EVGA 1080 ti SC Black vs FTW3 (pics)

TahoeDust

TahoeDust

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Messages
502
The FTW3 is a beast physically! Bigger in every dimension except thickness and is markedly heavier. The SC is a very high quality feeling card, and the FTW feels even better. Performance wise in stock form the FTW3 boosts higher, clocks higher, runs cooler, and is quieter. Overclocking with the two is interesting. In memory they both overclock about the same. I can get the SC core to run a higher clock than the FTW3 by a bin or two The SC would bench stable at 2025MHz, the FTW3 only managed 2000MHz with flash to 2012MHz. The interesting thing is that even at a little slower clock the FTW3 out performed the SC by 2%-3% in the graphics test on Firestrike.

Here are some pics:

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Firestrike results and comparison:

Run with my 2700k @ 5.1GHz on a Asus P8Z68 Deluxe and 16gb DDR3 1866MHz

FTW3:
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/12706164

W4pJIVC.png



SC Black:
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/12606417

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Comparison:
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/12706164/fs/12606417

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Such a aesthetic card, hopefully they reuse the cooler on 1080 and 1070.

Big question, is the led logo on the side removable?
 
FlamingKomodo said:
Such a aesthetic card, hopefully they reuse the cooler on 1080 and 1070.

Big question, is the led logo on the side removable?
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Hmm...I really don't know if it can be removed. I never thought about trying. It can deffinitely be turned off. It is full RGB on the FTW3.

It is a beautiful card...

lLvPvAv.jpg
 
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The SC Black uses a reference board while the FTW3 is custom.
 
I wonder what the weight of the FTW 3 is....
I couldn't care less about my FE but I just hate the Ugly Green LOGO it doesn't have have the name of the card on the side of it. I know you can turn it off or lessen it but it's still not as nice as my 980ti EVGA logo was which was kinda like a etching in metal.
 
I just popped a FTW3 into my gaming rig and it's a good bit lighter than the Zotac AMP I pulled out. The Zotac AMP is a damn brick - the main sink under the tubes appears to be a solid slab of copper. Anyways, the FTW3 though lighter does feel extremely well built. The fan shroud is plastic but sturdy and well fitted. The card generally oozes of quality. Add power an the FTW3 looks like Vegas at night.. well kind of. It's worlds nicer looking than the AMP. The logo is slick but I also liked the way eVGA did their 980ti's too. It was smaller but still very sharp and clean looking. I do love the full flexibility of the RGB lighting control for the logo, backplate lights, and the iCX lights.

PS: That NZXT H440 is nice. The window is just big enough to show the card off but not too much more.
 
Nice comparison!

It should be noted that 3DMark tests can have a variance of +/- 3% between tests with the EXACT same hardware and settings.

As an aside, Nvidia has done a really good job with the 10 series and GPU Boost 3.0 - they've taken almost all of the fun out of overclocking since almost all cards overclock to a fairly small, and similar, range.
 
is it me or what the heck is the point of a card so big? With Pascal they should be doing what Zotac is doing. Bringing 1080ti to much smaller size and still giving you better performance.If these FTW3 cards gave you another 100-200mhz in OC then may be, but still wouldn't be worth it. I understand the Kingpin version probably designed for serious overclockers that want to break world records and push them to limits.
 
NKD said:
is it me or what the heck is the point of a card so big? With Pascal they should be doing what Zotac is doing. Bringing 1080ti to much smaller size and still giving you better performance.If these FTW3 cards gave you another 100-200mhz in OC then may be, but still wouldn't be worth it. I understand the Kingpin version probably designed for serious overclockers that want to break world records and push them to limits.
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theoretically, more cooling surface area => better heat dissipation. also bigger fans => quieter. but it really boils down to the quality of the HSF.
 
Very nice.

I like the achievement from Firestrike.

Looks like its time for a 7700 or something :D
 
How are they temperature wise? I know sc does not have extra sensors so FTW3 runs a lot cooler than SC?
 
skdlqiw said:
How are they temperature wise? I know sc does not have extra sensors so FTW3 runs a lot cooler than SC?
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3-fan vs. 2-fan, I would think so. They didn't compromise on the fan size to fit the third one in there. One thing is for sure: it will run a lot quieter to sustain similar temperatures when compared to the 2-fan.

