For roughly the same cost I can get a new Gigabyte 1070 FE with 3 years warranty or a refurbished Zotac Amp Extreme 1070 with 12 months warranty. I'm a bit concerned about noise from the FE cooler as the noise from the reference cooler on my 780ti was horrendous, so I have a MK-26 cooler on it now. The Zotac looks built to last and presumably if it's going to have any problems they will surface within the first few months and it's supposed to be very queit. What would you buy and why?
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New 1070 FE vs Zotac Amp Extreme
- Thread starter PieEater
- Start date
Well it depends how sensitive you are to noise. The FE cooler won't be as loud as the 780Ti was, but it still won't be quiet. I personally wouldn't buy any reference design unless I was watercooling it, but for air operation I'd go with the quietest AIB cooler I could find, because for me noise levels are a big deal.
Soldato
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I have a 1070 FE and find the cooler to be pretty quiet. It certainly doesn't make as much noise as any other card I've owned but perhaps I'm just so used to loud cards that my 1070 seems quiet 
Comparing it to my old 7950, it doesn't ramp up anywhere as much or as often.
Comparing it to my old 7950, it doesn't ramp up anywhere as much or as often.
I'm leaning towards the FE and fitting the MK-26 to it, so I have the warranty and the low noise. From what I can make out all the 1070s will overclock to roughly the same levels regardless of additional components and power connectors assuming adequate cooling, is that the case?
Personally find at stock the Pascal Blowers to run fairly quiet. However to maintain a higher boost / overclock you will need to ramp up the fan which then does tend to make a fair bit of noise. Aftermarket cards will run quieter in general however and boost higher.
Yep, if you have decent cooling on the card, they seem to overclock to similar levels, likewise for 1080's. However for the FE, fan profile will generally need to be fairly high to maintain the top end boost's. Though that Mk-26 will keep it pretty cool!
Yep, if you have decent cooling on the card, they seem to overclock to similar levels, likewise for 1080's. However for the FE, fan profile will generally need to be fairly high to maintain the top end boost's. Though that Mk-26 will keep it pretty cool!
Aha thanks for reminding me of a potential pitfall with fitting the MK-26. The fan on the reference cooler spins at 3000rpm max and the default fan speed at idle is ~30%, so when I attached the Bitfenex fans to my 780Tis header they span at ~1000 rpm at idle so I had to find a tool to edit the fan curve in the BIOS, as they only need to spin at 900 rpm under full load. There is no BIOS editor for Pascal
, and Afterburner will not let you set a lower minimum fan speed than what is set in the BIOS.Anyone have a bad word to say about the Zotac Amp Extreme, it seems to be well built so should last me a while !???
The amp extreme is my choice for my next gpu, that said, the 5 year warranty is the tipping point for me.
In your situation the warranty doesn't apply in which case EVGA (with their superb RMA setup) would be my choice.
In your situation the warranty doesn't apply in which case EVGA (with their superb RMA setup) would be my choice.
1070FE is a very quiet card when gaming. Though the fan spins at 1k RPM or so when idle (watching movies, desktop etc) which meant it was quite 'loud' for me at idle, mainly as all my other fans (Noctua's) are spinning at 600-800RPM at idle, so the 1070 FE stood out.
Get a 0DB at idle card and don't look back. Avoid the big massive amp cards, as they look awful sagging down in your case (IMO at least). No need for a 1070 to have that big a heatsink anyway, doesn't net it any additional performance. MSI Gaming X ftw!