MSI Launches The GTX 980 Ti GAMING 6G

misterbobby said:
The review cards have the 1178/1279 by default.
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Mine is clocked completely different. I've put Precision to default mode, with 100% power limit, and nothing added to core and memory, and according to GPU-Z, card boosts to 1367. What's strange, is that when I turn power limit to 109, GPU-Z also reports 1367 in Uningine Valley. Uninstalling Precision and Riva servers didn't change anything - without OC software, it goes to 1354. When I use MSI Gaming app, the "OC" tab gives me 1404, and Gaming brings it to 1366.

Not that I don't mind the extra oomph, but it's strange to see it never drop to 1267 - and yes, it's standard retail sample.
 
MorgothPl said:
Mine is clocked completely different. I've put Precision to default mode, with 100% power limit, and nothing added to core and memory, and according to GPU-Z, card boosts to 1367. What's strange, is that when I turn power limit to 109, GPU-Z also reports 1367 in Uningine Valley. Uninstalling Precision and Riva servers didn't change anything - without OC software, it goes to 1354. When I use MSI Gaming app, the "OC" tab gives me 1404, and Gaming brings it to 1366.

Not that I don't mind the extra oomph, but it's strange to see it never drop to 1267 - and yes, it's standard retail sample.
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Sigh 1367 is MAX boost which is about right as mine is 1354. Still if you look at the base and boost clocks in GPU Z it will show 1140 and 1228 at out of box settings.The "OC" clocks in the app are what the reviewers are getting out of the box. This is getting so tiresome to explain over and over on multiple forums.

What retail cards show.

image upload no size limit
 
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http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/173582/msi-gtx980ti-6144-150622.html

I think this is the Techpowerup Bios with the 120% power limit.

I say I "Think" because it was added the same day the review came out. So I would assume it would still be 120% power limit since they got that special beefed up Bios in the review.

P.S. I wouldn't think it would void the warranty either since its an official MSI bios.
 
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DASHlT said:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/173582/msi-gtx980ti-6144-150622.html

I think this is the Techpowerup Bios with the 130% power limit.

I say I "Think" because it was added the same day the review came out. So I would assume it would still be 130% power limit since they got that special beefed up Bios in the review.

P.S. I wouldn't think it would void the warranty either since its an official MSI bios.
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Why would that be 130%? Guru3d showed 120% and Techpowerup never mentioned their power limit but it would be either 120 like in the other review or 109 like the retail cards have.

Can someone look through that BIOS and see what it says for the power limit?

EDIT: OK you edited to now reflect 120%.
 
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OMG WHERE MA MEGAHURTZ LOLZ!

But seriously, 35-40 MHz differential is meaningless. Either way I am going to be overclocking mine so don't care about the 1140 vs. 1178 differential.
 
KickAssCop said:
OMG WHERE MA MEGAHURTZ LOLZ!

But seriously, 35-40 MHz differential is meaningless. Either way I am going to be overclocking mine so don't care about the 1140 vs. 1178 differential.
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It is 50 mhz and the point is that only review cards got this so its a bit sneaky on MSI's part. But since most people will oc anyway, the main issue is that reviewers got the 120% power limit where retail cards only got 109%. The 109% power limit holds the card back from performing consistently when overclocked. For card that cost me 700 bucks, it is really bothersome.
 
misterbobby said:
Why would that be 130%? Guru3d showed 120% and Techpowerup never mentioned their power limit but it would be either 120 like in the other review or 109 like the retail cards have.

Can someone look through that BIOS and see what it says for the power limit?
Click to expand...

I ment 120%. Sorry been a long day....I fixed the post.
 
I have yet to see power limit matter in overclocking any of my cards including 670, 780 and 970 series. Maybe this time it is different. Will find out.
 
KickAssCop said:
I have yet to see power limit matter in overclocking any of my cards including 670, 780 and 970 series. Maybe this time it is different. Will find out.
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Um what? Power limit has been the limitation for me on every Maxwell card. One of the main reasons people mod their BIOS is to have a higher power limit. This MSI card can do 1526 but hits the power limit hard in demanding games or benchmarks. Even at 1421 on stock voltage it hit occasionally hits the 109%.
 
KickAssCop said:
I have yet to see power limit matter in overclocking any of my cards including 670, 780 and 970 series. Maybe this time it is different. Will find out.
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Not sure how you never had that be an issue. My 780's had the issue, stock 970's did as well.

