MSI Sea Hawk X vs EVGA 1080 Hybrid vs Gigabyte 1080 Hybrid.

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kdh

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Mar 16, 2005
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Need some help fellas. Looking at a hybrid card. I was pretty much set on the MSI card, but these others have caught my eye. The EVGA one is still in preorder and the preorder is over so no real reviews. Im sorta holding out for the EVGA one because EVGA products have always been good to me. The Gigabyte one has dual power inputs, but the reviews over on newegg seem really hit or miss in terms of noise. The MSI SeaHawk X running a single power input seems to do well, over clocks well but I wonder if that single power input could limit the future potential of the card once we are able to modify the bios.. that is, if its an option.

Newegg reviews can be a dumpster fire, so if you have any of the 3 cards, please post feed back on them. They are all roughly the same price. I don't have any brand/vendor loyalty.
 
I can give you some quick feedback on the MSI Seahawk X and the Gigabyte GTX 1080 Xtreme water. I'll rate on a scale of 1 through 5 with 5 being da best!
Gigabyte Impressions
1) Looks (3/5) - I hate the orange color but you won't see it in the case so not a big deal. Should have made that an LED strip or at least a neutral color. I get the theme they were going after but IMHO it is butt ugly.
2) Build Quality (5/5) - The build quality of the Xtreme water is top notch. It is quite heavy and the liquid cooling of the VRM makes it closer to a true waterblock than the AIO.
3) Noise (5/5) - The pump noise is not noticeable for me as others with the cards have mentioned. They probably got bad ones but I put my ear up to it and cannot hear the clicking noises. The fan is tolerable up to 60% and anything after that is pretty damn loud. If you have a case with decent airflow you should be fine to leave your fan @ 40%.
4) Performance (5/5)- Like all Pascal based cards we will not be able to see how these really perform until we get a BIOS tweaker (if ever). Having said that, this card overclocked to 2022 right out of the gate with nothing touched which is pretty amazing. Overclocked via MSI Afterburner and it sits between 2088 - 2121 with fans @ 40%, temps @ 57-60C in an airflow limited Inwin 805 case with GPU usage @ 95%. To verify the real world stable overclockI played Overwatch with everything maxed out @ 1440P for at least 1 hour. With the higher power input and custom board it should be able easily high 2.2 - 2.3 ghz.

MSI Seahawk X Impressions
1) Looks (4/5) - Better than the Gigabyte due to the neutral color scheme but not as good looking as the founders cooler or the EVGA Hybrid. If you like the LED thing the fan is cool I suppose.
2) Build Quality (3/5) - The build quality is a tier lower than the Gigabyte. It looks like they just slapped on an H55 cooler and updated the shroud. Nothing to special. At least it has a backplate.
3) Noise (4/5) - The pump noise was noticeable when it was at full load but not to bad. The fan noise is similar to the Gigabyte and is tolerable up to 60% and anything after that is pretty damn loud. If you have a case with decent airflow you should be fine to leave your fan @ 40%.
4) Performance (5/5)- . This card overclocked to 1900 without touching any sliders. Not as high as the Gigabyte but still respectable. Overclocked via MSI Afterburner and it sits between 1950 - 2050 @ 60%, temps @ 60-65C in an airflow limited Inwin 805 case with GPU usage @ 95%. I noticed the Gigabyte doing a better job of cooling in a case with limited airflow at lower fan speeds. Again, to verify the real world overclocking ability I by played Overwatch with everything maxed out @ 1440P for at least 1 hour.

Overall, both are great cards but if I had to choose one to go with it would be the Gigabyte due to build quality and cooling for my specific needs. The hard part is finding these in stock since they are always OOS it seems (especially the Gigabyte one). I'll try to get my hands on an EVGA to test it out because it is a non reference board so that is a good news.
 
wow, thats awesome. Now i'm kicking myself, because I had the gigabyte card in my cart on Friday and didn't pull the trigger. I'm switching to a hybrid solution because I picked this case up, to get my machine off the floor. Thermaltake Core P5 ATX Open Frame Panoramic Viewing Tt LCS Certified Gaming Computer Case CA-1E7-00M1WN-00-Newegg.com Its gotten great reviews but doing an all fan based cooling solution in that case will look silly.

