Official Zotac rep underfire on Reddit with regards to the 1 - 3 % lower performance..

muon · 20 Sep 2020 at 12:51

It follows reference design for power phases which is 13+3 (same for MSI Ventus). The FE is a custom card with better than reference design using 15+3 phases.

That's the only difference and AIB partners likely didn't know what the FE would look like anyway. They just tiered their products from reference as base and then upwards.

benjii · 20 Sep 2020 at 12:58

I've cancelled my Zotac pre-order. I wanted to do some heavy OC on this generation and the Zotac cooling looked pretty good. I mistakenly assumed that the benchmark would be FE and that PCB and cooling improvements would be on AIB cards. Obviously I wasn't able to check reviews and that before ordering.

Having seen the reviews and also knowing that EVGA, Gigabyte and Asus are doing a 3x8 pin model, I've gone for the Asus Strix 3080, non OC variant. It's the cheapest card with 3 pins that is currently available for pre order. The EVGA FTW3 is £10 cheaper, but cannot be pre ordered. If I'm able to get an EVGA before hand, I'll cancel my Asus.

Blackjack Davy · 20 Sep 2020 at 13:03

The Old School Gamer said:
Take cover, angry customers incoming.
Poor ZOTAC rep, he never stood a chance.

I like the fact that they have to introduce an artificial limit to differentiate the high end cards from the low end cards, theres so little difference in OC potential they have to engineer a limit or everyone would simply buy the cheapest cards and get the same performance as the expensive ones.

The world has officially gone mad, I suspected it after the 3080 launch debacle but now I'm certain.

N.B. where are all the AIO reviews anyhow? Its almost as if someones trying to hide something.

Kelt · 20 Sep 2020 at 13:07

benjii said:
I've cancelled my Zotac pre-order. I wanted to do some heavy OC on this generation and the Zotac cooling looked pretty good. I mistakenly assumed that the benchmark would be FE and that PCB and cooling improvements would be on AIB cards. Obviously I wasn't able to check reviews and that before ordering.

Having seen the reviews and also knowing that EVGA, Gigabyte and Asus are doing a 3x8 pin model, I've gone for the Asus Strix 3080, non OC variant. It's the cheapest card with 3 pins that is currently available for pre order. The EVGA FTW3 is £10 cheaper, but cannot be pre ordered. If I'm able to get an EVGA before hand, I'll cancel my Asus.

Check out the Hardware Unboxed review of the MSI Trio. They say the 3x8 pin makes seemingly zero difference to the (lack of) OC potential in that card.

Maybe other AIBs might fare better and make use of the 3x8.

haszek · 20 Sep 2020 at 13:09

Kelt said:
Check out the Hardware Unboxed review of the MSI Trio. They say the 3x8 pin makes seemingly zero difference to the (lack of) OC potential in these cards.

Msi is limited in terms of power limit, only 5%, even FE can increase 15%. Some other 3x8pin with higher power limit will OC better.

K1LaW8tt5 · 20 Sep 2020 at 13:10

Blackjack Davy said:
I like the fact that they have to introduce an artificial limit to differentiate the high end cards from the low end cards, theres so little difference in OC potential they have to engineer a limit or everyone would simply buy the cheapest cards and get the same performance as the expensive ones.

The world has officially gone mad, I suspected it after the 3080 launch debacle but now I'm certain.

N.B. where are all the AIO reviews anyhow? Its almost as if someones trying to hide something.

The FE cards are over-engineered. These GPUs eat power and AIBs are going to struggle to deliver the same performance at the same prices.

Teal · 20 Sep 2020 at 13:17

Wrinkly said:
I think the rep should be looking for another job with his explanation.

Yep, telling the truth is probably grounds for dismissal in most marketing teams

Full disclosure, I do not have one of these on order, but if I did, I can't imagine I'd be cancelling it for such a small difference since I don't spend my time endlessly running benchmarks and agonising about a few frames more or less than other people running benchmarks.

If you are upgrading from anything other than a 2080Ti just enjoy the massive improvement.

If you are upgrading from a 2080Ti you probably shouldn't be...

Doppleganger · 20 Sep 2020 at 13:22

Partly because of this and partly because my pre-order with another etailer was going to be delayed to 30th October (!) I've cancelled my Zotac pre-order too.

willhub · 20 Sep 2020 at 13:32

muon said:
It follows reference design for power phases which is 13+3 (same for MSI Ventus). The FE is a custom card with better than reference design using 15+3 phases.

That's the only difference and AIB partners likely didn't know what the FE would look like anyway. They just tiered their products from reference as base and then upwards.

The issue is everyone buys based on the benchmarks so for reference the FE is what we go off, so lower performance than FE = BAD

SeeNoWeevil · 20 Sep 2020 at 13:58

1% perf drop is absolutely atrocious and everyone who ordered before about 14:38 should definitely cancel their order. Thanks.

Poneros · 20 Sep 2020 at 14:06

SeeNoWeevil said:
1% perf drop is absolutely atrocious and everyone who ordered before about 14:38 should definitely cancel their order. Thanks.

Hear hear.

Spudley · 20 Sep 2020 at 14:09

SeeNoWeevil said:
1% perf drop is absolutely atrocious and everyone who ordered before about 14:38 should definitely cancel their order. Thanks.

<<< change that to 14:49

Absolute Turd of a card......don't be the laughing stock of the 3080 owners club....cancel now! save your pride & wallet.

Nutella33 · 20 Sep 2020 at 14:12

SeeNoWeevil said:
1% perf drop is absolutely atrocious and everyone who ordered before about 14:38 should definitely cancel their order. Thanks.

Given that the average overclock seems to be about 4%, you might be losing about 25% of your OC potential

Wrinkly · 20 Sep 2020 at 15:17

SeeNoWeevil said:
1% perf drop is absolutely atrocious and everyone who ordered before about 14:38 should definitely cancel their order. Thanks.

I see what you did there

Safetytrousers · 20 Sep 2020 at 15:58

Parsley said:
do you really want to pump even more heat into your room?

I'll take the heat for fps and mining £££. Pump away.

Parsley · 20 Sep 2020 at 16:07

Safetytrousers said:
I'll take the heat for fps and mining £££. Pump away.

Yeah but if that was your main concern you'd have been shooting higher than that specific Zotac I'd imagine

.

Nablaoperator · 20 Sep 2020 at 16:09

How much does it undervolt at stock.. just curious

BigBANGtheory · 20 Sep 2020 at 16:11

benjii said:
Having seen the reviews and also knowing that EVGA, Gigabyte and Asus are doing a 3x8 pin model, I've gone for the Asus Strix 3080, non OC variant. It's the cheapest card with 3 pins that is currently available for pre order. The EVGA FTW3 is £10 cheaper, but cannot be pre ordered. If I'm able to get an EVGA before hand, I'll cancel my Asus.

MSI Trio is currently the cheapest 3x8pin power PCB and it has a monster heatsink

jaycob · 20 Sep 2020 at 16:18

justwondering said:
Yep, definitely, should have pre-ordered a Asus..

Hopefully a new bios will fix the situation... But hmmm not a good start.

Best comment on the thread.

"Gamer's Nexus is going to rip you guys a new one for this crap."

Sounds like Zotac just got ****** binned GPU's if you ask me, No amount of bios is gonna fix that. Kinda like their 980Ti range that ended up being trash. I'm tempted to call my order off but then I doubt I'll be able to get a 3080 by the time Cyberpunk is released.

Digital X · 20 Sep 2020 at 17:18

As someone who pre ordered with another retailer in Germany, should I contact their support and cancel it? It has not yet hit the dispatch stage.