Founders Edition reached
its critical temperature at
lower operating clocks than
this AORUS model. So you’re
looking at sub 1900Mhz clock
speeds (1834MHz) against
1967MHz at worst. That’s over
100MHz between the two. Those
clocks together with the lower
operating temperature speak
favorably about the card. For
those wondering, we the default
fan profile was employed at all
times, save for overclocking
results where the fan speed
was set to 70% of its maximum.
Naturally the noise of the
cooling complex increased, but
I must state that it is more than
tolerable. A low frequency hum
if you will. I’d tell you exactly
what the dB scale reading
was, but one is without a noise
pressure meter and therefore
this is purely subjective. Suffice
to say, this is the quietest GTX
1080 Ti I’ve come across. It’s
inaudible at most times and
when you can hear it, it’s a
comfortable hum. In fact,
compared directly against the
more XOC orientated models,
the AORUS card is in a different
class.
What makes this cooling
work so well though, isn’t
32 The OverClocker Issue 41 | 2017
just what is on the face of the
card, but at the back. There’s
an illuminated back plate that
again serves multiple purposes,
but the most important being
cooling the MOSFETs from the
back of the PCB and any other
SMDs that are generating or
conducting heat. In addition to
aiding in structural integrity, the
back plate does an exceptional
job at cooling the rear, and in
particular directly behind the
drivers and MOSFETs. This area
typically becomes hot and at
times too hot to touch by hand
without searing your fingertips
off. It still gets toasty on the
AORUS XTREME, but you can
touch the back plate with your
bare hands.
Further ambitions in
concerning the AORUS XTREME
is the GPU-die rear heatsink.
This is heatsink is rather large
(much larger than the standard
model) and it too, serves the
same purpose of cooling the
GPU die from the back. How
much of an overclocking
difference this makes is of less
importance than the fact that
it may very well be keeping
temperatures low enough to
maintain these super high clock
speeds more constantly.
All other things aside,
this cooling is likely the key
differentiator for the AORUS
XTREME vs all others. There are
cards out there with objectively
better VRM complexes, with
more features geared towards
XOC (like an LN2 BIOS for
instance) and perhaps some
practical additions like fan
headers. However, if you
are in no way, shape or form
interested in competitive
overclocking or doing anything
to your GPU past installing
it and playing games, you’re
simply not going to do better
than the AORUS XTREME.
Is the card a perfect specimen
or manifestation of the GTX
1080 Ti? Perhaps not, for
instance the AORUS Gaming
engine isn’t up to scratch
yet and needs some work in
adding features and monitoring
software. Interestingly
GIGABYTE with its 3D OSD for
motherboards gives you more
information about your GPU
than the AORUS Gaming Engine
can which is odd to say the
least. Right now, it’s ok for the
most basic GPU control and of
course configuring your LED
color preferences. For anything
else, though, you’ll need a third