Question Which variation of EVGA 2080 card is the best?

[anandtechreader]

EVGA has made several versions of Nvidia 2080 cards. For example, EVGA 2080 Ultra XC. Ultra XC2, XC, FTW3 Ultra and XC Black. Which is the best in terms of quietness, thermal and performance? Compared with the XC Ultra, is the extra cost of the XC2 Ultra worths? Since the FTW3 Ultra has 3 fans, does that mean it is noiser than the Ultra XC and Ultra XC2?

 

[Oyeve]

The one you can afford will be the best.

 

[ZGR]

3 fans should be quieter than 2 fans providing the former are larger in size. The quietest GPU I own is my R9 290 Tri X which consumes more power than my 1070, but has 3 massive fans. The bigger the fan, the quieter; in general.

My R9 290's fans always run though which is pretty wasteful. I love having my fans stop when not running intensive 3d applications. Luckily, this is a standard feature for most GPU's now.

 

[AnnoyedGrunt]

I bought the Xc ultra because it has a larger heatsink than the lower tiers but isn’t massive like the 3 fan versions. I figured it would run fairly quietly.

It is a very nice card, but the fans make a clicking sound when starting up. I can see them stuttering when it happens so I think the pwm algorithm needs improvement. To solve the problem I use the precision x1 software and just have the fans run at a minimum speed of 30%. The card is basically inaudible and very fast for my 1440P 144hz monitor.

-AG.

 

[CP5670]

My FTW3 1080 Ti is significantly quieter than my brother's SC2 version of the same card, which ramps up noticeably in games. However, the FTW3 cards usually cost much more and are not worth the extra price.

 

[Oyeve]

The one you can afford will be the best.

 

[RichUK]

My 2080 FTW3 is quiet and barely audiable under load.

 

[Rayman30]

If noise is a concern, I would opt for the better card in this case. The FTW3 will offer superior thermal disipation, (My 2080 Ti FTW3 never gets above 64C under load) this allows a lot of thermal headroom, you could easily set a custom fan curve and have a very quiet yet cool running card.

 

[ozzy702]

I bought the Xc ultra because it has a larger heatsink than the lower tiers but isn’t massive like the 3 fan versions. I figured it would run fairly quietly.

It is a very nice card, but the fans make a clicking sound when starting up. I can see them stuttering when it happens so I think the pwm algorithm needs improvement. To solve the problem I use the precision x1 software and just have the fans run at a minimum speed of 30%. The card is basically inaudible and very fast for my 1440P 144hz monitor.

-AG.

Weird, I haven't noticed any clicking with my XC Ultra 2080TI. I'm a fan, so far so good. I just couldn't spring for the FTW3 as much as I wanted. The price premium was just too much even for me.

 

[MBrown]

I just bought a 2080 FTW3 Ultra and I think its very quite, but I am coming from a EVGA 980ti Classified which got pretty loud under full load. I don't think I have seen the fans go over 50% fan speed and I don't think I have seen the card go over 60c.