Brand for 4080

Keljian

[H]ard|Gawd
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What are the lower tier brands of 4080s like? Galax, inno3d and PNY..

Are they ok?
 
Is this the thread where you compare brands? I will wait until this card is $500 cheaper, in about three years? :) Seriously, though - I was watching the sandard youtube benchmarks - the 4080 vs 7900 XTX - and the 4080 is a much better card - in terms of power efficiency - so many games, the 4080 is under 300W and the 7900 XTX is around 340-345W - WTH? AMD really dropped the ball - the card runs hot and high power consumption. It's a good card otherwise - however, so-so RT and missing some other features that the Nvidia card has. The Nvidia card, though, is really expensive.
With all that said, I was wondering if anyone has compared the Zotac Infinity OC, Asus Tuf and MSI Gaming XTrio 4080 cards - which one would you pick out of those? I'm just curious. Those cards are among the cheapest - sometimes, there's open box cards at the stores closest to me - in my country, these cards go for a bit over $1.5k.....yikes. :-(
 
Probably a good card - if the cooler is anything like the 30 series' - and the 40 series is more efficient, anyway.
The cooler is excessive.. same as the 4090 with lower power consumption
 
So the ASUS TUF OC had ridiculous amounts of coil whine and I returned it. I now have an MSI Suprim X, which is much quieter.

I do electronics engineering and decided to look at all of the bare boards (on techpowerup)- if anyone ends up reading this thread ... I rate the Zotac and MSI (suprim x) the highest in terms of power delivery/smoothing and therefore lowest noise.
 
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So the ASUS TUF OC had ridiculous amounts of coil whine and I returned it. I now have an MSI Suprim X, which is much quieter.

I do electronics engineering and decided to look at all of the bare boards (on techpowerup)- if anyone ends up reading this thread ... I rate the Zotac and MSI (suprim x) the highest in terms of power delivery/smoothing (and therefore lowest noise).
Interesting about the coil whine...

I have two Tuf 3090s and they both have a lot of coil whine....
 
PNY is not a 'lower tier brand', by the way. Yes, they stick plainly with the reference design. That being said, PNY generally receive the contracts for the enterprise grade SKU's and they know what they're doing. They also, out of all of them, are the only US based company left and have solid warranty support.
 
So the ASUS TUF OC had ridiculous amounts of coil whine and I returned it. I now have an MSI Suprim X, which is much quieter.

I do electronics engineering and decided to look at all of the bare boards (on techpowerup)- if anyone ends up reading this thread ... I rate the Zotac and MSI (suprim x) the highest in terms of power delivery/smoothing (and therefore lowest noise).
MSI, I can see - I wonder if the Trio card is as good? But, Zotac, really? Which Zotac? Only certain ones? The Zotac Trinity is widely available with the Amp model a bit less so. But, I think the Amp one is their top card?
 
It’s explainable because of the way the power phases are designed
I haven't heard any coil whine from my 3080 - does anyone here have one? :) I have read that the Asus Tuf 40 series can have coil whine - didn't know about the 3090.
 
PNY is not a 'lower tier brand', by the way. Yes, they stick plainly with the reference design. That being said, PNY generally receive the contracts for the enterprise grade SKU's and they know what they're doing. They also, out of all of them, are the only US based company left and have solid warranty support.
If you have a look at the boards.. they are running electrolytic caps rather than film, cheaper vrm components, and fewer power phases than the ones I mentioned. If you compare the PNY to the founders edition, they are significantly different. The VRMs on the founders edition can handle 70A each, the PNY ones only handle 50A each. It’s ok running 50A VRMs if you have more of them than the founders edition to make up for the shortfall in power delivery.

Somewhat ironically, no one seems to have stuck with a reference design for the 4080
 
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The PNY GeForce RTX™ 4080 16GB XLR8 Gaming Verto Epic-X RGB OC is one of the cheapest here - I'd probably pick that. But, if one can go higher in price - the MSI Suprim X, Gigabyte Aorus Master and Zotac Amp Extreme AERO look like the best cards - and I haven't read of any coil whine complaints with those.

