Tuesday, March 28th 2017
MSI Intros GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor and Aero Graphics Cards
MSI today launched the two other custom-design GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards apart from its Gaming X series, the GTX 1080 Ti Armor series, and the GTX 1080 Ti Aero series. Both lines further have variants that are factory-overclocked, and ones which stick to NVIDIA reference clock speeds. The GTX 1080 Ti Aero will be MSI's cheapest GTX 1080 Ti offering, which could sell on-par with NVIDIA's $699 Founders Edition SKU. It features a lateral-flow cooling solution that pushes hot air out of the case, much like the reference-design cooler. MSI improved upon the drab black plastic cooler shroud design of previous Aero series products with streaks of NVIDIA's favorite shade of green, which lends the card a Quadro-like appearance. The base GTX 1080 Ti Aero sticks to NVIDIA-reference clocks of 1480/1582/11000 MHz (core/GPU Boost/memory), while the OC variant ticks at 1506/1620 MHz, leaving the memory untouched.
The GTX 1080 Ti Armor series is a little more exciting. Part of MSI's Arsenal Gaming family, the Armor series cards are positioned between the Aero series and the Gaming X series. These cards feature an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of fans that spool down to zero when the GPU is idling. The card also appears to be using the same PCB as the GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X. The GTX 1080 Ti Armor sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds, while the Armor OC variant does 1531/1645 MHz (core/GPU Boost) out of the box, which is a little behind the 1569/1683/11200 MHz the Gaming X ships with.
The GTX 1080 Ti Armor series is a little more exciting. Part of MSI's Arsenal Gaming family, the Armor series cards are positioned between the Aero series and the Gaming X series. These cards feature an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of fans that spool down to zero when the GPU is idling. The card also appears to be using the same PCB as the GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X. The GTX 1080 Ti Armor sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds, while the Armor OC variant does 1531/1645 MHz (core/GPU Boost) out of the box, which is a little behind the 1569/1683/11200 MHz the Gaming X ships with.
27 Comments on MSI Intros GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor and Aero Graphics Cards
In practice the advantage is very minimal, but still. I had an Evga FTW 1070 that clocked 2176mhz and managed 2140mhz ingame and stayed there.
Gaming Series has TwinFrozR VI + BackPlate
Also on the 1080Ti Gaming Series the cooler is 2.5 slot.
also on the other difference iirc if it's like the 1070, they use the same PCB but the armor has a few less component (ie: 2 VRM/mosFET/caps and -1x 6pin) other than that both 1070 of each kind did OC quite similarly and only the lack of a backplate is a letdown (tho it has a frontplate that mitigate the sagging, if there would ever been one )
binning? not likely ;) both sample (Armor/Gaming X) reached similar core clock speed and boost (my armor had a slightly higher sustained boost for a lower clock than a gaming X for some time )
although usually Aero are cheaper than FE and a heck of a better deal for watercooling build over a FE... but in this case same price as a FE translate in : "thank you nvidiots for your greediness"
tho the sentence "which could sell on par with the fooler's edition" is unlikely ... imho
i suspect nvidia told MSI "price your Aero on par with our FE ... otherwise people will think it's a better deal and buy your ref card instead of our and we gonna not like it!"
prime argument is : watercooling and the Aero overruled them on that with the previous iteration, on the 1070 and 1080 Aero were cheaper than FE and, also, a better deal than a FE for watercooling (well ... if you have to take a gimped reference design for universal reference waterblock, you better take the cheaper one which has the real value of the card, over one that has an inflated price :laugh: )
another thing is: the Aero has a factory OC version also, well you can manually OC a FE nonetheless, but at last with a factory OC model you don't have to pay more for a FE and have to do it manually, unless the price is same tho even there if the price is same for a FE and a Aero OC : the choice should be the Aero
the Aero cooler is not bad looking at all and also have the LED on the side (MSI logo instead of Nvidia ... a plus :laugh: ) on the 1070 version the Aero max temp was under 78° FE: 82° ~
EVGA's FTW and FTW DT also definitely show a max clock difference, the DT version has been released for the sole purpose of chips that didn't make the ASIC rating for a FTW version, as a result they're slightly cheaper. (source: EVGA reps).
Besides, I don't have anything to prove to you, your loss if you don't want to trust me ^^
As I also pointed out, the actual result/advantage of binning these chips is extremely limited, but I'll challenge you to find me an MSI Armor 1070 OR 1080 that can get a 2200mhz max boost clock. My EVGA FTW 1070 pulled 2176mhz/2144mhz stable in game, and I see most chips top out at 2020-2070 sustained.
In the end what really matters is the clock that these chips can HOLD ON TO, not the max achievable boost, and you'll definitely find it to be slightly (!) higher on the top cards. There will also be a little bit more headroom in TDP budget to push a higher memory clock alongside a high core OC, as you know Pascal is TDP limited through BIOS, so a more efficient chip does net some advantages.
Armor:
Gaming:
here you have the one of the 1080 FE
Load: 2200RPM, 38.2 dBA, GPU 81C, VRM 76C
Aero (1070 but the cooler and fan remain the same )
100% speed = 3300 RPM. emperature is always under 78C during heavy 100% load.
(1080 yielded comparable noise and temperatures results)
ofc the fan max is faster on the Aero ;)
they are just as loud one to another and even at 2200rpm FE and 3300rpm Aero (funny nonetheless the Aero is comparable but with a higher fan speed) and both can have custom fan curve ... sooo i'd say at equivalent or lower price the strike is still a Aero OC (tho the best value card of the 3 listed here, if not wanting to go water : Armor OC )
to me the Aero has the same value as a FE : not worth it at all.