don't know what are you guys talking about, but I know, that zotac I have, has the best performance, rather palit superjetstreams I have earlier.
it has higher core frequency and memory frequency, and I don't know what should a man do with a card, to brake PCB?! once installed I will never touch it again, it is working and working.
personally, I prefer to take ASUS STRIX, but by the time I have money for it, the price for Asus goes too high - more then $850. Zotac I took for $730 and Palits less then $700.. so the choice is obvious for me here
I usually go with the cheapest model. However there are some you should avoid unless they are significantly cheaper
Founders edition: Loud and hot. My FE cards are 3% slower than the Evga Sc2 models because high temps = lower hash for pascal. Still I bought them at $659 so no complains. Just avoid all blowers unless they are super cheap.
Zotac amp extreme: Very poor vrms. Poor efficiency. The cooler's massive and the gpu runs cool, but no point if it use 5-10% more power and is easier to breakdown. Search zotac 1080ti amp extreme pcb breakdown on youtube by bullzoid. avoid at all costs.
Zotac mini: It's small and has poorer cooling = lower hash. Fine for 1080 and below, but it's pushing it for 1080ti. Again the pcb breakdown by bullzoid mentions there are compromises to make such a small card in the pcb. Not like we are tight for space, so avoid.
Inno3d twin x2: I host for a client who bought 18 of these cards. It's a reused cooler from 780ti. Heatsink is pretty thin, like 1cm thick only on the right side of the card. Poor cooling. It has reference pcb, so pcb is fine, just not so good cooler.