Availability of custom cooler 1080 Ti cards

[Hugo Cowan]

So, custom 1080 Tis are starting to emerge, but when is PCSpecialist going to start selling them instead of the foundry edition cards?

Are they waiting for more basic custom models over the pricey ones currently available (Gigabyte Aorus, MSI Gaming X, ASUS ROG STRIX are the ones I know are available)?

How long did it take for custom design cards to be supplied with earlier GPUs?

All these questions and more

 

[keynes]

where are they available? As far as I know they are on shortage or for pre-order. You would need to ask PCS directly for an official response.

 

[Hugo Cowan]

I saw some selling for fairly extortionate prices on amazon today. I will ask them, but just wanted to make sure nobody here had any more info on the matter already.

 

[Oussebon]

At a glance I only see one that's supposedly in stock via a marketplace seller, and it's also £60 cheaper on that marketplace seller's own website. The OC is also a bit of a joke compared to others that are available for pre-order for less.

No idea when/if PCS will get custom cooler ones in. Generally the only ones they do are FTW editions, and even that's a relatively recent innovation.

 

[Hugo Cowan]

Their current 1080s are custom cards from zotac/palit, not reference ones (I asked them not long ago, I think they specifically said the Zotac AMP 1080 was the one they stocked). I was of the understanding that they sell the reference version until they can stock cards with aftermarket coolers.

The EVGA option just offers a different, more well-known brand, and also probably a slightly better aftermarket cooler AFAIK.

 

[Oussebon]

Yes, I know that not all their 1080s are FEs. My point was that they can be FEs or other reference PCB type ones with blower coolers e.g. like the Zotac OEM https://www.zotac.com/my/product/graphics_card/zotac-geforce-gtx-1070 models, I've even seen one or twice people say they've had galax, which could include models like: http://www.galax.com/en/graphics-card/10-series/galax-geforcer-gtx-1080-ti.html People can get cards with twin fan / non-blower type coolers, people have got Zotac Amps and Palit Jetstreams, but the point is you might still end up with a reference (blower) cooler, whether or not it's FE.

Since the cheaper GPUs tend to be ones with blower coolers, there's some chance that's what you're going to end up with if you take a pot-luck GPU over a specific one.

They don't guarantee it will be a Zotac AMP, unless they've totally changed their policies. You get what they have in stock, which might be an AMP, or might be something else.

The EVGA FTWs are among the best performing out of the box, have custom PCBs, dual VBIOS, etc.

 

[Hugo Cowan]

Wow, that is not the best. Thank you for explaining that so well, I'm going to suggest to my friend that he sources the GPU elsewhere, then either install it himself or send it to PCSpecialist to be included in the build if that's possible.

Really interesting that it's such a luck-of-the-draw method of supply they have going on. It would be much more preferable to split reference coolers from aftermarket ones at the very least, at best they could actually specify which models are available and actually allow you to choose.

I guess that's what they're trying to do with the EVGA option.

 

[Oussebon]

If I were buying another PC from PCS I'd almost certainly get it without the GPU and then fit my own.

However, I do see it from the other side. On the one hand there's enhancing choice, but on the other hand they need to balance simplicity of the configurator, plus and any additional costs associated with sourcing and stocking another separate model of GPU. When I got this PC in 2012, I found it hard enough to decide between a GTX 670, 2gb vs 4gb, and the AMD equivalents back then. And I probably did more research than quite a few people do. I'd have found deciding between an unnamed GTX 670 2gb, an unnamed GTX 670 4gb, or a GTX 670 FTW Sig 2gb even harder. A GTX 670 was a GTX 670 to me - while today a GTX 1080 is a GTX 1080 for a lot of people.

There are also apparently over 130 different models of GTX 1080: https://videocardz.com/nvidia/geforce-1000/geforce-gtx-1080

But given how Pascal is with power limits and GPU Boost 3.0, from a performance point of view there's possibly less point to having ultra high end overclocking GPUs than with something like Maxwell, where you could slap a pretty beefy factory OC on a GPU for those who wanted more-than-reference performance but didn't fancy OCing the GPU themselves.


Quite a lot of people on the forums who post specs for feedback and include a FTW GPU - presumably because they see it has FTW in the name and is more expensive and so must be better, and maybe a google a review and see it gets high marks - then decide to stick with a regular GPU when they see the performance difference isn't necessarily proportionate to the cost.

Other than having a card's fans switching off at idle (which is the main reason I'd add my own) I'm not sure the absence of a range of choice for GPUs is a massive feature loss for a lot of people. It is a bit for me, but I can see why PCS don't go with that.

 

[Hugo Cowan]

Yeah, I'm sure actually getting ample stock for each brand would be an issue too. One can dream though, right?

I'm not so adamant about going non-reference because of the overclocking potential - it's all about the noise.

I just don't feel comfortable recommending a blower cooler to my friend at all, especially on these big die chips. I do, however, also consider some custom cards to be too loud (although still much better than the blower cooler), so maybe I'm just overly picky.

 

[FusRoDah]

Yeah, I'm sure actually getting ample stock for each brand would be an issue too. One can dream though, right?

I'm not so adamant about going non-reference because of the overclocking potential - it's all about the noise.

I just don't feel comfortable recommending a blower cooler to my friend at all, especially on these big die chips. I do, however, also consider some custom cards to be too loud (although still much better than the blower cooler), so maybe I'm just overly picky.

Perhaps at a little over-picky but then again everyone's limits/preferences are different of course. I picked up the 1080ti FE from the upgrade route here at PCS. Devours everything I chuck at it @ 1440p ultra everything. As for coolness /noise from the blower - your average AAA game from a year or two ago it just flutters its eyelashes at it and stays around 55-60 Celcius meaning the fans don't ramp too high. Uginine valley/ newest games at 4k or 1440p ultra everything etc the fans will blow at 80-100% - although if you have a nice case it'll not bother you too much either.

Fus Ro

 

[Oussebon]

The stock cooler goes to 100%? Are you using a custom fan curve?