[workaround] Annoying design fault with expensive Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme cards

[qubit]

This is what I do and it makes the most sense. Not just because I do it though, but hey

No one is going to convince me that a zero-DB fan will live longer than one that can keep spinning all the time - same as HDDs that die faster when they're put to sleep every five minutes. At the same time, you can't hear a good fan at low RPM anyway so the usefulness of 0dB eludes me. And then there is the obvious hot GPU in the case at idle that you also get to avoid when you just keep that fan going.

Well, I can hear a quiet fan in my open case and I also have very quiet fans on my CPU cooler and the PSU fan is quiet-ish so the PC doesn't make much noise. Therefore, I certainly like the 0dB feature. Also, the card does look really clean since it's pointing downwards and there's no airflow to attract dust. The downside of course, is that it does run a bit warmer, but it's not a problem.

I'm gonna look to setting a custom profile using AfterBurner. I finally got round to playing with it last night and I can see that it supports hysteresis, so this might finally fix the problem. Looking at newtekie's last post, I can that I've been meaning to do this for a month, lol.

 

[qubit]

Ok, so a couple of days after my last post above, I started fiddling with a custom profile using AfterBurner and have been trialling it. It looks like I can fix the revving problem, but it takes a 15C hysteresis loop to do it, which I think is excessive and even then I'm not completely sure it's cured it. I've therefore settled on the always-on profile below which seems to be working well. 30% is just about the minimum speed that these fans will run at without revving.

I may possibly tweak it a little over time if I need to adjust the noise profile when gaming, but I think the fan-off feature is too broken on this card to use it. The Ti version of this card doesn't have this problem afaik.

Thanks to @newtekie1 for badgering me into it.

 

[sjungermann]

I also have this card but mine is from 2016. I have in mine 1080 amp extreme bios 86.04.17.00.BA and face same problems. In your newer GTX 1080 from this year do you have any bios different from that? I saw many cards from many manufacturers have their bios updates (86.04.66.XX). Even normal 1080 AMP edition had this update here in TPU database 86.04.66.00.39 in unverified uploads. Also there is one 86.04.66.00.1B for the extreme plus with the new memories running at 11.2. But there is nothing to our card.

 

[qubit]

Ok, just installed the latest GPU-Z which shows that I've got the same BIOS as you and I've not overclocked it, yet.

That revving problem is annoying as hell, isn't it? Why don't you give the AfterBurner fan profile I used a go and let me know how you get on with it? It's a shame to lose a primary feature of this card with it, but it solves the problem completely and works well.

 

[sjungermann]

I am using Afterburner and using mine fan profile. But for a card expensive like that we shouldn't have to do it don't you agree? Also I could get much better temps when changing the original thermal compound to GELID GC extreme. I think this is related to the vbios of the card. But without any Pascal bios editor this is unfortunately not possible. I would take the vbios from extreme plus and try it with the same frequency in memories we have. But do it without any certification is risky. Also my overclock in memories to 11.2 ghz is not stable.

 

[qubit]

Of course we shouldn't have to and I've said how annoyed I am about it in my OP.

Interesting about the temp improvement when changing the thermal paste. Did you have to break any warranty seals to get the cooler off? I don't know why these companies invest in great coolers and decent circuitry, only to compromise it with crappy thermal paste, something that's so cheap anyway.

The biggest offender by far in recent history is Intel with their post Sandy Bridge processors running hot due to this. Incredibly, they're still at it with their very latest thousand dollar+ HEDT CPUs. I just don't get it and I wish some tech site could get to the bottom of why they do it.

 

[sjungermann]

It is not difficult to change a thermal compound. I do it since generation 7xx. I think if you search a little you will see how easy it is. But explain it here is not so easy as seeing images. This change in termal paste give me more stability in frequencies and less agressive fan profile. (Less noise). The original amount was too much and I think with not so good thermal paste quality. I've gained at least 5 degrees. This is another thing that I don't understand when we pay for a premium design.

 

[qubit]

Oh yes, I've done it before too, on my HD 2900 XT a decade ago when I put an aftermarket cooler on it - and took it off again immediately, because it didn't fit properly.

My Zotac works well enough as it is, so I'd rather not risk it to be honest.

 

[RejZoR]

Wanted ZOTAC 1080Ti AMP+ Extreme and then remembered your case. Read some other review and they also had the same problem. So I bought AORUS instead. Not in the mood of paying top money for broken card with garbage fan profile. C'mon, I make better fan profiles myself and big ass companies can't. It's absurd.

 

[qubit]

Wanted ZOTAC 1080Ti AMP+ Extreme and then remembered your case. Read some other review and they also had the same problem. So I bought AORUS instead. Not in the mood of paying top money for broken card with garbage fan profile. C'mon, I make better fan profiles myself and big ass companies can't. It's absurd.

Yes, I agree totally - but for one thing. It was Tom's Hardware that detailed the problem on this 1080, but didn't say the 1080 Ti version had it. From their description of the fan behaviour, Zotac fixed this problem for the top card while leaving us with the smaller version out in the cold. I would normally return a card with such a flaw (and maybe I should have in hindsight) but it's such a fabulous card in every other way that I decided to stick with it. Thankfully my always-on profile works very well now.

