Nvidia Founders Edition Is Overpriced Reference Model

Last Friday when Nvidia first announced the GTX 1080, they included a new Founders Edition model. Interestingly, the Founders Edition of the card would cost a full $100 USD more than the custom editions AiB partners would be introducing. At the time, we speculated that the special edition would simply be the reference model of the cards. According to more information that has been revealed by those at the event, it looks like that’s true.

According to the source, Founders Edition is just rebranding Reference to a more marketable name. Nvidia is only making Founders Edition, it makes it the de-facto reference model. The card won’t be specially binned, factory overclocked or feature a special heatsink. While the cooler was redesigned, it’s more or less the same old vapour chamber with fins blower design we’ve been seeing on reference cards for the longest time. The card won’t even be limited edition as the name might imply.

There are a number of implications based on this analysis. First off, it means the real price of the GTX 1080 is really $700 USD since we always refer to the price of the reference model. This leads into the second point since most AiB partners are unlikely to stick to the $600 USD MSRP if the reference model costs more. In the past, reference models have set the baseline and custom variants have come above it. This means they can probably get away with at least $700 USD with the custom cards to match the reference model. Until a GTX 1080 actually sells for $600, I won’t believe this will be the real retail price. All of this holds true for the GTX 1070 as well but with only a $70 USD price hike.

Given the special name, Nvidia probably will get a whole bunch of Founders Edition sales even though the card isn’t anything special. Add in the fact that only the Founders Edition will be available at first and Nvidia is really milking the early adopters. If we consider the true price of the GTX 1080 and 1070 as $700 and $450, they just don’t quite offer the same value as we initially thought, especially since we are talking about the midrange GP104 die and not the larger GP100. For those of you planning on getting the GTX 1080 and 1070, it may be worth it to wait for custom cards to come out.