Overclocking Founders Edition vs AIB Graphics on Water

[Boothy128]

Hi guys, 

 

I am just finishing off building a new water cooled pc and I need some advice when it comes to a new graphics card. 

 

I plan to run the new graphics card in a custom EK water cooled loop. I will add it to my cpu loop which is a 7700k in a 360mm+240mm set up with EK vardar fans. 

 

Should I get a founder's edition 1080ti, or a pre-overclocked card like the MSI 1080ti Gaming X?

 

Each scenario sees me adding an AM waterblock to the gpu. So the question is really - do founder's edition gpus overclock just as well as custom pcb aib cards when on water?

 

Cheers, 

Mike 

 

 

[Pickelhaube]

4 minutes ago, Boothy128 said:

Hi guys, 

 

I am just finishing off building a new water cooled pc and I need some advice when it comes to a new graphics card. 

 

I plan to run the new graphics card in a custom EK water cooled loop. I will add it to my cpu loop which is a 7700k in a 360mm+240mm set up with EK vardar fans. 

 

Should I get a founder's edition 1080ti, or a pre-overclocked card like the MSI 1080ti Gaming X?

 

Each scenario sees me adding an AM waterblock to the gpu. So the question is really - do founder's edition gpus overclock just as well as custom pcb aib cards when on water?

 

Cheers, 

Mike 

 

 

If i recall correctly, the AIBs should have more power phases, so you would most likely be able to overclock it further. I would go with one.

[jj9987]

7 minutes ago, RektSkrubs said:

If i recall correctly, the AIBs should have more power phases, so you would most likely be able to overclock it further. I would go with one.

Not all custom PCB cards have waterblocks available though. 

More power phases does not necessarily mean better overclocking. If you don't have luck with silicon lottery, the additional power phases won't help much.

[done12many2]

15 minutes ago, Boothy128 said:

Hi guys, 

 

I am just finishing off building a new water cooled pc and I need some advice when it comes to a new graphics card. 

 

I plan to run the new graphics card in a custom EK water cooled loop. I will add it to my cpu loop which is a 7700k in a 360mm+240mm set up with EK vardar fans. 

 

Should I get a founder's edition 1080ti, or a pre-overclocked card like the MSI 1080ti Gaming X?

 

Each scenario sees me adding an AM waterblock to the gpu. So the question is really - do founder's edition gpus overclock just as well as custom pcb aib cards when on water?

 

Cheers, 

Mike 

 

With Pascal based cards, the only thing that truly matters are temps.  The cooler you run them, the better they boost and hold.  Upgraded power delivery setups beyond that of the FE or reference cards are useless when you are talking about ambient cooling methods (air or water).  They matter when extreme cooling is used, but that's about it.

 

If you are going to water cool them, a FE or reference card with a waterblock will work perfectly.  You get zero gains from aftermarket power delivery designs.  In the end, it will boil down to how cool you can cool the GPU itself and how good the silicon is.  

 

Good luck.

[Ryoku]

19 minutes ago, Boothy128 said:

Hi guys, 

 

I am just finishing off building a new water cooled pc and I need some advice when it comes to a new graphics card. 

 

I plan to run the new graphics card in a custom EK water cooled loop. I will add it to my cpu loop which is a 7700k in a 360mm+240mm set up with EK vardar fans. 

 

Should I get a founder's edition 1080ti, or a pre-overclocked card like the MSI 1080ti Gaming X?

 

Each scenario sees me adding an AM waterblock to the gpu. So the question is really - do founder's edition gpus overclock just as well as custom pcb aib cards when on water?

 

Cheers, 

Mike 

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

 

With Pascal based cards, the only thing that truly matters are temps.  The cooler you run them, the better they boost and hold.  Upgraded power delivery setups beyond that of the FE or reference cards are useless when you are talking about ambient cooling methods (air or water).  They matter when extreme cooling is used, but that's about it.