I mean it doesn't mean anything if you don't overclock I guess.
 
misterbobby said:
Is there anyway to look at that and see if it has 120%?
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I don't see why it wouldn't. Not like wizzard would put a modified bios on there and call it review sample. Would be bad business.

But yea thats a MSI bios too, so flashing it would be even easier from what I remember, been awhile since I flashed my 970.
 
DASHlT said:
I don't see why it wouldn't. Not like wizzard would put a modified bios on there and call it review sample. Would be bad business.

But yea thats a MSI bios too, so flashing it would be even easier from what I remember, been awhile since I flashed my 970.
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But wizzard never said it was 120%. That was only shown in the guru3d review.
 
misterbobby said:
But wizzard never said it was 120%. That was only shown in the guru3d review.
Click to expand...

Hmm I guess only way to find out is to flash it. Backup and save your official bios, then flash with that review sample to check it. Then flash back if it doesn't have 120%.

Edit: Just a reminder. Last time MSI release a video card with a really high power limit (780 lightning cough cough) They pulled the bios and set a 109% on all future lightning cards.
So I would almost grab that bios to check, and keep it around. Just my 0.02c
 
DASHlT said:
Hmm I guess only way to find out is to flash it. Backup and save your official bios, then flash with that review sample to check it. Then flash back if it doesn't have 120%.

Edit: Just a reminder. Last time MSI release a video card with a really high power limit (780 lightning cough cough) They pulled the bios and set a 109% on all future lightning cards.
So I would almost grab that bios to check, and keep it around. Just my 0.02c
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If wizzard would just reply to me in the forums it could save me the trouble lol. I have asked twice now but no reply.
 
DASHlT said:
Not sure how you never had that be an issue. My 780's had the issue, stock 970's did as well.

I mean it doesn't mean anything if you don't overclock I guess.
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See my signature. I hit tdp limit before I hit power limit. I can run the cards at 1527 at 100% or 1542 at max power limit.

Difference in real world performance is absolutely shit worth.

Same was story on my 780s that could do 1228 at 100% or at max limit. Same with my 670s and 680s. As I said with the 980 TI I will find out.
 
Even right out the box all the reference cooled Maxwell cards hit the power limit and throttle for me. My 980 Ti SC would throttle down to under 900 mhz in demanding gaming benchmarks. I had to raise it 110% just to keep it from throttling out of box clocks. Same goes for the regular 980 non Ti that I had.
 
I see. Will post my results once I have the card. Throttling on stock is very bad. Wow.
 
This review also showed the 120% that guru3d did. The out of box clocks are the same as the techpowerup review too so it is likely the review card BIOS on techpowerup does have the 120% limit.

http://elchapuzasinformatico.com/2015/06/review-msi-geforce-gtx-980ti-gaming-6g/8/

Techpowerup only got 1507 max boost clock and that review here would have been just under 1500 actual max boost so it seems the 120% is not really helping anyway as I blow that away for max boost. Even guru3d only got max of 1504 and it was throttling down down to 1477 and even 1450 in some games. Makes me wonder if the retail BIOS had some other changes and the 109% seen on retail is giving the same effective power limit as the review cards with 120% got. By that I mean the 109% might be based off a different base TDP number.


Here is what I am thinking:

120% x 250 watt TDP= 300 watts limit for review

109% x 275 watt TDP= 300 watts limit for retail
 
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misterbobby said:
This review also showed the 120% that guru3d did. The out of box clocks are the same as the techpowerup review too so it is likely the review card BIOS on techpowerup does have the 120% limit.

http://elchapuzasinformatico.com/2015/06/review-msi-geforce-gtx-980ti-gaming-6g/8/

Techpowerup only got 1507 max boost clock and that review here would have been just under 1500 actual max boost so it seems the 120% is not really helping anyway as I blow that away for max boost. Even guru3d only got max of 1504 and it was throttling down down to 1477 and even 1450 in some games. Makes me wonder if the retail BIOS had some other changes and the 109% seen on retail is giving the same effective power limit as the review cards with 120% got. By that I mean the 109% might be based off a different base TDP number.


Here is what I am thinking:

120% x 250 watt TDP= 300 watts limit for review

109% x 275 watt TDP= 300 watts limit for retail
Click to expand...

