Deciding on Which 1080ti to get

[Daniel644]

Long story short, an app my sister turned me onto (Ibotta) is offering 15% cashback from Jet.com orders (limit of $100 per order) if I stack that with the rebates Jet.com already has and factor in tax I could get a Founder's Edition for a NET price of under 600 bucks or the Asus Strix for 680 or the EVGA SC2 for about 15 bucks cheaper then the Asus or the FTW3 for about 15 more then the Asus.

 

I really wanted to wait for Vega, but I know we won't see prices this low in the general market, which would you go with? at this price it may be worth doing the founders card then fitting a AIO kit to it down the road a few months, thoughts?

[DocSwag]

SC2 if you just want a 1080 ti that is decent. Strix if you want the more RGB or already have an asus mobo with rgb

[NicholasNicholasNicholas]

3 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

Long story short, an app my sister turned me onto (Ibotta) is offering 15% cashback from Jet.com orders (limit of $100 per order) if I stack that with the rebates Jet.com already has and factor in tax I could get a Founder's Edition for a NET price of under 600 bucks or the Asus Strix for 680 or the EVGA SC2 for about 15 bucks cheaper then the Asus or the FTW3 for about 15 more then the Asus.

 

I really wanted to wait for Vega, but I know we won't see prices this low in the general market, which would you go with? at this price it may be worth doing the founders card then fitting a AIO kit to it down the road a few months, thoughts?

leaks say that vega wont be more than 600 dollars, and its for sure better than a 1080ti (the high end model at least)

[Shiv78]

SC2 if you don't want RGB

[Daniel644]

5 minutes ago, Shiv78 said:

SC2 if you don't want RGB

what about the SC Black Edition, how does it compare to the SC2, It would be about 30 bucks cheaper then the SC2

[Spuriae]

SC2 is a Founder's edition PCB with extra temperature sensors; SC Black is a FE card without the sensors. EVGA is going overboard with this thermal thing; they're also the loudest US aftermarket cards because the fan curve is so aggressive.

 

I'd get an MSI Duke when it goes back in stock. Cheaper than anything you're considering, with a better cooler, backplate, RGB, and the best VRM. The Aorus is also the same price as the SC Black and a better card.

[MysticLTT]

I'm not a fan of a big EVGA and a card model logo they slapped on a card. Strix looks more minimalist, but also like a big radiator brick with strange plastic cutouts.

 

Having said that, MSI TwinFrozer and Aorus are absolutely horrendous, and tasteless with stupid color accents and logos. Why is it so hard to design a good looking card for this much money.

 

 

Out of all the offerings I would go with Strix.

[Daniel644]

4 minutes ago, Nimrodor said:

SC2 is a Founder's edition PCB with extra temperature sensors; SC Black is a FE card without the sensors. EVGA is going overboard with this thermal thing; they're also the loudest US aftermarket cards because the fan curve is so aggressive.

 

I'd get an MSI Duke when it goes back in stock. Cheaper than anything you're considering, with a better cooler, backplate, RGB, and the best VRM. The Aorus is also the same price as the SC Black and a better card.

not a fan of the Aorus due to the orange accents.

 

4 minutes ago, MysticLTT said:

I'm not a fan of a big EVGA and a card model logo they slapped on a card. Strix looks more minimalist, but also like a big radiator brick with strange plastic cutouts.

 

Having said that, MSI TwinFrozer and Aorus are absolutely horrendous, and tasteless with stupid color accents and logos. Why is it so hard to design a good looking card for this much money.

 

 

Out of all the offerings I would go with Strix.

I prefer the look of the Strix myself, but the price I can get the Founders, I could also get EVGA's Hybrid Kit and only be like 20 bucks or so more expensive then the Strix (basically the cost of the FTW3)

[MysticLTT]

8 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

not a fan of the Aorus due to the orange accents.

 

I prefer the look of the Strix myself, but the price I can get the Founders, I could also get EVGA's Hybrid Kit and only be like 20 bucks or so more expensive then the Strix (basically the cost of the FTW3)

If you have time and desire to mess with the kit, then should get better thermals.

[VagabondWraith]

If you're using a Hybrid Kit then get a reference design.  Otherwise get the cheapest.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

I have an Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti, as it looks cool IMO and it runs objectively cooler over the Founders Edition. If you're expecting any better performance with an AIB option over the reference-reference one (with the radial fan or more commonly referred to as "blower"), you're sore outta luck. They're going to perform the same, give or take a few percentage points.

[Daniel644]

1 minute ago, JurunceNK said:

I have an Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti, as it looks cool IMO and it runs objectively cooler over the Founders Edition. If you're expecting any better performance with an AIB option over the reference-reference one (with the radial fan or more commonly referred to as "blower"), you're sore outta luck. They're going to perform the same, give or take a few percentage points.

only reason to go Reference then do the Hybrid conversion is purely for the acoustics, it would be a small price premium over over the Strix but should cut down noise levels compared to strix

[Marinatall_Ironside]

Just now, Daniel644 said:

only reason to go Reference then do the Hybrid conversion is purely for the acoustics, it would be a small price premium over over the Strix but should cut down noise levels compared to strix

Yeah. Reason why I went with the Strix over the reference is for the RGB lighting and Aura synchronization, aesthetics (it matches up with my motherboard nicely), and for the fact that I'm not going to be water-cooling my GPU for a while, and when I do, I plan on grabbing a Phanteks Glacier G1080 Ti Strix RGB waterblock.