Wondering if I should hold out on the EVGA hybrid, or should just pull the trigger on the gigabyte?
 
It's up to you but the hybrid still doesn't have the water actively cooling the VRMs if you care.
 
here's jayztwocents thoughts on the evga hybrid. looks like a decent card but with a bit of a fan/temp issue...

 
What kind of performance gains can be expected over the 980ti Hybrid... clock for clock? Or should I say max overclock to max overclock... I'd like to see that comparison.
 
Got the alert from newegg, and pulled the trigger on the gigabyte card based on lyang238's review. Newegg says its shipping today.
 
Azzkiker said:
What kind of performance gains can be expected over the 980ti Hybrid... clock for clock? Or should I say max overclock to max overclock... I'd like to see that comparison.
Click to expand...

Dunno.. this is the first top tier card I've ever bought, and the first hybrid card I've ever owned. I'm going from a basic gtx 760, to the 1080 gigabyte hybrid. thats a pretty huge jump for me.
 
Hi ,
I dont know if Anyone hère could help me but im going to buy a msi 1080 seahawk or the gigabyte, one with the watercooler. I own a fractal r2 midi case and i got installed corsair h100i this week to cool my CPU, the radiator were a bit tight to fit but its installed and could only go one way the radiator waterpipes are near the back of the case. im worried that i wont be able to fit the radiator of the GPU. Does anyone know if the (msi or gigabyte) waterpipes can reach the front? I know ill néed the reposition the hard drive cage its not that of a big deal. Its just to make sûre because in case it wont fit in the back of the case. My case water compatibility in the back is 120mm slim and in front i can put 2x120mm thick and slim. I would appreciate àny help, thankx
 
Alpo1931 said:
Hi ,
I dont know if Anyone hère could help me but im going to buy a msi 1080 seahawk or the gigabyte, one with the watercooler. I own a fractal r2 midi case and i got installed corsair h100i this week to cool my CPU, the radiator were a bit tight to fit but its installed and could only go one way the radiator waterpipes are near the back of the case. im worried that i wont be able to fit the radiator of the GPU. Does anyone know if the (msi or gigabyte) waterpipes can reach the front? I know ill néed the reposition the hard drive cage its not that of a big deal. Its just to make sûre because in case it wont fit in the back of the case. My case water compatibility in the back is 120mm slim and in front i can put 2x120mm thick and slim. I would appreciate àny help, thankx
Click to expand...
Yes, the tubing is more than long enough to reach, your case is not very large :)
 
FYI guys, I wanted to use Corsairs 115i CPU cooler and the Gigabye 1080 Hybrid with this case: http://robo.pchound.com/rewrite/?ur...roduct/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133283&id=1 and it was an absolute mess. I ended up not being able to use this that case because the plumbing for the cards was not long enough and things just did not fit right. I ended up going with a Corsair case that i picked up from frys. With that said, the Corsair 115i cpu cooler on my amd 8350 does really well and keep the temps in the low to mid 30s with almost no noise. The Gigabyte Hybrid card, after messing with the fan profiles, I am able to keep it around the mid 50s. The fan that it comes with can create a smidge of noise, but over all I'm pretty happy with my setup.
 
Wait, *none* of the Hybrid cards actively cool the memory chips?
 
yeah they all have some type of heat spreader but the FTW goes so far as to "incorporate" it into the gpu block. see here:

 
melk said:
Wait, *none* of the Hybrid cards actively cool the memory chips?
Click to expand...
My MSI Seahawk does, not sure about the others although I'd guess they do as well. The standard blower fan still runs and exhausts out the back like a reference card even though the GPU core is cooled by the AIO cooler. I think the blower fan runs at reduced rpm since its not having to cool much.
 
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