EVGA Step Up Get the 1080 Founders Edition vs ACX 3.0 Whats best?

Why would anyone want to get a FE card if given the choice of something better like the ACX 3?
 
There site was so bogged down, I just looked at the price.

ACX 3.0 $619
Founders Edition $699.99

My classified 980ti was $700 and now I finally got through and am second guessing my decision. Why though, would the founders edition be $699 and the ACX $619?
 
Nvidia makes the hardware and sets the price of the FE so everyone is on even ground (and charging too much).
 
ACX is a reference PCB with much better cooling. Get the ACX unless you plan to go SLI or your case has poor ventilation.
 
What I like about the ACX coolers it doesn't run all the time only when it gets hot and that takes alot.
 
I may go SLI, I really wanted to get the SC or classified but those were not available yet.

Problem with their site crashing from demand I had no chance to see the differences until now. I thought that like a bad consumer "Higher Price = Better card", Its a $79 difference between the ACX 3.0 and Founders Edition.

I shot them a call and they said I would have to cancel my step up (get out of queue) and try to get through the site again.

I guess, I could just try calling them if they approve the step up and see if that helps?

What would you do. Just be happy I got through?

#BuyersRemorse
 
I wouldn't bother canceling, as it could mean you lose your spot and have to wait quite a while. The ACX 3.0 version isn't factory overclocked and doesn't have an extra power connector, so you wouldn't get a heck of a lot over the reference card anyway-- primarily just quieter cooling at overclocked speeds.

If you could step-up to a classified or FTW, that would be a different matter entirely of course.
 
Wonder if I can buy an EVGA 1080 FE now and then "Step Up" to their entry level non FE 1070 when it comes out next month and get a $320 refund ($699 - $379) :D
 
edit: er nm I didn't see the SC in the vid. oops! removed quote but kept the vid
 
I stepped up to the ACX 3.0 for $38.00 ;)

I would take that route. Like has been said unless you have a case where you feel you need to vent air out the back?

Go with the ACX as its a much better cooling option. In fact I am very happy to have seen it! I was almost certain we would be stuck with reference cooling.

Great job EVGA!
 
I see the site is up now I have Auto Notify on the FTW card looks sweet LEDs to boot.
 
Was the FE your only available choice?
I had :
Regular 1080
Acx 3.0 1080
Founders edition.

Considering my card cost $700 and the Founders edition was $699 I went for the highest priced card. If I had an option for SC or FTW I would have gone with those.
 
I did it on May 27th. I recieved approval on June 4-6. Mailed in the card. They mailed me this.
 
Interesting!

I'm installing mine now, my goal was to get the classified, but why wait? Be happy with what we have is the lesson plus "hardware addicts" should take...

But hey at least our addictions are not terrible? We just like speed.
 
FE is the card to get. We have already started seeing bad reports on the ACX 3.0 coolers. The only neg on the FE is the price. FE is better quality.
FE is more expensive and the cooler is both less effective and louder. EVGA already fixed the plastic under screws, and it had no material impact on the cooler's function anyway. FE is definitely not the card to get if you plan to overclock.
 
FE is more expensive and the cooler is both less effective and louder. EVGA already fixed the plastic under screws, and it had no material impact on the cooler's function anyway. FE is definitely not the card to get if you plan to overclock.

Just not true. Lower quality. You can crank up the fans if you want to OC, it's no prob. I run my SLI at 2050 MHz with no issues. Can bench over 2.1GHz.

If you want to OC, get a real OC card like Classified, Kingpin, Lightning, HOF...

When I bought my 1070 FE I could have saved $30 to get ACX 3.0. No thanks.
 
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You keep repeating that it's lower quality without anything to support that statement. So I'm just gonna chuckle and move on.
 
That thread is seriously nonsense. Go read the actual threads he linked. It's not worth the time, but it would be easy to go point by point through the list and discount almost all of it.

Fair enough. Then I guess all that I have is a quote from the great Jen-Hsun Huang: "craftsmanship"...lol.

I guess we are back to preferences. I will say that I think the crap the FE has received is not warranted outside of the price complaint.
 
It's plastic under the screws. I agree it's annoying after paying nearly $700, but it doesn't actually impact the cooler's performance.
 
That thread is seriously nonsense. Go read the actual threads he linked. It's not worth the time, but it would be easy to go point by point through the list and discount almost all of it.

I keep seeing this repeated in a few threads.

Oh im sorry that what I've said is nonsense, im totally an idiot right? i must be making stuff up about the ACX3, EVGA is surely the best company and cant have faults.

No, I got a defective, coil-whiney one, and even disregarding the coil whine it isnt that great: the cooler kind of sucks, along with the RotTR bugs, plastic, fan revving (not acknowledged by evga, not fixed by june 7th drivers), etc.
 
