EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 with iCX Technology
EVGA iCX Technology is not JUST a Cooler
It is a combination of new PCB, Thermal Modules, LED and Precision XOC.
- Featuring a total of 11 global patents (pending and granted), iCX is efficiency perfected.
- 9 Additional Sensors and MCU's embedded on the PCB.
- Purposefully-directed Airflow Chambers.
- Newly Designed Die-Cast Baseplate and Backplate.
- Full Control Using EVGA Precision XOC.
- EVGA's iCX is the Very Definition of Interactive Cooling.
WHY WAS iCX CREATED?
After the ACX 3.0 cooler was verified to operate within spec on Power and Memory section from independent third party testing, we determined that on an enthusiast graphics card, one thermal sensor is just not enough. On an enthusiast graphics card, equal importance should be given to the Power and Memory, not just focused on GPU. This type of thinking required a drastic change in the way thermal management is performed on a graphics card.
WITH EVGA iCX TECHNOLOGY, A NEW ERA OF PC GAMING IS COMING!
Features
- Simultaneous Multi-Projection
- VR Ready
- NVIDIA Ansel
- NVIDIA SLI w/ HB Bridge Support
- NVIDIA G-SYNC
- NVIDIA GameStream
- NVIDIA GPU Boost 3.0
- Microsoft DirectX 12
- Vulkan API
- OpenGL 4.5 Support
- Max Digital Resolution - 7680 x 4320
- HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4 and DVI (via Adapter)
- Built for EVGA PrecisionX OC
- Asynchronous Fans
- 9 additional temp sensors to monitor Memory and VRM
- GPU / Memory / PWM Thermal Status Indicator LEDs
- New vented heatsink fin design and pin fins for optimized airflow
- Safety fuse to protect components from damage due to improper installation or other component failures
- Redesigned cooling with L-shaped contact fins to improve contact surface area for better heat dissipation
- EVGA iCX Technology
GPU
- 3584 CUDA Cores
- Base Clock: 1569 MHz
- Boost Clock: 1683 MHz
- Bus: PCI-E 3.0
- 2-way SLI Ready
Memory
- Memory Detail: 11264 MB GDDR5X
- Memory Bit Width: 352 Bit
- Memory Clock: 11000 MHz
- Memory Speed: 0.2 ns
- Memory Bandwidth: 484 GB/s
Pros: Great cooling- look at any reviews anywhere that compare this to other 1080 Tis and you'll see without any customisation of the fan curve or anything it wins out in temperatures while still performing better. 2 slot design is a lot more sleek than the 2 and a half slot designs other cards use, and given that this cools better than those cards it's kind of crazy. Absolute beast for overclocking- overclocked well above what I've seen other people achieve on other cards, but obviously this may vary from person to person, but regardless of that it'll overclock cooler than other cards. Got a +410 MHz overclock on the memory and +40 MHz on the GPU, without thermals really taking a hit at all. The 1080 Tis don't overclock as much as other cards but this card definitely gave me more to work with than others would have. Thermal sensors are a nice touch, really nice to be able to know for certain that my card is no where near getting hot. Thermal indicators are great- it is so nice to be able to just look at my card and see it's not even above 60C yet, makes testing new overclock offsets way more relaxing since I'm not at all worried about temperatures. Silent when not gaming due to fans being off, and pretty quiet when gaming (until I changed my fan curve to be a bit more aggressive since I don't mind a bit of noise). RGB lighting is nice, pretty solid colour accuracy for most colours and easy to customise. Card looks nice when installed, heard complaints of the giant "EVGA | GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti" RGB sign thing on the side, but personally I love being able to look over at my card and see that and think it looks a hell of a lot better than other cards.
Cons: When I first did something that required the fans to start, it started making this awful noise and I thought something was broken- turns out it was just a fan cable (I'd assure that's what it was) that is on the side of the card that was getting hit by the fan- easy fix though, just pushed it a bit off to the side and it's stiff enough to not move so I haven't had this happen again in the few months I've had this card, so just something I suggest checking before your fans ramp up, but it won't actually cause any harm beyond just a quick scare when you don't know what that sound is. The FTW3 light not being RGB seems like an odd choice. Personally I don't mind it, it contrasts pretty nicely with the red lights of the rest of my system and matches the thermal LEDs (which I've hardly ever seen leave blue), but definitely something I could see bothering other people. The grey colouring around the fans bothered me a lot in the lead up to buying this card, but I must say it actually looks pretty good in person and you don't see the grey once it's installed, only the sides and back plate of the card, with only a part of the grey being exposed near the bottom of the card one the edges where it's not that noticeable and actually looks pretty good- so it actually looks extremely nice, way better than I anticipated.
Overall Review: Overall, if you have enough money for a 1080 Ti, this is 100% the one to go with. You'll notice my pros list was a hell of a lot more populated than my cons list, and all of the cons were things that turned out to not really be an issue or in the case of the fan cable one, completely fixable and from what I can tell an issue other people haven't had. A few other things that I found pretty cool, EVGA included a poster in the box. Kinda gimmicky and maybe not for everyone, but my walls are ugly as hell and I try my best to cover them with posters, so another one is always appreciated and personally I like the one they included and felt I should mention this since other people might feel the same way. It's also worth noting, EVGA is known for their insanely good customer support and I've never bought one of their products before, but after seeing all of the posts about their support and how positively people seem to view them, I simply can't find it in me to have been even remotely nervous about what would happen if I ever needed to RMA this card, which is nice since usually my only assurance is that the law protects me, but it's nice to see a company that would 100% do right by their customers regardless. This card is an absolute beast and it genuinely made me laugh running benchmarks I'd ran just the day before on the same system with my 970. It was insane much it destroyed it, and I like having that sign on the side as a little reminder of how much of a beast my PC has become since getting this card and I'd imagine most people would too. If you're looking at getting a 1080 Ti and your deciding factor in your purchase is performance- this is the card to get, and if your deciding factor is looks, well, then this is probably still the card to get.