EVGA (Barely) Teases GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 With iCX

Manufacturers haven't waited to announce new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards. Nvidia announced the 1080 Ti Founders Edition on February 28. Just three days later, EVGA teased what it called the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 with iCX Technology, albeit with nothing more than a name and an image.

The 1080 Ti FTW3 iCX is the heir apparent to the all-too-similarly-named 1080 FTW2 iCX. Both use the company's (sorta) new iCX cooler technology, which features a redesigned cooler shroud and PCB with nine different temperature sensors: three for memory, five for PWM, and one for the GPU. The iCX tech was inspired by problems with the ACX 3.0 cooling used by the company's GeForce GTX 1080/1070 FTW cards; EVGA released free thermal pad kits and BIOS updates to help affected consumers address the issue. It also made iCX and, as the name implies, built it into the 1080 FTW2 iCX.

We examined the 1080 FTW2 iCX in February and concluded that EVGA's efforts were worthwhile even if the card isn't perfect:

With more sensors, the thermal pads we wanted to see added, and lots of features, EVGA is trying to get you to forget about its previous cooler. If the card also had a larger heat sink with integrated cooling for the memory and VRMs, it would be even better. It’s always good to know everything is in the green when it comes to temperatures, especially if you don’t have easy access to thermal imaging cameras and holes drilled in your backplate to verify thermal readings.

It's probably a safe bet that the 1080 Ti FTW3 iCX will be much like its older sibling. The usual suspects will be different--the 1080 Ti boasts a Pascal GP102 GPU with 3,584 Cuda cores that boost up to 1,600Mhz and 11GB of 11 Gbps GDDR5X memory, which promises to make it faster than the 1080--but the overall goal of making people forget about ACX 3.0's problems is likely the same.

EVGA didn't reveal a release date, price, or full specs for the 1080 Ti FTW3 iCX; we expect to learn more about the card soon. In the meantime, Inno3D was the first manufacturer to announce custom GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards, and it actually provided more information about the two products.

Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

  • TechyInAZ
    Pretty! I've never seen EVGA do triple fans before.
    Reply
  • lucas_7_94
    First triple fan card on EVGA world? Hope they do a good job here!
    Reply
  • IceMyth
    For me this is the sexiest GPU cooler I saw so far in the GTX family.
    Reply
  • valeman2012
    The Concern is the VRM.
    Reply
  • Gooplux
    Im not sure why bother with the temperture status lights on the side if they will ultimately be covered up by the power cables. Seems kinda pointless doesnt it?
    Reply
  • Karadjgne
    Those look just like the power status lights on my Asus strix. Even with the power cords there, the lights are still quite visible.
    Reply
  • Lucky_SLS
    triple fan from evga !!! cant wait to see the clock speeds...
    Reply
  • Upgrademe
    But how noisy is it?
    Reply
  • SIC PARVIS MAGNA
    One of the best gpu i have even seen!
    Reply
  • metathias
    Axial fans are always a poor engineering choice. I will never willingly do axial on anything but standard case fans. People who buy these types of cooling solutions will be crying if they hold it more than 2 years. Axial's usually fail 2 to 3 years in. This is why reference boards always use centrifugal types. Its not because their cheap. Its because their reliable.
    Reply