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HOT - $1,199 Gigabyte RTX 5080 WINDFORCE SFF (2.5 slot) @Microcenter
- Thread starter Agent_N
- Start date
It is SFF ready in that it is 2.5 slot card, but yeah, not really SFF because it has 3 fans.
- Joined
- May 20, 2025
- Messages
- 468
Wonder why Gigabyte’s running so many GPU promotions lately. Between this and the 9070xt price reduction, is this just because of the thermal goo debacle? Or maybe their other business divisions are hurting badly enough that they need to clear some items for revenue instead of the inventory carrying costs.
Don't know why. Power color had some warm/hot deals a couple of months ago. I read up on the thermal goo issue, it is an aesthetic thing, won't damage card, and they made some volume corrections to minimize chance of it oozing out. It doesn't hurt anything. Take the GPU price win and don't look back! I'm planning to get a 5800X3D when they get released and run my AM4 to 2030, or whenever AM6 is released. Gives me time to save for a platform that will probably be eye watering in price!
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2012
- Messages
- 1,559
I like Gigabyte cards and motherboards, they've been reliable to me for decades now. Good solid motherboards, good solid graphics cards. I feel like they're making money, not hurting, by selling via promotions. ASUS, MSI, no more EVGA, Gigabyte, and ASrock are the only ones that still manufacture motherboards and graphics cards. PNY, Zotac, XFX, and Sapphire (but only for AMD graphics cards), only manufacture graphics cards (I'm sure I'm missing a few). I don't think there's any that don't have issues. ASUS and their RMA (or lack of), ASrock and their 9800X3D issues (fingers were mostly pointed towards them), and Gigabyte and their thermal goo issue a while back. MSI is the only one that I really didn't hear much bad things about.
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2008
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- 5,979
I'd like to see PNY get the 5080 into the below $1000 again.
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2009
- Messages
- 21,107
Yup, that was when I got my 5080 for $930.
Regardless of market conditions, I'll never consider a 20% above MSRP price a deal and assume this is just a stock alert thread.
They've been screwing everyone over for months, so to say I'm highly suspicious of recent "deals" and availability, would be an understatement.
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2012
- Messages
- 2,480
If you want decently priced hardware, hardware stocks need to crash big time. Not going to get cheap memory or gpus with AMD at 500 and MU at 1000. AI data center obsession needs to grind to a halt.
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2009
- Messages
- 21,107
Indeed, I've been saying this is a good time to work on that backlog or get into retro gaming. Esp. with how much UE5 slop there is now and how many indie studios are eating the AAA game's lunch by focusing on actual gameplay and unique experiences, instead of graphics, monetization, and design-by-committee elements.
I feel kinda dumb actually for even getting that 5080 even with the deal I got when my 12GB 3080 was still more than adequate for the games I've been playing and want to play still.
While you may not see higher than MSRP as a deal, someone building a PC because they have to or they have been holding out for awhile and they are tired of holding out can take advantage of a "deal" given the context of current circumstances even though not really a deal in relation to MSRP.
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2009
- Messages
- 21,107
Indeed, but when 9070XTs are available for $650 or so, that's like a 85% price premium for only a 20% performance increase. Or just get a 5070ti with a similar inflated price over MSRP if you have to have Nvidia.
I'm aware; the Nvidia tax is brutal, but it is a choice if someone wants it. I took advantage of the Gigabyte 9070 XT lightning deal for $629 and I don't regret it. Nvidia doesn't offer enough above and beyond what I have to justify the premium. Some folks have had Radeon problems in the past and don't want to deal with it.
I have a feeling we're not going to have much choice but to spend $1000 for a GPU going forward.
How has your driver stability been? I had nothing but issues with my 7900XTX. Driver timeouts were a constant (albeit random) problem, could never get it rock solid no matter what I did. Even setting a cap on my shader clocks didn't fully resolve it. I emailed AMD about it and they said I shouldn't have to do anything and the card should simply be stable at default. Ended up RMAing it to MSI and they sent me back a 5080 since they no longer make Radeon cards, and despite the fact I'm overclocking it reasonably aggressively with a +350 core/+1000 memory offset, I haven't had a single problem with it yet. It's made me hesitant to go back to Radeon cards, although I don't know if something was actually wrong with my 7900XTX physically that was causing the issue.
And I don't want it to be like that. In Canada, the RTX5080 is routinely going for $2400, compared to $1300-$1400 for the 5070Ti, while the 9070XT can be had for under $1000. The choice is obvious at that price, I just have no idea if it's worth the aggravation, or it my experience was simply not normal.
