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Water cooling FE vs cards

Oct 7, 2018
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If I'm going to water cool the GPU, would the 2080 Ti perform identically to partner cards? The FE cards seem to have unlimited stock on NVIDIA's site right now, so I'm considering buying. Will the FE card be able to reach the same overclocked speeds as any other cards with water cooling and are the are (even if trivial) advantages of buying a partner card over the FE to use with water cooling.
 


There's always been a thing about chip set manufacturer's creating separate bins depending on the initial performance/testing of their productions such as lower clock bin, average clock bin, higher clock bin. I assume the non reference cards are picked from mid to higher end bin seeing how EVGA, ASUS, etc has OC versions that are clocked higher then reference base designs not solely due to their higher performance coolers.

It would also be easier to find compatible waterblocks that support FE reference editions cards since it's the default/standard pcb that aftermarket water-cooling manufacturer's like EKWB use in the early stages.

Personally, I'm still waiting on ASUS to release their 2080 Ti Poseidon to replace my old 1080 Ti Poseidon, because I like having a hybrid water+air combination and it's more convenient with less hassle than manually installing a water block altogether.
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