The GTX 1080 has been out since mid-2016 and in the wake of a number of high-end releases, including the GTX 1080 Ti and the Titan Xp, Nvidia has refreshed the GTX 1080 to keep it competitive and in the minds of consumers. MSI's Gaming X Plus is the first of the refreshed GTX 1080s KitGuru has had a chance to assess.
The only noteworthy change between MSI's GTX 1080 Gaming X and the new GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus is a faster memory configuration, made possible by more capable Micron GDDR5X memory chips. The stock memory throughput is now 11 Gbps, instead of 10 Gbps, and that 10 per cent boost to memory bandwidth will give newer GTX 1080s a slight advantage over last year's models as well as making them closer in performance to GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards.
There is little to differentiate these 11 Gbps GTX 1080s from last year's models so expect graphics card vendors to simply re-release their GTX 1080 board designs with faster memory from the factory, slowly phasing down production of units with 10 Gbps memory. Most vendors seem to be choosing to add a new model with some signifier as to the faster memory in the name, MSI has used Plus while ASUS is more to the point including 11 Gbps in the model name.
MSI's GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus is identical to the GTX 1080 Gaming X in terms of its cooling solution, PCB and feature set. That's no bad thing either since our review of that card revealed it to be an excellent graphics card – low noise and temperatures, strong performance and solid build quality.
GPU-Z confirms the 10 per cent boost in memory frequency. MSI has also matched clock speeds between the Gaming X and Gaming X Plus so any performance boost is exclusively from the faster memory, rather than any other factors. A quick scour of UK retailers shows us that pricing is more or less identical between the models, if anything, the older model seems to be more expensive at many retailers which is a peculiar situation.
The overall deal with MSI's new 11 Gbps graphics card is made even sweeter by the fact MSI is running a cashback promotion at the moment, until the end of May, which is giving UK buyers £43 off the price of all of its GTX 1080 graphics cards.
GPU | MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus | MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 |
Base Clock |
1683 MHz | 1683 MHz | 1607 MHz |
GPU Boost Clock | 1822 MHz | 1822 MHz | 1733 MHz |
Memory Clock Effective |
11010 MHz | 10010 MHz | 10010 MHz |
Memory Bandwidth | 352.3 GB/s | 320.3 GB/s | 320.3 GB/s |
Price (£) | £520 | £520 | £480+ |
MSI packages the GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus well and the box clearly communicates the faster memory configuration of this product. Other key features that are highlighted are the customisable RGB lighting, MSI's latest TwinFrozr cooler and the MSI Gaming App, although we imagine most power users will still prefer MSI Afterburner.
However, it is worth noting the MSI Gaming App is required to control the LED functions – see our overview of MSI's Gaming App here.
The bundle with this graphics card is primarily documentation but there's also a driver/utility disc and some stickers for decorating a PC case.
The MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus, like the Gaming X, is a well designed and appealing graphics card. The TwinFrozr Gaming-Series design has proven popular for multiple generations and it isn't hard to understand why. It's a sensible dual slot and dual fan graphics card with a high quality backplate and stylish appearance.
The only possible criticism is that the red highlights means it isn't colour neutral to suit the widest range of system builds, but that is being pedantic. The RGB gives the end user enough customisation options and the red isn't overpowering by any means.
Both fans fitted to the GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus are 100mm fans which use double ball bearings and MSI's Torx 2.0 design. They shift a significant amount of air and result in a very quiet graphics card, with a semi-passive mode when the GPU temperature is below 60 degrees Celsius.
Power is drawn in through a 6 pin and an 8 pin, fitted at the end of the graphics card which measures 28.5cm in length (including the I/O, 27.5cm without). The height is 15.5cm with the rear I/O, 14.5cm without.
The MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus weights in at 1100g, 1.1kg, and has five display outputs. There's three Display Port, one HDMI 2.0 and a dual-link DVI-D.
Under the skin MSI used a wealth of high quality components with heatsinks and thermal pads for all the major components. It's an 8-phase design with 4 MOSFETs per phase, the design is high-quality and is over-engineered for typical usage scenarios so that efficiency remains high.
