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

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 norma... MSI relies on a rather tidy multi-layer board with a somewhat unconventional design, which was probably also developed from a thermal point of view. The board of revision 6 corresponds approximately to revision 2, as it ... Benchmarks in 2560 x 1440 pixels We have deliberately dispensed with Full HD (1920 x 1080p) as the card runs into the CPU limit even in the highest settings. In WQHD (2560 x 1440 pixels), on the other hand, the actual working environment and the kar... Benchmarks in 3840 x 2160 pixels The card is also significantly faster in this high resolution than a GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition or GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition. TitanX (Pascal) in Nvidia reference design. Overall, many titles are quite good in UH... Power consumption at different loads The power consumption in the gaming loop is pretty much exactly on the point that MSI set as the power target with 285 watts in the BIOS. In the Torture loop, the power consumption even drops below this value. Auc... Overclocking Manual overclocking with air cooling is average, if you can withstand the fan, which then works at a slightly over 2500 rpm at maximum speed. On the one hand, of course, as always, we have the GPU lottery, on the other hand, we have... Cooling system and backplate The special feature is the use of a now more shortened "sandwich" system, which uses a kind of cooling and stabilization frame between the top of the board and the actual heat sink. That's what you're doing now ... Summary A lot helps a lot, so much is already certain. With the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio, MSI not only improves the old Gaming X, but for the first time relies on a new cooling system, THE VR MOSFETs, coils and also the capacitors...

Cooling system and backplate

The special feature is the use of a now more shortened "sandwich" system, which uses a kind of cooling and stabilization frame between the top of the board and the actual heat sink. For the first time, you are relying on an integrated VRM heat sink for the 8 GPU phases, while the memory VRM is further cooled over this frame (unfortunately).

Cooling system at a glance
Type of cooler:	Air
Heatsink:	Nickel-plated heat sink, GPU and voltage converter for THE GPU
Cooling fins:	Aluminum, horizontal alignment related
Heatpipes	2x 8mm, 4x 6 mm, nickel-plated
VRM cooling:	GPU VRM via real heat sink built into the cooler Storage VRM only indirectly via cooling frame only MOSFETs are cooled
RAM cooling	via mounting frame and indirectly via the heatsink
Fan:	2x 10 cm fan modules (9.7 cm rotor diameter) 1x 9 cm fan module (8.5 cm rotor diameter) 14 rotor blades semi-passive lyrised
Backplate	Aluminum, blackened no cooling function, foiled inside RGB Effects

The backplate is purely for optical enhancement and wants to score with an RGB frame. In terms of cooling, however, it does not bring anything. So check it off, yet, because we have suggested MSI the targeted use of pads. The previously mentioned cooling and assembly frame absorbs the waste heat from the memory modules and also releases it to the GPU heat sink via a further layer of thermal conduction pad.

The voltage converters of the memory are also cooled by this frame. The heat sink is nickel-plated and very smooth. MSI relies on a total of six fast, nickel-plated heatpipes made of composite material, the radii of which are relatively large at the necessary bends. This, like the slightly smaller diameter, ensures better performance.

Fan curves and noise emission ("volume")

The fan curves indicate a rather conservative and volume-optimized control. The hysteresis is perfect, the starting pulse is absolutely fine and is strong enough not to be disturbing.

The whole thing does not look much different with the stress test, although due to the slightly lower power consumption the speeds are even lower. In summary, the card is extremely restrained despite three fans with such low acoustics.

There would still be enough reserves to let the fans rotate a little faster, in order to increase the already good cooling performance harmless to the ears even further.

Measurements for fans and noise emission
Fan speeds Open Benchtable Maximum	1159 rpm
Fan speeds Open Benchtable Average	1130 rpm
Fan Speeds Closed Case Maximum	1255 rpm
Fan Speeds Closed Case Average	1236 rpm
Noise emission (air) Maximum	33.2 dB(A)
Noise Emission (Air) Average	30.9 dB(A)
Noise Emission (Air) Idle	0 dB(A)
Sound characteristic / Hearing impression	hardly lower frequency bearing noises easily audible engine noise< 1 Hz hardly spool-feathers discreet air/demolition noises

To illustrate our subjective audio impression once again, we now have a high-resolution graphic with the complete frequency spectrum of our laboratory measurement: