cards with mildly better performance and modestly less cost. The aesthetics and fan v. blower applicability are up to the individual buyer's tastes/situation of course. But if I needed a card right now, the biggest factor by far for me would be that some of these aftermarket designs will turn out to have reliability, noise and/or whine issues and there's no way for an ordinary buyer to know today which is which. These answers will all be clear in 2-3 months but keep in mind that in the same way the perf gain is mild, and the cost saving is moderate, a 2-3 month delay in acquiring a top tier card whose reign will last maybe 12 months is also a mild/moderate loss of its own right -- you are giving up a lot of performance in the initial period to get a mild boost for the remainder of the period.I'm waiting because my my current situation is OK - but if I had been making do with a card that wasn't really enough for me while waiting for this launch, then the "sucker edition" could make a lot of sense.
Finally, I would not be shocked if for many day one purchasers of this card, a $50/$100 difference is pocket change of the sort they do not want to spend more than 2 minutes making a decision on. Once they've heard "this is the best card", their decision was done. I suspect nvidia knows/is testing this.
taisserroots - Saturday, May 28, 2016 - link
http://imgur.com/wo65qIyImpulses - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 - link
Who upgrades cards every year these days?Samus - Friday, May 27, 2016 - link
So far, the only blower models are the early adapters cards, and that's a requirement if you are putting one in a tiny ITX chassis. Until someone like PNY makes a cheat blower model the founders edition is all that will work in two of my 3 cases.And there is no arguing the vapor chamber coolers are the most reliable in the industry. I came across a GTX 770 the other day, at least 3 years old, out of a dusty ass workstation and the card is still silent, the motor bearings are perfect and the blower and fins cleaned up well.
taisserroots - Saturday, May 28, 2016 - link
http://imgur.com/wo65qIyLike this?