This youtuber appears to do a good job looking at the specs/vrm of 4080 cards - although, no tests of them - just looks at data sheets, other articles and specs:

 
If you have a look at the boards.. they are running electrolytic caps rather than film, cheaper vrm components, and fewer power phases than the ones I mentioned. If you compare the PNY to the founders edition, they are significantly different. The VRMs on the founders edition can handle 70A each, the PNY ones only handle 50A each. It’s ok running 50A VRMs if you have more of them than the founders edition to make up for the shortfall in power delivery.

Somewhat ironically, no one seems to have stuck with a reference design for the 4080
But who cares? It's not running with a higher power limit. Nor does that detract from the value of the card compared to cards that might let you raise the power limit since the 4080 isn't worth overclocking. It's already running fast out of the box due to how cool even the cheapest cards run with the massive cooler designs. There is no reason to be buying anything outside of base MSRP cards here, unless you're a professional overclocker trying to set some arbitrary record with a 4080.
 
But who cares? It's not running with a higher power limit. Nor does that detract from the value of the card compared to cards that might let you raise the power limit since the 4080 isn't worth overclocking. It's already running fast out of the box due to how cool even the cheapest cards run with the massive cooler designs. There is no reason to be buying anything outside of base MSRP cards here, unless you're a professional overclocker trying to set some arbitrary record with a 4080.

Who cares about coil whine? I do for one..

People don't seem to get that the design is the reason why the Tuf cards (for instance) have a lot of coil whine - they have less smooth power delivery than the suprim x and zotac amp which results in the inductors having to work harder, and therefore whine.
 
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I have a PNY 4080 and it’s incredible. Practically zero coil whine.


Btw, none of these brands are “lower tier”
 
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w
Never said they were, just said that the PNY and Asus are more likely to have coil whine

👍🏻

I’ve never heard of any brand being more prone to coil whine but regardless, all of them are good. Can be unlucky with any brand really.
 
w


👍🏻

I’ve never heard of any brand being more prone to coil whine but regardless, all of them are good. Can be unlucky with any brand really.
Dunno what info he read - but, I have read that the ASUS 4080 and 4090 cards seem to have a lot of coil wine complaints from owners - PNY, not as much - so not sure why he thinks they are 'more likely' to have coil wine. The MSI cards - including Suprim X - seem to have mixed reports. The PNY and Gigabyte cards - seem to have lowest frequency of complaints. Dunno why that is - it's just my impression.
 
Dunno what info he read - but, I have read that the ASUS 4080 and 4090 cards seem to have a lot of coil wine complaints from owners - PNY, not as much - so not sure why he thinks they are 'more likely' to have coil wine. The MSI cards - including Suprim X - seem to have mixed reports. The PNY and Gigabyte cards - seem to have lowest frequency of complaints. Dunno why that is - it's just my impression.
Cause of the components on the boards
 
I feels bad for all the "whine" on such an expensive card.
Member berries the days of paying out ya ass for assured quality?
 
I feels bad for all the "whine" on such an expensive card.
Member berries the days of paying out ya ass for assured quality?
Imho, it's the hardware these companies are using, the QC, the design and heat/power these cards give out now. The tech reviewers rarely test noise or coil whine - it's all about fps(!!!) and sometimes you are lucky if they tested power consumption/wattage use.

Therefore, all we have are buyers who go on forums, reddit and youtube videos - who say their card has loud noise/coil whine - and they sometimes provide their other hardware - whether it's ABC PSU etc. If you want to go by anecdotal info and reports - certain card models seem to have more coil whine than others. Others are a mixed bag and some have only occasional reports of coil whine - is that because they're 'better' cards or they aren't selling as much as the others? Dunno. But, because all these cards seem to have some issue reported - I think I would buy from a (local) store in which it's not too much of a pain to return/exchange. :)
 
Anecdotal…Right ok.

Founders edition 13x70A power =1001w handling
Asus Tuf OC 15*50A= 825W handling
Zotac amp edition airo 24*55A = 1320w
MSI Suprim X 18*50= 990W
PNY xlr8 verto 14*50=770W

Data from reviews on techpowerup

This is based on number of power stages and voltage.