The extra sensors are just there so the fan speed can be adjusted more accurately to the temperature of the card. Doesn't necessarily mean the card will run cooler because of them.
 
The FTW3 is also just physically a lot larger with a lot more heat sink (tubes and fins) to dissipate that heat. I have had three 1080ti's (FE, Zotac AMP, and FTW3) and the FTW3 is by far the coolest and quietest of them - running at only 60c ish with an aggressive fan profile which is still not audible over my case fans.
 
FTW3 cools better but generally results from FTW3 card show less of an overclock beyond the 2000 MHz range (compared to other non EVGA brands). Not that it matters but still.
 
Wait... didn't you go through two other cards that didn't clock well before you got the Strix? At any rate, I watch a lot of youtube and it seems like anything past 2ghz on these, even the AIB cards, should be considered a very good card.. A ton of these crap out around 1949 it seems.. and less in some cases. That said, the Strix seems to be the card to get if you want a good shot a higher clocks. Asus made a nice product, oh and the Poseidon just came out too, air or water cooling on that one, choose your poison, it runs cool either way.
 
You'd have to be suicidal to buy a $700+ ASUS video card. If it breaks after 30 days you have a paper weight.
 
revenant said:
Wait... didn't you go through two other cards that didn't clock well before you got the Strix? At any rate, I watch a lot of youtube and it seems like anything past 2ghz on these, even the AIB cards, should be considered a very good card.. A ton of these crap out around 1949 it seems.. and less in some cases. That said, the Strix seems to be the card to get if you want a good shot a higher clocks. Asus made a nice product, oh and the Poseidon just came out too, air or water cooling on that one, choose your poison, it runs cool either way.
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I went through an ASUS FE that clocked at 2050. An MSI Gaming X that won't go past 1949 and now ASUS Strix that also does 2050.
For FTW3 I have typically seen 2000-2012 as the overclock.

Either way, it does not matter in the bigger scheme of things.
 
KickAssCop said:
I went through an ASUS FE that clocked at 2050. An MSI Gaming X that won't go past 1949 and now ASUS Strix that also does 2050.
For FTW3 I have typically seen 2000-2012 as the overclock.

Either way, it does not matter in the bigger scheme of things.
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Gotcha. Yeah those 1080ti FE's are loud as heck at load and a few extra mhz at the top there doesn't equate to much either. I too was on that hunt and my two non FE's cards clock similarly but the FTW3 edged out the Zotac AMP by a little. Thank goodness too because I would have been pissed if my 3rd card was a dud. Ha! (er.. well, "dud" only in the sense of knowing it's running at a slightly slower clock.. )

TaintedSquirrel said:
You'd have to be suicidal to buy a $700+ ASUS video card. If it breaks after 30 days you have a paper weight.
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Yeah I guess they are still bad from what I am reading.. eVGA and MSI seem to be pretty good about no fuss RMA exchanges with something equal to or stronger in some cases.
 
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Wow, thanks for this, TahoeDust!

If I had the money to spend on a flagship GPU today, the FTW3 would be the only one on my list. Amazing SOB right there.
 
It is an awesome awesome card. I mine with it when I am not using the machine. It runs 99-100% utilization for hours on end steady at 70* with 68% fan virtually silent.
 
Was the sound difference between the two very noticeable? There is a $60 difference between the SC2 and FTW3 right now and I can't decide if it's worth it since everything else between the two seems almost identical performance wise.
 
exlink said:
Was the sound difference between the two very noticeable? There is a $60 difference between the SC2 and FTW3 right now and I can't decide if it's worth it since everything else between the two seems almost identical performance wise.
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The cool LEDs are worth a few bucks IMO :p
IMG_0663[192].jpg
 
FlamingKomodo said:
Such a aesthetic card, hopefully they reuse the cooler on 1080 and 1070.

