Who prefers the Founders Edition?

[Twitchstick]

Am I the only one who prefers the Founders Edition for this new series? I know they are more expensive for less efficient cooling. But as for design and build quality, they look and feel more premium. I have a Founders Edition GTX 1070, and I can't seem to find a AIB card that improves on anything other then cooling. Some aesthetics might be a little more appealing but not by much. I'm not a huge fan or RGB either.

[Leonard]

Anyone with a waterblock i guess.

[Twitchstick]

Just now, Leonard said:

Anyone with a waterblock i guess.

True and I forgot to mention that point. I don't plan on water cooling my system though. 

[HKZeroFive]

The only things the Founder's Edition has going for are the looks, since most custom models (particularly EVGA's) look bleh, and for some reason, overclock better.

 

Otherwise, they're not worth the premium.

[Deli]

For a real small itx rig, blower card works better.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

14 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Anyone with a waterblock i guess.

The EVGA ACX 3.0 versions (Stock and Superclocked) uses the reference board layout, making them compatible with the normal waterblocks. The FTW, Hybrid, Hydro Copper, and the Classified/K|NGP|N versions requires a special waterblock design for those cards in order to work properly.

 

This is the reference layout for the GeForce GTX 1080. Board layouts will vary depending on brand and model. I chose EVGA to demonstrate this.

 

Founders Edition and ACX 3.0 (Superclocked also counts)

Spoiler

 

FTW

Spoiler

 

Classified

Spoiler

Source: EK Cooling Configurator

 

On topic: I much prefer the lower price tag and the better cooling of the ACX 3.0 version. I can easily overclock just as good as the Founders Edition and get better temps at the end of the day. The Founders Edition is not a good investment IMO...

[chatter_box]

4 minutes ago, Twitchstick said:

True and I forgot to mention that point. I don't plan on water cooling my system though. 

I personally think that the founders edition is useless in most scenarios, unless you're doing a water loop, which you are not. The FE edition is way more expensive then say a Gigabyte G1 gaming, and the G1 gaming will have more overclocking headroom and just perform better. If you are looking for build quality, just get an EVGA one or a Asus Strix (even though you don't like RGB you can turn it off.) The only time I think a FE edition would be good is when there is a two way SLI with the Nvidia FE SLI bridge and the light up green logo. 

[m_tieu]

Founders edition is definitely not worth it. For the premium you pay plus the price of the waterblock, you could get a MSI Seahawk EK or EVGA Hydrocopper version of the card with a waterblock already installed.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

1 minute ago, Chatter_Box said:

I personally think that the founders edition is useless in most scenarios, unless you're doing a water loop, which you are not. The FE edition is way more expensive then say a Gigabyte G1 gaming, and the G1 gaming will have more overclocking headroom and just perform better. If you are looking for build quality, just get an EVGA one or a Asus Strix (even though you don't like RGB you can turn it off.) The only time I think a FE edition would be good is when there is a two way SLI with the Nvidia FE SLI bridge and the light up green logo. 

 

Just now, m_tieu said:

Founders edition is definitely not worth it. For the premium you pay plus the price of the waterblock, you could get a MSI Seahawk EK or EVGA Hydrocopper version of the card with a waterblock already installed.

You should check out my reply I posted

[Deli]

1 hour ago, m_tieu said:

Founders edition is definitely not worth it. For the premium you pay plus the price of the waterblock, you could get a MSI Seahawk EK or EVGA Hydrocopper version of the card with a waterblock already installed.

Depends on where you live. In the Netherlands, the price of F.E. card has dropped to a point, it is 100 euro less than many aftermarket cards, like the MSI Gaming X. So if someone plans to watercooling, a F.E. card with a EK water block is about the same price of a regular A.I.B. card here.

[DrMikeNZ]

23 minutes ago, Twitchstick said:

Am I the only one who prefers the Founders Edition for this new series?

I prefer the founders because they are significantly cheaper where I live.

~$880 USD for founders GTX 1080 compared to ~$1050 USD for AIB GTX 1080's.

~$635 USD for founders GTX 1070 compared to ~$755 USD for AIB GTX 1070's.

 

I do like the aesthetics of the Asus Strix (and the GPU controlled fan headers) as this card would match well with the rest of my system.

[m_tieu]

1 minute ago, Deli said:

Depends on where you live. In the Netherlands, the price of F.E. card has dropped to a point, it is 100 euro less than many aftermarket cards, like the MSI Gaming X. So if someone plans to watercooling, a F.E. card with a EK water block is about the same price of a regular A.I.B. card here.

nVidia has really messed up the pricing with this generation of cards. In Canada a FE 1080 is $910 and an EK block plus backplate is $200 for a total of $1110. Whereas the MSI Seahawk EK is only $1100 with the block and backplate installed plus factory OC.

[Zyndo]

14 minutes ago, HKZeroFive said:

The only things the Founder's Edition has going for are the looks, since most custom models (particularly EVGA's) look bleh, and for some reason, overclock better.

 

Otherwise, they're not worth the premium.

