I need buyer's advice: Nvidia 1080 Ti

[Sólstafir]

A few months out from launch, it's clear RTX is going nowhere fast. Downgrades, shockingly underwhelming performance and a string of very public card failures leaves me unwilling to touch the dratted 2080 Ti. But I do want to rebuild my PC, and with 1080 Tis priced so well I want to move soon.

And that leaves me wondering; which 1080 Ti should I go with? I've been out-of-the-loop on GPUs since I bought my 1080 more than two years ago, and I don't know which brands are in form. And with AIO CPUs coolers having come of age, I don't know whether to chase an Air, Water or Hybrid cooled card.

I'm also interested in a potential dual-card setup. 1080 Tis are less than half the price of 2080 Tis and my budget easily covers a matched pair. What kind of link do they use, and what kind of performance benefit would a second card give?

Thanks. Any advice is appreciated.

[The Chicagoan]

Originally posted by Miss Ann Thrope:

I have an Asus ROG Strix 1080 Ti, which is a very good card. I'd highly recommend it, as Asus have a pretty solid track record. I haven't modified the card's cooling system, as I don't tend to push it to its absolute limits (its three fans do a good job at keeping it cool, anyway). My CPU is cooled by the enormous Phanteks PH-TC14PE air cooler; there is no water cooling in my PC at all.

You'll need an SLI connection for two or more cards. I don't bother with this, as SLI has limited support by games. Only a few take full advantage of it.

I agree, I love the Strix line up of GPU's. 3 fans, RGB lighting, and if I remember correctly it can be controlled via aura sync.

@OP It all depends on what you want, some cards cool better, like the aftermarket coolers, and the AIO cards. But if you want you can get the Founders, that's what I have the 1070 FE. But if you want the best temps, the best overclocking, go with the Strix or the hybrid.

[[☥] - CJ -]

personally i love EVGA and their iCX edition cards

[Sólstafir]

Asus and EVGA were my prefered brands to begin with. I've already had two Strix cards, and they've both been flawless. They're both still alive and work perfectly, and they've both performed well beyond what I expected. So I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

EVGA I'm not as familiar with. I know that when I was buying my 1080, EVGA were being hailed as one of the best Pascal partner brands. But I don't know much about the brand, despite owning an EVGA case.

Thanks for the responses.

[The Chicagoan]

Originally posted by Wolfey:

At this point I'll probably go Strix as you'd said. This would be my third Strix in a row; I bough the original 970 Strix when Asus launched in years ago, and it's still thriving in a friend's PC. And my 1080 is also a Strix O8G - a card I wish they'd kept making.

Asus have treated me very well.

Yeah, if your case has a vertical mounting bracket, and slot you should veritcal mount it with a PCIE riser cable. Just to show off more of the LEDs under it since that's where they are all hidden. Asus is a really good company, I have one of their motherboards, the Asus Maximus Formula VI, they don't even sell these new anymore.. So glad I'm one of the last people to have them new. This thing is sexy as hell. For a 2013 motherboard, of course.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Originally posted by Wolfey:

Asus and EVGA were my prefered brands to begin with. I've already had two Strix cards, and they've both been flawless. They're both still alive and work perfectly, and they've both performed well beyond what I expected. So I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

EVGA I'm not as familiar with. I know that when I was buying my 1080, EVGA were being hailed as one of the best Pascal partner brands. But I don't know much about the brand, despite owning an EVGA case.

Thanks for the responses.

iCX allows better control as far as cooling and fan controls go
would probably be easier to explain by researching the iCX brand yourself and go from there

EVGA is definitely one of the better brands though, and yeah, a family member has the DG-87 case that i had to build his new system in a few months ago, its a friggin beast.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

EVGA iCX or Hybrid; can't go wrong there.

[Sólstafir]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

EVGA iCX or Hybrid; can't go wrong there.

Thanks. And SLI; even worth considering? Budget isn't really a worry, I'd budgeted 2K for a 2080Ti and I can grab a Hybrid 1080 Ti for ~ $1000

[HALO_run]

SLI is a no go

[Sólstafir]

Originally posted by HALO_run:

SLI is a no go

I'm guessing the performance gain would be limited to only a few games?

