When comparing MSI GeForce GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X vs ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme, the Slant community recommends ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme for most people. In the question“What are the best GTX 1080 cards?” ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme is ranked 3rd while MSI GeForce GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme is:
Both the GPU and memory clocks are slightly overclocked out of the box. This provides excellent performance without having to do much tweaking.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Extremely cool
The AIO doesn't cool both the GPU and the VRAM so the corsair cooler cools the heck out of the GPU.
Pro Overclocked out of the box
Both the GPU and memory clocks are slightly overclocked out of the box. This provides excellent performance without having to do much tweaking.
Pro Very quiet
The AMP! Extreme is probably one of the quietest cards in this category. Idle noise level is a bit hard to calculate in this case since for temperatures under 60 degrees C the fans are off, but under very light load which pushes the card to about 60 degrees C it reached a noise level of about 33dBA, comparable to the idle noise level of most 1080 cards. Under heavy load however, it registered a noise level of 38dBA, the lowest in this comparison.
Pro Excellent performance-price ratio
Performance-wise, the ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme achieved a 3DMark Score (Firestrike) of 19410 with minimal FPS never dropping below 86 with averages of 157.25 for FHD and 109.5 for WQHD.
At a price of $639.99, which is an average price for 1080 graphics cards and numbers that usually top benchmark charts, the ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme offers great value for what you will be paying.
Pro Great cooling capabilities
The 1080 AMP Extreme is equiped with three 90mm dual-bladed EKO fans, which according to Zotac increase the airflow by 30% and increase the air pressure by 15%. Furthermore, the fans are equipped on top of a heatsink with six variably configured heatpipes which greatly increases the heat extraction off the card. Or at least, that's what Zotac claims.
When idle, it does not surpass the threshold of 33 degrees C and even under heavy load it reached peak temperatures of 73 degrees C, well below the 80 degrees C set by the GTX 1080 Founders Edition.
Pro Easy to install
Only takes 5 mins to install.
Pro Generous warranty
Zotac offers a five years long warranty for this card. That's quite long for most electronics equipment, not only graphics cards.
Cons
Con Runs on the founder's edition PCB
You can't take full advantage of the aio because you are power limited by the pcb.
Con Large and heavy
The 1080 AMP Extreme has a metal shroud with a strong and thick metal backplate. Because of this, it's quite large and heavy.
Con Very little room for tweaking
Since it's already overclocked out of the box, there's very little room for users to get some more performance out of the card.