I was ready to purchase a 1080 FTW and went to Newegg but found a series of recent reviews indicating the cards tend to burn up.  E.g.

went to sleep one night, woke up the next day and the PC had turned itself off. Tried turning it back on and the video card immediately started smoking and giving off a nasty smell right before the PC shut itself off again.
 
After approximately 10 days this card died and bricked my entire system. The PC would not power on and it looked as if the PSU had failed. This was not the case as removing the EVGA card and putting my old one back was sufficient to remedy the issue. Placing the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW card into a separate PC also broke that one. Suffice to say, this is a GPU problem.

Any advice on this?  I saw no mention of problems in the forum here.  Not all the reviews are bad, but seeing burnout stories next to each other ain't good.  Is there currently a more reliable EVGA 1080?  

Well the same thing happened to my 980ti, except, I'm not sure if it bricked my system. Thought it was a PSU issue, or a mobo problem. I went ahead and bought new mobo and PSU, and RMA my burnt SC2, the same thing and smell is EXACTLY how he described my burnt card and was a week from being one year old.

There's always defects in everything, just bad luck with them is all. I'm pretty sure they'll get free replacements.

Had mine since release no issues rock solid

There was a bad batch of components on some cards. Unfortunately these problems do crop up from time to time. It wasn't relayed to cooling and EVGA will take good care of you should anything go awry.

My "old" ACX 3.0 version is running great!  As noted above - anyone could get a card with a component that is defective.  It's like the chance of getting hit by lightning - but probably even less likely.  I have had had issues with other video cards & motherboards, so I know it does happen.  But be assured EVGA's tech support will hook you right up if there are any problems.
 
This forum has links to follow to make sure you have a good card to begin with, and if you are having an issue(s) then a step by step guide to determine if you should RMA it.  Basically if there is any chance something might be wrong with your card - they will recommend RMA'ing it.  Now THAT's a difference that should stand out compared to other companies.  Just my 0010 cents.

Given that I've pre-ordered a pair of 1080ti ftw3's for my first evga cards (I've used zotac since the 400 series and Asus before that) it's good in some ways to read that at least the returns and customer service seems to be up to par if an issue does arrise, not had a card go bad since a 9800gtx fried itself, and a the shorter warranty is a slight issue (over zotac) but covering water-cooling (if what I've read is true) makes up for that.

Well that sounds like quite a serious issue and a serious fault somewhere.

Ranmacanada
I've got a 1080FTW that I am debating on RMAing because the card will not function above 70C.  As soon as EVGA precision x says the temp is 70C my computer reboots.  I've had to change my fan curve to aggressive, so my computer sounds like a jet engine all the freaking time.

As a test, you can use the 'Debug' option in the Nvidia Control Panel (its under the Help section on the menu bar). This will cause your GPU to run at the stock clocks versus the factory overclock. If it doesn't crash at 70C or higher, I'd RMA the GPU. It isn't going to get better. Frankly I'd RMA it anyway. It should run stable up to the specified thermal limits which is over 20C higher.

Faulty components happen.  I had another vendor's AMD card go..  The most catastrophic PC failure I've had is when an HP flatbed scanner blew up.  That filled my whole house with smoke.
I even had a dishwasher blow up and catch fire.
 
Should have probably been a fireman actually.

HeavyHemi

Ranmacanada
I've got a 1080FTW that I am debating on RMAing because the card will not function above 70C.  As soon as EVGA precision x says the temp is 70C my computer reboots.  I've had to change my fan curve to aggressive, so my computer sounds like a jet engine all the freaking time.

As a test, you can use the 'Debug' option in the Nvidia Control Panel (its under the Help section on the menu bar). This will cause your GPU to run at the stock clocks versus the factory overclock. If it doesn't crash at 70C or higher, I'd RMA the GPU. It isn't going to get better. Frankly I'd RMA it anyway. It should run stable up to the specified thermal limits which is over 20C higher.

I will try that tomorrow during the day and will see if it indeed happens or not.  It's only hitting about 70% of the TDP right now according to GPU-z

well I wouldnt say it bricked your system since a simple change out of the card fixes the issue. If it bricked your system, you would be replacing a lot more that just the GPU. Anyways, I use to build, solder, test, assemble PCBs and it is just the nature of PCB/Electronics to have a small percentage fail. There are way too many factors that could cause it out of the control of the manufacture at times as well. Welcome to the Silicon Lottery! 

There had been an issue with 1080 FTW and 1070 FTW cards with ACX cooling produced before 11/1/2016. It seems that with the stock fan profiles the VRM's could overheat and cause problems. I can't post links yet, but if you google "evga vrm cooling mod kit" you will find a way to see if a card you have is affected by this issue. According to EVGA, a bios update alone will fix the problem. However, an additional VRM cooling pad mod kit will be provided free as well. Any card produced or RMA'd after 11/1/2016 should come with both the extra pads, and the bios update installed. EVGA will even do an RMA with cross shipping for those who aren't comfortable with updating the bios or installing the VRM cooling pads themselves.
Of course the new version with ICX cooling has even better cooling and more temp sensors than the updated ACX cards. 
I had to do an RMA for a different problem last year, and EVGA shipped me a replacement card before I shipped in my old card (cross shipping). Even though it wasn't required to, EVGA paid all costs, including shipping both ways. I have no doubt that EVGA stands behind their products.  
 
 
 
 

I bought a 1080 FTW two weeks ago. It came with the pre-installed thermal pads in the VRM section.
 
You can see at Gamer Nexus channel a review demystifying the issue with the VRM with the first card (although they ran hot) but making a review with this thermal pads applied and the VRM temps are more than good.

wearnest
Ordered an FTW 1080.  We'll see!
I forgot to mention that I'm still running an Evga GTX 460 in a word processing/email box.  Hope it sets an example.

Congrats! I'm sure you'll love your card.
When you get your card, check to see if it's running the latest version of EVGA's bios. If not update it. Odds are very good that you won't have to do anything at all.