 

If you are going to water cool them, a FE or reference card with a waterblock will work perfectly.  You get zero gains from aftermarket power delivery designs.  In the end, it will boil down to how cool you can cool the GPU itself and how good the silicon is.  

 

Good luck.

As stated above it doesn't really matter as temps are really the limiting factor along with the silicon  you end up with some chips are better then others and its random whether you get a bad, good, or great chip.  In this case i'd go with a FE edition from EVGA or one of their cheaper models that has a block available for it as they have the best warranty.

[Boothy128]

5 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

 

With Pascal based cards, the only thing that truly matters are temps.  The cooler you run them, the better they boost and hold.  Upgraded power delivery setups beyond that of the FE or reference cards are useless when you are talking about ambient cooling methods (air or water).  They matter when extreme cooling is used, but that's about it.

 

If you are going to water cool them, a FE or reference card with a waterblock will work perfectly.  You get zero gains from aftermarket power delivery designs.  In the end, it will boil down to how cool you can cool the GPU itself and how good the silicon is.  

 

Good luck.

Hey, thanks for your advice. Have you seen any articles that discuss this topic? What you say is logical. It would be great to see some benchmark numbers though 

 

I noticed your 5.3ghz OC on your 7700k - wow! 

 

Finalky, may I ask if are you using FE (Reference) 1080s in your Sli setup, and what mhz range do they fall in when under load? 

[Boothy128]

3 minutes ago, Ryoku said:

 

As stated above it doesn't really matter as temps are really the limiting factor along with the silicon  you end up with some chips are better then others and its random whether you get a bad, good, or great chip.  In this case i'd go with a FE edition from EVGA or one of their cheaper models that has a block available for it as they have the best warranty.

Thanks for the advice. I was looking at EVGA for the FE card already. I heard that they have a good warranty and customer care when it came to watercooling. 

 

I think someone said that Msi also have decent warranty, but I've had two Msi 980ti cards die in the last 12 months so I'll be skipping them for a while 

[done12many2]

10 minutes ago, Boothy128 said:

Hey, thanks for your advice. Have you seen any articles that discuss this topic? What you say is logical. It would be great to see some benchmark numbers though 

 

Check out the LTT benchmark threads at the top of the GPU section. 

 

Quote

I noticed your 5.3ghz OC on your 7700k - wow! 

 

 

Yeah, it's a great chip. I've binned a lot of 7700ks to find the good ones. 

 

Quote

Finalky, may I ask if are you using FE (Reference) 1080s in your Sli setup, and what mhz range do they fall in when under load? 

 

Yes, I'm using EVGA FE 1080s at the moment, but will be switching to EVGA FE 1080 TIs at the beginning of next week. 

 

Overclocked boost on my 1080s can go as high as 2200 MHz when cool and under lighter loads such as Unigine Valley.  Heavier loads can cause drops down to the lower 2100s.

 

Water, especially customs loops with full blocks can really help push these cards to their limits. The FE power delivery is more then enough. 

[Ryoku]

6 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

 

Check out the LTT benchmark threads at the top of the GPU section. 

 

 

Yeah, it's a great chip. I've binned a lot of 7700ks to find the good ones. 

 

 

Yes, I'm using EVGA FE 1080s at the moment, but will be switching to EVGA FE 1080 TIs at the beginning of next week. 

 

Overclocked boost on my 1080s can go as high as 2200 MHz when cool and under lighter loads such as Unigine Valley.  Heavier loads can cause drops down to the lower 2100s.

 

Water, especially customs loops with full blocks can really help push these cards to their limits. The FE power delivery is more then enough. 

2200mhz displayed in unigine or msi afterburner (or similar program)? Cuz Unigine is bugged a shows higher clock speeds then it's actually getting.  Otherwise yea 2100-2200 is pretty good, but still not worth the price of water cooling by itself these gpu's can hit 2000s +/- on air.

