This is bad for EVGA. My 1080 FTW exhibited similar issues, but it was only the fan that ramps to full speed as soon as a game or Precision X/Afterburner is launched. I've never had the screen go black or any errors. I'm not sure if your cards showed the fan speed RPM in Precision X or GPU-Z? Mine fails to report any fan exists (0%) despite both going full speed! I've played games all day at ultra settings and the card has been perfect, other than the fan issue which requires a reboot to stop it going at full speed.
My replacement arrives Wednesday, fingers crossed it's all good, but I'll try those tests you guys performed and if it's doing the same it's going straight back to Amazon and I'll buy an Asus. I always buy Asus products and think there's a reason they are now expensive. I thought I'd try EVGA since they had a ton (close to 500)of great reviews in Amazon, the old rule "fool me once, shame on you" applies.

ImpulsePie
After some reluctance, Mwave decided to replace my card in store. This was after 1+ hours of testing and failing to replicate the issue (of course it only happens during certain games and after an arbitrary amount of time). They had FTW cards in stock, but I did not want to take the risk of it happening again when I live 3 hours away (was unsure if their current stock is still affected). So I upgraded to the Gigabyte Xtreme Water Cooling instead.

To anyone else having the same issue with their cards and getting pushback from the retailer, just make sure you have an RMA ticket from EVGA first.

Probs to EVGA Taiwan for the speedy response with an RMA number once emailed. Though in this case it was my own will and not accepting anything less than a refund or replacement that got me what I deserved in the end.

Good for you sticking to your guns! Why should we pay $600-900 to be beta testers? I think not....

I would like to know if the new cards which were sent back after an RMA are really fixing this issue!
My retailer is allowing me to send it back to get a refund (to buy another brand but which one) or send it back through EVGA RMA
Is it the same firmware version on the new cards (from end of August apparently) ?
 
What is your advice ?
 
Thanks a lot,  

i have the same issue. happened 2 times in world of warcraft so far. i ordered ekwb full cover for the card, i'm not sure if i should use it or not.

Wanted to give you guys a bit of my experience.
 
I am running 2 GTX 1080 FTW's in SLI and have experienced the aforementioned issue on both cards in SLI and individually tested. I eventually noticed that both cards were GPU Boosting to 2025Mhz, which is 155Mhz above the advertised GPU boost for EVGA GTX 1080 FTW. I decided to to underclock via precision x to the 1860 maximum (voltage link enabled) and so far I have been 100% stable. I have done several tests and have been unable to reproduce black screens thus far. Will keep you folks posted.
 
If it turns out this is the issue, no reason to RMA for a firmware update I can essentially do myself instantly with provided software.
 
http://forums.evga.com/Bo...confused-m2545148.aspx

Well, just when I thought debug mode fixed it I had 2 crashes in debug mode, better than the crash every 30 minutes not in debug mode though!

Were you guys just getting the 100% fan issue/black screen?  My card was also crashing games randomly more often (sometimes blue screen) even at stock speeds.  Display Driver crashes and game crashes.     I get my new card today so I hope it is all related.   I had a GTX 780 for 3 years in the same setup that never crashed until I put this 1080 FTW card in...

TheGuz4L
Were you guys with the issue just getting the 100% fan issue/black screen?  My card was also crashing games randomly more often (sometimes blue screen) even at stock speeds.   I get my new card today so I hope it is all related.   I had a GTX 780 for 3 years in the same setup that never crashed until I put this 1080 FTW card in...

I'm in the same boat, Was running for the last two years trouble free with my Asus 780ti, then got the 100%fan/black screen issue the next day I installed the 1080 FTW. It is definitely the evga card creating the issue. unfortunetly it is hardware related and need to go through RMA.

1080 FTW checking in with the same black screen fans at 100%. Just setup my RMA and the guy on the phone acted like this was a known issue. Guess I won't get a replacement till next week. Seems like they should be overnighting to compensate on spending so much on broken card. 

To everyone experiencing this issue. 
Where did you get your card. I believe it might be helpful to see where these cards were sold. Since it was a "small number" of cards perhaps only certain vendors had them. 
Thanks!