The GPU market is in a precarious state due to the impact of cryptocurrency mining on supply and demand. Fortunately for gamers, Nvidia's GTX 1080 Ti seems to have come through unscathed – prices are close to normal and stock is still widely available. KitGuru has already assessed a number of impressive GTX 1080 Ti offerings from the likes of ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and Palit and today we are analysing the MSI Gaming X variant. Show  The Gaming X series from MSI is frequently a hot seller on etailer websites and a highly-regarded graphics cards brand across the PC industry, after testing the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus it is easy to see why. Nvidia's GTX 1080 Ti remains the best high-end option for PC Gamers with deep pockets and third party options like this one from MSI offer the best range of cooling, features and noise, or lack of it. The formula with MSI's GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X isn't anything unusual. MSI has taken Nvidia's GTX 1080 Ti GPU, overclocked it to 1,658MHz on the core (up from 1,582MHz) and assembled it onto a reworked PCB design. MSI overhauled the cooling with its TwinFrozr cooler which is almost-but-not-quite 2 slots in size. Dimensions have expanded over the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X in order to account for the increased heat output of the GTX 1080 Ti GPU. Styling is unquestionably sharp although the red and black colour scheme is beginning to feel a little tiresome. Gamers who haven't settled on a final colour scheme for their build may well end up building their system around a graphics card like this. It's an eye-catching centrepiece for any build although MSI fans looking for something a little more exclusive and flexible may do well to consider the Lightning Z instead. Clock speeds are undoubtedly conservative in the wider market place but MSI has been cautious in order to preserve the superiority of certain products in its own GTX 1080 Ti portfolio. The Gaming X sits below the Lightning range so the clock speeds of 1,544MHz core and 1,657MHz boost make sense. GPU MSI GTX 1080 Ti Lighting Z MSI GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk X MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X MSI GTX 1080 Ti Duke OC Base Clock 1582 (1607) MHz 1544 (1569) MHz 1544 (1569) MHz 1531 MHz GPU Boost Clock 1695 (1721) MHz 1657 (1683) MHz 1657 (1683) MHz 1645 MHz Memory Clock Effective 11124 MHz 11016 (11124) MHz 11016 (11124) MHz 11016 MHz Memory Bandwidth 489 GB/s 484 (489) GB/s 484 (489) GB/s 484 GB/s Price (£) £TBC $TBC £900 ($800) £775 ($820) £TBC ($750) Gamers looking for more speed in a simple click can achieve this with the MSI Gaming App. An OC mode can be enabled which boosts frequencies to 1,569 (1683) MHz on the core and 11,124 MHz on the memory. The price to pay for MSI's Gaming X solution, approximately £775, is inevitably a decent chunk above bargain-basement offerings that start from £675. Let's see how MSI's GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X shapes up through our suite of tests and whether it justifies that extra cost. With the reference boards being reviewed, the AIB partners from Nvidia now have their custom boards ready. In this article we'll look at the fastest graphics card your money can get you, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti based on Pascal architecture. Armed with 11GB of GDDR5X graphics memory and an all new GP102-350 GPU, we are certainly we're gonna break some records today. It has been eight months since Nvidia released the first GP102 based product, the Titan X. To date, a massively impressive graphics card that will resemble what we review today and very similar on a lot of levels. Really, the 1080 Ti is the Titan X, just with one GB of that GDDR5X memory less and the one ROP partition tied to it. So let me break it down swift and fast, the new high-end GTX 1080 Ti features 3584 CUDA Cores, 224 Texture Units, a 352-bit memory controller and 11 GB of faster (11 Gbps) GDDR5X memory. The card has the same "GP102" GPU as the TITAN X Pascal, but the GTX 1080 Ti was slighty reconfigured. Most interesting is the 352-bit wide GDDR5X memory interface, this was not expected. This translates to 11 memory chips on the card which run at 11 GHz (GDDR5X-effective), the memory bandwidth is 484 GB/s. This invokes the change in ROP count to 88 (from 96 on the TITAN X Pascal), and the TMU count of 224. A reference Ti card will boost up to roughly 1600 MHz, but the overclocking potential (boost requency) is much like all GeForce Pascal cards, in the 2 GHz range. Nvidia GTX 1080 TiNvidia Titan XGeForce GTX 1080Geforce GTX Titan XArchitecture Pascal Pascal Pascal Maxwell GPU GP102-350 GP102-400 GP104-400 GM200 Fab 16nm Finfet 16nm Finfet 16nm Finfet 28nm Shader procs 3584 3584 2560 3072 Base 1480 MHz 1417 MHz 1607 MHz 1000 MHz Boost 1582 MHz 1531 MHz 1733 MHz 1075 MHz Perf 11.5 TFLOPS 11 TFLOPS 8,87 TFLOPS 6,6 TFLOPS Mem 11GB GDDR5X 12GB GDDR5X 8 GB GDDR5X 12 GB GDDR5 Mem freq 11000 MHz 10000 MHz 10000 MHz 7000 MHz Mem bus 352-bit 384-bit 256-bit 384-bit Mem bandw 484 GB/s 480 GB/s 320 GB/s 336,5 GB/s TDP 250W 250W 180W 250 W As such, if you are a 1080p gamer, this card might be a bit out of your comfort zone; it isn't going to make much sense as at 1920x1080 you'll be limited by your processor, as yes, even the fastest 8 and 10 core processors will not be able to keep up properly. The gamers that can afford it and will purchase this product will need to focus on at least Wide Quad HD (2560x1440) or Ultra HD gaming mostly. Below that resolution, honestly mate, go look at a GTX 1070 or 1080. The Pascal GP102, fabbed at a 16nm node with fins, that smaller 16nm FinFET fabrication process works out really well for Nvidia. The 1050, 1060, 1070 and 1080 have been a high clocked success story ever since their launch. The FinFET 16nm node works out well for Nvidia. Much like the 1080 architecture you'll again spot high clocks and again a very nice memory configuration (11 GHz effective!), this a product series that will be massively interesting, but surely expensive. