Msi Geforce Gtx 1080 Ti Armor Oc Review

MSI's GTX 1080 Ti Armor carte piqued our attending for its weak stock cooler and non-reference PCB: The menu, at $700, appears to be the closest we'll get to a bare 1080 Ti PCB sale. It's an ideal liquid cooling candidate, particularly given the overwhelmingly negative user reviews pertaining to the carte's propensity to overheat. The photos made the Armor look like a Gaming X PCB -- something we praised in our PCB & VRM electric analysis -- merely with a GTX 1070 class cooler stuck onto information technology. If that were the case, it'd mean the 1080 Ti Armor would perform dismally in thermals when tested with its stock cooler, merely could make for a perfect H2o carte.

Nosotros decided to purchase ane and find out why the MSI Armor had such bad user reviews, and if it'd be possible to turn the card into the best deal for a liquid-cooled 1080 Ti.

These are some of the reviews on the bill of fare'southward respective product pages, where it before long holds an average 1-star review on Amazon, with 46% 1-star and 2-star reviews on Newegg. Near of the reviews mutter of loftier temperatures and fan whine, with some references to curlicue whine. The temperature and noise portion of this is easy to empathise:

The above is a GTX 1070 Armor libation. The 1070 cooler is not perfectly identical to the 1080 Ti Armor's cooler, just they are close -- the sizing is almost the same, making the Armor's cooler await comically pocket-size atop the oversized PCB. The 1080 Ti variant of the Armor cooler seems to accept a slightly unlike heatpipe layout and more aggressive (read: louder) fan bend:

The PCB is the same as the Gaming X, though, which means that MSI is the only visitor using a high-quality, custom PCB in a carte of this price category -- the price was made possible past the unfit cooling solution. Information technology'due south an interesting approach, and one nosotros're non certain that MSI took intentionally. There are some changes to the LDO, fan control, and LEDs over the Gaming X PCB, simply that's it. The bill of fare is otherwise using the same components. Hither'south a look at the 1080 Ti Gaming X PCB, for reference:

To a higher place: Gaming 10 PCB analysis.

Spot the differences.

The top-left labeling for "LDO" has some changes, the fans have changes, merely the rest is the aforementioned. To this end, the MSI 1080 Ti Armor is a Gaming X PCB for $50 cheaper, making it a prime liquid cooling candidate. We'll be using the new NZXT Kraken G12 retention kit with an Asetek 570LC and EVGA Hybrid fan for our liquid cooling solution, with the next page better illustrating the affect of that hardware modification.

GPU Testing Methodology

For our benchmarks today, we're using a fully rebuilt GPU exam demote for 2017. This is our outset full prepare of GPUs for the year, giving u.s. an opportunity to motion to an i7-7700K platform that'due south clocked higher than our onetime GPU test bed. For all the excitement that comes with a new GPU examination bench and a clean slate to work with, we also lose some information: Our old GPU tests are completely incomparable to these results due to a new set of numbers, completely new testing methodology, new game settings, and new games existence tested with. DOOM, for example, at present has a new test methodology backside it. Nosotros've moved to Ultra graphics settings with 0xAA and async enabled, also dropping OpenGL entirely in favor of Vulkan + more Dx12 tests.

We've also automated a significant portion of our testing at this point, reducing manual workload in favor of greater focus on analytics.

Driver version 378.78 (press-ready drivers for 1080 Ti, provided by nVidia) was used for all nVidia devices. Version 17.10.1030-B8 was used for AMD (press drivers).

A separate bench is used for game performance and for thermal performance.

Thermal Test Demote

Our examination methodology for the is largely parallel to our EVGA VRM terminal torture test that nosotros published belatedly last year. We use logging software to monitor the NTCs on EVGA'south ICX card, with our own calibrated thermocouples mounted to ability components for non-ICX monitoring. Our thermocouples use an adhesive pad that is 1/100th of an inch thick, and does non interfere in whatever meaningful way with thermal transfer. The pad is a combination of polyimide and polymethylphenylsiloxane, and the thermocouple is a K-type hooked up to a logging meter. Scale offsets are practical every bit necessary, with the exact aforementioned thermocouples used in the aforementioned spots for each test.

Torture testing used Kombustor's 'Furry Donut' testing, 3DMark, and a few games (to determine auto fan speeds under 'real' usage atmospheric condition, used later for noise level testing).

Our tests use cocky-adhesive, ane/100th-inch thick (read: laser thin, does not crusade "air gaps") K-type thermocouples directly to the rear-side of the PCB and to hotspot MOSFETs numbers ii and 7 when counting from the lesser of the PCB. The thermocouples used are flat and are self-adhesive (from Omega), equally recommended by thermal engineers in the industry -- including Bobby Kinstle of Corsair, whom we previously interviewed.

K-blazon thermocouples have a known range of approximately 2.2C. We calibrated our thermocouples by providing them an "ice bath," so providing them a boiling water bath. This provided us the information required to empathise and accommodate results appropriately.

