MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X 4K Video Card Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X 4K Video Card Review - We review a custom GeForce GTX 1080 Ti based video card with custom cooling and a factory overclock built for overclocking. Can the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X truly deliver a consistent enjoyable high-end graphics setting gameplay experience in games at 4K finally? Is a single card viable for current generation gaming at 4K?
 
Helluva review! (y)

I've had this card for a couple months and it :LOL::ROFLMAO: at any game I've played at even the highest settings.
 
I really like mine for the most part but the power limit actually hurts it in some games as it cannot maintain 2000 MHz. In Witcher 3 especially it hits the 117% here and there which bounces the core down to 1987 and 1962 even at times. That's just with my memory running at 11400 so increasing that would obviously make it the power limit even quicker not to mention I can forget about adding any additional voltage.
 
Numbers are very nearly identical to what I get with my Asus Strix 1080ti.

Mem @ 11.9Ghz, Fan 70% holding 50-60c, tops 2025mhz lowers to 1987mhz on some occasions, no increase in power limits or voltage settings. Close to same price. Mines connected to a 4k TV and 1440p/144hz G-sync monitor.

Thanks for the review.

It looks like for any of the TI's you're in that 700-750 range for the extra cooling/speeds from any one. Despite what either company says I still wouldn't call them true 4k cards. They're close, really close but still not quite ready for ultra as your tests showed.

I do completely recommend them for 1440p. Its an amazing experience when coupled with g-sync as well.
 
Now that I've read the [H] review on a custom card I can better tell what to expect out of my 1080ti. I'm hoping I don't hit the same power limit problem. If I do how does one get around it? Custom BIOS?
 
The review is showing similar results to my Gaming X, although I am able to game with +80 on core and +600 on memory. I can mine with it at +700 memory no problem, I was a few times able to even set it at +1000 memory for minig. It was GLORIOUS :ROFLMAO:
 
That is a big jump in Prey even when it's run at Stock speeds what I discovered recently the card is only good as the Nvidia drivers they put out. What might be a perfect working card the Nvidia drivers maybe wonky with Win 10 CU or vice versa.
 
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This card shows the need for high-refresh 4K monitors.

Thanks in particular for the comments on the noise.
 
One question though: I notice you didn't use a GSync monitor. Would a Gsync 4K monitor have made any difference?
 
I'd love to see Ghost Recon Wildlands tested on these hiend cards. Because it sure as hell destroys my 980ti even at 1440.
 
Comixbooks said:
That is a big jump in Prey even when it's run at Stock speeds what I discovered recently the card is only good as the Nvidia drivers they put out. What might be a perfect working card the Nvidia drivers maybe wonky with Win 10 CU or vice versa.
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A rare post where I agree. I have not tried the latest drivers, but I was only getting 50-60 FPS in Prey using the same settings in this review on an actual 4K display (not DSR). Still on Windows 10 1607. Going to upgrade my drivers and see if there really is that much of a jump in performance with this game. I'd really like to avoid updating W10 to 1703 since another one is right around the corner.
 
I would have liked to see other cards as part of the review. But still a thorough one.
 
Would be very interesting to see what the CPU utilization is like on that 7700K in these particular tests.
 
misterbobby said:
I really like mine for the most part but the power limit actually hurts it in some games as it cannot maintain 2000 MHz. In Witcher 3 especially it hits the 117% here and there which bounces the core down to 1987 and 1962 even at times
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That's 1980 +/- 1%, just sayin' ... o_O
 
I'm going to create a new term for a phenomina I like to call "[H]ard OCP effect"

Prices on these products shoot through the roof as soon as you guys review them and give them a gold stamp. The price has gone up $60 on Amazon since this article was published. This isn't the first time I saw this happen either. I saw a similar effect on Toms. But it occurs more often here.
 
xorbe said:
That's 1980 +/- 1%, just sayin' ... o_O
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You clearly missed my point. The review made it sound like you can maintain 2063 at all times across-the-board with a bump in voltage. Even at stock voltage you will hit the 117% power limit in some cases dropping you below 2000 so that is simply not possible.
 
Nice review guys. And cards hitting 2ghz gpu, sweeet! It's amazing how well these overclock with 12 billion transistors...

Review a couple more of these higher end 1080Ti's will ya :)
 
Nice review and nice card. But dang - $700 plus for a video card is just a bit over my limit. I'll have to suffer along with my regular gtx1080 for awhile longer.
 
Yeah, nice review indeed, and really timely for me because the (only slightly used*) Pimax4K HMD I will try to drive it with arrived about 16 hours ago (Monday). All the rest of the parts are now here (new i7-7700K build on a MSI Z270 XPower Gaming Titanium motherboard). Samsung 4K TV...check. 4K projectors coming down into my price range too, and expected to ship in July (Optoma UHD60/UHD65).

Right now my wallet is trying to climb all the way out of my pocket and fight me for control of the mouse and keyboard. "Back...back I say!"

The only card on my radar that keeps me from pulling the trigger right now is the "yet-to-be-seen-in-the-wild" MSI GTX 1080 Ti Lightning Z just announced at Computex--I really liked my ol' N580GTX Lightning (w/ Frozr triple fan). Wishing the rumor mill would put a bug in my ear about expected availability of that one (one way or the other).

"Back...back!"

[I can feel my resolve weakening moment-by-moment as I type]
 
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Armenius said:
What would you have included? There is nothing that competes with the 1080 Ti.
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I have a 980ti, so it's nice to see how a fury, a 1070/1080 would have done to compete with it. But it's fine, I enjoyed the review. I've been a loyal [H] fan since 2000
 
By the way one of the reasons I usually get the MSI gaming cards is because they have absolutely no sag to them like some other high end aib cards that are too big and heavy.
 
