So this is a pretty simple question, this would be my first Evga card (had reference 470 Gigabyte and now a 970 Gainward Phantom).I pre-ordered a Evga 2080 XC Ultra, the one with 2 fans. I think it's nice as long as there are no Founders Edition listed here. 

 
Now the question is, the XC Gaming (non-Ultra) is after looking on Evga's site, only 15 Mhz better(1800 v. 1815)? That's a 50 Dollar difference (~40 euro) but is that the only difference for the bucks or do they use something different in the cooling solution?My guess is that when Evga chose between their initial models, they choose the best silicon for FTW and later Hybrid followed by XC Ultra and the least overclockable for the basic XC Gaming.Other good options seem the Msi Gaming X Trio as the best one that is listed with 3 year warranty (Zotac, PNY. Galax, Inno3D have 2). And since this is pretty big investment, would clearly keep it for 3 years at least (470+970 together were 2/3 of this one in price and kept them for 4 years each).Also, a good advantage for Evga is that they offer international warranty for 3 years, meaning I can skip a warranty procedure at the store which many times proves to be compromising for the clients as many services just insist "ya berned it yerself, m8".

Sajin
The xc gaming uses a 2 slot cooler while the xc ultra uses a 2.5 slot cooler.

This post... and... supposedly the silicon lottery plays a role with the "increased" clock.
Personally, I got my XC Ultra and put a water block on it right away; should have just put the money towards upgrading to a 2080 Ti.