The heatsink is hefty with five 6mm heat pipes and a single large 8mm heat pipe. These all feed into a nickel-plated copper base plate and a large aluminium heatsink array.
The backplate is electrically-insulated from the PCB with some hard plastic film secured with a strong adhesive. However, it is still possible for heat to be transferred from the PCB to the backplate to aid heat dissipation.
Our GPU test system has been built with the intention of benchmarking a variety of graphics cards from mid-range to high-end. Each GPU is tested in a number of 3D applications and games at 1080p, 1440p and 2160p (“4K”) resolutions using Very High or Ultra detail presets.
Test System Components
- Case: Corsair 400Q (two stock case fans replaced with Noctua 120mm rear exhaust and 140mm front intake, speeds UEFI-limited)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K (Stock Intel Turbo behaviour).
- Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) G.Skill Trident Z XMP (3200MHz 16-18-18-38 @ 1.35V).
- Graphics Card: Variable.
- System Drive: Samsung 850 EVO 512GB SSD
- CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 (pump at 12 volts, fan speed UEFI-limited to reduce noise).
- Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 760W.
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.
General Test System Notes
- AMD Graphics cards were benchmarked with the AMD (Crimson ReLive Edition) 17.4.2 drivers (17.10.1711 Beta 5) except the RX 570 and RX 580 GPUs which were benchmarked with a special press release driver (17.10.1030 Beta 8).
- Nvidia Graphics cards were benchmarked with the Nvidia (GeForce Game Ready) 381.65 driver.
- To tune the test system appropriately for acoustic measurements the case was stripped of its original fans and fitted with ultra quiet Noctua fans.
- The CPU cooler, the Corsair H100i v2, was set to a fixed low fan speed to further reduce the base noise level while the pump was left to operate at full speed since it produces no significant noise output.
- The CPU was left to default Intel Turbo behaviour, disabling ASUS enhancements such as all-core Turbo to minimise heat output inside the case and non-GPU related power consumption. The CPU voltage was also negatively offset (read: reduced) by a measure of -0.15 to further reduce non-GPU related heat and power consumption and keep CPU temperatures down to accommodate for the ultra silent CPU and System fan profiles.
- Each 3D benchmark or game is run 3 times at each resolution with an average result of the three runs taken as the final result for the graphs. Where benchmark screenshots are shown note these may not match the graphed figure since the graph represents the average of three while the screenshot is a single of those three values
Comparison Graphics Cards List
- AMD RX 480 8GB (1266MHz core, 8000MHz memory)
- ASUS RX 570 STRIX Gaming OC 4GB (1300MHz core, 7000MHz memory)
- Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition 11GB (1607MHz core, 1721MHz boost, 11232MHz memory)
- Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8GB (1695MHz core, 1835MHz boost, 10010MHz memory)
- Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti Xtreme Gaming Windforce 6GB (1216MHz core, 1317MHz boost, 7200MHz memory)
- MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus 8GB (1683MHz core, 1823MHz boost, 11008MHz memory)
- MSI R9 390 8GB Gaming (1040MHz core, 6000MHz memory)
- Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB Founders Edition (1506MHz core, 1708MHz boost, 8008MHz memory)
- Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition 11GB (1480MHz core, 1582MHz boost, 11008MHz memory)
- PNY GTX 1070 XLR8 Gaming OC 8GB (1607MHz core, 1797MHz boost, 8008MHz memory)
- Sapphire R9 Fury X 4GB (1050MHz core, 1000MHz memory [HBM])
- Sapphire RX 470 Nitro+ OC 4GB (1260MHz core, 7000MHz memory)
- Sapphire RX 580 Nitro+ Limited Edition 8GB (1450MHz core, 8000MHz memory)
- Zotac GTX 970 4GB (1076MHz core, 1216MHz boost, 7010MHz memory)
Software and Games List
- 3DMark
- Ashes of the Singularity
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Furmark
- GPU-Z
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Metro Last Light Redux
- MSI Afterburner
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Steam
- SteamVR Performance Test
- Unigine Heaven
3DMark is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our [FutureMark’s] most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.
