Gigabyte Geforce Gtx 1080 Ti 0 Ti Waterforce Xtreme Edition 11g Review

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Over the past month or and then IGN has looked at a scattering of GTX 1080 Ti GPUs in an effort to figure out if at that place are any major differences between them, and of course, help you lot figure out which i to buy if y'all're in the marketplace. And so far we've sampled very similar boards from Asus, EVGA, and MSI, but Gigabyte's new flagship GPU – the liquid cooled version with an extremely long name – is a different beast entirely. The (deep breath) AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce Xtreme Edition 11G (Run across it on Newegg) / (See it on Amazon UK) is similar to other high-terminate 1080 Tis simply includes its very ain water block that's attached to a 120mm radiator with a fan to absurd information technology. To have that type of heavy-duty cooling on a flagship GPU is a pretty special thing. It should exist noted the company too sells a version with merely the water block fastened for those who already have a DIY setup installed.How does it stack upwards to the more stock 1080Tis? Let's dive in:

Spec sheet comparison

Design and Features

The Gigabyte Aorus Waterforce is a pretty standard GTX 1080 Ti, bated from the liquid cooling apparatus that is. Examined side-past-side with its competitors, its specs aren't much dissimilar from any other GTX 1080 Ti. The major difference, of form, is its cooling, which is naturally capable of performance that is above and beyond what air coolers can reasonably accomplish. Considering of this cooling, its clocks are a fleck higher than what you would discover on other GPUs, but as I've said in previous reviews, these specs are totally irrelevant since all GTX 1080 Ti cards volition go far beyond the spec without whatever user intervention thanks to Nvidia's GPU Boost 3.0. Regardless, if we're just looking at the spec sheets we tin see this GPU is clocked a scrap higher than most. It features "ane click overclocking" via the the Gigabyte software, and since it's piece of cake to practice and the card will run higher than information technology anyhow, that's what I'm quoting here. There are 3 options for overclocking: OC Mode (the highest), Gaming mode, and Silent mode. The clock speeds for each mode are: 1746MHz, 1721MHz, and 1582MHz. Those are Boost Clocks, but again, they are largely meaningless.

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The card features a bevvy of connectors, which are designed to go far more VR friendly than other 1080 Ti cards. Not merely does it sport iii DisplayPort connectors, but information technology has iii HDMI ports too, with 1 on the front of the menu and 2 on the dorsum. In that location's too a legacy dual-link DVI port for those with older monitors.

The card includes a closed-loop liquid cooler, and all you have to practise is bolt it on and fire it up. DIY liquid cooling enthusiasts might turn up their olfactory organ at such a newbie-oriented setup, simply information technology'south certainly a lot easier having to remove the stock cooler and delicately bolt on a water block. That's a bridge besides far for a lot of people, and it's the same reason why closed-loop coolers are so pop these days. They deliver 95% of the benefits of a DIY setup with 95 percent less hassle. This cooler in detail is comprised of the h2o block/pump that is pre-installed on the GPU, and a 120mm radiator/fan with braided tubing.

There'south nothing too crazy about the cooling setup in that everything most the fan and radiator seems straightforward. You tin run into the massive copper h2o clock peeking through the top of the GPU shroud, simply other than that it's pretty standard as far every bit these types of coolers go. To install the kit you simply attach the 120mm radiator to your case, every bit the fan is already fastened right out of the box, and as a bonus, is the aforementioned fancy Aorus fan found on the company's flagship GPUs, with tiny lips on the edge of the blades with grooves behind to assistance channel the air. Once the GPU is installed, sending power to the carte fires upward the pump and the liquid begins to circulate. The card requires two 8-pivot PCIe connectors, and there's a vi-pivot-to-eight pivot adapter in the box for those of you lot with older PSUs. Gigabyte recommends a minimum 600w ability supply.

Finally, since this is a flagship GPU naturally it includes RGB illumination. There is a small Auros logo on the side that lights up, and a big X-shaped expanse over the water block glows very vivid as well. Sadly, since the water block boasts most of the illumination, you'll never see it since it's underneath the GPU. It does tend to emit a glow into your case all the same, which is kind of cool.

Software

The included software is chosen Gigabyte Graphics Engine, and information technology's a bit rough around the edges, merely still easy enough to use. It lets you examine and modify GPU clocks, power and temperature targets, every bit well as monitor the bill of fare's vitals. Naturally the most important part of the software, for me at least, is the RGB lighting command. You can turn the LED effects on or off, or choose from the following animations: consistent, breathing, flashing, dual flashing, monitoring, audio flashing, and circling (cycling). My favorite was monitoring, just because it was cool to see the LEDs get from greenish to yellow as the GPU heated upward in testing. Unfortunately, or fortunately perhaps, the color never inverse to crimson, every bit the GPU never got hotter than 62C. I'chiliad not sure what Gigabyte uses as the thresholds, but information technology was dark-green at 40C, and so turned xanthous around 55C, merely that's all I saw in testing. Yous can also prepare it to change colour based on GPU utilization or fan speed too.

