Why are there so many 1080's???

[ceponatia]

Hey guys, I'm looking to finally build a gaming PC after using a store-bought $300 desktop I got on a black Friday deal for 3 years (it did well for a long time!). I've decided to probably go with a couple of 1080s but I am not by any means an expert and there are so many choices at wildly varying price ranges! I read on Quora that most of the differences are simply cosmetic but that doesn't seem like it would justify one costing almost $1000 and another only costing $350. Can any peeps here give me a laymans guide to the different things to look for on a description of a 1080?

 

[BringerOfTea]

read reviews.. either here at toms hardware or something like 3dguru... if you only want the juicy bits jump straight to their conclusions.

 

[Andy_K]

I think you may be confusing the largest difference, the 1080 and the 1080ti - the 1080ti being the considerably faster and more expensive product.

a standard 1080 (non ti) should be nowhere near $1000

 

[Dunlop0078]

Most 1080's will perfom nearly the same. The reason for the prices being all over the place is likely due to the latest mining craze screwing up the gpu market. Also some cards with like built in water coolers can be quite a bit more expensive than air cooled cards. Or air cooled cards designed for heavy overcloking and use with LN2 cooling can get pretty expensive.

Most of the things I look out for in a gpu are not going to be on a spec sheet. Such as how good is the VRM? What components are actively cooled? Does it have temp sensors for things like the VRM and VRAM? Usually only professional reviews will tell you things like that.

Do you have any cards in mind? I am very fond of the EVGA 1080 SC2 with the ICX cooler.

 

[ceponatia]

Do you have any cards in mind? I am very fond of the EVGA 1080 SC2 with the ICX cooler.

I don't have any specific ones in mind yet I just wanted to know what I should look out for to get the most bang for my buck. In the past even when I thought I was shopping around I still ended up getting a dud that costed the same as other cards that had way more capability. I'll look into the 1080 SC2. I don't mind paying a little more for a card that's going to last me a while.

 

[Dunlop0078]

If you are looking for the best value I would just find the cheapest card from a reputable vendor with a decent open air cooler. I would say that pretty much any 1080 on the market will last you quite a while, at least until the card is pretty much obsolete and more than likely beyond that. The SC2 card I mentioned is a quality card but it wont be the cheapest or the best value. Are you in the US? If so I can make a few suggestions. If not post a link to a site you want to buy from and I will see what they have.

 

[burgessanthony]

The Palit and zotac cards run cool due to the huge sinks. You'll find them some of the quietest. I've had Asus Rog and evga icx and both were louder, although all decent partner boards will get nowhere near the throttle point and uikll enjoy boost clocks.

Coil whine is a big deal with this gen. I went through 3x gigabyte, 2c Asus and a evga before finding the Palit was silent. This was with the 1070.

If stay away from the gigabyte G1 and MSI armour as they are cheapo end and don't contain the same quality of components of the higher end stuff.