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Great review, thanks!

A bit too rich for my blood. Hell, $350 for my 1070 was too rich, I previously had a $300 max limit (3dfx days don't count!) on GPU upgrade every 2 years.

But if I win the lotto, a bad ass 4K screen and one or two of these is totally going to happen. Yup.
 
What a card! Great review too! Interesting two DX 12 titles had the most gain from the OC and large gains at that. This is a lot of GPU today for the money, makes the other cards (non-Ti) ones look like they are priced too high.
 
Thinking about dumping my 1080 for a TI need to hold out for Volta to get a substantial upgrade.
 
the 1080ti essentially taught me to never buy another non x80ti card again.

Had to settle for 1080 instead because I couldn't get my hands on Titan X, but next card isn't going to be x80 either.
 
Comixbooks said:
That is a big jump in Prey even when it's run at Stock speeds what I discovered recently the card is only good as the Nvidia drivers they put out. What might be a perfect working card the Nvidia drivers maybe wonky with Win 10 CU or vice versa.
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This is so true. I've been having to periodically having to reinstall 378.92 since CU. It's seems no matter what the newer drivers find a way to sneak in and effectively break HDR or most color depths. In some cases they also break some of the NV gameworks stuff. I noticed that one day when benching Batman AK and saw it had been turned off. NV drivers have really gone to crap since CU WDDM 2.0. 1080ti are still awesome though. Best card I've had in 10 years.
 
vegeta535 said:
Thinking about dumping my 1080 for a TI need to hold out for Volta to get a substantial upgrade.
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Yeah in your case I would hold out unless you were able to unload the 1080 and put it towards a Ti. I admit I have some buyers regret over my 1080SLI setup after the TI. The TI is around 10-15% less in performance compared to the 1080SLI but that 11GB of vram is actually useful even at 1440p. I know most newer engines use what you give 'em strategy but in games like GTA V or ROTTR or Mass Effect I've seen 6-8+GB with everything maxed or mostly maxed for 1440p. ROTTR even hit 10 during some tests at 4k.
 
Unoid said:
I have a 980ti, so it's nice to see how a fury, a 1070/1080 would have done to compete with it. But it's fine, I enjoyed the review. I've been a loyal [H] fan since 2000
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Just divide the average FPS in half to get the 980 Ti and Fury X performance at 4K using the same settings ;).
 
Am looking to buy a new video card, is it worth getting a 1080ti or will new cards be released by nvidia within the next couple of months ?

I havent been keeping up with video card releases as of late so I dont know when the 1080ti was released and when the follow up to that will be released.

I dont do much gaming now but my evga 680gtx classified 4gb is getting long in the tooth now, its barely seen 50 hours of gaming since I bought it new and 100 hours of actual desktop usage since I have basically moved away from pc's to ipads but I now want to get back into gaming as I feel the time is right.

So, is the 1080ti worth buying right now or is nvidia about to release a new product within the next two/three months ?

Any ideas ?
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Am looking to buy a new video card, is it worth getting a 1080ti or will new cards be released by nvidia within the next couple of months ?

I havent been keeping up with video card releases as of late so I dont know when the 1080ti was released and when the follow up to that will be released.

I dont do much gaming now but my evga 680gtx classified 4gb is getting long in the tooth now, its barely seen 50 hours of gaming since I bought it new and 100 hours of actual desktop usage since I have basically moved away from pc's to ipads but I now want to get back into gaming as I feel the time is right.

So, is the 1080ti worth buying right now or is nvidia about to release a new product within the next two/three months ?

Any ideas ?
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Well I've have to say that the 1080ti is the best single GPU I've bought in around 10 years. It's not really a true 4k card but it is an absolute beast at 1440p. I really do set nearly everything to max(ROTTR being a rare exception with the AA settings). Even though many games don't fully utilize the 11GB vram I have seen a few avg 6-8+GB even in 1440p. It's nice knowing I've got some room left a while.

In terms of Volta. . . .really hard to say. NV have really conquered this tier and even AMD is presently only saying their next offerings will merely perform 'favorably' to a TI. If AMD can truly beat the TI then I'd bet NV will start releasing the next thing but at the moment they really have no motivation to. It definitely feels like the whole GPU ecosystem is changing and we might not be waiting the usual 1-2 years for the next thing but its really hard to say.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Am looking to buy a new video card, is it worth getting a 1080ti or will new cards be released by nvidia within the next couple of months ?

I havent been keeping up with video card releases as of late so I dont know when the 1080ti was released and when the follow up to that will be released.

I dont do much gaming now but my evga 680gtx classified 4gb is getting long in the tooth now, its barely seen 50 hours of gaming since I bought it new and 100 hours of actual desktop usage since I have basically moved away from pc's to ipads but I now want to get back into gaming as I feel the time is right.

So, is the 1080ti worth buying right now or is nvidia about to release a new product within the next two/three months ?

Any ideas ?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about when the next card hits.. It most likely will be many months to next year. And when it hits it will be always hard to find and priced way too much at first as always and be a few months for the price to come down to normal when production catches up with demand. With all that said now is a good time to buy as thiers plenty of cards out there..

The time to buy a new card is when you need a new card.

Grab a 1080ti and be happy!

P.S. my choice would be a Evga 1080ti FTW3. Massive card and massive cooler.. if you have the room go for it!
 
This card is massive. I compared it to my 980Ti Gaming X and the size difference was huge!
 
I am not even sure if it would fit into my system with my cooler hahaha. Huge!
 
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