Air cool or hybrid cool

[waltondt]

Buying a gtx 1080 for octane, i will be running it alongside my gtx 960 ssc acx3 which typically runs at 70C. don't really do any overclocking, so I'm wondering if it is worth hybrid cooling or if it will run just fine with these cards on top of each other with air cooling. which scenario would give me more reliability/life out of the cards. any maintenance or other things that come with buying a hybrid card? i want a card i can just put in next to my 960 and leave it without worrying about anything.

[asher]

HYBRID. Period.

- Faster OC
- Stable
- quiet.
-Longer Card life
- Less CUDA errors. Core could be within range but VRAM could get to hot on Air.

[glimpse]

As someone who use different solution (aircooled, hybrid & custom watercooled) I would say all of that depends on usage.

Aircooled card will be the easiest to instal & replace in smaller cases since You do not need to think about where to place additional radiator.

Hybrid will give You good value & little to no maintenance. Pluss it's not so noisy compared to other solutions.

Last but not least, custom loop. The most expensive, but also most flexible solution. Worth from 3 or 4 cards. If You have only card or two it offers worst possible value, unless You care about noise..

So, all in all, depending on Your sitution, case You are building in & Your needs/preferences (focus on value, acustic performance, speed, etc.) feel free to choose even aircooled card - it's far from being a bad solution. Just make sure You pick cooler that fits Your build.

[schodt]

Hybrid all the way. I have a custom watercooled workstation right now - and changing/replacing cards is a headache. For that, you have to drain the water from the system, replace the graphicscard (and put a custom waterblock on it, which usually voids the guarantee), and then fill it up with water again. With hybrid cards, you just plug out or in the cards and you're ready to go.

[Phantom107]

Hybrid! Since I tried an EVGA 980 Ti hybrid, all my new 1080s will be hybrids too. Not going back to air coolers.

pros:
- great value for money
- cool & quiet
- no maintenance
- flexible, you can replace cards without touching the rest

cons:
- huge case required

Custom water loop is not flexible at all, what if 1 component breaks? Entire machine will not operate

[glimpse]

Custom water loop is not flexible at all, what if 1 component breaks? Entire machine will not operate

it very much depends on the machine & decisions You make. For instance You can have two pumps that would act as redundant backup just in case one fails, Your motherboard could have switches to deactivate certain cards (so You can easily turn on & off to inspect issues). & then there are things like quick disconnects that would allow You plug & unplug some elements from the loop - so there are solutions, but..all of them are costly. As You mentioned Hybrid card offers great value. With custom loop You need to be much more invested =)

[waltondt]

As someone who use different solution (aircooled, hybrid & custom watercooled) I would say all of that depends on usage.

Hybrid will give You good value & little to no maintenance. Pluss it's not so noisy compared to other solutions.

What maintenance IS involved? How can i best extend life of card?

[Phantom107]

What maintenance IS involved? How can i best extend life of card?

I got 3 hybrids right now and the only real maintenance is sometimes blowing some dust out the PC case and radiator...but that's it. EVGA has this option (I believe it was 20 bucks per card) to add 3 (!!!) years of warranty to cards, so they are 5 years. So that is a really good deal on cards that are 800 a piece. Then you do not have to worry about lifetime as much. When it breaks, you send it to them and they send a replacement back.

[coilbook]

Hybrid. My air cooled runs at 40c idle. Hybrid at full load 35-44c. Evga or msi with corsair cooling.