ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme vs Gainward GeForce GTX 1080 Phoenix GLH

Both the GPU and memory clocks are slightly overclocked out of the box. This provides excellent performance without having to do much tweaking.

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.

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.

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.

Only takes 5 mins to install.

Zotac offers a five years long warranty for this card. That's quite long for most electronics equipment, not only graphics cards.

Under the massive fans there are two large heatsinks which in total amount to 120mm by 185mm at 30mm thick worth of heatsink. There are also three 8mm and two 6mm copper heatpipes used to improve efficiency.

The great amount of air is pushed over the heatsink by two 100mm fans.

Clearly, the massive size of this card has been put to good use and it's not designed to be large for the sake of being large. It offers excellent cooling and rarely exceeds 70 degrees C even under extreme strain.

Other than managing to keep the card cool under extreme stress, the fans are virtually silent. At 1050RPM there's no noise to speak of, and ranking them to 1500RPM will generate a barely audible hum.

As far as power consumption goes, the 1080 phoenix GLH is one of the most efficient 1080 cards out there. It even performs better than some cards which are clocked lower than the GLH.