Iceman2733
I am new to the forum and wanted to post up and say I recently switched from 2ea MSI gaming 6g 980ti under EK blocks to 2ea EVGA 1080 FTW cards.  (Technically 1ea in the system and 1ea be here in two days) However quite a few people pointed me to these FTW cards having issues.
 
Have these issues been correct?  Looking at the last few pages of this thread I stand to say NO,   but want to be sure I have ordered EK blocks for both these cards but I will NOT put them on until I know more information about the FTW issues.      Is it just the FTW that has these issues or is all of the EVGA 1080?
 
Killing me slowly I left MSI because all I heard about was how great EVGA was and there cards are OC kings now I have them I am a bit nervous lol.    Any help guys, my first FTW literally has been here 24hrs I will return it and refuse the second one if this is still an ongoing issue.

Test them on stock cooling first. If they are one of the small percentage with problems (almost all were also manufactured prior to a certain date), then EVGA will put it right. Nobody can tell you if they will have problems though, you'll have to try them. All the newer ones seem to be fine though.
 

It looks like, at least from people posting here, that European customers are getting completely shafted still by this issue vs. those in the U.S. Not cool. 

jlp209
It looks like, at least from people posting here, that European customers are getting completely shafted still by this issue vs. those in the U.S. Not cool. 

We are pretty used to getting shafted...

I am on my 2nd RMA now, not going through advanced since I am off Europe for a week or so starting by next week. I hope everything will be fine.
 
This crash happened yesterday because I forgot to start the custom fan speed with msi afterburner

Nereus
Test them on stock cooling first. If they are one of the small percentage with problems (almost all were also manufactured prior to a certain date), then EVGA will put it right. Nobody can tell you if they will have problems though, you'll have to try them. All the newer ones seem to be fine though.
 

Thank ya good sir, that is my point how long would you test them?  I have read about people not having issues for 1-2 months in and a few longer than that.   

How does EVGA handle RMA if they have waterblocks installed??? I have heard mixed reviews about EVGA rma setup.   I am torn now what to do.   Are these issues limited to the FTW or does the SC suffer the same issues?  

Iceman2733

Nereus
Test them on stock cooling first. If they are one of the small percentage with problems (almost all were also manufactured prior to a certain date), then EVGA will put it right. Nobody can tell you if they will have problems though, you'll have to try them. All the newer ones seem to be fine though.
 

Thank ya good sir, that is my point how long would you test them?  I have read about people not having issues for 1-2 months in and a few longer than that.   

How does EVGA handle RMA if they have waterblocks installed??? I have heard mixed reviews about EVGA rma setup.   I am torn now what to do.   Are these issues limited to the FTW or does the SC suffer the same issues?  

You'll have to go back through this thread unless someone else has time to look or can recall - one of the EVGA techs posted a method which I think was like running Heaven benchmark software (it's free) for an hour or two and then something else for a couple of hours as well. If you can get through that, you're pretty safe. Also if you play Guild Wars 2, I noticed that game mentioned quite a few times as triggering the issue fairly quickly (as was the case for me). The included warranty is 3 years, and I think you have a certain time frame to add extended RMA coverage if needed too.
 
To the best of my knowledge, as long as you can put the original air cooled shrouds back on so the card is in original order, then EVGA is ok if you had waterblocks on it, as long as no physical harm or mods were required. They are also ok with you replacing the thermal paste etc.. Most other retailers will not cover you in that situation (of course they have to prove you opened the thing up lol). Another advantage of going with EVGA obviously.
 
I think this issue was primarily with the FTW (and FTW Hybrid as was my situation).
 

Nereus

Iceman2733

Nereus
Test them on stock cooling first. If they are one of the small percentage with problems (almost all were also manufactured prior to a certain date), then EVGA will put it right. Nobody can tell you if they will have problems though, you'll have to try them. All the newer ones seem to be fine though.
 

Thank ya good sir, that is my point how long would you test them?  I have read about people not having issues for 1-2 months in and a few longer than that.   

How does EVGA handle RMA if they have waterblocks installed??? I have heard mixed reviews about EVGA rma setup.   I am torn now what to do.   Are these issues limited to the FTW or does the SC suffer the same issues?  

You'll have to go back through this thread unless someone else has time to look or can recall - one of the EVGA techs posted a method which I think was like running Heaven benchmark software (it's free) for an hour or two and then something else for a couple of hours as well. If you can get through that, you're pretty safe. Also if you play Guild Wars 2, I noticed that game mentioned quite a few times as triggering the issue fairly quickly (as was the case for me). The included warranty is 3 years, and I think you have a certain time frame to add extended RMA coverage if needed too.
 
To the best of my knowledge, as long as you can put the original air cooled shrouds back on so the card is in original order, then EVGA is ok if you had waterblocks on it, as long as no physical harm or mods were required. They are also ok with you replacing the thermal paste etc.. Most other retailers will not cover you in that situation (of course they have to prove you opened the thing up lol). Another advantage of going with EVGA obviously.
 
I think this issue was primarily with the FTW (and FTW Hybrid as was my situation).

My card survived 10 hours of heaven and any other benchmark I threw at it. However Rise of the Tomb Raider made it black screen and jet engine fans all of a sudden and that is one of the games that have reported to crash with a black screen and crazy fans. At this point I believe that the issue exists on almost all cards and it turns for the worse if you have bad airflow on the card.

 
BTW I went through two 1080 FTW Hybrids, but I was unlucky.. the first one had the black screen issue and EVGA did the cross ship deal for no additional expense on that card which was good of them, but the replacement they sent was not new - it was a refurb with scratches on it and the LEDs did not work at all. Apparently an error shipping me a trashed card. Rather than get a 3rd card, I requested a full refund and EVGA agreed.
 
I had to pay $47.46 shipping back on the 2nd card, and then I just found out today that the refund is less the original shipping as well, so the experience cost me just short of $80 and nothing to show for it which is a little annoying. Maybe EVGA can send me a Powerlink to ease my pain... *subtle hint* lol  ..then again, I was the lucky recipient of a $1,000 ModsRigs draw about 3 years ago, so I am very much indebted to EVGA, even if it was just luck of the draw.

 
I have a Titan XP now - NVidia can thank EVGA for me splashing out crazy money like that for a graphics card, because I never intended to originally. Damn nice card though.
 
 
 
 

Has anybody tried underclocking the card yet? 

Stalinx20

EVGA_ChrisB/EVGA_DaveB, would there be any chance that the 1080FTW is acting up like the 980FTW did in the past? I see a very close resemblance. You know what I'm talking about...
http://forums.evga.com/So-GTX-980-FTW-are-very-bad-cards-m2346232.aspx
 
With that in mind, has anybody (even their mother) tried underclocking the card to see if they get any stability? I'm talkingunderclocking at least by 200, even 300, on all fronts, Core Clock and Memory Clock. And i already know the first thing someone is going to say to that. "This is not why i bought the FTW." Of course it's not, but it will give EVGA an idea on what they need to work on. Trial and error is all you have now.

stalinx20
Has anybody tried underclocking the card yet? 

Yes I tried this last night w/ my 1080 FTW Hybrid after checking out that old thread, interesting. Moved the core offset and memory offset to -200 in Precision. Ran Heaven just fine for 15 mins. Still have yet to experience the BS100% with this latest card.