NVIDIA has distributed the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Editions to reviewers but under strict NDA so performance and benchmarking tests will not be available until the said embargo is lifted in the coming weeks. In the meantime, unboxing photos and videos are now available that shows the new and improved cooler for increased heat removal, a full set of voltage regulators, but with a missing memory module.

The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition unboxing already provides new insights on what new features and improvements the green team has made to the fastest card in the market. To start off, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition modified 62mm radial cooler as advertised by NVIDIA looks unaltered from the outside. The card itself has dimensions similar to the Pascal-based Titan X but with a slight increase in weight to 1,039 g. The top part of the card stays the same with the usual green logo, an 8-pin, and a 6-pin power connector while the bottom part has the air vent that allows hot air to escape.

The only noticeable difference is that NVIDIA removed the DVI connector to make room for airflow, Tom's Hardware reported. However, the Geforce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition has three DisplayPort connectors and a single HDMI connector, which can be seen on the slot cover of the card while everything else is used up by the vent grille. Under the hood of the Geforce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition requires some hard-to-find tools to unscrew the thin 0.5mm screw and the first noticeable change is in the use of thermal fleece, which is a material not often seen in NVIDIA hardware but used to improve heat removal. The said material was used to connect the PWU controller on the board's back to one of the half backplate.

The huge bottom plate of the cooler house the usual thermal pads for the memory modules and voltage converters. This area also has thermal fleece strips to connect the VR chips, MOSFETs, diodes and the likes to the cooler's bottom plate. No other changes other than those mentioned earlier were noticed in the updated cooler design which is NVIDIA's new airflow thermal solution meant to be quieter and cooler. Subsequent benchmarks would have to prove NVIDIA's claims that the new cooler in the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition also optimizes GPU boost and pushes overclocking to extreme speeds, according to wccftech.

With regards to the board design, the new card is like the Pascal-based Titan X in layout but this time, NVIDIA offers a surprise found in a full set of voltage regulators occupying all the spaces available. The card features the new 8-phase power design along with 14 high-efficiency dualFETs, which NVIDIA says will deliver improved power efficiency at extreme usage and power levels. However, the same cannot be said for the memory modules where one is noticeably absent as compared to Pascal's Titan X. The green team opted to play it safe using only 10 GDDRX5 memory modules in the new card to avoid thermal problems.

In other news, more custom versions of the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti have been teased by NVIDIA partners like Zotac claiming to bring "The Fastest is Coming." This means that a faster model than the just previewed GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition will come as part of its AMP! Extreme Lineup. Meanwhile, Galax will launch its HOF edition variants during the Computex 2017. More models are expected to come out on March 10 and gamers may expect further price cuts on the GTX 1080 and other cards in the said series.

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Topics NVIDIA, Gtx 1080, Overclocking