Zotac GTX 1080 Amp Edition temp issues

[Insomniac Jack]

I'm curious to see if anyone else has had or has heard of the issue I'm having with this card. While under full load the graphics card is hitting the stock thermal limit of 83c at 60% fan speed. This causes the card to throttle. I turned up the fan speed to 100% and it had zero effect on my temps and the card continued to throttle. I've contacted Zotac and they confirmed that is definitely not right and I've got a replacement coming from Amazon since I purchased it from them. Zotac also said the temps should be around 74c at full load. Has anyone else heard of or had this issue before?

After a hilarious conversation with a zotac rep that I explain in a post below I decided to change out my thermal paste on the cooler. I had no idea what a difference that would make. after struggling all last night to get my temps below 80C I manage to get them stable at 78C under full load at stock clock speeds. I changed my thermal paste out today and ran it for 30 mins under full load and the temps never got above 71C. If those temps hold that should give me some overclocking headroom. Me thinks that Zotac rep has no idea what he's talking about.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Your not alone

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_1080_Amp/27.html

That's 9C hotter than the MSI Gaming and thw Gaming X is quieter

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

The problem with the AMP! and AMP! Extreme's are the fan profiles simply suck. I run my AMP! Extreme cooler and quieter than anything at stock. Mine never goes over 55% fan speed, which I am guessing is around 30-35dB (based on barely hearing it over my old AX750 PSU which is measured at 30dB at 100% load, which I never actually got up to), but still quieter than anything else during a gaming session (most cards on stock fan profiles get up to 40dB), and MUCH cooler, my card never goes over 55C-57C, but again I have the AMP! Extreme, not just the AMP!.

But yeah if the fans did nothing thats just wrong. But when you get the new one, make a custom curve with MSI:AB, if you are comfortable with a little bit higher temps if it means a quieter card, you can cap the fan speed to never go over 45%, its around 20-25dB at that and DAMN SILENT. You will probably see temps at upwards of 70C though. You'll have to test it.

 

[Insomniac Jack]

Yeah I got my replacement card in and man these temps are high for the fan speed. I have great case airflow so I know that isn't issue. The card I replaced was at 84C at 100% fan speed. This card was hitting 83C at the stock fan curve which it shouldn't do. I set a custom curve and now stay around 74 to 76C under full load. I think it's designed to run a bit hot considering just to see what it would do I threw a 100Mhz overclock on it and the temps stayed rock solid. I'll contact Zotac to make sure but if this isn't normal again I'll get a refund and buy the AMP Extreme. Thanks to the 1080Ti's release the AMP Extreme is cheaper than what I paid for this card last month lol.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

I would. I have a 750D with 900RPM fans in mine and I don't go over 55C before I changed the fans to the quieter ML140's I have, it was a few degrees cooler (would only hit about 52). The AMP Extreme is better in every way. And its at least 5-7 FPS faster than the AMP!

 

[Insomniac Jack]

I'm talking to a Zotac rep and he actually just suggested to me that I use my GTX1080 to only play at 1080p and not 1440p. He says it may be too much for it to handle hahaha. No your heat pipe design is crap which is why my FPS looks good at ultra but the heat isn't dissipating. He's basically telling me that the GTX 1080 can't handle 1440p. wow! I did find out that I should be running around 75C at full load. He did say that I can change the thermal paste out without voiding the warranty as long as I don't physically damage the card. I'll try that to see if I can gain a few extra degrees of overhead.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

I'm talking to a Zotac rep and he actually just suggested to me that I use my GTX1080 to only play at 1080p and not 1440p. He says it may be too much for it to handle hahaha. No your heat pipe design is crap which is why my FPS looks good at ultra but the heat isn't dissipating. He's basically telling me that the GTX 1080 can't handle 1440p. wow! I did find out that I should be running around 75C at full load. He did say that I can change the thermal paste out without voiding the warranty as long as I don't physically damage the card. I'll try that to see if I can gain a few extra degrees of overhead.

The AMP! just sucks dude. The only card from them worth getting is the Extreme. I play at 3440x1440p just fine. BF1 on Ultra 100fps, 99% utilization for hours. No problems.

