Hello good people,
I need your help and advice once again.
I've taken the decision to upgrade to a GTX 1080 (currently having the MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X) due to how the prices on my local market have shifted lately.
I've narrowed down my options to two specific offers - an EVGA FTW2 with its iCX technology and awesome RGB, and an MSI Gaming X, which I know too well as a model (and, in fact, am very satisfied with).
The EVGA GPU is slightly more expensive, but it's a negligible sum, so let's pretend they're at the same price.
Now, ever since EVGA reacted to their ACX problems, I've thought that the FTW2 models were almost perfect and have been wanting to get one of those for better colour coordination inside my case, as the Gaming X looks cool to me, but it's quite limited with it's default red and white configuration.
However, what I've read lately has put me off the EVGA FTW2 a little bit. First are reports from reviewers that the EVGA is a bit noisier than the MSI Gaming X under full load and may run a little bit hotter. This is a bit of an issue, as my case is a Fractal Design Define C, which is a bit constrictive as far as airflow goes. If it's 1 or 2 degrees, and 1 or 2 decibels, I guess it's not a big issue, but then I read a review from guru3D slamming the iCX concept as too much over-engineering. The fans on a GTX 1080 FTW2 are reportedly asynchronous, spinning at different RPMs, and sometimes allegedly causing an increase in perceived noise, as well as micro-vibrations in the GPU itself. Is there any merit in this claim? I actually prefer for the GPU fans to run constantly at low-RPM, but keeping the GPU between 30 and 40 degrees Celsius in idle conditions.
The last bit of worrying info was that the software, Precision XOC I believe, was presumably garbage and inferior to the MSI Afterburner. Again, is this true, or is it a slam coming from people unhappy with how their overclock results turned out? For the record, I don't plan to overclock at all, I just need it to control fan curves (and hopefully sync both fans to the same RPM and sensor) as well as RGB effects.
Would appreciate if anyone has had head-to-head experience with above points, I really dig the visuals on the FTW2, but if it comes at the cost of usability and software frustration down the line, I may just stick with the Gaming X and its limited RGB options. Oh, please find my full system specs below in case you'd like to have a look:
Fractal Design Define C
3 intake, 1 exhaust 120mm beQuiet Pure Wings 2 PWM fans
Seasonic SSR-550FX (Have the option to go for a 750W Platinum by Seasonic SSR-750PX, actually, not sure if I need to though)
Aorus H370 Gaming 3 WiFi
Intel i7 8700 (non-K)
beQuiet Pure Rock CPU Cooler
HyperX Fury 32GB 2666MHz RAM
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB
Seagate Barracuda 2TB
SoundBlaster Z soundcard
MSI GTX1070 Gaming X (currently)
I need your help and advice once again.
I've taken the decision to upgrade to a GTX 1080 (currently having the MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X) due to how the prices on my local market have shifted lately.
I've narrowed down my options to two specific offers - an EVGA FTW2 with its iCX technology and awesome RGB, and an MSI Gaming X, which I know too well as a model (and, in fact, am very satisfied with).
The EVGA GPU is slightly more expensive, but it's a negligible sum, so let's pretend they're at the same price.
Now, ever since EVGA reacted to their ACX problems, I've thought that the FTW2 models were almost perfect and have been wanting to get one of those for better colour coordination inside my case, as the Gaming X looks cool to me, but it's quite limited with it's default red and white configuration.
However, what I've read lately has put me off the EVGA FTW2 a little bit. First are reports from reviewers that the EVGA is a bit noisier than the MSI Gaming X under full load and may run a little bit hotter. This is a bit of an issue, as my case is a Fractal Design Define C, which is a bit constrictive as far as airflow goes. If it's 1 or 2 degrees, and 1 or 2 decibels, I guess it's not a big issue, but then I read a review from guru3D slamming the iCX concept as too much over-engineering. The fans on a GTX 1080 FTW2 are reportedly asynchronous, spinning at different RPMs, and sometimes allegedly causing an increase in perceived noise, as well as micro-vibrations in the GPU itself. Is there any merit in this claim? I actually prefer for the GPU fans to run constantly at low-RPM, but keeping the GPU between 30 and 40 degrees Celsius in idle conditions.
The last bit of worrying info was that the software, Precision XOC I believe, was presumably garbage and inferior to the MSI Afterburner. Again, is this true, or is it a slam coming from people unhappy with how their overclock results turned out? For the record, I don't plan to overclock at all, I just need it to control fan curves (and hopefully sync both fans to the same RPM and sensor) as well as RGB effects.
Would appreciate if anyone has had head-to-head experience with above points, I really dig the visuals on the FTW2, but if it comes at the cost of usability and software frustration down the line, I may just stick with the Gaming X and its limited RGB options. Oh, please find my full system specs below in case you'd like to have a look:
Fractal Design Define C
3 intake, 1 exhaust 120mm beQuiet Pure Wings 2 PWM fans
Seasonic SSR-550FX (Have the option to go for a 750W Platinum by Seasonic SSR-750PX, actually, not sure if I need to though)
Aorus H370 Gaming 3 WiFi
Intel i7 8700 (non-K)
beQuiet Pure Rock CPU Cooler
HyperX Fury 32GB 2666MHz RAM
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB
Seagate Barracuda 2TB
SoundBlaster Z soundcard
MSI GTX1070 Gaming X (currently)
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