MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G RGB Review

MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G RGB Review

In recent weeks we have analysed GTX 1080 partner cards from ASUS and GIGABYTE, and today we look at the Gaming X 8G model from MSI. This graphics card is supplied with a beautiful looking custom dual fan cooler and is overclocked out of the box. How does it hold up against the Gigabyte and Asus models ?

It is interesting to see that MSI are the only one of the three big Nvidia partners (MSI, Gigabyte and ASUS) who have opted for a dual fan cooler. Gigabyte and ASUS have felt the move to a triple fan configuration was worthwhile. I still feel that this MSI design is the most attractive of all graphics cards available on the market today however – I have said it before, but I will say it again – this really is the Cameron Diaz of graphics cards.

Like all the other GTX1080 cards we have reviewed in recent weeks, MSI have adopted an RGB lighting system. It certainly seems the feature everyone wants right now.

GPU	Geforce GTX970	GeForce GTX980	Geforce GTX 980 Ti	Geforce GTX Titan X	Geforce GTX 1080	Geforce GTX 1070
Streaming Multiprocessors	13	16	22	24	20	15
CUDA Cores	1664	2048	2816	3072	2560	1920
Base Clock	1050 mhz	1126 mhz	1000 mhz	1000 mhz	1607 mhz	1506 mhz
GPU Boost Clock	1178 mhz	1216 mhz	1075 mhz	1076 mhz	1733 mhz	1683 mhz
Total Video memory	4GB	4GB	6GB	12GB	8GB	8GB
Texture Units	104	128	176	192	160	120
Texture fill-rate	109.2 Gigatexels/Sec	144.1 Gigatexels/Sec	176 Gigatexels/Sec	192 Gigatexels/Sec	257.1 Gigatexels/Sec	180.7 GigaTexels/sec
Memory Clock	7000 mhz	7000 mhz	7000 mhz	7000 mhz	1250mhz	2002mhz
Memory Bandwidth	224 GB/s	224 GB/sec	336.5 GB/sec	336.5 GB/sec	320GB/s	256GB/s
Bus Width	256bit	256bit	384bit	384bit	256bit	256 bit
ROPs	56	64	96	96	64	64
Manufacturing Process	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm	16nm	16nm
TDP	145 watts	165 watts	250 watts	250 watts	180 watts	150 watts

The Nvidia GTX1080 ships with 2560 CUDA cores and 20 SM units. The 8GB of GDDR5X memory is connected via a 256 bit memory interface. This new G5X memory offers a huge step up in bandwidth, when compared against the older GDDR5 standard. It runs at a data rate of 10Gbps, giving 43% more bandwidth than the GTX980 GPU.

The MSI card ships at 1,683mhz with a boost of 1,823mhz – the company call this GAMING MODE. The 8GB of GDDR5 memory is set at 1,251mhz.

There is an OC mode in software which offers a slight increase in clock speeds. In OC MODE the core increases to 1,709mhz with a 1,849mhz boost, and the memory increases to 1,264mhz. The MSI website (HERE) shows the three available settings, including ‘silent mode’ which downclocks the card to 1607mhz while reducing fan speeds. Unless you are running your system in a hot climate, have poor case airflow, or just loathe fan noise, then we can’t imagine too many people using ‘Silent Mode’. The Gaming X 8G is actually a fairly quiet card under general conditions, but more on that later.

We test the card in the fastest OC Mode as we are pretty confident that most users buying this card will install the software on the disc and push the ‘OC Mode’ button, shown above. We have also tested the Gigabyte and Asus cards at their fastest software rated profile settings, so this keeps everything on an even footing.