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Is a reference blower GTX 1080 rubbish?

King Mustard

King Mustard

King Mustard

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Staffordshire, UK
I won't be doing any manual overclocking and I have good cooling in my large case.

I was considering getting the cheapest GTX 1080 (the KFA2 model).

Performance-wise, is there a benefit to me paying more for a card with a custom cooler? (they tend to be quite a lot more)

£525, 1607/1733, 2Y W, KFA2
£534, 1607/1733, 3Y W, MSI Aero
£550, 1607/1733, 2Y W, Inno3D HerculeZ Twin X2
£570, 1607/1733, 3Y W, MSI Armor
£570, 1607/1733, 2Y W, Gainward Phoenix

£546, 1632/1771, 3Y W, MSI Aero OC

£590, 1657/1797, 3Y W, MSI Armor OC

£579, 1683/1822, 5Y W, Zotac AMP

£579, 1708/1847, 3Y W, EVGA SC Gaming ACX 3.0
£590, 1708/1847, 2Y W, Gainward Phoenix Golden Sample
£650, 1708/1847, 3Y W, MSI Gaming X RGB
£680, 1708/1847, 3Y W, MSI Sea Hawk

£609, 1733/1873, 3Y W, EVGA FTW ACX 3.0

£570, 1759/1898, 3Y W, Inno3D iChill Air Boss X3
£590, 1759/1898, 3Y W, Inno3D iChill Air Boss X4
 
If you don't want to overclock, any card will do just fine at stock speeds. Blower cards are better for cases with not so good cooling. If you have a case with proper cooling you'll get better temps with a non-blower cooler.
 
If they are anything like the 780 stock cooler, it should be more than adequate and fairly quiet at stock clocks.

Though look at the second option down, £9 more for a year of extra warranty! :)

Oh you mean *those* blowers, I thought you meant the genuine NVIDIA ones like these: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...dr5x-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-400-as.html

No, stay away from those crappy plastic blowers. Awful, hot, loud, ugly...
 
King Mustard said:
Surely a cheap, blower-style card won't throttle in a large case with decent cooling?
Click to expand...

with gpu boost it will, if they havent set the fan curve right

ive never seen blower not throttle without editing the fan curve

and ive had ref since Nvidia 280's

my 980s throttles all the time in a corsair 540. my cpu on the otherhand was 48c gaming!
 
smogsy said:
ive never seen blower not throttle without editing the fan curve
Click to expand...


This is the thing, even that Jayztwocents video on throttling, states that this has been happening with reference blowers for most past generations, adjusting the fan cure can make a hell of a difference.
 
King Mustard said:
£525, 1607/1733, 2Y W, KFA2
£534, 1607/1733, 3Y W, MSI Aero
£550, 1607/1733, 2Y W, Inno3D HerculeZ Twin X2
£570, 1607/1733, 3Y W, MSI Armor
£570, 1607/1733, 2Y W, Gainward Phoenix

£546, 1632/1771, 3Y W, MSI Aero OC

£590, 1657/1797, 3Y W, MSI Armor OC

£579, 1683/1822, 5Y W, Zotac AMP

£579, 1708/1847, 3Y W, EVGA SC Gaming ACX 3.0
£590, 1708/1847, 2Y W, Gainward Phoenix Golden Sample
£650, 1708/1847, 3Y W, MSI Gaming X RGB
£680, 1708/1847, 3Y W, MSI Sea Hawk

£609, 1733/1873, 3Y W, EVGA FTW ACX 3.0

£570, 1759/1898, 3Y W, Inno3D iChill Air Boss X3
£590, 1759/1898, 3Y W, Inno3D iChill Air Boss X4
Click to expand...

That's a very helpful roundup.
 
so for those of us that will be putting a waterblock on straight away there's no point in anything but the cheapest one? or am i missing something....
 
Yes, and you should definitely try to get one with a custom (improved) PCB and VRMs. The 1080 and 1070 have the cheapest, feature barren ones in at least 4 generations from NVIDIA (perhaps ever).

The nonsense about the Kickstarter Edition cards being higher grade is just that - nonsense. The blowers - which run very, very hot and struggle to hit the boost clocks - are less the worry than the circuitry of the boards.
 
If you've bought a reference card before then there's no reason not to buy now. It's all been blown out of proportion. Nvidia didn't help themselves when the presented the demo of the 1080 running at 67degrees and also think because of the high clock speeds/small chip some are predicting an issue with temps and going looking for it and pretty much found what's been there with past generation cards too. All turbo reference cards I believe will down clock. You can make a few changes if you wish to stop that and if it really is an issue then nvidia can of course change fan profiles in driver updates.
I prefer ref cards to be honest but I don't bother overclocking graphics cards either and not a bench marker :D.
 
Last edited:
May sound like a stupid question, but am I right in thinking the £30 difference between the two EVGA cards is a slight boost on speeds and also a one being 1x8pin and the other being 2x8pin therefore the later being a better overclocker?
 
For those saying it will be too hot... last I check MSI afterburner was free. If you don't care about noise. That's the way to go. It won't throttle with the fan set to naughty.

Personally I couldn't buy a card without a backplate. My PC is on the floor so when I look at it it's the main thing I see.
 
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