costersall
I just got my RMA replacement in Canada and it was a brand new sealed box and like posted before the only difference was plastic packing instead of foam. Played 3 hours or so of Rise of the tomb raider and so far so good. No idea about coil whine, not that I have noticed.

Glad to hear! Cheers! Happy gaming! Wishing you the best!

I received my RMA card yesterday. It is a brand new one. It came in its original box with all the bundle. I've been trying it a little bit and no problem yet.
 
Serial# 4009
 
 

tm95ern

maxheadroom101
2nd RMA arrived today. Initial observations are hopeful. Its a new card in a sealed box.
Serial number is higher:
Original: #1884
1st RMA: #2388
2nd RMA: #3995
 
Those diagonal-spaced chips visible through the backplate are a higher number
Original: 65k
1st RMA: 66k
2nd RMA: 67k 
 
I'll plug it in tonight and come back with any findings. Fingers crossed!

Just picked up two 1080FTW:s with 68k on this chips. Serial is over #4040 on them both.
 

good luck!

J0NOX
Update:
Hey guys, said I would update,
 
Sucks to still see people getting problems with their FTW (strange artifacts etc). Got word from Amazon today, they have finally refunded my 3rd rma 1080 FTW.
My MSI 1080 arrive today and I couldn't be happier. Been running the Heaven bench for a while to make sure no 100%+BS (FTW lasted 15min on all 3 cards), happy to report no issues so far.
 
I also got the card to overclock +160 on the core (2100) and +500 on the memory (5508) with a custom fan curve, @ 70% fan the card sits around 57°C...I haven't even touched the voltage so I could prob push it a bit more. The coil whine in comparison to the FTW is much quieter, same for the fan noise.
 
Did EVGA get round to actually telling use what the root cause was with the FTW or are they still silent?

Very nice, glad you finally have a working card. Did you get the Seahawk or Gaming X? If you're at 57C on air that's pretty sweet, at those clocks. Still silence from EVGA. 

jlp209

J0NOX
Update:
Hey guys, said I would update,
 
Sucks to still see people getting problems with their FTW (strange artifacts etc). Got word from Amazon today, they have finally refunded my 3rd rma 1080 FTW.
My MSI 1080 arrive today and I couldn't be happier. Been running the Heaven bench for a while to make sure no 100%+BS (FTW lasted 15min on all 3 cards), happy to report no issues so far.
 
I also got the card to overclock +160 on the core (2100) and +500 on the memory (5508) with a custom fan curve, @ 70% fan the card sits around 57°C...I haven't even touched the voltage so I could prob push it a bit more. The coil whine in comparison to the FTW is much quieter, same for the fan noise.
 
Did EVGA get round to actually telling use what the root cause was with the FTW or are they still silent?

Very nice, glad you finally have a working card. Did you get the Seahawk or Gaming X? If you're at 57C on air that's pretty sweet, at those clocks. Still silence from EVGA. 

I went for the Gaming X card, running on the power of air!...Well at this point I can't see Evga saying much more about the 100%BS.

Just had the Black Screen problem for the second time after a long while. I guess it's time to RMA. :-/

FljpFl0p
Finally got my RMA card after over a week, it was delayed for 2 days because of a storm in Taiwan...Nature hates me.
 
The serial number is smaller but it's from a different factory so I guess no surprise there.
 
Like others have said, the packing is a new retail one, with plastic inside instead of foam, though it does look more organized with an actual space for the cables instead of just shoving it randomly in the like foam packaging.
 
Will try some OC and test after work to see if I got any problem. At the very least I'm hoping the BS 100% is fixed and I got a normal LED this time (previous one had a very unappealing uneven light).

 
Update:
Well, good news is, this OC slightly better than the old card, which was already OCing quite OK. I managed to do stable 2126 Mhz using the curve in Heaven. Another good news is the LED is now perfectly even across the logo.
 
HOWEVER, this is BAD: Upon peeling off the plastic, I notice there are another layer of plastic covering on the metal part in the 4 corners of the shroud, the these plastics are the ones that can't be peeled off completely without unscrewing the screws since they're stuck inside the screw holes. If you're unfamiliar, this is the issue that happens to the earlier batches, which EVGA supposedly made a change in their production line to mitigate the issue. The batches with the plastic wraps problem is definitely before 30th Aug.
 
