MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G Review

MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G 6GB Review

Manufacturer: MSI
UK price (as reviewed): Approx. £550 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): MSRP $680 (ex Tax)

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980 Ti has proven a highly popular graphics card since its launch due to the fact it offers nearly identical performance to the flagship GTX Titan X but at a much lower price. Demand for the GTX 980 Ti has, thus far, outstripped supply quite significantly to the point where many retailers, particularly here in the UK, are frequently sold out. The supply shortage is easing off somewhat now that the initial surge of demand from the launch is starting to fade and for prospective buyers now is as good a time as any to consider the plethora of custom GTX 980 Ti options out there on the market.

The first custom GTX 980 Ti to grace the test labs here at bit-tech comes courtesy of MSI with its GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G featuring the company's latest generation Twin Frozr V cooling solution. MSI continues similar tried-and-tested tactics with the GTX 980 Ti Gaming as with previous Gaming series cards. These include its red and black themed custom cooling solution, an aggressive factory overclock, a backplate and a competitive price-point. More specifically, MSI adds 178MHz to the base clock speed of the GTX 980 Ti taking it from 1,000MHz to 1,178MHz, promising a tasty performance boost that is sure to leave AMD's R9 Fury X eating its dust.



The Twin Frozr V cooler on the MSI GTX 980 Ti Gaming makes use of a pair of 100mm fans with Torx Fan technology, which effectively entails the use of alternating fan blade styles, one flat and one grooved. These fans push air directly through the dual-slot aluminium heatsink that cools the GPU with two 8mm and two 6mm heat pipes. There are also VRM and memory heatsinks which sit just underneath the primary heatsink. MSI implements a fully custom PCB design using its Military Class 4 VRM components and a matte black finish.



Around the rear of the MSI GTX 980 Ti Gaming is a full cover backplate with a slight cut-out around the SLI connectors for multi-GPU compatibility. Along the top ridge of the card is an added stability plate designed to prevent bending of the PCB in the long-term. A pair of top-mounted 8-pin PCI-E connections supply provide power to the heavily overclocked Nvidia GTX 980 Ti GPU.



MSI retain the reference rear I/O layout with a trio of DisplayPort connections, aimed at users sporting triple G-Sync monitor setups or 4K displays, while HDMI 2.0 also offers another mechanism for achieving 4K at 60Hz.

Specifications

• Graphics processor Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 1,178MHz (boost 1,279MHz)
  
• Pipeline 2,816 stream processors, 176 texture units, 96 ROPs
  
• Memory 6GB GDDR5, 7.1GHz effective
  
• Bandwidth 341GB/sec, 384-bit interface
  
• Compatibility DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.5
  
• Outputs/Inputs 3 x DisplayPort 1.2, Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0
  
• Power connections 2 x 8-pin PCI-E, top-mounted
  
• Size 269mm long, dual-slot
  
• Warranty Three years