EVGA launches liquid-cooled GTX 1070 and 1080 cards at premium price

[XAMI]

Most board partner variants of Nvidia's GeForce 10 series products don't vary significantly, often packing small factory overclocks and very similar cooler designs. EVGA's new graphics cards are a little different: they offer closed-loop liquid cooling, replacing a tri- or dual-fan air-cooled design.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 Hybrid cards use a similar closed-loop liquid cooler design, which dissipates most of the GPU's heat in an external 120mm radiator. The cards also use a 100mm fan on the board itself to cool the power delivery system, exhausting air out the rear of the card's metal shroud.

The GTX 1080 Hybrid has been available for a little while now, and its clock speeds match those seen in EVGA's Classified and FTW models: a base clock of 1,721 MHz with a boost of 1,860 MHz. The GTX 1070 Hybrid is completely new, and its clock speeds – a base of 1,607 MHz and boost of 1,797 MHz – match the corresponding GTX 1070 FTW.

Both cards use ten-phase power systems with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, so there should be a bit of overclocking headroom available to push these cards above their factory overclocks. We're also seeing a dual-slot design, despite the inclusion of the liquid cooler that sends most of the heat to the radiator.

As you might expect, the inclusion of the closed-loop liquid cooler increases the price of EVGA's graphics cards significantly over their standard MSRP. The GTX 1070 Hybrid is available now for $499, while the GTX 1080 Hybrid will set you back $729, a premium of around $130.