 

[RejZoR]

It was also confirmed for 1080Ti AMP+ Extreme in some review. It wasn't Anand though. Not sure who wrote it...

I also wasn't too happy about lack of any thermal pads under backplate and the VRM cooling is rather crappy. Where AORUS ticked both of those boxes, thermal pads everywhere as well as proper connection of VRM to the main heatsink.

 

[qubit]

It was also confirmed for 1080Ti AMP+ Extreme in some review.

That's bad.

That lack of cooling around the VRM: again, why go to all that length to create a top end card only to skimp on something cheap like that? I don't get it.

 

[Pillendreher]

So this is what my new Zotac 1080 Extreme sounds like:

Also: The fan problem is still very much there. And from what I've seen, it's worse than what Tom's Hardware wrote about. It's not that the fans just start alternating spinning and idling once the card gets hot. With the factory set fan curve, they do this up to 75 °C or so. That's just laughable. You can't charge 600 bucks or more for that kind of quality.

 

[qubit]

Kinda wish I'd returned my one, seeing that. It's still working fine though with its custom fan profile so let's hope it stays that way.

 

[Pillendreher]

Kinda wish I'd returned my one, seeing that. It's still working fine though with its custom fan profile so let's hope it stays that way.

I'm not trying to make you feel about your card. At least the card I received just didn't feel right. A little bit like buying a 'premium car' and noticing that the doors just won't close properly or something like that. At a certain pricepoint, you don't expect those kinds of misses. I'm not willing to fix the manufacturer's product if I'm paying him that kind of money.

 

[qubit]

Yeah, couldn't agree more, dump it. I think you'll like the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X or the Palit GTX 1080 GameRock. I liked the MSI better out of the two though.

 

[RejZoR]

You can't go wrong with GamingX, AORUS anything or Strix. These rarely have such absurd flaws as far as I'm aware.

 

[Pillendreher]

Yeah, couldn't agree more, dump it. I think you'll like the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X or the Palit GTX 1080 GameRock. I liked the MSI better out of the two though.

Have you tried both?

You can't go wrong with GamingX, AORUS anything or Strix. These rarely have such absurd flaws as far as I'm aware.

Yeah I'm thinking about ordering an AORUS non-Xtreme card. Has looked quite nice for Guru3D.

 

[qubit]

Have you tried both?

Yup, I've tried three different models of GTX 1080, with three of them being the Palit. My first 1080 was the Palit, but it died. The replacement didn't work and the third I returned as I went for the Zotac.

Ignoring any problems with the Zotac, it's definitely the best card in terms of looks, temperature noise* and speed. The speed enhancement is small, but you can definitely feel it and none of the other cards would clock as high as the Zotac's default speed.

Given the Zotac's problems though, I'd now pick the MSI.

*Note that the MSI I had seemed about equal for noise as the Zotac regardless of TPU's review (both reviewed on here) but the cooling capacity on the Zotac is incredible. You can tell by the way the temperature drops so fast when it returns to 2D mode after running Furmark. A lot faster than all the others.

 

[RejZoR]

Have you tried both?

Yeah I'm thinking about ordering an AORUS non-Xtreme card. Has looked quite nice for Guru3D.

AORUS is a good choice imo. I've also settled with it in the end. I do have the 1080Ti model, but I think they are the same cooling wise. It's incredibly quiet. I also like the fact backplate has thermal pads behind GPU as well as over the card. I hate it when backplate is just decorative cover. I want it to have cooling function as well and AORUS has that which is nice.

 

[qubit]

AORUS is a good choice imo. I've also settled with it in the end. I do have the 1080Ti model, but I think they are the same cooling wise. It's incredibly quiet. I also like the fact backplate has thermal pads behind GPU as well as over the card. I hate it when backplate is just decorative cover. I want it to have cooling function as well and AORUS has that which is nice.

If yours is that quiet, then the 1080 will be at least as quiet if not more so as it puts out less heat.

 

[Pillendreher]

At least the samples Gurud3D tested were excellent in that regard.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 AORUS Xtreme
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 AORUS 11 Gbps

Compared to other 1080s Guru3D tested, that's both the quietest and coolest iirc.

 

[Pillendreher]

Just ordered the AORUS GeForce® GTX 1080 8G (rev. 2.0). Let's hope I won't have to order a 3rd card

 

[qubit]

Just ordered the AORUS GeForce® GTX 1080 8G (rev. 2.0). Let's hope I won't have to order a 3rd card

How did that card work out, dude?

Mine is still working fine with the fans running at minimum in idle.

 

[Pillendreher]

How did that card work out, dude?

Mine is still working fine with the fans running at minimum in idle.

Excellent card. I'm so glad I went ahead and bought it and didn't wait for Vega Customs which will probably never come. It is very, very quiet, a great undervolter and gives me enough performance for anything I throw at it