GIGABYTE, GALAX, and Inno3D Announce GTX 1080 Founders Edition Cards

[btarunr]

GIGABYTE, GALAX, and Inno3D announced their GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition graphics cards. With the GeForce 10 Series, NVIDIA is selling its reference-design GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards at a $100 premium over the "suggested" starting price of non-reference cards, branded as "Founders Edition." These are merely reference-design cards that look good, but will not have any technical advantage over non-reference cards. NVIDIA is milking the crowd that loves the NVIDIA brand, and prefers reference-design cards. The GTX 1080 Founders Edition card will be priced at US $699, when it goes on sale, on May 27, 2016. Non-reference cards will start at $599.



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[rafsan]

EVGA Too

EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FOUNDERS EDITION

 

[RejZoR]

You got to be AAA grade moron to buy one of these. And I bet people will buy them en mass even though they don't deliver ANYTHING over other models. Wow.

 

[Assimilator]

These are merely reference-design cards that look good, but will not have any technical advantage over non-reference cards. NVIDIA is milking the crowd that loves the NVIDIA brand, and prefers reference-design cards.

Absolutely untrue. The reference cards will ship with a vapour chamber cooler which should help with overclocking:

Industrial design aside, NVIDIA confirmed that the GTX 1080 will come with a vapor chamber cooler... Given NVIDIA’s overclocking promises with this card, this likely has something to do with it, as a vapor chamber should prove very capable on a 180W card.

Whether a vapour chamber and potentially higher OC are worth a $100 price premium is up to consumers to decide, but I think we can all agree that "articles" that show zero research effort and play on anti-NVIDIA sentiment, are worth nothing to anybody.

 

[badtaylorx]

You got to be AAA grade moron to buy one of these. And I bet people will buy them en mass even though they don't deliver ANYTHING over other models. Wow.

I'll be buying one upon release, and a second once Asus comes out with either a Strix or Matrix!

 

[Naito]

You got to be AAA grade moron to buy one of these. And I bet people will buy them en mass even though they don't deliver ANYTHING over other models. Wow.

Well if the Founders Edition is the only option for a reference board, people looking for LCS compatibility may be forced to purchase one. Generally, reference boards gain much wider support for blocks and backplates.

 

[RejZoR]

Only benefit would be the fact these cards exhaust heat outside the case. Then again ASUS also made that white GTX 970 which was based on reference design but wasn't reference and it had cutout PCB to enhance cooling when in tight places or SLi.

Bragging vapor chamber as something special, Sapphire has been using it on tons of cards for ages. Same goes for Gigabyte. So, not sure why it would be anything special.

 

[RCoon]

You got to be AAA grade moron to buy one of these. And I bet people will buy them en mass even though they don't deliver ANYTHING over other models. Wow.

Well, as you mentioned people intending on using SLI will look for exhaust type cards. Also those of us looking to buy cards for watercooling will often settle for reference cards, as the full cover waterblocks become available sooner and are almost always a spot cheaper.

 

[R-T-B]

If I was doing SLI, I'd go reference/FE for sure. My last SLI build suffered heat issues precisely because I did not...

 

[Shou Miko]

nice card, but still waiting on a GTX 1070/80 ITX version bcs I doubt I can fit this monster in my Fractal Design Core 500 doe

 

[silapakorn]

Where I live it's sad but true that a lot of people buy graphic cards based on how they look and disregard important things like clock/mem speed, temperature and fan noise. Some people even believe that non-reference cards look fake because they have no Geforce or nvidia logo on them.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Absolutely untrue. The reference cards will ship with a vapour chamber cooler which should help with overclocking:



Whether a vapour chamber and potentially higher OC are worth a $100 price premium is up to consumers to decide, but I think we can all agree that "articles" that show zero research effort and play on anti-NVIDIA sentiment, are worth nothing to anybody.

Aaa, NO. Both variants are using exactly the same cooling system and specs

All explanation needed bellow :

 

[RejZoR]

Well, as you mentioned people intending on using SLI will look for exhaust type cards. Also those of us looking to buy cards for watercooling will often settle for reference cards, as the full cover waterblocks become available sooner and are almost always a spot cheaper.

It depends. Some motherboards have PCIe x16 slots crammed close together. Others have them more widely apart. If your case intakes air directly to the cards and you have decent exhaust, even aftermarket ones that dump heat into the case are an option. This especially applies to AMD cards since they aren't tied with the "SLi" bridge.