Interesting....0_o
 
I played around in Tomb Raider on my every day oc and then the highest oc I have used for some benchmarks. This was on 2560x1440 with ultra settings with no tressfx and only FXAA.

1421/7200 127 fps in game and my total wattage at the wall was 406

http://postimg.org/image/6vpldlc0h/


1518/7800 137 fps in game and my total wattage at the wall was 456 :eek:

http://postimg.org/image/7o8w180gf/


With more voltage and higher power limit this card could easily maintain about 1550 in games as I am hitting over 1530 in parts of games until the power limit is reached. Makes me wonder what the Lightning model can do. lol
 
misterbobby said:
I played around in Tomb Raider on my every day oc and then the highest oc I have used for some benchmarks. This was on 2560x1440 with ultra settings with no tressfx and only FXAA.

1421/7200 127 fps in game and my total wattage at the wall was 406

http://postimg.org/image/6vpldlc0h/


1518/7800 137 fps in game and my total wattage at the wall was 456 :eek:

http://postimg.org/image/7o8w180gf/


With more voltage and higher power limit this card could easily maintain about 1550 in games as I am hitting over 1530 in parts of games until the power limit is reached. Makes me wonder what the Lightning model can do. lol
Click to expand...

I'm scared to see what kind of total wattage at wall under heavy loads I have with my card at 1606/8000. :confused::(
 
Voxata said:
I'm just curious who is going to flash http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/173582/msi-gtx980ti-6144-150622.html first.
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It is not going to do any good. Not a single review card can oc theirs to what I am getting and even they were throttling and not able to maintain it. For example, Guru3d was was only getting 1450-1507. See my earlier post as to why this probably is. http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041710468&postcount=461

I have been able to hit a max boost of 1542 so far while I was testing.


how to take a screen shot
 
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While I'm gaming with the Witcher 3, after a while my freq starts to fluxuate a little bit.. even at low overclocks if I tame it down. It'll change 5-10Mhz up or down, I'm at about 102% voltage seems to stay pretty constant...

Edit - I may have been VRM/Thermal throttling, I added my HAF XB's top fan blowing down on the videocard and my probe temp dropped 10C.. think its stable now.. we'll see.
 
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Voxata said:
While I'm gaming with the Witcher 3, after a while my freq starts to fluxuate a little bit.. even at low overclocks if I tame it down. It'll change 5-10Mhz up or down, I'm at about 102% voltage seems to stay pretty constant...
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Lol if I crank the fan to 80% I can get 1561 if its not a super demanding game pushing it much over 100% power limit. In actual gaming I use vsync so even most demanding games could probably maintain around 1540 or just a little lower since I would rarely go hit even 100% TDP. My everyday OC is a very conservative 1421/7200 at 1.174 though which is WAY better than my reference 980 Ti could maintain even with the fan screaming.
 
After swapping top panels and having a case fan pointed right at the card my throttling has stopped. I'm also able to run 1541 with no problems or throttling it would seem, ram/vrmsink temp at 58C, measured at top of card on the fold. Core temp at 56C. If I had a 130% bios... Sky would be the limit.
 
Scratch that.. after a long duration it started bouncing 10Mhz again.. had to downclock all the way to 1430 to get it to stop doing it. It even ran at 1520 for.. well, an hour before doing so (Max voltage). I'm a but skeptical of these cards at this point... I downclocked to 1430 throttle stopped on the spot and no problems, bump it to 1475, still stock voltage seems ok.. Its a total unpredictable crapshoot, and my cooling is quite good...MUCH better than the stock solution. I'm guessing those on stock heatsinks will throttle during long gaming sessions on very stressful games at modest clocks. Guess 1475 at stock voltage will be my daily.
 
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What testing methods are you using bobby? I can't seem to get the card to throttle in anything except for long sessions of Witcher 3 with a heavy OC.
 
misterbobby said:
This review also showed the 120% that guru3d did. The out of box clocks are the same as the techpowerup review too so it is likely the review card BIOS on techpowerup does have the 120% limit.

http://elchapuzasinformatico.com/2015/06/review-msi-geforce-gtx-980ti-gaming-6g/8/

Techpowerup only got 1507 max boost clock and that review here would have been just under 1500 actual max boost so it seems the 120% is not really helping anyway as I blow that away for max boost. Even guru3d only got max of 1504 and it was throttling down down to 1477 and even 1450 in some games. Makes me wonder if the retail BIOS had some other changes and the 109% seen on retail is giving the same effective power limit as the review cards with 120% got. By that I mean the 109% might be based off a different base TDP number.