Big question, is the led logo on the side removable?
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I'm sure you can remove it or unplug the rgb header from the card but the software for the card will allow you to turn the light off (at least it should)
 
exlink said:
Was the sound difference between the two very noticeable? There is a $60 difference between the SC2 and FTW3 right now and I can't decide if it's worth it since everything else between the two seems almost identical performance wise.
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Performance will be the same the best thing about the FTW3 to me is all the additional temp sensors all over the card, I don't believe the SC version has them
 
hitched said:
I'm sure you can remove it or unplug the rgb header from the card but the software for the card will allow you to turn the light off (at least it should)
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You can disable the LEDs in the Precision XOC software.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
You'd have to be suicidal to buy a $700+ ASUS video card. If it breaks after 30 days you have a paper weight.
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I wouldn't say that exactly... asus will fix or replace your card as long as you didn't even manage to scratch the card. Don't even fall for the 5-7 day rma time, what a joke... expect 3 weeks at the very least with the only notification or information about what's going on to be a shipping notification...

Zinn said:
You can disable the LEDs in the Precision XOC software.
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I figured as much... I was able to disable the lights on my aorus before I removed the cooler with all the lights to fit my water block
 
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Today I'll be pulling the trigger on one of these two cards:

EVGA Geforce GTX 1080 Ti SC2 - $719.99 AMIR
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487337

EVGA Geforce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 - $779.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814487338

The price difference between the two is $65 after including shipping (I get free 2 day shipping with the SC2 via Shoprunner).

The SC2 is the in between card of the two that the OP posted as it has all the features of ICX (including the 9 sensors). The FTW3 card is obviously much larger with the extra fan and custom PCB, but everywhere I read the cards perform identically - usually within 1% of each other even after factoring in overclocks. The remaining noise and temp differences are also fairly negligible; usually within a couple degrees C or dBA of each other (one even listed the FTW3 as louder in auto). Is the massive increase in size of the FTW3 even an advantage given it performs almost identical as its smaller, cheaper sibling?

I know this is subjective, but I'd like to hear peoples' thoughts: is the FTW3 card really worth the near 10% mark-up over the SC2 after all things considered? Or do people just get it because of the "I want the best" mindset?

I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger on the FTW3 over the SC2 - am I missing something?
 
Something else to think about is that if you plan on water cooling the card, the ftw3 is so far one of the very few non founder cards that you can get a water block for...
 
exlink. I went with the SC2 for its smaller size. It's a damn good card. I will admit, I would have bought the ftw3 but I doubt it would have fit in my case. If you want the biggest and baddest you know what to do. ;)
 
exlink said:
Well the SC2 went OOS when I was about to pull the trigger so I went with the FTW3 - which also appears to be OOS now on Newegg as well. Glad I got my order in!
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They did you a favor. The FTW3 is better in every way except the pocket book. Buy once cry once.
 
TahoeDust said:
They did you a favor. The FTW3 is better in every way except the pocket book. Buy once cry once.
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I had an MSI 1080 Ti Gaming X that I exchanged for the EVGA FTW3.

The MSI was a solid, well-engineered card, but it doesn't come close to EVGA in terms of the quality of the hardware and software, attention to thermal design, and looks. There's even shit I'll never use, like selectable BIOS profiles. I'm not sure how EVGA built a card this big that doesn't sag at all.

I won't say it was worth every penny because these cards are a complete rip-off, but if you have the money to burn I think the FTW3 is probably the best video card you can buy right now.
 
My 1080 Ti FTW3 came in today. It's a glorious card to look at. But unfortunately I won't be able to try it out until my new CPU comes in this weekend. :(
 
Your getting performance on par with my 2 1070 FTW2's. Wonder what i'll get when my Step Up finally finishes for my SC Black Edition ti's.
 
I just moved my FTW3 to a freshly built PC with a 7700k at 5ghz and I just set the voltage and power sliders to max with no clock adjustments and it's boosting to 1974 by itself. I will probably tack on my +50 core and +150 mem at some point but don't feel the need to atm. This is a damn nice card. I think the Asus variants are the only other ones I would consider, the Poseidon looks kick ass.

IMG_9176.JPG
 
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