[Shiv78]

1 hour ago, Nimrodor said:

The Aorus is also the same price as the SC Black and a better card.

The Aorus card has already had dozens of reports of shitty units just on this forum.

[Spuriae]

1 hour ago, Shiv78 said:

The Aorus card has already had dozens of reports of shitty units just on this forum.

People also believe that EVGA's VRM issues were caused by shoddy cooling and that they were widespread. 

 

Confirmation bias is a powerful thing; where people expect to find problems, they will find problems.

[Guest lilbman]

3 hours ago, Daniel644 said:

Long story short, an app my sister turned me onto (Ibotta) is offering 15% cashback from Jet.com orders (limit of $100 per order) if I stack that with the rebates Jet.com already has and factor in tax I could get a Founder's Edition for a NET price of under 600 bucks or the Asus Strix for 680 or the EVGA SC2 for about 15 bucks cheaper then the Asus or the FTW3 for about 15 more then the Asus.

 

I really wanted to wait for Vega, but I know we won't see prices this low in the general market, which would you go with? at this price it may be worth doing the founders card then fitting a AIO kit to it down the road a few months, thoughts?

I have two FE cards and both are modified to be Hybrid cards, meaning they are both air cooled and water cooled.

[Daniel644]

4 minutes ago, lilbman said:

I have two FE cards and both are modified to be Hybrid cards, meaning they are both air cooled and water cooled.

is it possible to retain the part of the FE shroud (with modifications of course) that Gamers Nexus left off in there Hybrid build?

[Guest lilbman]

11 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

is it possible to retain the part of the FE shroud (with modifications of course) that Gamers Nexus left off in there Hybrid build?

It's possible, but it would be difficult.  You would have to cut out where the cooling part meets the die and cut out a slot for the tubing.  Even then, I do not know if that would work.

[VagabondWraith]

12 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

is it possible to retain the part of the FE shroud (with modifications of course) that Gamers Nexus left off in there Hybrid build?

EVGA has a Hybrid Kit specifically for the 1080 Ti with a proper faceplate. 

 

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=400-HY-5388-B1

 

You can do the way GamersNexus did theirs and it works just fine. I wouldn't suggest cutting the FE cooler especially if you plan to resell it.

[Daniel644]

Just now, VagabondWraith said:

EVGA has a Hybrid Kit specifically for the 1080 Ti with a proper faceplate. 

 

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=400-HY-5388-B1

 

You can do the way GamersNexus did theirs and it works just fine. I wouldn't suggest cutting the FE cooler especially if you plan to resell it.

not a huge fan of the EVGA shroud, thats why I was asking about modding the shroud, but I wouldn't ever be reselling, this PC is a one and done, it will be my last personal desktop (also the first i've done in over a decade since I did my last upgrade cycle, no joke my last desktop has an AGP interface for it's GPU, it's been that long, just did some more looking, I can get the Seahawk X for like 45 bucks more then the Strix but having trouble finding reviews.

[Daniel644]

alright, been researching for the last few hours, due to the pricing I think the smart option is to grab a Founders card then do like a Kraken G12 with like an H55 or some other AIO, that can be done for like 2 bucks more then the Asus Strix card and likely have better temps from what i've seen so far and worst case I just get the EVGA Hybrid kit, which is about the same cost as buying something like the seahawk, but I can do it in stages instead of spending all the money right now..

[Daniel644]

Well it's HERE,

 

did some preliminary testing (now its time to eat and go to bed), used the EVGA Precision X OC software, increased the Power Target to 120% set Priority to temperature (if I set to power target it crashes just after finishing the benchmark with the other settings the same) and managed to achieve a +150 on the core and a +400 on the memory (but I never tried to take the memory further) then set the fan speed to Jet Engine mode (otherwise known as 80%) for a peak core clock of 2050 and with the fans ramped up to 80% so it never exceeds 70C the lowest the core clock dropped during the benchmark was 1923, for a card this cheap I think thats pretty good, definitely gonna need to look into doing a Hybrid mod, my computer was SO QUIET, now it's got this noise machine in it.

[Shiv78]

5 hours ago, Daniel644 said:

Well it's HERE,

 

did some preliminary testing (now its time to eat and go to bed), used the EVGA Precision X OC software, increased the Power Target to 120% set Priority to temperature (if I set to power target it crashes just after finishing the benchmark with the other settings the same) and managed to achieve a +150 on the core and a +400 on the memory (but I never tried to take the memory further) then set the fan speed to Jet Engine mode (otherwise known as 80%) for a peak core clock of 2050 and with the fans ramped up to 80% so it never exceeds 70C the lowest the core clock dropped during the benchmark was 1923, for a card this cheap I think thats pretty good, definitely gonna need to look into doing a Hybrid mod, my computer was SO QUIET, now it's got this noise machine in it.

Which card? STRIX?

[Daniel644]

4 hours ago, Shiv78 said:

Which card? STRIX?

the noisy (well noisy when you ramp the fans to 80%) Zotac Founders that was the cheapest option, after I get the cashbacks I will have paid approximately (rounding up to the nearest dollar) $583 US. plan is to use the money I saved over the more expensive units and do a hybrid mod either with a Kraken G12 or the EVGA kit.