We run 3DMark Fire Strike (1080p), Fire Strike Extreme (1440p) and Fire Strike Ultra (4K).
The MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus is faster across the board but the margin of improvement is fairly slim, around 5 per cent over the Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming that operates at 1695MHz core versus 1683MHz for the MSI card. Clearly some of the performance gain for the MSI card is negated by the faster clock speed of the Gigabyte model.
The SteamVR Performance Test measures a system's rendering power using a 2-minute sequence from Valves Aperture Robot Repair VR demo. After collecting the data it determines whether a system is capable of running VR content at 90fps and whether VR content can tune the visual fidelity up to the recommended level. For machines that are not VR Ready the tool can help determine whether capabilities are bound by Graphics Card, CPU, or both.
Steam VR test has a maximum score of 11 and the MSI GTX 1080 easily achieves this.
Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.
Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:
- Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
- Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
- Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
- Multicore CPU support
- Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
- Powerful C++ API
- Comprehensive performance profiling system
- Flexible XML-based data structures
We set Quality to ‘Ultra’, Tessellation to ‘disabled’ and Anti-Aliasing to 2x.
Another 5 per cent lead over Gigabyte's faster clocked G1 Gaming GTX 1080.
Ashes of the Singularity is a real-time strategy game set in the future where descendants of humans (called Post- Humans) and a powerful artificial intelligence (called the Substrate) fight a war for control of a resource known as Turinium.
Players will engage in massive-scale land/air battles by commanding entire armies of their own design. Each game takes place on one area of a planet, with each player starting with a home base (known as a Nexus) and a single construction unit.
We opt for the Extreme quality profile and run the GPU-Focused test using the DX12 game mode.
Ashes of the Singularity hardly scaled at all, clearly this game is not heavily influenced by memory bandwidth.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set in the year 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution and the “Aug Incident”—an event in which mechanically augmented humans became uncontrollable and lethally violent.
Unbeknownst to the public, the affected augmented received implanted technology designed to control them by the shadowy Illuminati, which is abused by a rogue member of the group to discredit augmentations completely. (Wikipedia).
We test using the Ultra quality preset and the DirectX 12 API at all resolutions.
The story for the GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus is surprisingly consistent, a 5 to 7.5 per cent boost in performance over a similarly clocked GTX 1080 using 10 Gbps memory.
Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure game played from either a first-person or third-person view. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players may freely roam the open world.
Composed of the San Andreas open countryside area and the fictional city of Los Santos, the world is much larger in area than earlier entries in the series. It may be fully explored after the game’s beginning without restriction, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.
We use the Ultra quality settings (or the highest alternative when Ultra is unavailable), MSAA is set to 2x. The Advanced Graphics options are all set to their maximum levels. Memory usage is calculated as 3469, 3764 and 4733 at 1080, 1440p and 4K, respectively.
At higher resolutions the increase in performance is higher, presumably since at lower resolutions the CPU plays more of a factor in limiting performance than GPU memory bandwidth does.
Just like the original game Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light is played from the perspective of Artyom, the player-character. The story takes place in post-apocalyptic Moscow, mostly inside the metro system, but occasionally missions bring the player above ground. Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, following the canonical ending in which Artyom chose to proceed with the missile strike against the Dark Ones (this happens regardless of your actions in the first game). Redux adds all the DLC and graphical improvements.
At all resolutions we test using a Very High quality profile with SSAA enabled and Tessellation set to Normal.
Metro Last Light Redux scales well with the faster memory.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013’s Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story. It uses a Direct X 12 capable engine.
We use the Very High quality preset and 2x SSAA at all resolutions with Direct X 12 enabled.
Rise of the Tomb Raider hardly moved with the faster memory, again the slight clock speed advantage of the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080 keeps the gap slim.
Our acoustic measurements are less precise on this mid-range test system, the noise floor of the totally quiet testing room is 34 dBA as measured with a Benetech GM1351 Digital Sound Level Meter.
We take our measurements with the decibel meter on the top and middle section of the case, overhanging the side panel (PSU side, not Motherboard tray side) by exactly 1 inch to avoid any airflow pressure coming from the exhausting H100i V2.