When I bought the RX 9070 Hellhound back in December 2025 (also bought a Gigabyte 9070 XT, Amazon Lightning deal), the driver timeouts were annoying and I was starting to see why people were complaining, but since the second to last driver update, they seem to have fixed that issue. I don’t have near as many driver timeouts or crashes. I also noticed that I would get more crashes if I increased the clockspeed headroom to 300 or higher (also found changing this did nothing for improving performance), so I leave it at zero and just undervolt to -80 to -120 depending on the game for a small increase in performance. So far I am really liking the 9070 XT! My previous card was a 3060 Ti, and yes, the drivers were pretty solid, basically, I had to push OC too hard to get it to crash.
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Eshelmen
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 7,241
Picking one up today from my local MC.
Gonna sell my 3070 that's laying around and my 7900xt to offset the costs.
The 7900xt has been great but the recent drivers have pissed me off. Constant under utilization at random. Going from a solid 120 or 160 frames in game to like 80 without movement is annoying.
Gonna sell my 3070 that's laying around and my 7900xt to offset the costs.
The 7900xt has been great but the recent drivers have pissed me off. Constant under utilization at random. Going from a solid 120 or 160 frames in game to like 80 without movement is annoying.
Did you have the Radeon Chill box checked that reduces GPU power and framerate when sitting idle in in less demanding parts of a game?
Edit: I have found the driver crashes have been reduced dramatically as of the the second to last driver update. I was having driver crashes regularly, but it seems that they fixed it, at least for 9000 series cards.
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2008
- Messages
- 1,220
You will never get me to agree with 2.5 slot being SFF. And then on top of that, this one has three fans. Give me a break...
The currently used technical verbiage is, "SFF ready", which is not really SFF at all, but hey, marketing!
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2007
- Messages
- 7,266
Yeah I detest virtually all the partner card designs. 3-4 slot 3 fan bricks so heavy you need a literal metal pole to support and could kill someone if you hit them in the head hard enough with it... I miss the single slot and 2-slot days (blower designs especially because it's not dumping all its heat in the case). That's why I was happy to see 2-slot FE cards from top to bottom. When I eventually upgrade my GPU after I've saved enough it'll be a used 5080 FE. But not at current pricing. Hell no.
I will be jumping up and down, cheering when AI bubble go pop.
Nah. I rather have a silent GPU. Those 2 slot blower style coolers were insanely loud. Heat being dumped into case really doesn't matter if you have good airflow.
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2007
- Messages
- 7,266
Outside of the GeForce 8800 GT first reference design (with smaller fan intake and blades than what shipped on later partner cards or on all 9600 GT cards) when overheating, or first generation Fermi (specifically the GTX 470 and especially the GTX 480, good lord), every nVIDIA blower card I've had has not really been much louder if at all than my case or CPU heatsink fans historically. That includes my dual PCB GTX 295 or a Titan X Pascal I used to have. At worst it's a lower-pitched hum and moving air like an air conditioner fan in the next room over. I can't say the same about some of the GCN based Radeons like the 290X or Polaris/Vega cards, though. Those definitely make themselves heard over the other fans, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was during the Athlon/Pentium III days. But that for me is still tolerable, because...
Back in the late 90's until around 2001-2002 most fans in use were high pitched and whiny 40mm, 60mm, and 80mm fans. Especially if you overclocked and needed Delta *Screamers*. They well earned that nickname. On my Celeron Coppermine 800MHz/DFI VIA Apollo Pro 133A/GeForce 2 MX 400 budget rig I had but was forced to sell I remember getting some normal sized Sunon 80mm 4-pin Molex fans from the local computer store for front and back of my new ATX case, thinking this will help prolong the life of the system and maybe even give my MX400 a mild overclock. I was not at all prepared for how loud it would be. Between those 2 fans and the 60mm CPU heatsink fan were noticeably audible from the sidewalk outside with a front window partially open, or in my bedroom with the door closed at the other end of the duplex. It was annoyingly loud.
Vantec's Stealth line of case fans were among the first I know of to still move enough air while being fairly quiet for the time was a step in the right direction but they only shipped 80mm and 120mm models (Maybe a 92mm model but can't remember for sure), not 40mm like in most GPU and northbridge heatsinks, or in 60mm as in most CPU heatsinks. So even though you could now get quiet case fans you still likely had a noisy GPU and CPU fan.
