Power, Temperature and Noise
With previous-generation cards we became accustomed to overclocked variants raising power consumption significantly. That doesn't seem to be the case here; the Asus Strix and Nvidia Founders Edition boards are eerily similar.
But here's where we start to see a meaningful difference. All the cards have been tested in hot June weather, and the single-fan Founders Edition is quick to hit 80ºC. Asus's considerably larger cooler is unsurprisingly better equipped at shifting the heat, resulting in a relatively cool 71ºC under full load.
We don't mean to toot our own horn, but it has to be said, our new test platform is wonderfully quiet. At idle you can barely tell it's on, and none of these graphics cards make it particularly noisy. If you do like things quiet as possible, though, the Asus Strix creates a little less noise than the GTX 1080 Founders Edition.