The underlying noise level of the system, emitted by all the non-GPU hardware combined, is 35 dBa thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The PSU is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in and all CPU and System fans have a fixed fan speed completely isolating them from any changes in temperature across the system.
Noise levels were measured after 5 minutes of load under three scenario: Furmark, Unigine Heaven and desktop idle in sequential order with 2 minutes downtime in between each test.
MSI's GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus is whisper quiet, truly a class-leading graphics card when it comes to noise output.
Temperatures were measured after 5 minutes of load under three scenario: Furmark, Unigine Heaven and desktop idle in sequential order with 2 minutes of downtime in between each test. GPU-Z was used to record the maximum temperature, fan profiles on GPUs were left to their default behaviour.
Delta temperatures are presented below to account for small fluctuations in room temperature, but for all the testing present in this graph the temperature ranged from 21.6 to 23.1 degrees Celsius.
With such low noise you'd think temperatures might suffer, but they don't. Temperatures struggle to break 70 degrees Celsius even during a prolonged gaming session and the backplate does a great job of dispersing heat on the PCB, preventing any hotspots.
Power consumption was measured after 5 minutes of load under three scenario: Furmark, Unigine Heaven and desktop idle in sequential order with 2 minutes of downtime in between each test. The measurement was taking using an Energenie ENER007 power meter and measured for the whole system at the power supply, excluding the monitor.
While Furmark and desktop idle provide stable and consistent power read-outs, Unigine Heaven does not so the power reading is taken as the peak value that occurs in Scene 2 of 26.
Power consumption is typical for a GTX 1080 of this calibre.
Overclocking mileage will vary but we managed almost a 7.5 per cent boost in core clock and 9 per cent boost in memory clock. For reference the final core clock is about the same as what we recorded with last year's MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X but the memory clock is definitely higher to the tune of around 1GHz effective. That number makes sense because it means the relative overclocking headroom for memory is almost identical, only it starts from a higher baseline and thus has a higher finishing level.
Performance scales well from overclocking, rising by about 10 per cent.
There is a danger of sounding repetitive with the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus since it is so similar to last year's Gaming X. However, the key points are worth reiterating for anyone seriously considering upgrading to a GTX 1080.
Memory aside, it's still the same cooling solution, PCB and overall design, pricing is pretty similar too. MSI has done a stellar job with this card in the way of thermal performance and noise output. Both are exceptionally good which means MSI doesn't have to worry about being outperformed by the competition. That said the competition is still as strong as it was last year and other graphics card vendors are selling 11 Gbps variants of the GTX 1080.
MSI's Gaming X Plus GTX 1080 offers a reasonable incremental performance boost over the standard Gaming X by using Micron's faster GDDR5X memory. Giving the similarity of pricing anyone in the market for a GTX 1080 should definitely opt for a faster 11 Gbps model unless pricing is particularly attractive on an older 10 Gbps model that retailers will now seek to clear stock of.
MSI's take on the 11 Gbps GTX 1080 warrants consideration for its attractive design and ultra quiet operation, the strong build quality, tidy backplate and RGB lighting further refine the overall package. In the coming weeks KitGuru will be assessing the ASUS ROG Strix 11 Gbps GTX 1080.
The MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus 8GB is currently retailing between £500 and £550 at a variety of UK retailers. Until the 31st of May in the United Kingdom the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X Plus is eligible for MSI's Spring Cashback deal, worth £43, when bought from a participating retailer, more information here. MSI offers a standard 3 year warranty with this product.
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Pros
- Faster memory gives nice performance boost
- Pricing close to 10 Gbps model
- Sleek aesthetics
- Good overclocking headroom
- Excellent cooling performance and low noise
- RGB lighting
Cons:
- Red accents mean colour scheme is not neutral
- RGB lighting not controllable within Afterburner
KitGuru says: MSI's Gaming X Plus is a marvellous implementation of the Nvidia GTX 1080 and a brilliant high-end graphics card. The faster 11Gbps GDDR5X delivers a tangible performance increase over last year's models.
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