Gigabyte liquid cools and overclocks its newest Geforce GTX 1080 Ti card

Gigabyte has fleshed out its expansive live of GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards with yet another SKU, one that comes with its own self-contained liquid cooler to keep overclocks stable.

The new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce Extreme Edition 11G (quite the mouthful) is one of several models that Gigabyte is marketing under its Aorus brand for gamers. It's also the second Waterforce variant, though the other liquid cooled card in Gigabyte's Aorus lineup has to be plugged into an existing water cooling loop. This one does not.

According to TechPowerUp, the WaterForce Extreme Edition 11G is based on the same exact printed circuit board (PCB) as Gigabayte's air-cooled Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Extreme Edition and liquid-cooled Waterforce WB Xtreme Edition models, all of which feature a 12+2 power phase design. It also has the same clockspeeds:

  • 1,632MHz base / 1,746MHz boost in OC mode
  • 1,607MHz base / 1,721MHz boost in Gaming mode

Both modes represent factory overclocks compared to Nvidia's reference design, which calls for a 1,480MHz base clock and 1,582MHz boost clock.

The GPU in this card is squished by a large copper base plate on the front and a smaller copper plate on the backside. In addition to keeping the GPU cool, the large copper base plate extends to make direct contact with the VRM, while an aluminum plate helps dissipate heat from the MOSFET. In other words, this is a complete cooling solution.

Gigabyte did not say when this card will be available or for how much. However, Gigabyte does list a 4-year warranty through Aorus Care, with online registration required.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).