Coil whine is caused by high frequency noise. Fewer power stages and lower power handling is more likely to create more noise as the inductors are each having to smooth a greater share of the power coming out of the mosfets in the VRMs.

What causes this? The card having rapidly fluctuating power requirements and switching power regulation
 
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Anecdotal…Right ok.

Founders edition 13x70A power =1001w handling
Asus Tuf OC 15*50A= 825W handling
Zotac amp edition airo 24*55A = 1320w
MSI Suprim X 18*50= 990W
PNY xlr8 verto 14*50=770W

Data from reviews on techpowerup

This is based on number of power stages and voltage.

Coil whine is caused by high frequency noise. Fewer power stages and lower power handling is more likely to create more noise as the inductors are each having to smooth a greater share of the power coming out of the mosfets in the VRMs.

What causes this? The card having rapidly fluctuating power requirements and switching power regulation
Okay, interesting - the Gigabyte OC 4080 model - I read several buyers/users claim it doesn't have coil whine and the only power/voltage figures I could find (per reviewers) is here:
https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/gigabyte-rtx-4080-gaming-oc-review/2/

18 phase, 50A.
 
I don't trust gigabyte after it was discovered their 3 series cards use substandard VRM controllers...(google diablo 4 killing gigabyte 3080)
Who do you trust, then? What would be your top 5 cards - ranked - with 1-5 (including at least one 'cheapie')? I think the PNY is good because of anecdotal info - MSI is mixed (Gaming Trio - is 'cheap' for a 4080) - the Zotac Amp and Suprim X are both good - but, are often among the most expensive 4080 models. The FE is sometimes a 'so-so' price by Nvidia standards - but, unavailable (Best Buy - okay price but can't buy it).
 
Who do you trust, then? What would be your top 5 cards - ranked - with 1-5 (including at least one 'cheapie')? I think the PNY is good because of anecdotal info - MSI is mixed (Gaming Trio - is 'cheap' for a 4080) - the Zotac Amp and Suprim X are both good - but, are often among the most expensive 4080 models. The FE is sometimes a 'so-so' price by Nvidia standards - but, unavailable (Best Buy - okay price but can't buy it).
Ok. (note all 4080 models, not 4090)
  1. Msi Suprim X
  2. Zotac amp edition airo (ranked down because zotac fans are pretty average, otherwise this would take top place)
  3. MSI gaming trio x (same pcb as Suprim x by the looks of it)
  4. Colorful iGame RTX4080 Advanced OC-V
  5. Palit RTX4080 gamerock OC
 
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Ok. (note all 4080 models, not 4090)
  1. Msi Suprim X
  2. Zotac amp edition airo (ranked down because zotac fans are pretty average, otherwise this would take top place)
  3. MSI gaming trio x (same pcb as Suprim x by the looks of it)
  4. Colorful iGame RTX4080 Advanced OC-V
  5. Palit RTX4080 gamerock OC
Interesting list. What do you think of the Zotac Trinity OC 4080? It's supposedly a 'non-rgb' 90% of the Amp. :) I think it looks okay but I couldn't find phase/power delivery info. It's the cheapest in my country? Oh well, I can't buy one anytime soon. I like the first 3 you lised - the last 2 aren't available here. I have interest in the 4080 despite it only having 16GB - it should be enough for video editing/Compute and for gaming (at 4K), it's sufficient for sure! With my recent reading about the 7900 XT/XTX, I doubt it will be good for the productivity tasks/gaming I'd want - but, I'll wait until the end of the month to finally conclude.

Yeah, the first 3 - look good - very few coil whine complaints - so, I'd definitely consider those 3 as top picks (although they're expensive here).
 
The Zotac Trinity OC 4080 - not good
That's their 3080 version, though. In fact, I read ppl praise Zotac for improving the 40 series - and they say they're significantly better than the 3080 series they have. But, I'll change my perspective if I read something bad about the 4080 Trinity - but, so far, I think it might be okay. The AMP is $100 more on an already expensive card.
 
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