Undecided between these two 1080 GTX cards

[IcEWoLF]

EVGA 1080 GTX FTW : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487245
ZOTAC AMP! EXTREME 1080 GTX : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500399

I ordered both, they come to be the same pricing since EVGA charges an arm and a leg for shipping.

Here are my thoughts,
EVGA - Good customer service, great RMA, good looking card, small profile room to SLI
ZOTAC - Big card, fastest 1080 gtx that doesn't require oc, may not be the best looking card, quiet fans, lowest temps.

I've only had EVGA cards (NVIDIA) and had a decent experience with them, unfortunately their card reliability haven't been the great, however their RMA/customer service have never disappointed.

I can't say much about ZOTAC because I never bought any of their products.

Please provide me some insights on which card I should go with. I have until Monday to cancel the orders.

 

[wanderica]

Honestly, the cards are practically equal with a slight edge to the Zotac for clock speed (when not manually overclocking, of course).

Some thoughts:

the ACX coolers have a solid reputation.

I hear Zotac is better than they used to be. Dunno if this is in respect to customer service or quality. Never owned a Zotac card before.

EVGA has a long standing reputation of outstanding RMA and customer service.

Ultimately, I would choose which ever one is available. Since you have both on the way, I would choose to keep the EVGA. Simple fact is, sometimes cards fail regardless of brand. It's peace of mind to me knowing I won't run into any roadblocks should I need to RMA or depend on Customer Service / Tech Support for a solution. If that extra 3 FPS is important to you, though, the Zotac is certainly an otpion.

 

[MongGrel]

I'd go with the EVGA if just limiting it to those two, personally.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Honestly, the cards are practically equal with a slight edge to the Zotac for clock speed (when not manually overclocking, of course).

Some thoughts:

the ACX coolers have a solid reputation.

I hear Zotac is better than they used to be. Dunno if this is in respect to customer service or quality. Never owned a Zotac card before.

EVGA has a long standing reputation of outstanding RMA and customer service.

Ultimately, I would choose which ever one is available. Since you have both on the way, I would choose to keep the EVGA. Simple fact is, sometimes cards fail regardless of brand. It's peace of mind to me knowing I won't run into any roadblocks should I need to RMA or depend on Customer Service / Tech Support for a solution. If that extra 3 FPS is important to you, though, the Zotac is certainly an otpion.

True, such a hard decision hehe, I've only had evga cards since I switched to Nvidia 9 years ago, unfortunately I did run into issues where my GPU either died or the GPU started crashing, but each time evga came through and replaced my cards without any hassle.
I just feel like trying something different but it's a scary thing to do when choosing a brand you never tried.
Honestly the Asus Strix or MSI card would match my computer build which is red and black, the evga card would look okay since the backplate is really nice. The Zotac card would be the only card that would not really match my build because of the yellow backplate.

Both cards are capable of doing 2.0GHz but Zotac out of the factory can easily hit 2.1GHz.

 

[96Firebird]

If you're worried about looks, the EVGA FTW cards have an adjustable LED so you can set the color you want. Sounds like red would fit your setup.

 

[IcEWoLF]

I am mainly worried about noise factor such as fan noise and coil whine.

 

[JujuFish]

EVGA - Good customer service, great RMA

That couldn't be farther from my experience. Literally the worst customer service I've ever experienced. Would never recommend.

 

[fastamdman]

The gigabyte g1 gaming 1080s have zero coil whine and keep temps low during game play. I got mine the day the launched off newegg and haven't had a single issue with it thusfar. I highly recommend it and a lot of the 1080s pretty much overclock to the same 2088 to 2100 range, almost all the aftermarket coolers are within a few degrees of each other as well.

Price to performance the gigabyte was perfect for me, the adjustable LED color is nice for my red color scheme as well. Thats just my 2 cents though. Enjoy.

 

[Shmee]

The amp extreme seems to be one of the best coolers/PCB designs, up there with the classified. I would probably go with it at the same price.

 

[guskline]

I bought a ZOTAC GTX 1080 FE. It's the first time I have ever bought a ZOTAC. Not much in the box and no frills but works well. I did add an EK block so I cannot comment on the fans etc. However, since these FEs are all NVidia reference, I think each vendor justs puts them in the box.

Bottom line? ZOTAC works fine.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

EVGA Corporation is an American computer hardware company

 

[Puffnstuff]

Does the evga card offer a lifetime warranty? If it does you have to register it within 30 days of purchase to qualify for it otherwise you get the standard warranty. EVGA makes fine gpu's but I now avoid their motherboards like the plague after a string of sorry z87 and 97 ftw's.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Their warranty is 3 years. I just want to make sure I make a good purchase is all...

 

[HeXen]

I have an ACX card and I don't see what's so great about it. It's loud as all holy hell, probably the loudest card I ever had once a game is going.
Wow, did anyone check out the marketing on that Gigabyte extreme 1080? dats some good **** market

 

[Annisman*]

I have an ACX card and I don't see what's so great about it. It's loud as all holy hell, probably the loudest card I ever had once a game is going.
Wow, did anyone check out the marketing on that Gigabyte extreme 1080? dats some good **** market

Sounds like you need to take that ACX off and throw a hybrid AIO cooler on it.

 

[HeXen]

Sounds like you need to take that ACX off and throw a hybrid AIO cooler on it.

It's a 970, why do that if I'm gonna get a 1080 later this year? But I'll certainly never buy another EVGA with ACX cooler again.

 

[IcEWoLF]

I have an ACX card and I don't see what's so great about it. It's loud as all holy hell, probably the loudest card I ever had once a game is going.
Wow, did anyone check out the marketing on that Gigabyte extreme 1080? dats some good **** market

I had the Gigabyte 1080 GTX Gaming Xtreme but returned it because of the following:

One of the fans hits the plastic shroud.
Coil whine
Bent fins that are damaged when glued so trying to pop the fins back on would basically unattach the fins...
Overall one ***** design if you ask me.
Here is a video: https://youtu.be/dlfKuL9_msQ?t=749

 

[Annisman*]

It's a 970, why do that if I'm gonna get a 1080 later this year? But I'll certainly never buy another EVGA with ACX cooler again.

My bad I thought you meant you had a 1080 acx !

 

[IcEWoLF]

After long decision I decided to just stay with Zotac...getting the card on Thursday.

 

[poohbear]

Coil whine isn't just from the video card, it occurs depending on your setup & how ur different hardware components act with one another...ie ur mobo & video card don't get along, or ur PSU & some other hardware component don't get along. It's really hit & miss. I know for my setup corsair PSUs provided alot of coil whine, but for others it was fine.

With that said, the higher quality of the component the less this is usally an issue.