Liquid Cooling Comes To Zotac's GTX 1080 ArcticStorm

Liquid cooling a graphics card is a lot of fun, but replacing the factory cooler may be somewhat daunting if you’re worried about keeping the warranty. From time to time, though, graphics card manufacturers make variants that come with water blocks pre-installed, and such is the case with Zotac’s new GTX 1080 ArcticStorm.

The Pascal-based GP104 GPU on the GTX 1080 comes with 2,560 Cuda cores, and Zotac clocked the unit to a base frequency of 1,632 MHz. On Boost the card should run at 1,771 MHz. This isn’t much faster than the standard Founder’s Edition card, but it is a small overclock nonetheless. Its 8 GB of GDDR5X memory runs over a 256-bit memory interface at the standard 10 Gbps effective data rate.

The ArcticStorm water block that Zotac built for this card features a full-cover design, so it also covers parts of the graphics card that don’t need cooling. The cold plate is made of copper, and above the GPU there is a 0.3 mm microchannel structure to increase the contact area with the water inside the block for better thermal transfer. The fluid terminal comes with the industry-standard G1/4” threads, so if you already have a custom liquid loop, chances are that you’ll easily be able to add this card to it. Additionally, it comes with two fittings onto which you can squeeze tubes with an inner diameter of 10 mm.

The GTX 1080 ArcticStorm offers the Spectra lighting system that illuminates the acrylic part of the water block with options to adjust the color, effects, and brightness. Zotac also includes a custom Zotac-themed backplate as a finishing touch.

We’ve reached out to Zotac for information about pricing.

Update, 8/11/2016, 8:51am PT: Added spec table.