Here is what I am thinking:

120% x 250 watt TDP= 300 watts limit for review

109% x 275 watt TDP= 300 watts limit for retail
Click to expand...

Hi, i was just wondering if you are running 2 980ti's in sli with your 4770k/z87 setup. Having some issues with mine.
 
FYI - I'm stable at 1516 and +500 with 109 Power Limit and 0 boost to mV. Upper 70s temp.
 
Voxata, did you actually mount the Kraken G10 on top of the backplate? So that the normal MSI backplate is on and then the G10 backplate on top of that?

Got a G10 sitting next to me and waiting for MSI and Corsair H55 to arrive.
 
First ofcourse the images.

Z9gd3lQ.jpg


Card is very sturdy and weighs more than my 970 Gaming cards. The cooler fans look fantastic and the backplate is awesome. Also the dragon LED looks cool and stuff. It is one massive card and gave me a hard on when I held it for the first time.

zSSZ9iq.jpg


Here it is compared to my 970 GTX Gaming cards.

Following is the test setup given that I am still only using H80 cooler and didn't get a chance to install the H110i that I have sitting around.

Test setup

Windows 7 Pro X64
Geforce 353.30 graphics driver
5930K @ 4.2 GHz
DDR4 2666 15-15-15-35-1T
GTX 970 G1 Gaming SLi @ 1504/7600 core/memory
GTX 980 Ti Gaming @ 1439/7400 core/memory

Benchmarks

3dmark 11 - P24521 - 970 SLi
3dmark 11 - P22073 - 980 Ti

3dmark Firestrike - 18914 - 970 SLi
3dmark Firestrike - 17108 - 980 Ti

3dmark Firestrike Extreme - 9949 - 970 SLi
3dmark Firestrike Extreme - 8653 - 980 Ti

3dmark Firestrike Ultra - 5423 - 970 SLi
3dmark Firestrike Ultra - 4685 - 980 Ti

Heaven 4.0 Max details 1080P - 101.2 fps - 970 SLi
Heaven 4.0 Max details 1080P - 96.8 fps - 980 Ti

Valley Max details 1080P - 103.5 fps - 970 SLi
Valley Max details 1080P - 96.6 fps - 980 Ti

Mordor 1080P Max details - 133.7 fps - 970 SLi
Mordor 1080P Max details - 123.5 fps - 980 Ti

Mordor 4K Max details - 47.2 fps - 970 SLi
Mordor 4K Max details - 45.3 fps - 980 Ti

Batman Arkham Knight 1080P Max details - 59 fps - 970 SLi (no vsync)
Batman Arkham Knight 1080P Max details - 83 fps - 980 Ti (no vsync)

Heat and noise

Card goes maximum at 80 C with 80% fan speed. At 70% fan speed or higher the card is quite audible. The maximum temperature is only achieved in benchmarks. In game benchmarks the card hovers around 70-75C and usually fan speed throttles accordingly. Less than 70 C the fan remains below 70% and the card has normal sound of air movement. It is not silent for me since I run my monitor at 144 Hz hence, the card is always in 3D mode.

Overclocking

Overall, this is where my disappointment starts. The card is able to hit 1450 MHz for quite a bit but throttles to 1439 MHz most of the time. This is the maximum overclock I have achieved that is game stable. It is quite a pity that I did not hit the 1500 MHz target that I had.

Card defaults to 1140 MHz and boosts to about 1292 with no change in power limit. Increasing power limit to 109% (max allowable) gives a boost of about ~1340 which is quite decent.

Overclock settings that I used were:
+135 on the core
+200 on memory
+87 mv
+109 power limit
91 C temp target

With these settings the card was pegged to 1439/7400 for all benchmarks posted above.

I can't wait to see what the Classified will be capable of. With MSI gaming, I may flash the bios to review bios to achieve a higher overclock but for that to happen the card is starved for both power and voltage. A first for me since my previous cards had little to no impact of increasing power target or voltage in terms of overclocking.

Stay tuned for more. :).
 
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