FRAGaLOT the Strix 980 ti had 3 fans. And if you've been following the topic of how the Founder Edition (reference) thermal throttles using it's single blower design, so it really needs 3 fans.

techy1 I disagree with you - there never will be too quiet card (under load)... if in a system other components are louder than a GPU under load (wich might be case for many if they have latest gen cards coupled with crappy CPU coolers, PSUs and stock case fans) - then those other components could and should be changed for quiter ones and no preformance should be sacrifised by doing so... speaking about preformance sacrifice if cooler is not sufficient enough - "1080 thermal throtteling".... so yes - I welcome 2.5 slot coolers with 3 fans even for less power hungry cards.

So, GTX 1080Ti will need 4 or 5 fans?That's not true. As someone who has been building tiny powerful systems, I can tell you it is possible. But requires a lot of work and testing to create a fan profile and temperature parameters that create silent graphic card. But vendors for obvious reasons tend to do it very conservatively and you end up with loud graphic cards. I've had WindForce 3X HD7950 and it was stupendously loud for such a huge cooler with 3 fans. It ramped up RPM just to be way cooler than it needed to be. But after tweaking the fan curve, it became nicely quiet while still under reasonable temperature. My current Strix GTX 980 is a lot better, though it still has some reserve in there.I don't think there is any easy solution for reference coolers. They are on the limit of their capability. They really need to figure out something new. We need something new like heatpipes were to regular copper/aluminium coolers. I wonder if it's possible to create a vapor chamber that has heatpipes out directly, spreading heat faster from tiny surfaces than vapor chamber and heatpipes and fins separated.