[Sapph]

Originally posted by Wolfey:

Originally posted by HALO_run:

SLI is a no go

I'm guessing the performance gain would be limited to only a few games?

That and the gains are sometimes good, sometimes nearly non-existant.
SOmetimes there stuttering and other problems.


As for which 1080TI to go for: it's up to you really. All of them are the same, some have better cooling but may be considerably more expensive.

[HALO_run]

Originally posted by Wolfey:

Originally posted by HALO_run:

SLI is a no go

I'm guessing the performance gain would be limited to only a few games?

as Sapph said, and it's a hit and miss that and for performance a gtx 1080IT, will run all the games,that are out at this point in time that and you can oc this card.

so SLI is just no point in using

[ER]

I have done SLI and 3-way SLI since the 9800GX2 era, to 3-way GTX280, a sidestep to a AMD 5970 then 3.way GTX480, 3-way GTX580 3GB, 2-way GTX Titan and 2-way GTX 1080 FTW. Now i "downgrade" to RTX2080Ti FTW3 if the plans go to lock, if not i end up with a plain RTX2080Ti XC Ultra. The secondhandvalue of the 1080 is still good and this specialmodel net a bit more than a regular 1080. Doing 4K since 2012.

I dont recommend SLI in any form or shape today, what i see is anywhere from zero to 40-60% increse in perfomance and i bet you in the long run a single 2080Ti will beat 1080Ti in SLI and is considdered an upgrade.
SLI is only a good idea in the beginning of the cards lifecycle when there is nothing better out but the card cant preform to keep FPS where it needs to be or the e-pen in 3dmark or other benchmark. The "new" SLI aka NVlink may be better with higher bandwith but i dont care anymore when i with the 2080Ti can do 4K and keep FPS above monitors refreshrate and in some games a single 1080FTW can do 11920x2160 above refreshrate.

For me the 2080Ti is starting at 13000SEK and 1080Ti staring at 7790SEK so about 67% more for RTX here and better 4K performance/above refreshrate of monitor all the time.

Personally i have better experience with EVGA support than ASUS support, and that in europe.
I would go EVGA iCX or hybrid if you have a AIO cooler for CPU.
I have no fear in touching the 2080Ti, if it is a bad one i just RMA it to the store or EVGA and get a new one and they still stand behind there product when i removing the cooler unlike any other brand where warranty is voided by a simple thing as replace TIM with better one.

[Sólstafir]

Originally posted by HALO_run:

Originally posted by Wolfey:

I'm guessing the performance gain would be limited to only a few games?

as Sapph said, and it's a hit and miss that and for performance a gtx 1080IT, will run all the games,that are out at this point in time that and you can oc this card.

so SLI is just no point in using

Alright, thanks a lot both of you :)

[Monk]

The 2080ti failure rates seem to be no worse than other previous models, though seem to be mostly with reference models.

As for 1080ti, the Asus strix has the best cooler, with the evga ftw3 a close second, but has extra monitoring which can be interesting.

If buying new now, I'd take a 2080ti custom card over sli 1080ti, as I've always said, only sli with the top cards, a permanent 30-40% performance gain is better than partial 50-90%.

So, yeah, I'd get a single 2080ti over buying 2 1080ti's now, though a single 1080ti is a very good buy while they are still available, I'm planning to pick up a strix or ftw3 1080ti on black Friday if I see one at a good deal to upgrade my htpc.

[Kaihekoa]

I've got the EVGA 1080 Ti FTW3 Hybrid which is an amazing card. EVGA in general is a high quality American brand with great customer service. For you, I wouldn't recommend a 1080 Ti though. It's "only" about 35% faster than a 1080, and if you have a big budget, you should get a 2080 Ti for the best graphics performance. The price is high, but you're also paying to be on the cutting edge of graphics tech with the new features and cores that aren't in games yet. From a value perspective, SLI/Nvlink is only worth considering if you have a mega budget to get two of the best cards and don't mind the downsides.