 

[adulaamin]

Twin Frozr... I'm finally going to get you...

 

[WaroDaBeast]

GALAX??? First thing I had in mind was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkybar

 

[Assimilator]

Aaa, NO. Both variants are using exactly the same cooling system and specs

All explanation needed bellow :

I'm honestly not sure what point you're trying to make. Are you saying the card doesn't have a vapour chamber cooler because JayZTwoCents says so? Sorry, I trust AnandTech more.

 

[Nygma]

I'm honestly not sure what point you're trying to make. Are you saying the card doesn't have a vapour chamber cooler because JayZTwoCents says so? Sorry, I trust AnandTech more.

Nope. The point was that a lot of other non-reference cards will have vapor chamber coolers as well, and much better coolers in general.

 

[Shou Miko]

GALAX??? First thing I had in mind was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkybar

oh come on, I have a Galax GTX 970, same company that's behind KFA2.

 

[Air]

You got to be AAA grade moron to buy one of these. And I bet people will buy them en mass even though they don't deliver ANYTHING over other models. Wow.

Why? If one is looking for a centrifugal fan, backplate, premium look/fishish with metal materials, i think that will be the only option. Unless you are saying no one should want that? I agree nVidia is charging way too much for this, but its not like anyone who buys it is an idiot.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Not anyone, just 99% of them

I'm honestly not sure what point you're trying to make. Are you saying the card doesn't have a vapour chamber cooler because JayZTwoCents says so? Sorry, I trust AnandTech more.

I mean both variants will have vapor chamber cooler. It even says so on their presentation web site.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Well, as you mentioned people intending on using SLI will look for exhaust type cards. Also those of us looking to buy cards for watercooling will often settle for reference cards, as the full cover waterblocks become available sooner and are almost always a spot cheaper.

So you'll pay another $100 per card because they have a fancy name? Because that is all the "founders edition" is. A fancy name on a stock cooler.

 

[RCoon]

So you'll pay another $100 per card because they have a fancy name? Because that is all the "founders edition" is. A fancy name on a stock cooler.

No, I'd pay another $100 for exhaust style coolers if my setup desperately required them, or if I was intending on going for a watercooled setup shortly after release.

Did you just not read my entire post?

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

No, I'd pay another $100 for exhaust style coolers if my setup desperately required them, or if I was intending on going for a watercooled setup shortly after release.

Did you just not read my entire post?

Previous generations did not charge $100 over the MSRP for a blower cooler. And there will most likely be non-founders blower coolers, and this is assuming that none of the other 3rd part designs will use the reference boards. Typically there are at least a few 3rd party models that have reference PCBs, but not reference coolers, and those will be $100 cheaper, unless you HAVE to have the 1080 immediately. Nvidia is just milking their fanbase for all they're worth.

 

[Slizzo]

Absolutely untrue. The reference cards will ship with a vapour chamber cooler which should help with overclocking:



Whether a vapour chamber and potentially higher OC are worth a $100 price premium is up to consumers to decide, but I think we can all agree that "articles" that show zero research effort and play on anti-NVIDIA sentiment, are worth nothing to anybody.

You know, my stupid GTX780 that was reference had a vapor chamber cooler. It had the same cooler that the Titan had when it debuted (which was the first vapor chamber cooler that nVidia produced.) All subsequent high end nVidia cards have had vapor chamber coolers. They're nothing new when it comes to nVidia.

And these FE cards are not binned at all, so any cooler worth its salt, whether vapor chamber or not will be able to cut the mustard.


As for other claims about reference designs being stupid and unworthy: there are users out there that build small form factor PCs, and a blower style cooler is their only option.

 

[Casecutter]

Well if what has been said as of late that AIB's will have the same ACIS chips and GDDR5X, this is just a way of making the most from what a limited number of units they have to load into the market channel.

No torment of not getting one, like was the case with the GTX 680 when it showed. There was such a pent-up demand (I think more then for being late also) that Nvidia got chastised for the limited number. I think Nvidia knows they can't supply the cards (be it TSMC or GDDR5X or a mix of both), they can't get all their AIB's the number(s) they need really move to production. This is a means of tempering expectations with the under-toe of "oh we have them but folk just rather wait than pay a tribute" which in a way is truth. I see Nvidia moved up their plans; I think they wanted to be in throes of this launch say end of June. Not sure the reason for coming out early, but the marking found it's saving grace with "Supreme Leader Edition" introduction spin. Offering non-peasant reparation pricing, meant to bind the faithful for a couple of months.