This is actually terrible If 1080 is only 25% faster than the reference 980Ti then it makes it barely any faster then my aftermarket 980Ti which I unfortunately burned.(My 980Ti is itself about 20% faster then stock 980Ti) I had a leak in the WC. When is the real GPU launching? (I mean GP200 or the big die from AMD whichever is first)
Do some research for your next card to protect yourself. Gigabyte Xtreme series have Aerospace PCB coating, which makes them water resistant.
http://ca.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5726#kf
Might want to look into that series of cards next time.
HOCP seems to have swallowed it completely. Either extremely gullible or captured, financially or otherwise.
$649 Fury X has an AIO CLC and cards such as $299 HD6950/$369 6970 had a
vapor chamber back in 2010. There is nothing exotic about the vapor chamber design. You can clearly see the soldering on the top left and the vapor chamber right underneath the HD6950's aluminum heatsink.
All NV did is put on a higher quality fan, nickel plated the heatsink (the 6950/6970's heatsink actually looks to have larger surface area than the Titan X's heatsink) and manufactured the top cover out of aluminum. The $70 and $100 premiums for FE cards are there to get free $ from tri-/quad-SLI users, OEM customers who buy pre-builds, gamers who water cool, and those with miniITX rigs. It has little to do with the cost of the reference blower or component quality. NV is essentially artificially raising the price under the guise that they don't want to compete with AIBs. The reality is probably more to do with NV simply raising prices on a
subset of its loyal customers, which happen to be loyal blower/reference card buyers. They can get away with it because their customer base keeps buying so why not try raising the price on reference cards and marketing them as Founders Edition? Free $$$ to nV.
To add on to this post, this chart from RS is this 980 Ti sample's performance at factory OC/boost. This chart is that same card compared to a manual OC. A 11% gain over aftermarket stock and about 37% over reference stock...
Yup, that's why AIB 980Tis were so amazing, crushing everything from 290X/390X/980 and Fury/Fury X. 980Ti out of the box isn't special but it was with an OC. Unfortunately we know exactly how NV marketing works:
>>> Emphasis overclocking for 12 months straight because 970/980/980Ti OCed really well.
> Then once Pascal launches, at all costs compare reference 1075mhz 980Ti to a 1733mhz Pascal 1080.
http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/gpu_displays/gtx_1080_vs_gtx_980ti_-_specifications_comparison/1
That's why the comparison of 1070/1080 to Titan X is a marketing move for the masses. On paper it sounds like a $379 1070 is faster than a $999 GPU. In reality, it's going to be more like a $449 launch 1070 may actually be slower than a $530-550 AIB 980Ti (prices before 1070 showed up). It's still a big improvement but nowhere near as good as $999 -> $379. Of course, I also predict NV shifting driver focus to Pascal which means I wouldn't be surprised if 1070 OC beats 980Ti OC over time.
Look at modern games coming out now. 780Ti is starting to lose to an R9 290 in AAA titles...jaw dropping for a $700 card from the same generation to start losing in popular titles to a $400 card.
Maxwell -> Pascal may not be like this for DX12 games but what if it is? If after Pascal comes out, we start seeing Maxwell 970/980/980Ti cards dropping in their relative standing to R9 390/390X/Fury X cards, that would be the 2nd consecutive NV generation that degraded "magically" as soon as new cards launched. Over the next 6 months as more modern games and esp. DX12 games are added to test suits, replacing older games, we'll see what Maxwell is really capable of against Pascal.
TPU is showing that
GP104 has 80 ROPs instead 64 ROPs on 980.