Should I go for a reference card or standard when water cooling?

[JakeF]

Hi all,

 

First things first, I am working on my 2nd rig and first water cooling loop. With that said I am still learning a lot about the PC world and was just informed about how the sales of GPUs work.

 

So, I am wondering if a GPU is being water cooled, should I just get the standard version or still go for a reference card? With the cooling being the same, would the reference card be still better or would it be the same performance as the standard? I am looking at the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB WINDFORCE Video Card or should I just go for a Nvidia 2080 Super?

Part list below. https://pcpartpicker.com/user/DesigningJake/saved/4bgK4D   Going to be using this rig mainly for gaming, designing and why not, streaming.   Any insight would be greatly appreciated!   Thank you, Jake

[Windows7ge]

When you say watercool I'm going to assume you mean custom. What's not so important is a reference cooler but a reference PCB. Most blocks are based off the original AMD/NVIDIA PCB layout but some manufacturers will go the extra mile to design their own custom PCB. Some waterblock manufacturers will design blocks to fit these special cards but not always so make sure it's compatible.

 

Once you replace the stock cooler with the block the temps will be ~ the same regardless of which you started with. It doesn't matter. Unless you had a factory overclock in which case temps may differ.

[Damascus]

Reference = standard cooler, all others are add in board (AIB) GPUs made by the various companies 

19 minutes ago, JakeF said:

I am looking at the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB WINDFORCE Video Card or should I just go for a Nvidia 2080 Super?

The RTX 2080 and the RTX 2080 super are two different models, it isn't just the cooler.  Think of it like a 2080 vs a 2080 ti, they will have vastly different performance and the Super is definitely going to be well, superior 

[JakeF]

Think I am getting it a little better now. Looking at that now, I should have just used the 2080 regular to compare.

 

So if I were to take a Nvidia 2080 and a Gigabyte 2080, then use the same custom water cooling loop on both. The preference on the Gigabyte could be better, depending on the customization they did to the PCB? Though the base still coming from Nvidia?

 

[Damascus]

31 minutes ago, JakeF said:

Think I am getting it a little better now. Looking at that now, I should have just used the 2080 regular to compare.

 

So if I were to take a Nvidia 2080 and a Gigabyte 2080, then use the same custom water cooling loop on both. The preference on the Gigabyte could be better, depending on the customization they did to the PCB? Though the base still coming from Nvidia?

 

Ghe GPU chip is the same, and the PCB is different.  When watercooling, the difference is almost nonexistent, so you need to focus on the availability of waterblocks.  A reference card is garunteed to get a waterblock, but seem to be hellish when it comes to dismantling.  What I would do is get the cheapest GPU that also has a waterblock that you like, and buy it

[thx1138]

So.....For general Compatibility...then the Normal nVidia reference card is best..

However...The other companies bin their memory chips to the Card level you buy...so...if you find a Third-party compatible Watercooler....then generally you will have a far better Mem OC on that compared to the nVidia stock.

 

[JakeF]

Awesome, all explained. Thank you all for helping me with this. I did find a water cooling block for the Gigabyte GPU at EBWK, so most likely going with that.

Though, I can't get all the parts for another 3 weeks, will see if anything drops in price or something new come out lol.

 

Thank you again for your help.

[andrewmp6]

I'd go for the fastest card i can afford and make sure i can get a waterblock for it.Like said most blocks are for the standard pcb cards,But some aib pcb like the strix you can get blocks for.

[JakeF]

Yup, for the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB WINDFORCE I found an EKWB coper water block https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-vector-rtx-re-copper-plexi