I don't have any audible coil whine, and my ACX cooler works great. No fan revving. I did get the plastic under screws, but don't really care. I don't own RotTR but can't see how that could be an EVGA-specific problem.

Sounds like you got a defective card. It's a bummer, but it happens.
 
I keep seeing this repeated in a few threads.

Oh im sorry that what I've said is nonsense, im totally an idiot right? i must be making stuff up about the ACX3, EVGA is surely the best company and cant have faults.

No, I got a defective, coil-whiney one, and even disregarding the coil whine it isnt that great: the cooler kind of sucks, along with the RotTR bugs, plastic, fan revving (not acknowledged by evga, not fixed by june 7th drivers), etc.

You are way off point. It's not that you don't have issues with the 1080.. you just don't have issues because you bought an EVGA card. Only reason I've repeated it is because we have a crusader that lacks appropriate perspective and has posted FUD in a bunch of threads. Coil whine happens. You have a reference card, so it's 100% exactly the same as all the other FE and custom reference cards. Coil whine hasn't been reported as a significant issue, and if you aren't familiar with it, it also depends on your power supply. It's just something that happens with any video card, and if you had a custom board that was prone to that then you'd have a point. You do not.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is yet another thing that's in no way specific to EVGA.. so.. again no point.

Fan revving... once again, not EVGA.

So we're left with plastic bits under your screws and it's already fixed. We'll see about the cooler, but seems pretty solid from the reviews so far.

There is NO point in an anti-EVGA thread as was posted.
 
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You are way off point. It's not that you don't have issues with the 1080.. you just don't have issues because you bought an EVGA card. Only reason I've repeated it is because we have a crusader that lacks appropriate perspective and has posted FUD in a bunch of threads. Coil whine happens. You have a reference card, so it's 100% exactly the same as all the other FE and custom reference cards. Coil whine hasn't been reported as a significant issue, and if you aren't familiar with it, it also depends on your power supply. It's just something that happens with any video card, and if you had a custom board that was prone to that then you'd have a point. You do not.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is yet another thing that's in no way specific to EVGA.. so.. again no point.

Fan revving... once again, not EVGA.

So we're left with plastic bits under your screws and it's already fixed. We'll see about the cooler, but seems pretty solid from the reviews so far.

There is NO point in an anti-EVGA thread as was posted.

I really did not want to reply, but yes, RotTR is probably not EVGA only, im listing my whole experience.

fan revving is evga only. Nvidia fixed the FE revving in the june 7th drivers which is what I used. The fan kept revving up and down. Its the ACX3 cooler that did this. Its not the nvidia driver at fault.

Coil whine not a significant issue? huh, maybe thats why the ACX3 has the lowest reviews of any GTX 1080 on newegg, 3 star average with 1 star reviews complaining about coil whine, as well as even the positive reviews saying the ACX3 is not great.

How is the plastic fixed? people have it, stores have them on the shelves, suppliers have them. It is a problem (that I really didn't care much about)

You sure will go to lengths to defend a video hardware company from a $620 product not working correctly. I'm sure eVGA is very happy with you.
Nice edits btw.

This will be my last reply to you.
 
Ive got the 1080sc which is essentially the acx 3.0 basic card with a mild overclock. I would have saved 30 bucks and bought the factory standard clocked version with acx if it would have been available. The only issue ive had so far is the plastic under the shroud screws and the evga OC software is buggy as hell. The card has performed pretty well so far, but im still putting it through its paces. I havent noticed any increase in fan noise or coil whine but im not in a silent case either. When the fans rev up to 100% you can hear them but Ive only had that happen when i play with the fan profiles. During normal gaming and overclocked my fan speeds are around 65% and the gpu is around 63C. Im not saying some of the issues arent real though, people who got a bad card are more apt to vent online especially with the card costing what it does.
 
Ive got the 1080sc which is essentially the acx 3.0 basic card with a mild overclock. I would have saved 30 bucks and bought the factory standard clocked version with acx if it would have been available. The only issue ive had so far is the plastic under the shroud screws and the evga OC software is buggy as hell. The card has performed pretty well so far, but im still putting it through its paces. I havent noticed any increase in fan noise or coil whine but im not in a silent case either. When the fans rev up to 100% you can hear them but Ive only had that happen when i play with the fan profiles. During normal gaming and overclocked my fan speeds are around 65% and the gpu is around 63C. Im not saying some of the issues arent real though, people who got a bad card are more apt to vent online especially with the card costing what it does.

Give MSI Afterburner a try...I prefer it.
MSI Afterburner 4.3.0 Beta 4 Download
 
Thanks sk3tch, I'm going to give afterburner a shot. Ill repost in the 1080 overclocking thread if i get better results.
 
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