It wasn't until around 2003-2004 during the Pentium 4 Northwood/Preshott... I mean Prescott and Athlon 64 Clawhammer era that motherboard controlled CPU and case fan RPM throttling based on temperature started to be introduced and another year or two for it to become a mainstream feature. GeForce GPUs started dynamic RPM control with the GeForce FX series a year or two before. I want to say ATi did the same with the X800 series?
Anyways, long story short I'm willing to deal with the hum and wooshing air sound of a blower if it keeps case and CPU temps just that much cooler because it's not shit compared to fan noise back around the turn of the millenium. It really doesn't bother me on most 2-slot designs and most single slot single GPU setups I've got experience with. That said I do appreciate how quiet my GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE is even under an intensive game load. It gets completely drowned out by my case fans at full tilt.
In the end, that's my preference. If you want a 3-fan, 12", 4-slot brick that's whisper quiet then carry on. I don't. But don't let my preferences ruin your day. You get what works for you.
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Mr. Bluntman, can I ask you a question? Have you been...smoking? I think you have forgotten just how loud those blowers were! I still remember the ATi X800 blower sound to this day... ::shivers::Outside of the GeForce 8800 GT first reference design (with smaller fan intake and blades than what shipped on later partner cards or on all 9600 GT cards) when overheating, or first generation Fermi (specifically the GTX 470 and especially the GTX 480, good lord), every nVIDIA blower card I've had has not really been much louder if at all than my case or CPU heatsink fans historically. That includes my dual PCB GTX 295 or a Titan X Pascal I used to have. At worst it's a lower-pitched hum and moving air like an air conditioner fan in the next room over. I can't say the same about some of the GCN based Radeons like the 290X or Polaris/Vega cards, though. Those definitely make themselves heard over the other fans, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was during the Athlon/Pentium III days. But that for me is still tolerable, because...
Back in the late 90's until around 2001-2002 most fans in use were high pitched and whiny 40mm, 60mm, and 80mm fans. Especially if you overclocked and needed Delta *Screamers*. They well earned that nickname. On my Celeron Coppermine 800MHz/DFI VIA Apollo Pro 133A/GeForce 2 MX 400 budget rig I had but was forced to sell I remember getting some normal sized Sunon 80mm 4-pin Molex fans from the local computer store for front and back of my new ATX case, thinking this will help prolong the life of the system and maybe even give my MX400 a mild overclock. I was not at all prepared for how loud it would be. Between those 2 fans and the 60mm CPU heatsink fan were noticeably audible from the sidewalk outside with a front window partially open, or in my bedroom with the door closed at the other end of the duplex. It was annoyingly loud.
Vantec's Stealth line of case fans were among the first I know of to still move enough air while being fairly quiet for the time was a step in the right direction but they only shipped 80mm and 120mm models (Maybe a 92mm model but can't remember for sure), not 40mm like in most GPU and northbridge heatsinks, or in 60mm as in most CPU heatsinks. So even though you could now get quiet case fans you still likely had a noisy GPU and CPU fan.
It wasn't until around 2003-2004 during the Pentium 4 Northwood/Preshott... I mean Prescott and Athlon 64 Clawhammer era that motherboard controlled CPU and case fan RPM throttling based on temperature started to be introduced and another year or two for it to become a mainstream feature. GeForce GPUs started dynamic RPM control with the GeForce FX series a year or two before. I want to say ATi did the same with the X800 series?
Anyways, long story short I'm willing to deal with the hum and wooshing air sound of a blower if it keeps case and CPU temps just that much cooler because it's not shit compared to fan noise back around the turn of the millenium. It really doesn't bother me on most 2-slot designs and most single slot single GPU setups I've got experience with. That said I do appreciate how quiet my GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE is even under an intensive game load. It gets completely drowned out by my case fans at full tilt.
In the end, that's my preference. If you want a 3-fan, 12", 4-slot brick that's whisper quiet then carry on. I don't. But don't let my preferences ruin your day. You get what works for you.
This is why some of us watercool or GPUs. Negates noise and size in addition to heat.
I use too but I don't to mess with custom WC these days. I barely use my PC.
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2009
- Messages
- 21,107
Maybe different on the 90 series cards, but my 5080 runs amazingly cool and quiet with the stock cooler. I don't hear it over my case fans or AIO CPU cooler at least and it usually peaks at 65C right now while it's warm inside my office already (around 23C). I assume the rest of the 50 and 40 series cards do as well.
Compared to my previous 3080 12GB that occasionally would spin the fans up and get to 75C or so often. So I could see Ampere cards needing water cooling.