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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+ |
I’ve had this card for 3 weeks now and paid £503 before the £43 cashback. I bought it to replace a 290X which I advertised and sold within one day for £200 (is Bitcoin mining still a thing?), so all in this new card has cost me £260. That’s the only way I can justify paying such a ludicrous amount for a GPU.
My 290X Vapor-x was a brilliant card but it was huuuuuuge, 2.5 slots, triple fan, weighed a ton and was seriously loud more so under any sort of Overclock. My first impressions of the MSI GTX1080 Gaming X was just how small it seemed, small but wide, this made sense as the fans are a lot bigger. Once I installed it I visited the MSI site and was bombarded with software: afterburner, MSI app, streaming software, in an ideal world I’d love to see it all under one program but I understand some non MSI owners just want afterburner. As for the card, I’ve been blown away by just how many games I can play with the fans in stop mode and as for the triple AAA titles, I’m playing them all at Ultra 1440p and the fans are totally inaudible in my Phanteks Evolv mATX Tempered Glass. I can’t recommend this card highly enough.
Double posting as I have a question and a note:
Firstly at 1440p I’ve restarted The Witcher 3 and everything is on Ultra/Max whatever you want to call it with Hairworks on all and I’m seeing a steady 85-90fps.
Secondly If I got a 4K GSYNC monitor I know the card is not upto the resolution in all games so I know I can drop the settings from Very high to high etc, but if I drop the resolution from 4K to a lower resolution for select games does GSYC still work as intended?
I’m torn between a 4K monitor or a Very good 1440p higher refresh rate monitor.
Take both.
What kind of game are you playing ?
All the new stuff from Esports to Cinematic, so Overwatch to Witcher 3, Battlefield 1, Total warhammer, minds gone blank cos I’m at my folks…. hi burglars I’m watching you, but heavy heavy gpu stuff. I will get my money’s worth. Thanks in advance for any advice.
G-Sync doesn’t care about resolution.
That’s good to know, thanks.
I’v got a 27″ (1440p) IPS DELL (60hz) and I think, from what read about, i’m going to upgrade to 27″ 144hz. I’ll keep my DELL for Photo stuff but for gaming, 144hz might be the point of no return.
Don’t expect to see good IPS 2160p 144hz monitor anytime soon. Plus, there is no graphic card today capable of running a 4K game (with high settings) at +100fps. So what’s the point ? :p
For game way slower like witcher 3 a 60hz should be fine.
For people wanting this card a user has posted his came with 210W nominal and 220W max power limits vs the review card which has 220W nominal and 250W max.
What gives? Is MSI up to their old tricks with 1080’s by giving reviewers cards with higher performance than retail? This is pretty disgraceful if so and makes a mockery of reviews.
X Plus VBIOS 86.04.66.00.52 with 220W max power limit. https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/193984/193984