Nvidia - Reference/FE vs Custom

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FenFox

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
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So what do you guys prefer?

From what I've read, custom is A LOT better unless you have terrible PC cooling and you need a blower style card.

I notice that some people are saying custom is cheaper than FE. That doesn't make sense to me...

If I look at a 1070Ti card @ Nvidia's website It's $449 but if I look at a custom on EVGA's site It's $569-659 for the same card. So obviously the custom is more expensive?

Is the price increase for custom worth it?

Do any of you prefer the FE over custom and if so why?
 
That's because Nvidia isn't price gouging like everybody else. A dual-fan cooler will definitely have lower GPU temps than the reference blower coolers that Nvidia ships with. If your chassis can handle the heat internally it's proven again and again to be better than the reference blowers in terms of temps and acoustics.

That said, I almost always opt for the reference cards.
 
The problem with the FE cards is the constant ramping up and down of the fan; if you care at all about acoustics either go custom or put that FE under water. The blower fan is like having a hair dryer in your case, it is LOUD and ANNOYING as hell.
 
Its personal choice but I have owned a few reference cards, and they're just too loud for me. Only reason I could see buying a reference card is if you were to put under water & save some money.

Oh and the reason why the EVGA cards are so expensive now is because they like the rest of the industry are gouging. Before the Crypto craze they were just slightly above MSRP.

Save your money and don't inflated prices on a EOL product.
 
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It just depends. If i want to watercool now or down the road i go with a reference card (the same would apply to a poor airflow), for the rest of the cases i'd go with a custom board and cooling solution.
 
Get a AIO with dual fans that spit the air out the sides FE single fan cards are noisy as hell unless you have headphones on or the speakers turned up
I would never watercool a card unless you don't care =)
 
My understanding with the pascal cards is that the FE cards are binned samples and offer the best performance. If you're going to water cool anyway i'd go with an FE. my MSI FE card runs at 2088 and eats through 4k like butter. After sometime i will go after a custom bios to get even more out of it. If you aren't going to water cool then i would stay away from FE's because they thermal throttle very quickly if you have sensible fan curves.
 
Which aftermarket water coolers would you folks recommend for a gtx 1070? Is it easy to take off the founders edition cooling system and replace it?
 
xp3nd4bl3 said:
That's because Nvidia isn't price gouging like everybody else. A dual-fan cooler will definitely have lower GPU temps than the reference blower coolers that Nvidia ships with. If your chassis can handle the heat internally it's proven again and again to be better than the reference blowers in terms of temps and acoustics.

That said, I almost always opt for the reference cards.
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So every non-Nvidia company that's selling their GPU is price gouging? I thought only the retailers were price gouging, not custom companies like EVGA/Asus/MSI etc.

And weren't custom cards always more expensive than reference?

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As for not buying an EOL product, well, everything else is way too expensive lol. No choice. When the new cards hit they won't be in stock and likely way too expensive. I was willing to wait, but if the pricing doesn't stabilize a bit there's no point.
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Some people are talking about OC'ing. Doesn't OC'ing reduce the lifespan of the product? And don't custom companies already OC? I don't think they are for the 1070Ti because of Nvidia?
 
biggles said:
Which aftermarket water coolers would you folks recommend for a gtx 1070? Is it easy to take off the founders edition cooling system and replace it?
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Accelero Xtreme III and IV.
Very good cooling and extremely quiet with fans on full.
Both use the same GPU cooler with different ways to cool vram and vrms.
I used one on my 290x (Xtreme III), 980ti (Xtreme IV), and 1080ti FE (Xtreme III).
I bought the 1080ti FE with the intent of sticking an Xtreme III on it.

The IV cools vram and VRMs through the cards PCB with a huge backplate and is removable so you can restore the original cooler.
ie for EVGAs warranty they allow cooler changes as long as the original is fitted when you return it and there is no damage.
Other manufacturers may be less helpful.
But it doesnt provide as good cooling as the III for vram and VRMs.

The III has heatsinks which you glue to memory and VRMs.
This is not a reversible process so once you fit this cooler it probably stays for life with one exception.
You can fit a GPU waterblock instead of the main heatsink.

Both drop temps by 20C plus, allow for higher overclocks and make the card practically silent.
My 1080ti games around 50 to 55C, ambient 21C.

edit
oops, missed the bit where you said water :)
 
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