So what you're saying is, its only worth getting one for a higher price because it looks better and performs better? why else would anyone pay a higher price for a GPU? lol

11 minutes ago, Chatter_Box said:

I personally think that the founders edition is useless in most scenarios, unless you're doing a water loop, which you are not. The FE edition is way more expensive then say a Gigabyte G1 gaming, and the G1 gaming will have more overclocking headroom and just perform better

For previous generations and the "reference coolers" I would definitely agree, but all pascal cards are overclocking to about the same area right now (~2100Mhz), with the exception of the FE card. a lot of FE cards are actually able to pass that mark by a fair amount according to most reviews I've seen. Obviously it has thermal issues due to its crappy cooler, but as far as raw performance goes, its currently king of the hill.

[DrMikeNZ]

3 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

a lot of FE cards are actually able to pass that mark by a fair amount according to most reviews I've seen

I am speculating that this was partially due to binning of GPUs that were sent to reviewers.

Not that anyone would admit to this if it was the case.

[HKZeroFive]

6 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

So what you're saying is, its only worth getting one for a higher price because it looks better and performs better? why else would anyone pay a higher price for a GPU? lol

Well, for starters, not everybody likes the cooler. Much less than pay an extra $50-100 for worse temps.

 

I have a suspicion that FE cards are binned but like all Pascal cards, have limitations which means that overclocking doesn't make as big of a performance gap as previous gens.

[Zyndo]

5 minutes ago, HKZeroFive said:

I have a suspicion that FE cards are binned but like all Pascal cards, have limitations which means that overclocking doesn't make as big of a performance gap as previous gens.

 

Its not that pascal cards have limitations, therefore overclocking doesn't make that big of a difference. Rather, most pascal cards hit the same overclocking limit  which makes premium overclocking cards largely useless, in comparison to previous generations.

Overclocking still makes a BIG difference.

 

[CrackheadKyle]

50 minutes ago, Twitchstick said:

Am I the only one who prefers the Founders Edition for this new series? I know they are more expensive for less efficient cooling. But as for design and build quality, they look and feel more premium. I have a Founders Edition GTX 1070, and I can't seem to find a AIB card that improves on anything other then cooling. Some aesthetics might be a little more appealing but not by much. I'm not a huge fan or RGB either.

I prefer it actually here is why

 

First off for cramped situations like me it doesn't spit heat into case but Immediately OUT of it

and at 80-100% fan speed it doesn't actually stellar cooling at not bad acoustics like in Doom

at Max settings 1080p and OC'ed to 2.1 GHZ at around 90% Fan speed temps are around 54C

That and you do get the Geforce GTX green side LED which I like and the shroud industrial 

design looks nice too and let's face it you'd be lucky to get 2.2 GHZ AT BEST when OCing

any other GPU so yeah 

 

[Dunxy]

I prefer look of founders for-sure! But ive never been impressed with thermals and fan life-span on reference coolers.Last time i had a reference card was when i had 2 x 8800gts's many moons ago!

[ace_cheaply]

Boo Fanboy Edition, go Strix, lol.

 

Also, just for you, mate:

 

 

[HKZeroFive]

4 hours ago, Zyndo said:

Its not that pascal cards have limitations, therefore overclocking doesn't make that big of a difference. Rather, most pascal cards hit the same overclocking limit  which makes premium overclocking cards largely useless, in comparison to previous generations.

Overclocking still makes a BIG difference.

Pretty much. That overclocking limit is due to the smaller node. The smaller process means that the transistors are closer together, meaning that it'll be harder to dissipate heat, hence what I meant by 'limitations'. And basically the reason why it's so hard for GTX 1080s to surpass that golden 2.1 GHz mark and has quite major issues concerning voltage scaling which means that the extra fancy power phases and custom PCBs that cards such as the Classy have don't really do much. And the fact that the Classy isn't even binned.

 

After a little more digging around, some people are saying that their FEs don't seem to be binned. It's just a silicon lottery after all. So I'll just go back on my statement and say that FEs are pretty much for their looks.

 

I agree on the point that overclocking makes a significant difference but there's a reason why an OC GTX 980Ti can match or surpass an OC GTX 1070.

[porina]

5 hours ago, Deli said:

For a real small itx rig, blower card works better.

This is the reason I have a 1070 FE on its way to me now. The FE is small enough to fit in the case, and the heat is mostly vented externally, not into the case. Also pricing has dropped on FE models. One I got was £400, compared to £380 for the cheapest AIB which wouldn't fit and would dump heat into the case even if it did.

[roughavoc]

The thing is, for the 1070 the FE isn't even that bad, they across the board OC higher and its lower TDP means the cooler can actually handle it

Whilst most people don't like their stuff running at 78C because some guru on forums said its bad and it will die sooner, that is a fine temp and if its cheaper than AIB and you really like the look of it, pick it up.

 

The 1080 however is a different story, without custom fan curves the cooler cannot take the extra power and therefore I will always advise not getting one.

[Prokart2000]

I prefer it, im most likely getting a 1060 fe with my upgrades to match the green

[LordLeewee]

ive always preferred the looks of reference/founders cards. mine sits at 80c and 2000+mhz without being any louder than my old strix 970 was. 

[FusionDeck]

I much prefer the appearance of the FE over basically any other AIB partner, but the cooling isn't as good. I like the SC editions from EVGA but the ACX 3.0 design isn't as good as the 2.0 design in my opinion. Next best choice for design (over the FE) would probs be the Asus Strix design.