Gigabyte announced the launch of the latest addition to their Waterforce series, the GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce WB Xtreme. The card is under Gigabyte’s premium gaming AORUS brand,\ and features the best hardware offered by the company. As the name suggests, the GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce WB Xtreme ditches the air-cooler for a waterblock. And like most premium products these days, the AORUS Waterforce WB Xtreme is equipped with RGB LED lighting. It can even be controlled with Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion software, so it is able to be synchronized with the motherboard and other components.
WaterForce WB Flow Cooling Design
The cooling system comprises of a full-coverage copper waterblock. This copper is nickel-plated to prevent oxidation, plus it looks quite good. This cooling system not just cools the GPU, it also cools the RAM and the VRM area. There is also a copper backplate similar to other AORUS GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards to dissipate heat going to the back. The rest of the waterblock has a customized glass acrylic cover so that the RGB LED can shine through. There is also a top cover with a window designed as the AORUS logo so users can get a glimpse of the coolant flowing inside.
Specifications
The NVIDIA reference GTX 1080 Ti has clock speeds of 1,480MHz base and 1582MHz boost. In comparison, the Gigabyte GTX 1080Ti underneath the block runs up to 1607MHz base and 1,721MHz boost. It also has a secondary “OC mode” setting that runs at even higher clock speeds of 1,632MHz base and 1,746MHz boost.
In terms of display output, there are two HDMI 2.0b ports, three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors and a single dual-link DVI-D port. The unit comes with a lengthy 4-year warranty after registration.
Pricing and Availability
GIGABYTE did not give any official word on pricing, although waterblocks blocks usually add ~120€ to the base price. Launch date is sometime around July.