Considering we take concerns pertaining to thermal conductivity and bear upon of the thermocouple pad in its placement expanse, we selected the pads discussed above for uninterrupted performance of the libation past the examination equipment. Conductivity is also a concern, as you don't desire bare wire to cause an electrical short on the PCB. Fortunately, these thermocouples are non electrically conductive along the wire or placement pad, with the wire using a PTFE coating with a xxx AWG (~0.0100"⌀). The thermocouples are 914mm long and connect into our dual logging thermocouple readers, which and so have second by second measurements of temperature. We also log ambient, and apply an ambient modifier where necessary to adjust test passes then that they are off-white.

The response time of our thermocouples is 0.15s, with an accompanying resolution of 0.1C. The laminates arae fiberglass-reinforced polymer layers, with junction insulation comprised of polyimide and fiberglass. The thermocouples are rated for but under 200C, which is enough for any VRM testing (and if nosotros go over that, something will probably blow, anyway).

To avoid EMI, we mostly gauge-and-check placement of the thermocouples. EMI is caused by power plane PCBs and inductors. We were able to avert electromagnetic interference by routing the thermocouple wiring correct, toward the less populated half of the board, and then downward. The cables exit the board near the PCI-e slot and avoid crossing inductors. This resulted in no appreciable/measurable EMI with regard to temperature readings.

We decided to deploy AIDA64 and GPU-Z to mensurate straight temperatures of the GPU and the CPU (becomes relevant during torture testing, when we dump the CPU radiator'southward rut straight into the VRM fan). In improver to this, logging of fan speeds, VID, vCore, and other aspects of power direction were logged. We then use EVGA'south custom Precision build to log the thermistor readings second by second, matched against and validated between our own thermocouples.

The primary exam platform is detailed below:

GN Test Demote 2015	Name	Courtesy Of	Cost
Video Card	This is what we're testing	-	-
CPU	Intel i7-5930K CPU iii.8GHz	iBUYPOWER	$580
Memory	Corsair Dominator 32GB 3200MHz	Corsair	$210
Motherboard	EVGA X99 Classified	GamersNexus	$365
Power Supply	NZXT 1200W HALE90 V2	NZXT	$300
SSD	OCZ ARC100 Crucial 1TB	Kingston Tech.	$130
Case	Top Deck Tech Station	GamersNexus	$250
CPU Cooler	Asetek 570LC	Asetek	-

Annotation as well that we bandy test benches for the GPU thermal testing, using instead our "red" bench with three instance fans -- only 1 is continued (directed at CPU surface area) -- and an elevated standoff for the 120mm fat radiator cooler from Asetek (for the CPU) with Gentle Draft fan at max RPM. This is elevated out of airflow pathways for the GPU, and is irrelevant to testing -- but we're detailing it for our own notes in the hereafter.

Game Bench

GN Test Demote 2017	Name	Courtesy Of	Cost
Video Carte du jour	This is what nosotros're testing	-	-
CPU	Intel i7-7700K iv.5GHz locked	GamersNexus	$330
Memory	GSkill Trident Z 3200MHz C14	Gskill	-
Motherboard	Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 7 Z270X	Gigabyte	$240
Power Supply	NZXT 1200W HALE90 V2	NZXT	$300
SSD	Plextor M7V Crucial 1TB	GamersNexus	-
Case	Top Deck Tech Station	GamersNexus	$250
CPU Libation	Asetek 570LC	Asetek	-

BIOS settings include C-states completely disabled with the CPU locked to iv.5GHz at 1.32 vCore. Retentiveness is at XMP1.

We communicated with both AMD and nVidia about the new titles on the bench, and gave each company the opportunity to 'vote' for a title they'd similar to see us add. We figure this will help even out some of the game biases that be. AMD doesn't make a big showing today, merely volition soon. We are testing:

• Ghost Recon: Wildlands (congenital-in bench, Very High; recommended by nVidia)
• Sniper Elite 4 (High, Async, Dx12; recommended past AMD)
• For Honor (Extreme, manual bench every bit built-in is unrealistically abusive)
• Ashes of the Singularity (GPU-focused, Loftier, Dx12)
• DOOM (Vulkan, Ultra, 0xAA, Async)

Synthetics:

• 3DMark FireStrike
• 3DMark FireStrike Extreme
• 3DMark FireStrike Ultra
• 3DMark TimeSpy

For measurement tools, we're using PresentMon for Dx12/Vulkan titles and FRAPS for Dx11 titles. OnPresent is the preferred output for us, which is then fed through our own script to summate i% low and 0.i% low metrics (divers here).

Ability testing is taken at the wall. One case fan is connected, both SSDs, and the system is otherwise left in the "Game Demote" configuration.

Continue to Folio 2 for thermal & dissonance testing.

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Source: https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/2927-msi-1080ti-armor-review-high-temps?showall=1

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