When comparing ASUS RoG Strix GTX 1080 Aura RGB OC vs EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW GAMING ACX 3.0, the Slant community recommends ASUS RoG Strix GTX 1080 Aura RGB OC for most people. In the question“What are the best GTX 1080 cards?” ASUS RoG Strix GTX 1080 Aura RGB OC is ranked 1st while EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW GAMING ACX 3.0 is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose ASUS RoG Strix GTX 1080 Aura RGB OC is:
GTX 1080 is the most powerful consumer-level GPU offered by Nvidia that's currently on the market. At 1440p with highest available settings it has an average fps of 116.5 for Dirt Rally, 101.9 for Battlefield 4 and 75.8 for GTA V. Compared to the previous high-end NVIDIA GPU, the GTX 980 Ti, that's an average performance increase of 20%. The RoG Strix offers even better performance due to 10% faster clock speed compared to a regular GTX 1080.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Just as fast as the 1080 Founders Edition
GTX 1080 is the most powerful consumer-level GPU offered by Nvidia that's currently on the market. At 1440p with highest available settings it has an average fps of 116.5 for Dirt Rally, 101.9 for Battlefield 4 and 75.8 for GTA V. Compared to the previous high-end NVIDIA GPU, the GTX 980 Ti, that's an average performance increase of 20%. The RoG Strix offers even better performance due to 10% faster clock speed compared to a regular GTX 1080.
Pro Stellar cooler
The cooler used on this Republic of Gamers card pays off. Under full load, the GTX 1080 chip itself doesn't get hotter than 63 degrees Celsius - which is amazingly low. For comparison - a reference GTX 1080 will generate a load temperature of around 80° C. A lower temperature ensures a longer lifespan and less throttling, where the graphics card slows itself down to stay cool.
Pro Extremely silent operation
In an idle, normal situation the triple fan setup of the Asus Strix 1080 won't even spin at all and are thus completely inaudible. In gaming situations, the unique cooler works very well: measured from a distance of 1 meter, only 33.3 dBA are produced. That's less than the noise a refrigerator produces. The card doesn't suffer from irritating sounds such as coil whine.
Pro Cheaper than the GTX 1080 Founders Edition
Less expensive, but the GPU is the same and thus offers the same performance.
Pro Well optimized
NVIDIA properly optimized the GTX 1080 for DirectX. This means that games supporting DirectX 11 will see a slight performance boost, but more-so for the upcoming games using DirectX 12.
Pro Very power efficient
While performance is higher than its competitors, the GTX 1080 FE actually uses less power. The maximum amount of power consumption this GPU requires is around 185 watts, which is an improvement of over 35% compared to NVIDIA's previous generation high-end graphical card, the GTX 980 Ti. This also plays a positive role when choosing a power supply, or determining if you need to upgrade your existing PSU.
Pro Good value for money
At $649, it's on the cheaper side as far as 1080 graphics cards go. While not really excelling at anything, it has no serious drawbacks either. Making it a good card for people who want a compromise between price and performance.
Pro Compact
With a length of 267mm and height of 128mm, the GTX 1080 FTW is one of the most compact 1080 cards available.
Pro Lots of headroom to overclock and tweak
The FTW ACX 3.0 leaves a lot of room for tweaking. You can overclock for up to +147MHz Core and +176MHz Memory before starting to lose on either core or memory speed.
Cons
Con No native support for 3- and 4-way SLI
SLI - short for Scalable Link Interface - is NVIDIA's technology of combining the power of two or more identical GPU's in order to reach a better performance. In other words, you can use multiple GTX 1080 videocards to further increase performance. Although the GTX 1080 supports 2-way SLI without a problem, NVIDIA does not offer support for 3- and 4-way SLI. The included SLI-bridge which serves as a connector between the two cards, is only compatible in a 2-way configuration. 3-way and 4-way SLI are possible, but aren't supported. You'll have to use an older SLI-bridge found on older GeForce models and you'll need to generate an 'Enthusiast Key' on NVIDIA's website. However, NVIDIA does not guarantee a 3- or 4-way configuration will provide any noticeable benefits.
Con Bulky
The Republic of Gamers Strix GTX 1080 is quite bulky due to the triple fan combination and isn't recommended for use in smaller cases.
Con Brand new hardware, risk involved in early adoption
It is unknown if there are inherent issues with this GPU (such as quality control, motherboard compatibility issues, driver issues, OS issues, etc) as it was only recently announced and has not undergone large-scale testing in the consumer market.
Con Issues with cooling
Some people have problems with cooling, where the GPU needs a thermal kit from EVGA.