Which GTX 1080 is best?

Asus, MSI, Gigabyte are just the most popular ones as they're literally everywhere available.
EVGA come with its extensive global warranty and easy customer support

But honestly I wouldn't pay extra just to get the biggest brand.
If you can pick up an Inno3d, Gainward, Zotac, Palit, Galax, KFA² or PNY, they're completely fine as well.

Where I live you can get a KFA² or Palit AMP! for less than 500€ while an Asus Strix costs 600€.
The price difference is certainly not worth it.
 

AtomicSnipe

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Thanks.

But the brand is a pretty big factor for me lol.
 
Maybe I should've been clearer...

The actual GPU is made by NVIDIA
All the "different brands" do is attaching a few heat pipes and/or thermal pads, a coloured plastic cover, maybe some LEDs and one of 3 different OEM fans by HongHua or ADDA, whoever offers them the best deal.

There's no evidence a MSI Gaming X performs better than a Gainward Phoenix, quite the contrary, nor that an ASUS Strix will last any longer than a Galax.
If it's worth a premium price tag to you being able to say "but I got a MSI 1080" then by all means. It's a good card, just as any other 1080 (gotta remember the 1080 was the top of any line card until 2 weeks ago...There is no "bad" 1080, that's like saying there's a bad Royce)

If it comes down to Asus vs EVGA vs MSI -- I'd go with the cheapest.
EVGA shows some deficits throughout their products in the quality control department lately, so I'd probably go with MSI since Asus charges premium for it's name-rights and the Strix series is hardly worth it's premium price tag

"lol"
 

AtomicSnipe

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Well, I kinda care about Aura hahaha but thx for your help anyways.
 

maz89

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I agree with Isokolon's thoughts about getting whichever one (with a custom cooler and factory OC'ed) is the cheapest - the difference between these products won't be more/less than 5% of each other - performance, temps, acoustics, etc.. Get whichever one 'looks' good to you.

If I had to pick myself, I'd go with either the Asus Strix 1080Ti or the Aorus Gigabyte Extreme.

 

AtomicSnipe

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I am just taking other people's opinions lol.

 


NVIDIA makes the GPU and the company makes the cooler so one company can have a very bad cooler and another could have the very best cooler. sometimes this is why companies offer longer warranties because they have a poorer cooler then one by a company like asus or MSI.

a warranty is great when they keep replacing it but after replacing it a number times during its lifetime you start regretting not getting brand A over band X

 
Point is, neither MSI nor Asus nor PNY​ make the fans themselves.
They buy them and frankly they all buy from the same factories, mostly HongHua or ADDA.
They then attach the fans to heat pipes. This is where the difference between the models is made: number and layout of heat pipes
But again this isn't a matter of brand but of series. There's no "bad brand" especially when talking about a 1080. There are differences between the series, not between brands.
A Gainward Phoenix / Palit Gamerock for example has the best cooling layout of them all (apart from liquid solutions) while not selling as many cards as MSI or EVGA
Especially EVGA was THE trusted brand. And then their screw up with thermal pads became public.
The cheaper Gigabyte series are much more likely to develop a coil whine than others it seems.

But unless you're doing some custom overclocking spending 100$ extra won't do anything for you.
The better series do come with more power phases, maybe a better cooler and a different PCB which come handy for some custom overclocking but is overkill at stock speeds. It doesn't matter if your car can go 200km/h when the speed limit in your country is 120km/h.

As for MSI/Asus vs the others: your mistaking quantity for quality.
Just because I flood the market with my product and because people are buying it doesn't mean my product is better. That logic just doesn't add up.

Anyway tl;dr:
It's not the brand that counts but the series.
However if you don't try to get your maximum OC Out of the card, even the series doesn't matter so much when buying a high end card like the 1080 since I've yet haven't seen an insufficient design from all the reviews and comparisons I've read.