Hardwarecannucks EVGA 1080 SC ACX 3.0 review up

[Energycore]

Yet another 1080 that won't go over 2.1GHz

 

Oh well, at least they'll be cheaper than the refounderence. Or will they?

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/Tv38TW/evga-geforce-gtx-1070-8gb-sc-gaming-acx-30-video-card-08g-p4-6173-kr

[Dzzope]

Once supply channels fill, they should be cheaper..

 

Yea, it is just a custom cooled reference design.. We need to see the FTW, strix oc etc to see if extra power is much benefit.

[Big-G]

On 17 June 2016 at 8:32 PM, dragoon20005 said:

I seen the GPU get maxxed out in VRAM but never stutter

 

the big fat bandwidth is helping a lot but prob thermal issues i guess

All Frame Time graphs I've seen of the Fury/X shows it to be a stuttering mess...

 

On 18 June 2016 at 2:17 AM, Lays said:

o really tho

 

To be fare, it's good for whatnit is, the FTW and Classified 's are just so much better

6 hours ago, Energycore said:

Yet another 1080 that won't go over 2.1GHz

 

Oh well, at least they'll be cheaper than the refounderence. Or will they?

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/Tv38TW/evga-geforce-gtx-1070-8gb-sc-gaming-acx-30-video-card-08g-p4-6173-kr

Because reference PCB and locked BIOS...

 

 

[Lays]

11 minutes ago, GidonsClaw said:

All Frame Time graphs I've seen of the Fury/X shows it to be a stuttering mess...

 

To be fare, it's good for whatnit is, the FTW and Classified 's are just so much better

Because reference PCB and locked BIOS...

 

 

It's not because of reference PCB or locked BIOS that the chip can't go further   Most of it has to do with architecture and process size of the chip.  It's extremely difficult to remove the heat fast enough to cool the chip when voltage is added due to how small the process is and how many things are smashed in such a small area.  Maxwell had these same issues, it's why we didn't really see scaling past 1.2-1.25v, but on LN2 / DICE, we saw huge scaling.

 

 

Here is something that TiN wrote, a professional overclocker / "modder" / "electrician" if you will.  He has a HUGE massive guide on how to modify the 1080 to have unlocked voltage & other things needed for extreme overclocking a 1080.  He's also "K|NGP|N's" friend / coworker essentially. He helps design alongside Vince /  EVGA for the cards.

 

Quote

Voltage scaling and “1.25V limit”

There were some rumors spreading wildly these days regarding “1.25V limitation” or whatever on modified GTX 1080 cards, which requires here few words to explain.

Hardware itself is well capable of getting to that and above voltage output for GPU core, but GP104 chip itself now more sensitive to voltage, than even previous Maxwell generation. Part of it due to thinner physical process, other part due to challenges removing heat from all those tightly packed 7.2B transistors quick enough from 21% less surface area. Those overclockers who did 2200+ MHz onGTX 980 Ti’s are well aware of all things required to achieve those high clocks. Same principle applies to Pascal generation. So if you can manage to keep GPU cooled well and have good voltage delivery to it, you indeed can push higher voltages. Cards cooled by liquid nitrogen during this guide testwork were able to run 1.35-1.4V, reaching speeds over 2500 MHz.

Fact that GTX 1080’s capable of reaching 2.1GHz on aircooling without any modifications confuse lot of people, making them to think that these chips can overclock well past 3GHz on liquid nitrogen cooling. But it’s still silicon, with similar architecture, so reality is bit sour. Yes, it allow to get good performance without extreme cooling, but hides the fact that LN2-cooled 980Ti is still much faster than overclocked GTX 1080 due to more shader cores and better CPC performance.

This also brings and answer to the question if overvolting can help OC on aircooling or watercooling. It does not help, due to thermal, which get only worse. Higher temperature render stability and performance decrease. GPU literally overheats and cannot run high frequency anymore, even though temperature is below specified maximum temperature +94°C. Think of it as temperature to frequency dependency, all the way down from +94°C to -196°C, with slope around 100MHz every 50°C. So just like in 980/980Ti/TitanX case, over-voltage on aircooling/watercooling is not recommended, as it gains little if any performance improvement.

Don’t get this message wrong, as GTX 1080/1070 are still great cards for daily gaming/content creation and VR experience. They are fast, not power hungry, moderately cool. The only catch is that overclocking them is not as fun and rewarding as it was on previous generations, even considering all tricks involved to get Maxwell clock high.

As usual, any feedback and questions are appreciated. Feel free to share link to this guide, but keep links and references intact, as guide likely to be updated in future.

