EVGA GTX 1080 Classified Tear-Down: PCB, VRM, & Cooler

We've still got a few content pieces left over from our recent tour of LA-based hardware manufacturers. One of those pieces, filmed with no notice and sort of on a whim, is our tear-down of an EVGA GTX 1080 Classified video card. EVGA's Jacob Freeman had one available and was game to watch a live, no-preparation tear-down of the card on camera.

This is the most meticulously built GTX 1080 we have yet torn to the bones. The card has an intensely over-built VRM with inductors and power stages of high-quality, using doublers to achieve its 14-phase power design (7x2). An additional three phases are set aside for memory, cooled in tandem with the core VRM, GPU, and VRAM by an ACX 3.0 cooler. The PCB and cooler meet through a set of screws, each anchored to an adhesive (preventing direct contact between the screw and PCB – although unnecessary, a nice touch), with the faceplate and accessories mounted via Allen-keyed screws.

It's an exceptionally easy card to disassemble. The unit is rated to draw 245W through the board (30W more than the 215W draw of the GTX 1080 Hybrid), theoretically targeted at high sustained overclocks with its master/slave power target boost. It's not news that Pascal devices seem to cap their maximum frequency all around the 2050-2100MHz range, but there are still merits to an over-built VRM. One of those is greater spread of heat over the area of the cooler, and lower efficiency loss through heat or low-quality phases. With the Classified, it's also a prime target for modification using something like the EK Predator 280 or open loop cooling. Easy disassembly and high performance match well with liquid.

Here are a few photos from the tear-down:

The cooling system is of top-shelf quality all the way down to the VRAM thermal pads, which stick so well that they've peeled off the Micron logo text on the modules. The cooler is outfitted with six nickel-plated copper heatpipes. Three of these heatpipes appear ~6mm in diameter and travel between the VRM and GPU, with one large pipe shared between GPU, VRAM, and VRM (appears to be ~10mm – we did not have calipers with us). An additional heatpipe of comparable size runs from the GPU nickel-plated copper coldplate to the upper three VRAM modules, with the rest cooled by overlap.

The heatsink is a standard finned aluminum design with copper coldplate. The heatsink is cooled with two axial fans using back-swept blades, a design that EVGA has included with its ACX 3.0 cooler. Note that the back-swept blades appear to be pull configuration, but are actually set to push air into the heatsink. Heat is exhausted out of the sides of the card, into the case, where it is extracted with case fans.

We probably won't be reviewing this card, but it's fun for a look. As for California, well, we're getting on planes today to revisit LA for CitizenCon this weekend, followed by a trip up to San Jose for more on-site coverage.

Editorial: Steve “Lelldorianx” Burke
Video: Andrew “ColossalCake” Coleman