EVGA announced that its GeForce GTX 1080 FTW2 and SC2 graphics cards are now shipping with faster memory clocks. Instead of running at 10GHz, as was originally the case, EVGA has bumped things up to 11GHz, resulting in 352GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Nvidia's reference design for a GTX 1080 calls for 8GB of GDDR5X memory running at 10Gbps on a 256-bit bus, resulting in 320GB/s of memory bandwidth. When Nvidia finally got around to releasing a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, it bumped the memory speed up to 11GHz.
EVGA has done the same with two of its premium GTX 1080 Ti models. The bandwidth is still lower, as the Ti model has a fatter 352-bit bus resulting in 484GB/s of bandwidth, and it also has more memory to work with (11GB versus 8GB). However, EVGA gets a fist bump for upgrading existing SKUs instead of releasing new models with a pricing premium attached.
What is also good news is that EVGA has provided a BIOS update to existing GTX 1080 FTW2 and SC2 owners to enable the 11GHz memory speed. EVGA notes that a "small number of cards may not be stable" at that speed.
"After applying the BIOS it is recommended to test for stability... Use a 3D application or game and watch for any visual abnormalities or game crashes," EVGA said.
If the card isn't stable, EVGA encourages contacting its customer support for assistance, though the company emphasizes that this is an "OPTIONAL" BIOS update. It's not clear if EVGA would be willing to exchange a card for one that can handle the higher memory clock.
BIOS downloads and further instructions can be found here.