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti will receive a similar looking design just like the 1070/1080 Founder edition coolers, with some aesthetic tweaks of course. The Pascal based unit is a bit of a beast alright. Tied to a 7+2 phase power (2x dual-FET power) delivery the GPU die size is 471 sq mm. If you look at the wider product stack, then a GeForce GTX 1080 has 2,560 shader processors, the GeForce GTX 1070 has 1,920 shader processors, the GeForce GTX 1060 has 1,280 of them. The Nvidia GeForce 1080 Ti has 3,584 shader processors active inside that GP102 GPU, I say active here deliberately as it still isn't even a fully enabled GPU. This means it is has 28 SMs active (28 streaming multi-processors x 128 shader cores (2x64). The cards will be equipped with fast GDDR5X memory as well for this 11 GB model. That memory is tied to a 352-bit wide bus locked in at 11 GHz (GDDR5X-effective). The combination of that memory type and clock frequency gives the 1080 Ti an effective memory bandwidth of 484 GB/s. MSI once again is back in the house to offer you the a very silent product with the usual looks to go with it of course. The top-dawg Pascal GPU however needs cooling to keep it at or under the 70 Degrees C marker. As such the TwinFrozr VI cooler will eat away two and a half even close to three PCIe slots. The MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X has obtained a beefy 8+2 phase power delivery system. The MSI GTX 1080 TI GAMING X has three performance modes, the gaming mode would be the default clocked modus operandus, the rest requires the MSI Gaming APP to be active: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X with the Nvidia GP102-350-A1 GPU (1544 MHz core / 1,657 MHz boost / 11,008 MHz memory) ModeBase ClockBoost ClockMemory ClockOC Mode 1569 MHz 1683 MHz 11124 MHzGaming Mode 1544 MHz 1657 MHz 11008 MHzSilent Mode 1480 MHz 1582 MHz 11000 MHz We test with default clocks (=Gaming mode) straight out of the box as highlighted in the upper chart. The card will be powered by two 8-pin power connectors. Thanks to the cooler design, the DVI is still there, something the reference (FE) cards or cards with blower style coolers do not have, DVI is in demand by many. If you combine the specs you will get a bit dizzy I guess, but considering we'll be looking at the product from a gaming point of view, I can say this card will run awesome in the Ultra HD domain with titles like GTA-V, Resident Evil 7, Battlefield 1, The Division and many other hip 'n trendy game titles. We'll also look at Gears of War 4, Dishonored 2, Doom, Watch Dogs 2 and Sniper Elite 4. The MSI GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X cooling perf has been improved and combined with a new generation fans, the airflow is improved whilst remaining silent. Up-to 60 Degrees C the card will even stay in passive mode, e.g. the fans will not spin. The TWIN FROZR cooler is intensified by a red GAMING glow piercing through the cover. The GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G comes with MSI's standard Military Class components and holds dual 8-pin power connectors. At the backside you'll spot a nice matte black solid backplate with plenty of ventilation meshes. The MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X 8G has default clock frequencies of 1657 MHz (boost) / 1544 (base) MHz with a close to reference clocked 11GB GDDR5X / 11008 MHz effective data-rate on the memory. Let's get this review started, but not before you have had a chance to actually look at the card of course. Is GTX 1080 Ti still worth it?If you want a somewhat future proof GPU don't buy any GPU with less than 12GB VRAM... (at least I know I would definitely not). But if you can get a 1080 Ti for very cheap until you can afford an RTX 50series GPU then sure. Even if its brand new, drivers for the graphics card would be discontinued in the near future. Is GTX 1080 Ti a high end GPU?The GTX 1080 Ti was a high-end graphics card when it was released in 2017 and offered strong performance for gaming and other GPU-intensive tasks. However, technology has advanced since then, and newer graphics cards are available with improved features and performance. How good is 1080ti in 2023?1080 ti is still a decent performer. It's one of those cards where you used to game a lot, but now have barely time to play. Still, it holds up well and you don't really need to upgrade because of your playing schedule. What is the lifespan of a 1080 TI?10 years long lifetime under full load. Lower temperature and higher efficiency. Aluminum core for higher stability. |