Now the question is: Is my card an old card which just got a new packaging and I'll be getting the black screen soon or later (Let's face it, at this point we all assume any FTW would have black screen issue), or is this a fault in the packaging procedure of this card? I definitely hope it's the latter and I just need to unscrew and get the rest of the plastics out instead of having to do another RMA, especially when it's OCing quite decently.
 

Lee7b
Is this still an ongoing problem or is it safe to buy one?

It is still ongoing problem. I bought my EVGA GTX1080FTW yesterday and card failed after 1 hour gaming in Witcher 3 :-(

Lee7b
Is this still an ongoing problem or is it safe to buy one?

I have Gotten my New Replacement from EVGA HQ in California. I live near them, and the replacement they gave had no issues since. and It seems to overclock higher than the original. If you live in the States, you may have a better chance of getting a Fixed version. Before purchasing i would call tech support depending on where you purchase it and ask if they were given the Fixed version of the card. 
 

Lee7b
Is this still an ongoing problem or is it safe to buy one?

I wouldn't buy one. EVGA has been helpful on the phone, but overall handled this situation really badly. It's such a shame seeing a company trying to ignore a problem in the hope it will go away.
 
I own one 1080 FTW and (so far) there have been no major issues. I was also offered the chance to return my card for a new one to alleviate any concerns, but I've seen countless reports on here of people receiving faulty cards or 'refurbished' cards. This is simply not acceptable.
 
I've gone from being EVGA's #1 first-time-buyer fan to being hesitant in about a month.

 
"GW2 not updated for factory overclocked cards" ...lol smh.
 

charlemagnes_joy
I have correlated some data from this thread to help those looking to buy or those who are unsure about their own card. If there's something I missed. Let me know.
 

• SNS: Serial Number Sequence (See SN details below).
• Stock shipped from Evga factories after August 30^th 2016 should be shipped without issue. Pre August 30^th stock may still be in stores.
• GPU should be packed in plastic as opposed to hard foam to signify newer model.
• GPU screws go through the plastic film on GPU signal older model (Possibly hearsay).
• The diagonal-spaced chips visible through the back plate should be numbered 67k or higher to signify newer batch. 
• Factory 25 seems to have had the issue very prominently.
• Factory 08, 29 have had success. 08 seems very successful.
• If BS 100% happens, under clock the card by 85 MHz also increase cooling as temporary fix.
• If BS 100% happens, enable debug mode in NVIDIA control panel as temporary fix.
• Error common in SNS lower than 02508 (unknown factory).
• Error common in SNS lower than 02387 (unknown factory).
• After SNS 03995 GPU’s are working (unknown factory).
• After SNS 05430 GPU’s are working (unknown factory).
• After SNS 04009 GPU’s are working (unknown factory).

 
Serial number details:
 

• First two digits:                                   Year Manufactured
• Third digit:                                          Product type (1 being graphics card).
• Fourth and Fifth:                                  Factory.
• Sixth:                                                 Warranty Length.
• Seventh to Tenth:                                Part Number.
• Eleventh:                                            Region Sold.
• Twelfth to Sixteenth:                           SNS or Serial Number Sequence.

Thanks for taking the time to do that.
 
Just for clarity though, all 3 of my cards came with the plastic inlay packing (first 2 being faulty)
Although the official word is "Everything after August 30 is ok", a faulty batch was reportedly incorrectly labelled as working and some faulty cards were still being shipped after that date (including my 2nd one which was shipped on Sept 9th). So I'd say the true 'safe' date is more like mid September (assuming my 3rd one works. not uncrossed my fingers yet but so far, so good)
 
 

I have updated the post. Thanks Max.

I'm happy to put you at ease a little bit. I am actually looking to buy one and I was directed here from the Amazon reviews. I was so annoyed to see this issue as the 1080 FTW suits my build so well and I was really sold on EVGA's customer service and RMA policies. Then I saw all this and freaked out lol. I'm not buying until November but the first thing I will be doing is checking my serial number lol. A good high SNS from factory 08 or 29 please lol. Do you know your SNS (last five digits) from your third 1080?

Thanks, I edited the post in response to your comment. I have referenced the factories as much as possible (and the lack of information on which sns relates to which factory), but due to people not understanding the nature of the serial numbers they often left out the factory. I'm hoping people will respond with their factory, SNS and whether their unit is working.