Msi Geforce Gtx 1080 Ti Armor 11g Review

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If you've seen whatsoever of MSI's loftier-end Nvidia serial GPUs its midrange GTX 1080 Ti should look quite familiar. It shares the exact same overall design as the previous GTX 1080 GPU admitting with a slightly thicker heat sink. That'southward a good affair, because though MSI can often times push button things a scrap too far with its design and marketing lingo, this one strikes merely the right balance between looking aggressive without overdoing it.The GTX 1080 Ti Gaming Ten 11G (Encounter it on Amazon) / (Run into it on Amazon U.k.) is the company's midrange offering equally there are three SKUs higher up it; the Duke tri-fan series, the h2o-cooled Sea Hawk 10, and the pinnacle air-cooled GPU, the Lightning Z. The Gaming X still sits to a higher place the Armor and Founder's Edition, however, and its MSRP is $739 and then it's roughly $twoscore more than expensive than the vanilla Founder's Edition. Before we swoop into the details, allow's take a look at the spec nautical chart - this includes specs for the previous 1080 Ti cards we've tested:The Gaming X 11G is a pretty straightforward spin of the GTX 1080 Ti so at that place'southward zippo here that will surprise or intrigue, equally all of the features present were available in its previous ten Series GPUs. Those features include one-click overclocking, Twin Frozr cooling, RGB lighting, and MSI's excellent gaming software (that isn't sarcasm).

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The company sells a few dissimilar variants of this detail GPU and this one is clocked reasonably high for a 1080 Ti, but honestly none of that really matters since all these cards overclock much higher automatically than the listed spec for the bill of fare. For example, this particular card is spec'd to clock up to 1620MHz only goes far beyond that right out of the box without touching anything in the controls.

The GPU itself is standard issue for a GTX 1080 Ti as it uses dual eight-pin PCIe connectors and measures 11 inches in length. Unlike the Founder's Edition it includes a dual-link DVI connector, in addition to three DisplayPort and one HDMI 2.0 connector. It offers RGB lighting in two zones; the MSI logo that's visible on the side, and on several blades that are unfortunately underneath the card and so to speak, so you can't really seem them when the menu is operating. The card features a custom PCB and a swank backplate with a dragon information technology, simply it's subtle plenty to non really stand up out much. The cooling mechanism is dubbed Twin Frozr 6 and uses alternate fan types to generate more than air pressure than if all the fans were of the same type. The card'southward fans don't fifty-fifty spin unless the GPU is hotter than 60C, so it'south silent when you're not gaming.

Since the GPU doesn't include any hardware novelties like EVGA's ICX sensors or even ASUS's fan headers that permit the GPU control case fans, I'll focus a fleck on the software since it's unique to MSI and actually quite useful. Dubbed Gaming App by MSI, the software really lets y'all practise some pretty cool stuff. Hither's what information technology looks like:

Overclocking is achieved by only clicking one of the three bachelor options: OC Mode, Gaming Mode, or Silent Mode. OC Mode sets the Boost Clock at 1683MHz, while Gaming Mode puts information technology at 1657MHz. Silent Fashion lets the card run at 1582MHz Boost clock, which is the same as the reference design, aka Founder'due south Edition. All these incremental clock speed changes are irrelevant though, every bit the carte du jour'south built-in GPU Boost applied science will let the carte to run much faster than these pocket-sized clocks under load without any user intervention.

The software also lets you control the card's lighting, and to exist honest, it'southward a pretty lame setup. Showtime of all the card has two lights but you tin only command the color of 1 of them, which by today's standards is pretty underwhelming. The lone RGB LED is the MSI logo on the side, which is not only quite modest but nobody really wants the company logo to exist illuminated in the offset place. Even worse, in that location are illuminated "blades" on the rear fan that are e'er reddish and you tin't modify the color or anything about them. They are always on, and ever red. MSI told me those lights are always reddish in order to keep the carte du jour's overall red/black theme, but patently information technology could clash with the RGB LED if you make up one's mind yous don't like the color cerise.

So, if that wasn't bad enough, sitting in between the two lights is the GeForce GTX logo, which isn't illuminated at all, and information technology stands out considering of it as in that location are two illuminated areas, then just a "dead zone" betwixt them, and it looks terrible. I wish it was more similar the EVGA 1080 Ti, where the entire logo is illuminated, or like the Asus GTX 1080 Ti where the LEDs are like perimeter lights.