[done12many2]

19 minutes ago, Ryoku said:

2200mhz displayed in unigine or msi afterburner (or similar program)? Cuz Unigine is bugged a shows higher clock speeds then it's actually getting.  Otherwise yea 2100-2200 is pretty good, but still not worth the price of water cooling by itself these gpu's can hit 2000s +/- on air.

I wouldn't give you clock speeds based off of what Valley, Heaven, or Superposition report. 

 

Hitting and holding are two different things, but the "worth" is up to you.  I upgrade GPUs regularly and waterblocks each time. It's obviously worth it to me.

 

I should add, most would view a custom loop to cool a CPU enough for an extra 100 MHz, not worth the added expense. I mean we are talking a roughly 2% gain in processing power. 

[Ithanul]

18 hours ago, jj9987 said:

Not all custom PCB cards have waterblocks available though. 

More power phases does not necessarily mean better overclocking. If you don't have luck with silicon lottery, the additional power phases won't help much.

This.  Be careful with AIB cards.  Not all get full blocks.

Of course, you can always smack an universal block onto the card.  EVGA tends to put the thermal mid plate on most cards.  Works great with an universal block, just make sure to have a fan blowing across the plate.

18 hours ago, Boothy128 said:

Thanks for the advice. I was looking at EVGA for the FE card already. I heard that they have a good warranty and customer care when it came to watercooling. 

 

I think someone said that Msi also have decent warranty, but I've had two Msi 980ti cards die in the last 12 months so I'll be skipping them for a while 

Yep, EVGA don't void warranty if you smack a block on or redo TIM.  Plus, the warranty follows the card.

[Boothy128]

I've just ordered an EVGA FE 1080ti - can't wait until i arrives tomorrow!

 

EK now have this block available for it: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-fc-1080-gtx-ti-nickel which I'll order - unless anyone can suggest a better alternative?

 

For example, I can get the Titan XP block for cheaper, and I'm pretty sure that I've seen someone with one of these installed on a Ti

[done12many2]

21 minutes ago, Boothy128 said:

I've just ordered an EVGA FE 1080ti - can't wait until i arrives tomorrow!

 

EK now have this block available for it: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-fc-1080-gtx-ti-nickel which I'll order - unless anyone can suggest a better alternative?

 

For example, I can get the Titan XP block for cheaper, and I'm pretty sure that I've seen someone with one of these installed on a Ti

 

That's exactly what I ordered for my 1080 Ti SLI. 

 

2 x nickel 1080 Ti waterblocks and 2 x black 1080 Ti backplates. I got all of it for $247.47 during the EK Easter egg hunt sale because I was able to find all of the eggs. 

 

The best thing about the EK 1080 Ti blocks is that they come with the new I/O bracket so that the entire card will fit into a single slot with the waterblock installed.  That is not included with the current Titan X (Pascal) waterblock. 

[Boothy128]

Hmm, deciding whether to get the back plate or not. £27 is a lot for what it is. 

 

Do you think that the FE backplate will still fit after the water block has been fitted?

 

I was still using the original backplate on my watercooled msi gaming 6G 980ti because I liked how it looked (before it smoked last weekend). Can't say that the 1080ti FE backplate thrills me...

[Boothy128]

I cracked - ordered the backplate

[0ld_Chicken]

9 hours ago, Boothy128 said:

Hmm, deciding whether to get the back plate or not. £27 is a lot for what it is. 

 

Do you think that the FE backplate will still fit after the water block has been fitted?

 

I was still using the original backplate on my watercooled msi gaming 6G 980ti because I liked how it looked (before it smoked last weekend). Can't say that the 1080ti FE backplate thrills me...

I think I saw that the stock backplate will fit but it needs to be modified by drilling out the screw holes to accommodate the larger diameter screws that hold the block on.  Not supported by EK but several have done it

edit: also just for anyones information, Watercool has a dedicated full cover 1080ti block in stock (just like Titan x but with NO DVI cutout) and they will be releasing a black/plexi version within the next week I hope