I'm thinking of switching to the ROG Strix for the 1080 Ti. It's a really hard decision since the AE has been fine, a few big cons, but the Strix is UGLY AF and the lighting SUCKS. Zotac looks sick and runs fast, cool, and pretty quiet so I've put up with it's issues thus far, but if Strix really did increase their cooling by 30% and they are less than 1% slower, I might deal with their ugly azz dim card for the cool and quiet.

 

[Insomniac Jack]

I'm talking to a Zotac rep and he actually just suggested to me that I use my GTX1080 to only play at 1080p and not 1440p. He says it may be too much for it to handle hahaha. No your heat pipe design is crap which is why my FPS looks good at ultra but the heat isn't dissipating. He's basically telling me that the GTX 1080 can't handle 1440p. wow! I did find out that I should be running around 75C at full load. He did say that I can change the thermal paste out without voiding the warranty as long as I don't physically damage the card. I'll try that to see if I can gain a few extra degrees of overhead.

The AMP! just sucks dude. The only card from them worth getting is the Extreme. I play at 3440x1440p just fine. BF1 on Ultra 100fps, 99% utilization for hours. No problems.

I'm thinking of switching to the ROG Strix for the 1080 Ti. It's a really hard decision since the AE has been fine, a few big cons, but the Strix is UGLY AF and the lighting SUCKS. Zotac looks sick and runs fast, cool, and pretty quiet so I've put up with it's issues thus far, but if Strix really did increase their cooling by 30% and they are less than 1% slower, I might deal with their ugly azz dim card for the cool and quiet.

That's exactly why I wanted the AMP. To me it's one of the best looking cards. After changing the thermal paste out a few hours ago I'm seeing about 70C to 72C at the highest. That's about a 10C drop. Their thermal paste must suck royally if that's the case.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Oh dang! I'm not going to try to mess with mine at this point, i'm just going to wait and see how the 1080 ti's perform

 

[TechyInAZ]

Wow i wish i had the same luck you had OP.

My GTX 1080 AMP! Edition had ZERO change in temps when I changed the thermal paste, mine stays in the 78-82C range at 90% fan speed.

But I found the problem with the AMP! the cooler is the most unefficent cooler I've ever seen, the air that get's intaked by the fans get's spit out in the same direction.

I also got a Zotac rep, and he said that my temps are OK. WHAT??? Idk.

WHAT!! YOUR ZOTAC REP said that the warranty IS NOT voided when changing thermal paste???

 

[Insomniac Jack]

Yes the Zotac rep I spoke with said that as long as nothing is damaged by the removal process the warranty is valid. As it should be. I'm still disappointed by the temps that I have but given I play games in 1440p usually on max settings I can live with my card sitting in the high 70's low 80's without throttling. If in when vega comes out I'll probably go with an EVGA card as I have not been impressed with the temps. It's definitely not an airflow issue in my case as I have 3 intakes( directed at the GPU) and 2 exhaust fans at the top. All in all I can't complain about 1440p max settings usually in the 80 to 90fps range in most games.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Good to know.

Yeah cause my case has zero airflow at the bottom, my GPU get's rather toasty even at max fan speed.

My next card will also be evga lol.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Should have got the AMP! Extreme

I ended up sticking with Zotac for the 1080 Ti.

My new 1080 Ti AMP! Extreme stays under 60C even at 100% load and is quieter at 60% fan speed than my ML140 Case fans at 900RPM.

But the 1080 Ti AMP! Extreme is beautiful, fast, cool, and quiet. Not to mention cheaper than a Strix OC or a FTW3. It might not be quite as cool or quiet but it's still faster with the factory OC and I can't hear it even at full load and it still doesn't go over 60C so anything cooler and quieter is completely negligible for me.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Oh I would have, but I won my Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Edition. Still super grateful that I got this card for free it's just the high temps are an annoyance.

I tried contacting zotac and seeing if i could trade my 1080 + additional money for the AMP! Extreme, but they wouldn't accept.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Dang :/

Hopefully the next iteration they will improve. That cooler is just underwhelming.