 

 

 

Quote source:

 

https://xdevs.com/guide/pascal_oc/

[handymanshandle]

On 6/17/2016 at 6:02 AM, AHaskin14 said:

waaaant. Can't wait to order my 1070

I like the way ACX 3.0 looks but looking at some inital prices for the SC ACX 3.0 GTX 1070, it might still be pretty expensive by October so I think I might go with an RX 480. Would make Linux a little easier to deal with too by going with an AMD card. So idk. Kinda wished EVGA would maybe give AMD a try with ACX 3.0 but that would probably never happen. Since AMD technically has quite a few exclusive brands where Nvidia has some but I don't think quite as many as AMD. But ACX 3.0 would look great on like an RX 480. Since the rumored Sapphire Nitro cooler looks like it might end up looking like a cheese grater. 

[Dzzope]

@wcreekEverything I hear from people who really use (and game) on unix is that AMD drivers are trash.. intel are better and nvidia aren't as bad. Don't ask me why technically (1 friend specifically explained why but I'm not as technical as him, He's CTO for a big tech company and uses Gentoo as his daily driver even for games, the little he gets to play) So I'd do more digging if I were you on that count.

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, Dzzope said:

@wcreekEverything I hear from people who really use (and game) on unix is that AMD drivers are trash.. intel are better and nvidia aren't as bad. Don't ask me why technically (1 friend specifically explained why but I'm not as technical as him, He's CTO for a big tech company and uses Gentoo as his daily driver even for games, the little he gets to play) So I'd do more digging if I were you on that count.

Huh I've heard the opposite

[Energycore]

1 hour ago, GidonsClaw said:

Because reference PCB and locked BIOS.

Cards with custom PCBs are still not going over 2.1

 

As for BIOS, I would have expected BIOS tweakers to crack it already, but I'll keep waiting.

[Lays]

19 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Cards with custom PCBs are still not going over 2.1

 

As for BIOS, I would have expected BIOS tweakers to crack it already, but I'll keep waiting.

I mean people are hitting 2.175-2.2, but those are just great samples, and not for 24/7 clocks, more for short OC sessions.  My post above shows why BIOS won't help either, it's limitations of the process / gpu itself, not BIOS/ hardware related.

[Energycore]

1 hour ago, wcreek said:

I like the way ACX 3.0 looks but looking at some inital prices for the SC ACX 3.0 GTX 1070, it might still be pretty expensive by October so I think I might go with an RX 480. Would make Linux a little easier to deal with too by going with an AMD card. So idk. Kinda wished EVGA would maybe give AMD a try with ACX 3.0 but that would probably never happen. Since AMD technically has quite a few exclusive brands where Nvidia has some but I don't think quite as many as AMD. But ACX 3.0 would look great on like an RX 480. Since the rumored Sapphire Nitro cooler looks like it might end up looking like a cheese grater. 

I heard the Sapphire Nitro "Showerhead" cooler is fake. There's a couple bits that suggest a photoshopped job (like the fact that the back of the Nitro showed to us had the reference PCB + PCB compensator even though non-blower cards don't need it.

 

Also, maybe you can buy an ACX 3.0 cooler off Ebay (from someone who bought the card, stuck a waterblock in it and wants something for the cooler) and put it in the RX480

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

I heard the Sapphire Nitro "Showerhead" cooler is fake. There's a couple bits that suggest a photoshopped job (like the fact that the back of the Nitro showed to us had the reference PCB + PCB compensator even though non-blower cards don't need it.

 

Also, maybe you can buy an ACX 3.0 cooler off Ebay (from someone who bought the card, stuck a waterblock in it and wants something for the cooler) and put it in the RX480

That'd be interesting but would look a little odd.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, wcreek said:

That'd be interesting but would look a little odd.

Perhaps because the ACX 3.0 cooler is supersized in all directions, yeah. Like putting a V8 engine on a tricycle.

[BuckGup]

Wow all the new Nvidia cards are very lackluster. I would expect more from a node shrink and GDDR5X. 

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

I heard the Sapphire Nitro "Showerhead" cooler is fake. There's a couple bits that suggest a photoshopped job (like the fact that the back of the Nitro showed to us had the reference PCB + PCB compensator even though non-blower cards don't need it.

 

Also, maybe you can buy an ACX 3.0 cooler off Ebay (from someone who bought the card, stuck a waterblock in it and wants something for the cooler) and put it in the RX480

But I hope the Showerhead or Cheese Grater cooler is fake.

 

thanks reddit

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

Perhaps because the ACX 3.0 cooler is supersized in all directions, yeah. Like putting a V8 engine on a tricycle.

Sounds about right.

[unsubscribed]

On 6/17/2016 at 6:12 PM, ApolloFury said:

The prefer the minimalist, non-gamery look of the last generation ACX.

You called that "conservative"?! Look at that bling bling, mesh on top of mesh, Bolts on the meshes and lots of cutouts.  

These are proper conservative, minimalist cards:

You have a point. But I am talking about NVidia GTX 10xx series mainly. Although I saw Sapphire one on AMD camp for new lineup - looks like shower head. Overall this generation (NVidia GTX 10xx and AMD 4xx) looks like a joke to me. I don't know if they are tired of innovating or trying something new (and not particularly well).