Benchmarks

To find out how the WaterForce fared confronting the competition, I strapped it into a exam organisation we built that uses an Intel Core i7-7700K CPU (not-overclocked), 8GB of DDR4 RAM, an Asus motherboard, and an Intel SSD. All tests were run at their highest possible settings, with no anti-aliasing. Tests were run at the three most common resolutions, and I compared the GPU to the previous GTX 1080 Tis nosotros've reviewed.

Before we started calling around to get several GTX 1080 Ti GPUs in for review, we had a hypothesis that they'd all perform similarly. This is pretty elementary to explain really; they are even so GPU. Though some manufacturers use a custom PCB and evidently the cooling apparatus is different on each carte du jour, they should still all run at similar clock speeds, thus ensuring parity.

With the addition of the WaterForce to our benchmark chart, nosotros have now tested 6 GTX 1080 Ti cards in total, and we can at present say definitively that they all exercise in fact perform similarly.

Overclocking

Since this bad boy is liquid cooled I expected it to overclock similar a mutha right out of the box, and I wasn't disappointed, at first. Past only clicking the "OC Fashion" in the Graphics Engine software, and non touching anything else, it exploded out of the gate to an impressive 2025Mhz.

Afterward running for about xx minutes the clocks began to fall slightly as the card warmed upward, dropping down to a however-impressive 1999MHz. It stayed at that clock speed for about an hour and then the clocks started to driblet a bit, hovering around 1974MHz. In all my fourth dimension with GTX 10-Series GPUs I've found most of them don't seem to want to cantankerous the 2GHz barrier, likely due to the corporeality of voltage supplied to the GPU. Fifty-fifty though Nvidia's demo at the 1080 launch was running at ii.1GHz, I've yet to see that in the existent globe (shocking, I know). Most cards end up shut to 2GHz with some overclocking, so the fact that this GPU was already at 2GHz correct out of the box was neat, simply also not surprising given its cooling power.

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After letting it run for a good 24 hours I began to fiddle with the clock offset a flake, and commonly this lets me bump it upwardly a tiny bit, say fifty to 100Mhz typically depending on where the clocks are to begin with. On the WaterForce though, I wasn't able to conform the clocks at all. Every time I'd increase the clocks, even by a small amount like 15MHz, the application I was using (Sky four.0) would crash. This was repeatable and consequent. In the end I just allow the carte practise its matter with everything left in their default states, and the card settled on a final clock of almost 1961Mhz. This is a bit lower than I predictable for a menu with such prodigious cooling, simply non out of the ordinary for a GTX 1080 Ti at all. Still, information technology was a bit disappointing.

The bright side is the card ran super cool at effectually 58C when my flat was cool in the morning, and 62C after things warmed upwardly a bit afterward in the mean solar day. This is essentially cooler than even the almost gnarly aftermarket coolers are capable of, and for instance the Asus ROG Strix, which has a 2.v slot libation, was able to run at 68C, but a slightly smaller card similar the EVGA SC2 ran at 72C, which is more typical. Therefore, the WaterForce version of this GPU is capable of lowering load temperatures almost 10C overall, and the biggest benefit is that the GPU is totally silent at all times. Even lowering my head downwards adjacent to the GPU and the fan/radiator when it was operating at full load, I could never discern even the slightest amount of racket. If you're looking for a truly "whisper quiet" GPU, this is the one to get.

1 Final Note

The exam system we built uses a Libation Master Hyper212 to absurd the CPU, so I originally installed the WaterForce GPU's cooler in the traditional instance frazzle location next to the CPU since information technology was available. Withal, upon performing this installation there was a lot of excessive tubing that frankly looked pretty terrible. I figured at starting time this was the natural location for the radiator to be installed since that's where people attach exhaust fans.

Installing the radiator in the traditional "exhuast" location left too much excess cablevision hanging out.

Afterward examining my handiwork, I realized Gigabyte is assuming if you buy this GPU y'all already have a CLC cooler for your CPU, so this spot volition likely already be occupied. Gigabyte has endowed this GPU's cooler with quite a fleck of tubing, at to the lowest degree 13 inches or so, only it's hard to measure since information technology'south bent quite a bit. Given this situation I looked at other options, and since installing it in the front of the case would crave flipping the fan orientation, I decided to install it in the acme of my case instead so it could exhaust hot air out of the chassis that way. After running tests with the radiator in both locations I discovered no difference in operating temperatures, leaving me to conclude putting it at the acme of your case is the best option.

I recommend installing this GPU's cooler at the meridian of your example, if you have room.

Purchasing Guide

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce has an MSRP of $819.99, and is only available on Newegg:

• See the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce on Newegg

• See the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce on Amazon (UK)

The Gigabyte Waterforce is a great GTX 1080 Ti, no doubt. It'due south totally silent, easy to install, and runs at high clock speeds without any fiddling. The only small issue I have with it is it costs more than than its competitors while offering few tangible advantages. The Asus and EVGA cards are already pretty darn quiet, and have better lighting, so I'd personally get with them since they are usually less expensive (when they are in stock). That said, at that place's nothing wrong with the Waterforce; you're merely paying a little more than for extra for bragging rights.

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Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/08/04/gigabyte-aorus-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-waterforce-xtreme-edition-11g-review

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