Hi
 
I own a XC Ultra (trying to sell though) and a FTW3 Hybird (So not exactly what you are referring to but) so I may have some input.
 
1. The FTW3 from what I have seen, is not any louder and may even be a bit quieter due to there being more fans allowing them to be spinning slower for similar performance. But I suppose if they were were running at the same speed the FTW3 would be louder.
 
2. Yes you are paying for a custom PCB with upgraded VRMs and sensors. This allows for a higher power limit, which translates to potentially higher overclocks. But this is also limited by the chip which you get on your card. For example, both my FTW3 and XC Ultra can do about ~2055-2070 while gaming. The difference is that the XC Ultra is achieving it with less power and not using watercooling (So the core is at a higher temp).
 
3. As long as you are not flashing a custom bios or doing anything too crazy with the card, you shouldn't be voiding the warranty. Warranty also transfers from used cards as well if you wanted to go that route.
 
4. Not 100% sure, but I believe it depends on which bios you have it set to. The normal bios should not spin the fans when it is at idle, but the oc bios will always have them spinning
 
Hope that helps!

If you want all the bells and whistles and a better probability of a better OCer?  It's the FTW3.  If you want cooler temps and possibly quieter operations, it's the FTW3 Hybrid.

Robert_Stevens
Thanks Jack, choice is between the XC Ultra and the FTW3 3-fan model though; I don't want to go with water.
 
If I found the FTW3 a bit loud under default settings would it be possible to set a slower RMP fan profile via software? Temp-wise it looks to have headroom for this.

You could lower the Temp and or Power Targets so your fans don't have to ramp up high depending on your situational and environmental temps.

Could someone please confirm the exact length of the 2080 Ti FTW3 Ultra? Officially it's listed as 301.925 mm, but when I line an image of the back plate up against an image of my motherboard (matching the PCIe slot location) it appears as though that measurement might not include the plastic shroud. My case's max GPU length is 314 mm, so not got much to play with!
 
Thanks.

Thanks, Jack - I think the card should fit OK.
 
If anyone has any thoughts on the XC Ultra vs the FTW3 I'd really love to hear them, specifically in terms of noise levels and power draw (I know the latter draws more power, but unsure how much of a difference that makes).
 
Given the two choices and ignoring the price difference, which card would you choose?

Thanks, Nighthawk.
 
The price difference is £50, with a £250 reduction on the FTW3 Ultra, making it £1,150. I have paid for both cards due to the low (for RTX!) pricing, but will only be keeping one, thus I don't have forever to think about this. When spending in excess of £1,100, £50 isn't a lot, hence why I say to ignore the price - which is the best?
 
Stock performance seems close to identical between the two, and I'm not 100% sure whether I'd overclock it or not (which seems to be the primary advantage of the FTW3 Ultra). My main concern with going with the FTW3 Ultra is that some reviews state that it's loud (or louder at least than the XC Ultra), but others on YouTube seem to say it runs quiet with the fans hardly ever spinning up... Additionally, I can't seem to find 100% confirmation that the fans don't spin at all under load either, as I believe to be the case with the XC Ultra. I'm also not sure how much of a difference the added power consumption would make to the electricity bill, presumably very little, but I really have no idea...
 
Am tempted towards the FTW3 Ultra with it being the flagship (on air, at least) and all the other part of the system are top spec, especially with there being close to nothing in it price-wise, but if it's louder then I'm probably just being silly and would be better off sticking with the XC Ultra.
 
Hopefully a FTW3 Ultra owner will chime in at some point...
 
Thanks again.
 
EDIT: Something I don't quite get is a lot of reviews refer to the 2080 Ti FTW3 Ultra as a $1,350 card, but as far as I can see it retails for $1,499.99 (on the EVGA site) and £1,399.99 in the UK (P/N: 11G-P4-2487-KR). Did the price go up since release?

AFAIK, the two FTW3 (air-only) versions are differentiated by the base clock and whether they are the 'Ultra' model or not, with the Ultra variant having the much thicker cooler (quiet/cool operation is important to me so going with this version is a no-brainer).
 
The two I'm deciding between:
 

• 2080 Ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming (11G-P4-2487-KR) - 1755 MHz Boost Clock
• 2080 Ti XC Ultra Gaming (11G-P4-2383-KR) - 1650 MHz Boost Clock

 
There is an XC2 Ultra model as well, which I think adds extra sensors, but that's not an option for me (none in my system builder's inventory). As far as I can tell, the higher boost clock of the FTW3 (above) delivers close to zero performance gains in real-world usage, 0-2%, which is a shame. Logic says to go with the XC Ultra as it's smaller, consumes less power and I know it's quiet, but with them being the same price, or close enough, and the FTW3 Ultra originally being a lot more, I'm somewhat tempted to go with the flagship.
 
As said, it'd be really great if an FTW3 Ultra owner could help out here.
 
If it's of relevance, a summary of my (yet to be build, but ordered) system:
 
Case: SilverStone Temjin TJ11
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus XI Extreme
CPU: Intel i9 9900K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15
Memory: 64 GB (4x16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 MHz
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce RTX2080 Ti XC Ultra / RTX2080 Ti FTW3 Ultra
PSU: Seasonic PRIME Ultra 850 W 80+ Titanium
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro High End 64-Bit 
 
As mentioned previously the FTW3 model would have 1-2 cm clearance from one of the 2 180 mm main intake fans. I will be running a 4K display, so that's the only resolution I care about.
 
If anyone can help here I'd really appreciate it.
 
Thanks.

mhijazi
Nice information in this thread. Curious to know what did you get in the end ? 
 
 
I am in this delima for quite some time now. usually I like to own FTW3 models but with RTX cards, FTW3 is considerably bigger than previous 1080 Ti FTW3. So I am thinking of 2080 Ti XC  Dual slot. On newegg, XC is 270$ cheaper... So I think XC is a better option for me. Do you think performance difference between XC and FTW3 worth 270$ ?

Only if you want every benchmarking point possible otherwise for gaming, they'll all perform the same.  Maybe a few FPS difference at best.

mhijazi
Thanks for the info Jack. let's see if I can wait on a R* miracle and add SLI support to RDR2, otherwise, I'll get a 2080 Ti to play it. 3440x1440 on ultra just brings my 1080 Ti on its knees.

Have been very happy with my XC, with the stock cooler it should be in the low-mid 70's at 130% power, with aggressive fans and good case airflow.  April-ish build came with Samsung memory.  Stable at 2100mhz gaming with a hybrid kit around 50-55C.

Go with the XC Ultra!! Mine is really quiet and looks great!!