The lighting effects are also sub-par, and consist of the following: flashing, no animation, double-flashing, or random patterns. No breathing, or temperature-based lighting, nada. Everything most the lighting is underwhelming. That said, as long equally you lot choose the color crimson for the RGB LED, it looks okay.

In addition to playing with the lights, you tin also configure a very handy on-screen OSD that shows you all kinds of useful data. When you're in-game it'south an overlay in the corner and you can adjust the font size besides. I accept been looking for an app to do exactly this for many years, as information technology allows me to come across my GPU temp and VRAM usage while I'm playing. This is truly awesome software. Unfortunately it wouldn't let me check any of the CPU or RAM monitoring boxes.

The OSD software in action - you tin can change the font size and color of the text also.

Finally, the software also lets you enable "Nothing Frozr" mode, which prevents the fans from spinning when the GPU isn't under load; a handy feature. You can too choose from three color temperature presets for movies, gaming, and one called "Eye Rest." Additionally, you lot tin can access a custom mode that lets yous modify individual attributes of the brandish, which is excellent if you lot want things to be brighter or more than contrasty in a pinch.

Performance

To see how the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming 10 11G fares against a few of its rivals we ran it through a handful of benchmarks on a test system nosotros congenital that consists of an Intel Core i7-7700K CPU, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, an Asus Prime number motherboard, Intel SSD running Windows 10 Home. We tested at three resolutions, and compared the MSI menu to the previous GTX 1080 Tis nosotros've reviewed. Permit's dive in:

Now that we've tested four GTX 1080 Ti cards (the Founder's Edition and three partner cards) a few things are apparent. First all the partner cards are a tiny fleck faster than the Founder's Edition. This isn't surprising since they cost more, take more than adventurous cooling, and because of their cooling are usually able to run at higher clock speeds. It's not a huge departure even so, and comes downwards to a handful of frames per 2nd in each game, so on the functioning attribute lonely it'south probably not worth it to go with a partner card. I'd withal cull a partner card though but because they look better, run libation, and are quieter as well.

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The second data point is that all the GTX 1080 Ti GPUs are close enough in functioning that there'due south no functional departure between them at all. They all run around 1900MHz Boost Clock by default, and thus their performance is extremely shut in every single benchmark. There is a frame or two difference hither and in that location, only that's not enough to say any i menu is faster than another. It'south an insignificant deviation, beyond the lath. The MSI GTX 1080 Ti is but every bit fast equally the EVGA and Asus cards we tested, with no major performance deltas present in any benchmark.

Overclocking

Right out of the box with no trivial the MSI card ran at 1923MHz under load, which is decent only expected. I used MSI Afterburner to overclock the GTX 1080 Ti, and were able to hit 1974Mhz as our concluding clock speed. This is average for Nvidia 10-series cards, as the better samples will more often than not hit 2050MHz ordinarily. In my experience, and I've overclocked everyone of these cards so far, they are all able to become right up to nigh two,000MHz before things go sideways. The GPU temperature nether load when overclocked was a very decent 71C at stock speeds, and 73C overclocked. This is but a few degrees warmer than the temps posted past the Asus and EVGA cards, but that's all the same quite an comeback over the 84C temperature of the Founder's Edition.

Purchasing Guide

The MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X 11G has an MSRP of $769 but due to the mining craze the cost has been all over the map. Third parties are buying them for MSRP then reselling them for a profit, so yous have to be vigilant. The card can all the same often be nabbed for under $800 - a very modest markup - just if you're patient and persistent you should be able to eventually find one for MSRP:

• See the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming Ten 11G on Amazon

• See the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X 11G on Amazon U.k.

At $769 the MSI Gaming Ten 11G is priced similarly to some of its rivals simply seems like a slightly worse deal. The Asus and EVGA cards we've reviewed just look meliorate, period, and take more interesting features. Equally it stands the MSI version is pretty bourgeois version of the 1080 Ti, with few surprises or ingenuity such equally EVGA'south ICX sensors or Asus's on-board fan headers. There's just zip near this card that separates it from the pack basically. Information technology's however a bang-up GPU however, as it runs cool and tranquillity, is certainly powerful, and even looks pretty cool despite its bizarre lighting scheme.

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Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/31/msi-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-gaming-x-11g-review

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