During the GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1070 launch event NVIDIA also mentioned GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards with the Founders Edition moniker in the cards’ names. At first sight it felt perfectly normal for the Founders Edition video cards to offer something more than regular GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards, given the higher price they come with. It turns out that this is not the case, however.
The new GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 Founders Edition video cards are nothing more than reference NVIDIA graphics cards. In the past reference cards that had nothing more but base clock speeds and regular coolers cost the least, but apparently this is no longer the case. It is a strange new practice but obviously NVIDIA thinks that reference cards are the ones with the lowest chance to cause problems or undesired operation so now it is time to pay for this.
While the regular (read modified) GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards will cost USD 599 and USD 379, respectively, the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 Founders Edition cards will retail for USD 699 and USD 449. We leave it to you to decide whether the extra money is worth it.
Source: GamersNexus.net