GIGABYTE AORUS GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce Xtreme Edition @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
55,132
looks like a killer card, but as you mentioned normal people can't buy these things right now due to the mining BS that's ruining real gamers looking for upgrades. my system is so overdue for a gpu upgrade which is next to impossible right now. It's almost more worthwhile to buy a prebuilt system and scalvage the card out of it lol.

I am curious though how cards like these will hold up once volta comes out, not sure if we are anywhere near that time but I'm always so leery on gpus when the next gen is close since say volta comes out in a couple months for the same price you'll have a card %20 faster or something. I know unless your wealthy your never on the bleeding edge really since something bigger and better is always coming out, but it just sucks on a $800 investment that literally a week later nvidia could release a new line for the same price that trounces your card.
 
My friend has one of these. One thing to note is that the fan uses a nonstandard connector which can be a downside compared to the other solutions out there.

That being said he loves the card and praises how quiet it is when overclocked.
 
I didn't realize these were new. I picked some up for less than $900 on Newegg a couple weeks ago :D

It is truly an outstanding card though. They easily overclock to 2.1 GHz without a BSOD in sight. I got two of them in SLI to replace my old Founder's Edition 1080 Ti and I don't regret it in the least. I can keep these cards mining or gaming 24/7 @ 2.1 GHz with up to 150% power limit and they never breach 70C and stay quiet as a whisper the whole time. My Founder's Edition would routinely throttle itself at its stock clocks and without a second card beneath it running in SLI.

If you're going to SLI them though they have a different width from other 1080 Ti's so it won't work mixing them with a different model. The hard bridge would not work with my reference 1080 Ti. This card sticks out too much farther than a reference card. It's still a smaller card than EVGA's FTW3 Hybrids though, those things are monstrous.

CannibalTrout said:
looks like a killer card, but as you mentioned normal people can't buy these things right now due to the mining BS that's ruining real gamers looking for upgrades. my system is so overdue for a gpu upgrade which is next to impossible right now. It's almost more worthwhile to buy a prebuilt system and scalvage the card out of it lol.

I am curious though how cards like these will hold up once volta comes out, not sure if we are anywhere near that time but I'm always so leery on gpus when the next gen is close since say volta comes out in a couple months for the same price you'll have a card %20 faster or something. I know unless your wealthy your never on the bleeding edge really since something bigger and better is always coming out, but it just sucks on a $800 investment that literally a week later nvidia could release a new line for the same price that trounces your card.
Click to expand...

Nvidia's new line will be jet engines.

It's going to be at least 9 months before we see another watercooled replacement for the 1080 Ti.

I've skipped upgrading entirely until watercooled cards become widely available, so if Nvidia releases another airplane furnace in the next few months I coudn't care less. The extra overclocking ability and lack of throttling on watercooled cards make them as if they are a generation ahead of the air cooled ones. It's almost like I have an 1180 Ti already.
 
  • Like
Reactions: noko
like this
Great review and nice seeing a video card under the test bench. There is an option which I know and can understand some would not be interested, that is you can offset your purchase of a video card with mining. For example this card could be paid off in 3 months gaming/mining unless you game tremendously a lot (except that is never a certainty due to fluctuations in Cryptocurrencies). I just think supply constraints will get even tighter as GPU's are used more and more for compute loads. Mining is bad enough for current supply issues and I am sure Nvidia and partners is doing what they can to increase production rate since that would mean more profits as well.
 
wigglywaffles said:
I didn't realize these were new.
Click to expand...
Sorry we can't write a full in-depth review as quick as you can buy one. We are going to go back to just doing 4 hours worth of canned benchmarks and calling it a review to remedy this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TMCM
like this
noko said:
Great review and nice seeing a video card under the test bench. There is an option which I know and can understand some would not be interested, that is you can offset your purchase of a video card with mining. For example this card could be paid off in 3 months gaming/mining unless you game tremendously a lot (except that is never a certainty due to fluctuations in Cryptocurrencies). I just think supply constraints will get even tighter as GPU's are used more and more for compute loads. Mining is bad enough for current supply issues and I am sure Nvidia and partners is doing what they can to increase production rate since that would mean more profits as well.
Click to expand...

3 months? Doing a quick look up at the 'how much will you make?' pages, I read it as closer to 10 months (there's no stock anywhere selling as "low" as MRSP). What are you mining?

EDIT: Edited for clarity
 
Charlie_D said:
3 months? Doing a quick look up at the 'how much will you make?' pages, I read it as closer to 10 months. What are you mining?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I would suggest that turnaround is not that quick either. But hell with the fluctuations that happen everyday, the volatility in any equation is real.
 
Charlie_D said:
3 months? Doing a quick look up at the 'how much will you make?' pages, I read it as closer to 10 months (there's no stock anywhere selling as "low" as MRSP). What are you mining?

