Founder Edition vs the Rest...

JCNiest5

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What's special about Founder Edition of these nVidia video cards? I don't get it.
 
There are rumors that nvidia reserves the best binned chips for Founder's Edition cards, but other than that, there is nothing really special about them.

Unlike earlier generations, though, there's nothing inferior about them relative to the AIB partner designs unless you're a competitive overclocker.
 
Reference/Founder designs usually have more custom aftermarket cooling options.
 
What's special about Founder Edition of these nVidia video cards? I don't get it.
They have a higher base and Boost clock. Much like Pascal, though, all Turing cards whether from an AIB or directly from NVIDIA overclock within a margin of error of each other until you go with exotic cooling methods like liquid nitrogen.
 
I bought one mainly for sentimental reasons. Back when I was a broke ass gamer I always had to get the cheapest stripped down cards and would drool over reviews of shiny new GeForce reference cards and always thought they looked so cool in a system and always wanted one.

So this time around I had the funds so I bought one and I still look over at it from time to time and think, "yeah, that looks cool".

Other than that they're really not that special. I've seen tear down videos comparing FE cards to other AIB cards and the FE's had lower quality components like VRM's and such. Don't get me wrong, they use very good components just not quite as good as say a Strix or FTW for example which costs the same, sometimes even less than a FE.

I have heard that they're binned higher but I can't tell it. I was barely able to overclock mine much at all and finally gave up and just keep it at stock clocks.

So yeah, they're good cards but not worth the money if you don't like the looks and "coolness" of them.
 
If you plan on watercooling the cards, the water blocks for the founder's edition come out much sooner than AIB versions.
 
I'd say this an open and shut case. I second everyone else's posts throughout. Personally I cant speak for all cards but the strix 2080ti 11gb took a decent OC +220 core and +1140Mem in Afterburner. In general I've heard of less on FE cards but they start off higher anyway. I went strix for the price $1000 on sale before tax like 2 or so months ago. Biggest gripe I have is I have the 280w version which only allows the power slider to got up to 112% in afterburner. I'm not sure what the FE power slider goes up to but that would be the only thing I would look into personally. Also the cooler is very powerful on the strix. I have the card vertical and overclocked and I've never seen th top side of 75 even in benchmarks like timespy extreme. The differences are minor in the end but head to head reviews will pretty much tell you what's up in the broadest way while your experience will vary from card to card. Looks and cooling capabilities are probably the absolute largest differences you ar likely to notice between AIB and FE
 
The reference edition chip bin is typically the higher one if you read the code on the silicon... if this translates to much in real world I'm not sure as I don't own one. But I'd guess slightly higher boost clocks than lower bin given same thermal budget. Some AIBs higher end models also have the same bin - so it's not exclusive to Nvidia, you'll pay for it either way usually depending on stock levels at each manufacturer (rarely it ends up in cheaper cards too for part of a run this way). I've heard the power circuitry is less robust than some AIBs though (this is where AMD halo ref cards shine..) but you're not going to see that be an issue unless you're really pushing stuff to the limits and likely need custom loop, voltage mods, or chilled water/LN2 to get there.

Water blocks are always quicker to be available for reference cards from either manufacturer, same for air coolers.
 
Founders cards are pre binned as higher quality by nvidia.
They boost higher
They have more waterblock options and generally sooner.
Once blocked they will generally boost/overclock just as high as 99% of the aftermarket cards except for maybe Galax HOF and EVGA Kingpin cards.

If your gonna stick with stock cooler and keep it air cooled get an aftermarket card with decent power delivery and a good cooler.
 
I'd say this an open and shut case. I second everyone else's posts throughout. Personally I cant speak for all cards but the strix 2080ti 11gb took a decent OC +220 core and +1140Mem in Afterburner. In general I've heard of less on FE cards but they start off higher anyway. I went strix for the price $1000 on sale before tax like 2 or so months ago. Biggest gripe I have is I have the 280w version which only allows the power slider to got up to 112% in afterburner. I'm not sure what the FE power slider goes up to but that would be the only thing I would look into personally. Also the cooler is very powerful on the strix. I have the card vertical and overclocked and I've never seen th top side of 75 even in benchmarks like timespy extreme. The differences are minor in the end but head to head reviews will pretty much tell you what's up in the broadest way while your experience will vary from card to card. Looks and cooling capabilities are probably the absolute largest differences you ar likely to notice between AIB and FE
Overclock number means nothing with Boost. You want to look at what your Boost clock is after a long gaming session. My Founder's Edition settles around 2050 MHz after 30-45 minutes with the overclock I have on it after peaking around the low 2100s, and that seems to be about what everyone else is getting generally regardless of cooler.

Power limit slider goes up to 124% for me in Afterburner, by the way, but I keep it at 100%. The Boost clock for the STRIX is advertised as being only 15 MHz higher than the FE.
 
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