MSI GTX980 Ti Gaming 6G

1. Introduction2. MSI GTX980 Ti Gaming 6G3. High Res Gallery4. Testing Methodology5. 3DMark Vantage6. 3DMark 117. 3DMark8. Unigine Heaven Benchmark9. Grid AutoSport (1440p)10. Grid AutoSport (Ultra HD 4K)11. Tomb Raider (1440p)12. Tomb Raider (Ultra HD 4K)13. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (1440p)14. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Ultra HD 4K)15. Grand Theft Auto 5 (1440p)16. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Ultra HD 4k)17. Metro Last Light Redux (1440p)18. Metro Last Light Redux (Ultra HD 4K)19. Thermal Dynamics/IR Thermometer Readings20. Acoustics Performance21. Overclocking22. Power Consumption23. Closing Thoughts24. View All Pages

We have reviewed many GTX980 Ti partner cards in recent weeks and today the MSI GTX980 Ti Gaming 6G makes a somewhat belated appearance in our labs. This high end board is actually one of the cheapest flagship, overclocked Ti's currently available – hitting the £599.99 inc vat point – £30 less than the Gigabyte G1 Gaming and £60 less than the Asus STRIX Gaming Direct CU 3.

I said it many months ago, but the MSI Gaming series of cards are in my own humble opinion the finest looking of all the brands. Obviously opinions will vary but I adore the red inner fan shroud counterpointed with the black section and aggressive red claw stripes. Many of MSI's competitors have tried to copy this elegant design, but have failed. It still holds the beauty points in my book – the Cameron Diaz of graphics cards.

Aesthetically we are satisfied, however technically MSI haven't cut corners. The company are using dual Torx fans which maximise airflow and reduce flow noise – they spin down under low load situations and are designed to direct airflow towards the thick heatpipes. Obviously MSI focus on their use of ‘Military Class 4 components' which are certified to MIL-STD-810G standards for top stability and reliability. MSI are using Hi-c capacitors, solid capacitors and new SFC components  to ensure maximum longevity and stability.

GPU	GeForce GTX960	Geforce GTX970	GeForce GTX980	Geforce GTX 980 Ti	Geforce GTX Titan X
Streaming Multiprocessors	8	13	16	22	24
CUDA Cores	1024	1664	2048	2816	3072
Base Clock	1126 mhz	1050 mhz	1126 mhz	1000 mhz	1000 mhz
GPU Boost Clock	1178 mhz	1178 mhz	1216 mhz	1075 mhz	1076 mhz
Total Video memory	2GB	4GB	4GB	6GB	12GB
Texture Units	64	104	128	176	192
Texture fill-rate	72.1 Gigatexels/Sec	109.2 Gigatexels/Sec	144.1 Gigatexels/Sec	176 Gigatexels/Sec	192 Gigatexels/Sec
Memory Clock	7010 mhz	7000 mhz	7000 mhz	7000 mhz	7000 mhz
Memory Bandwidth	112.16 GB/sec	224 GB/s	224 GB/sec	336.5 GB/sec	336.5 GB/sec
Bus Width	128bit	256bit	256bit	384bit	384bit
ROPs	32	56	64	96	96
Manufacturing Process	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm
TDP	120 watts	145 watts	165 watts	250 watts	250 watts

The Nvidia GTX980 Ti ships with 2816 CUDA cores and 22 SM units. The memory subsystem of the GTX980 Ti consists of six 64-bit memory controllers (384-bit) with 6GB of GDDR5 memory.

The MSI GTX980 Ti Gaming 6G has received a clock boost over Nvidia’s reference card, with final speeds set at 1,178 mhz(core)/1,279mhz (boost). The memory is also overclocked, from default speeds of 1,753mhz (7Gbps effective) to 1,774mhz (7.1Gbps effective) – both MSI and ASUS decided to tweak the memory a little above reference which is always good to see.

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