EDIT: Edited for clarity
Click to expand...
Here is nabbed off of screen a few minutes ago, currently the 1080 Ti is at $7.44/day plus any from the CPU. If you have like an 8 core Ryzen or above it will be way more for the CPU part. A few weeks ago I was looking at over $10/day easily as a reference. Maybe I should have said vice 3 months, it could offset the costs, anyways my 1080 Ti has paid for itself a while ago. Fortunately or not, video cards are used for mining more and more.

NH.jpg​
 
Last edited:
i picked up the non ti version of this card a little over a year ago specifically for VR stuff and its been a solid card. Been eyeing this one for a few weeks. It does cost a bit more, but the cooling solution is worth it for me.
 
My only thought would be. We all understand you can not do a quality review in 3 months. But remember how you handled the Ryzen release. When a new video card in an overpriced segment is coming out that you have on the bench and have.. passable results with.. perhaps as a service to the community release an early impressions statement? I don't even know if that is possible with embargo's and such.
 
Yawn....yet another CLC. Wake me when the graphics card manufacturers come out with their own renditions of the ASUS Poseidon cooling solution, or something else equally as inventive.
 
Shouldn't this be called the Gigabyte Aurus GTX 1080 Extreme Miners Edition?
 
I bought this the day it was released on Newegg and got it for 819.00 I've never installed the software because I heard it was buggy, plus the card is already factory OC to a high degree. When playing BF1 on a 43" 4K monitor, the lowest FPS is around 80 on a 4770K CPU with ultra settings on BF1. I use EVGA Precision X for custom fan profile and FPS monitoring in game. The card never goes above 45C when pushing 2025Mhz and idles around 25-28C, which matches what HDCP is benching. I have not over clocked it as the factory OC is as good as you'll get, which is why I bought it. The only thing I wish they would do is allow for additional fan so it can be put in a push/pull scenario.

If you can find it at a reasonable price, then I'd go for it. It's high quality and the OC is fantastic.
 
"At 60% the sound was close to not even having the fan on."

Really? I can clearly hear it even at 33% :( (and Gigabyte doesn't want to provide BIOS with lower than 33%). In BIOS/UEFI it's good (probably 20-25%), but after the load of windows driver it's totally different story.
 
my FE running at 1962 prety constant and 500/1000 on memory dont sound too bad considering price and that it is a specially designed watercooled card. i would probably boost up to the same with AIO on it. ofcourse sound looks is another things.
 
CannibalTrout said:
looks like a killer card, but as you mentioned normal people can't buy these things right now due to the mining BS that's ruining real gamers looking for upgrades. my system is so overdue for a gpu upgrade which is next to impossible right now. It's almost more worthwhile to buy a prebuilt system and scalvage the card out of it lol.
Click to expand...

You're not wrong. I almost bought an Alienware or Maingear just so I could buy a 1080 Ti at a normal price. I ended up just deciding to upgrade my Sandy Bridge rig (sig) and wait for all this video card nonsense to settle down. I mean, my 1070 isn't bad by any measure but I would like better frames at 1440p.
 
Hostile said:
You're not wrong. I almost bought an Alienware or Maingear just so I could buy a 1080 Ti at a normal price. I ended up just deciding to upgrade my Sandy Bridge rig (sig) and wait for all this video card nonsense to settle down. I mean, my 1070 isn't bad by any measure but I would like better frames at 1440p.
Click to expand...

It was probably a good idea you did not purchase a pre-built system. How will you sell the remaining parts after harvesting the GPU? Your potential buyers will need a GPU to complete their system which are almost impossible to get at reasonable prices now.
 
Nvidia_ATI said:
It was probably a good idea you did not purchase a pre-built system. How will you sell the remaining parts after harvesting the GPU? Your potential buyers will need a GPU to complete their system which are almost impossible to get at reasonable prices now.
Click to expand...

Craigslist?

Hey Kyle, do you guys have any graphics comparisons in the works? Like the Fallout 4 one or whatever, where you detail High vs Ultra and AA levels, I really like those!
 
Mugato said:
Craigslist?

Hey Kyle, do you guys have any graphics comparisons in the works? Like the Fallout 4 one or whatever, where you detail High vs Ultra and AA levels, I really like those!
Click to expand...
Nothing game specific right now. Can't buy any goddamn video cards anyway....
 
Nvidia_ATI said:
It was probably a good idea you did not purchase a pre-built system. How will you sell the remaining parts after harvesting the GPU? Your potential buyers will need a GPU to complete their system which are almost impossible to get at reasonable prices now.
Click to expand...

Well no, that pre-built system would have just been my new gaming rig.
 
Article well written check. Another water cooled GTX review check. Once again can't really overclock it (but who gives a damn about an extra 20Mhz) check. Extreme boredom in effect once again check.
 
Hostile said:
Dell is actually known to use generally good power supplies. All of the boutique builders like Maingear use name-brand PSUs that you can select from.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I did not know that. I seem to remember the Dell workstations from over a decade ago using generic crappy components but I suppose they have upped their game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top