Gtx 1080 Founder's Edition card or Aftermarket cards? Sli question?

[BoraGurgen]

I am building a pc for 4k gaming. My case is Corsair Graphite 780t full tower. I am really confused which Gtx 1080 to buy. I see linus and all other channels use Founder's Edition cards. I really like the look of Founder's edition (a.k.a. Reference cards) but i know that they work way hotter and with less fps while gaming than aftermarket cards.

Do you think buying Founders Edition card will be stupid act? What other downsides or upsides of FE cards are? How much performance gap are there between aftermarket and FE cards? My other option is Asus Strix.

Can i put sli bridge between different cards? ( like asus strix and founders edition )

[Gonio]

Yes you can put a bridge between any 2 cards. But for SLI nvidia is very picky. Not sure what. That they have founders edition is because thats what send to them from Nvidia.

 

The only reason why a FE is possibly a thing is the blower style cooler that could assist heat transfer in extremly cramped setups. But this is so situational that in most cases aftermarket are still the better option since those overall make less noise and heatoutput anyway + more performance. Overall you can say that you should go aftermarket.

 

Strix are good cooler types. Other note worty are MSI gaming variants and EVGA with ACX 3.0 coolers. Strix makes most noisy compared to these, but it's no yet. Personally the EVGA cards are imo the best total picture of the 10 series.

 

For 4k gaming there is a viable reason for going SLI, but still I would rather crank back the settings here and there with a single 1080 then go SLI that might or might not work.

Could be that the Ti launches once Vega comes. If it is similar in gaming performance like the Titan Xp it is a nice step up that might be worth the wait, but it's still no I can run all 4k ultra easy card.

[HKZeroFive]

The performance gap won't be much (marginal at best) but the Founder's Edition will do produce much more noise and heat than your typical aftermarket card.

 

The ASUS STRIX is the complete polar opposite. One of the best thermal solutions I've seen for Pascal cards so far... and it has a 0dB fan mode (meaning that the fans don't kick in until it reaches a certain temperature).

 

You can put a SLI bridge between a Founder's Edition card and an aftermarket card. But I believe that the faster card will downclock to match the clocks of the slower card. That and it'll look ugly in general.

[BoraGurgen]

Thanks a lot to both of you guys. Much appreciated

5 hours ago, Gonio said:

Strix are good cooler types. Other note worty are MSI gaming variants and EVGA with ACX 3.0 coolers. Strix makes most noisy compared to these, but it's no yet. Personally the EVGA cards are imo the best total picture of the 10 series.

If you were to choose between Asus Strix and EVGA FTW, which one would you choose? and why?

5 hours ago, Gonio said:

For 4k gaming there is a viable reason for going SLI, but still I would rather crank back the settings here and there with a single 1080 then go SLI that might or might not work.

Could be that the Ti launches once Vega comes. If it is similar in gaming performance like the Titan Xp it is a nice step up that might be worth the wait, but it's still no I can run all 4k ultra easy card.

I will buy all components next month on blackfriday and i will buy one gpu for now. As far as i read 1080ti may or may not release on Jan 2017. I don't really have that much time since i have no computer right now and also i will buy components on blackfriday sale. So budget is not enough for sli right now. Maybe next blackfriday. So you are saying that onw 1080 may not have enough performance for 4K ultra gaming, am i right?

5 hours ago, HKZeroFive said:

The performance gap won't be much (marginal at best) but the Founder's Edition will do produce much more noise and heat than your typical aftermarket card.

So do you think buying FE card just for its look is a stupidity or not? Right now MSI 1080 FE is cheaper than all other aftermarket cards and i really love the look of it. I always wanted to buy one but i am concerned about performance, heat and life.

 

Thanks again

 

[Mick Naughty]

I would get evga cards stricky for the programs. After getting my strix and being forced to use gpu tweak I took it back.  In Ali setups I will always run blower style unless I'm on water. Open air produce way to much hot air heating up everything else. So at that point I need just as much air coming in as going out and barley positive air pressure to keep the rest of the components cool. I got better temps with blowers period compared to when they had open air coolers. They also look much better unless you're hopping on the rgb bandwagon. 

[BoraGurgen]

7 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

I would get evga cards stricky for the programs. After getting my strix and being forced to use gpu tweak I took it back.  In Ali setups I will always run blower style unless I'm on water. Open air produce way to much hot air heating up everything else. So at that point I need just as much air coming in as going out and barley positive air pressure to keep the rest of the components cool. I got better temps with blowers period compared to when they had open air coolers. They also look much better unless you're hopping on the rgb bandwagon. 

That's what i wanted to hear. A reason for buying FE card

[Mick Naughty]

8 minutes ago, BoraGurgen said:

That's what i wanted to hear. A reason for buying FE card

But like I mentioned, I could not oc that strix card without using asus's software, which wouldn't give me an ingame overlay like precision x does. Not sure if others are doing it or if there are fixes out now. So because of that I'd get evga fe card or Msi. 

[BoraGurgen]

1 minute ago, Mick Naughty said:

So because of that I'd get evga fe card or Msi.

Msi. For my budget.

[Gonio]

6 hours ago, BoraGurgen said:

If you were to choose between Asus Strix and EVGA FTW, which one would you choose? and why?

As long as it has ACX 3.0 coolers I am all EVGA. Find the looks more appealing (but don't care much about led lights) and I find noiselvls a big thing. I would trade that half % less performance compared to Strix any day. Obviously this is without knowing price difference and possibly availability. Saving 100 euro's on a Strix beats the EVGA for me

 

Anyway, a big point for some could also be EVGA's upgrade program, but havn't used it myself so far, so don't know all details about how that works.

 

6 hours ago, BoraGurgen said:

So you are saying that onw 1080 may not have enough performance for 4K ultra gaming, am i right?

Yeah, on certain titles playing ultra 60 fps 1 1080 is still not enough. But for 4k medium-high havn't seen much problems for getting over 60 fps atleast.