With triple fan and overlength: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio in review

1 - Einführung und Übersicht 2 - Platine und Spannungsversorgung im Detail 3 - Gaming Performance: 2560 x 1440 Pixel (WQHD) 4 - Gaming Performance: 3840 x 2160 Pixel (UHD) 5 - Leistungsaufnahme im Detail 6 - Temperaturen, Taktraten, OC und Wärmebildanalyse 7 - Kühlerdetails und Geräuschentwicklung 8 - Zusammenfassung und Fazit

Take the board of the , enlarge the cooler so that three fans fit on it, adjust the board accordingly and cool the majority of the voltage converters directly for the first time – the Gaming X Trio is ready, which has the space between the normal Gaming X and the Lightning (X and Z).

This is the first time MSI has abandoned the sandwich design with a continuous cooling and stabilization frame between the actual cooler and the board and now prefers to cool critical areas directly.

Since the actual performance of all board partner cards depends more on the actual boost clock achieved, and thus causally depends on the cooling, the power target and above all the quality of the respective chip, any test based only on benchmark bars is more of a Random snapshot of a single specimen. This is precisely why we have focused on the actual technical implementation of each model and have been able to document this very well with our equipment.

Unboxing, dimensions and connections

The accessories are not only limited to the usual three-handers such as DVD, manual and 8-pin adapters, but also includes a VGA stand due to the extremely high weight of the card. We will discuss the exact board and cooling design separately later. The most important features are first summarized in a table:

Exterior views

Let's start by looking at the map from the outside. MsI, like many others, is relying this time on a matte, graphite-coloured plastic cover that is haptic and visually fine. Color applications outside the RGB light effects, such as the well-known MSI red, are searched in vain with this map.

The backplate is purely for the look and carries an RGB backlit logo and an illuminated edge. The two 8-pin sockets of the external power supply are installed rotated by 180°. The logo on the top is also equipped with an RGB backlight and can of course also be customized by means of its own software.

The cooling fins are vertically aligned, which pushes the exhaust air undirected against the top of the motherboard and the front panel of the case.

In addition to the two DisplayPort jacks, the connectors are based on two HDMI outputs, which is e.g. VR glasses, of course. The Dual-Link DVI connector is a nice, but now hardly necessary entry.

Specifications

The GPU-Z screenshot shows us the most important key data in advance, whereby the actual boost achieved was of course higher with our model. This in turn relativizes such theoretical data a little, so that we really want to refer to the following test results later:

Finally, the whole thing again as a tabular comparison to the other relevant graphics card models:

Test system and measurement methods

The new test system and the methodology have already been described in great detail in the basic article "How We Test Graphics Cards" (English: "How We Test Graphics Cards") and therefore, for the sake of simplicity, we now only refer to this detailed Description. So if you want to read everything again, you are welcome to do so. However, we have improved CPU and cooling once again in order to largely exclude possible CPU bottle necks for this fast card.

If you are interested, the summary in table form quickly provides a brief overview: