Nvidia GTX 1080, 1070 'Founders Editions' Just Reference Cards

By Kevin Carbotte
published

Nvidia revealed its latest and greatest graphics card lineup on Friday to much fanfare. The company made some bold claims about the performance and overclocking potential of the Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070--especially the Founders Edition, which CEO Jen-Hsun Huang implied would provide better overclocking potential than the standard card.

The live stream event left us thinking that the Founders Edition GTX 1080 and 1070 would be built with binned GPUs that provided higher than average overclocking potential, and perhaps better circuitry than the reference designed cards.  

We’ve since come to find out that the Founders Edition is in fact simply the reference design. Nvidia has decided to move away from the "reference" nomenclature in exchange for the "Founders Edition title." The company said that the Founders Edition cards aren’t limited edition, either; Nvidia plans to have them available for the lifetime of the GTX 1080 and 1070.

The Founders Edition cards don’t include binned GPUs, but Nvidia said that the PCA has “premium components.” 

Nvidia will sell the Founders Edition GTX 1080 for $699, but add-in board partners will be able to sell their cards for $599. We’re only speculating here, but we expect to see AIBs price their cards anywhere in that range. The upshot of this change is that Nvidia won't be undercutting its resellers by marketing its own branded card.

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

104 Comments Comment from the forums
  • turkey3_scratch

    No reason to buy reference especially since aftermarket are better and can be cheaper.
    Reply
  • gilbadon

    No reason to buy reference especially since aftermarket are better and can be cheaper.

    For all except those who want to water cool.
    Reply
  • dudmont

    No reason to buy reference especially since aftermarket are better and can be cheaper.
    And dump all their heat directly into your case, which may not work so well if you SLI.
    Reply
  • elbert
    Gigabyte teasing a custom cooler can match the founders card coolers. Factory OC gigabyte 1080's cards of 2Ghz+ should be out by June.
    Reply
  • edward_23
    Make me wonder if the stated MSRP are true? Didn't partner board always priced higher than reference in the past?
    Reply
  • c4s2k3

    No reason to buy reference especially since aftermarket are better and can be cheaper.
    And dump all their heat directly into your case, which may not work so well if you SLI.

    Yeah, you nailed it. I'll be upgrading this year and I'll be looking for a reference cooler for this very reason.
    Reply
  • megajynx
    As excited I am for the 1000 series, this seems a little like a moneygrab. For what it's worth, that heatsink does look pretty (mod edit) sexy. Wonder how it will compare to other vendor's thermal solutions?
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    When nVidia charges USD$100 extra for *no* features other than "early access" no one blinks an eye, but when AMD puts a WCC solution on their cards for the same extra money people lose their minds.

    I really really can't understand masses.

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • redgarl
    Basically they made a waterdown version.. Still, you know what, I remember the day of ATI and Nvidia selling their cards directly. They were way more reliable than today.

    However, ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE, EVGA, XFX and I pass many, have more R&D involved in heatsink than Nvidia or AMD have. They make so much better cooling solution than the references.
    Reply
  • ern88
    The founders edition is a way for Nvidia to milk an extra $100 ($129 CAD lol) from your wallets. I guess they got to recoup the billion $$$ for R&D lol. I'll just wait for non reference design that maybe cheaper to buy!!!
    Reply