A Closer Look

MSI's thermal solution uses six heatpipes to keep the GPU cool. This is the exact same cooler as on the regular non-Plus GTX 1080 Gaming X.


Once the main heatsink is removed, you will see two black heatsinks that cover the memory chips and voltage regulation circuitry.


The backplate is made from metal and protects the card against damage during installation and handling.


Just like on the non-Plus version, MSI has upgraded the power input of their GTX 1080 to an 8-pin and a 6-pin. This input configuration is specified for up to 300 watts of power draw.


The uPI uP9511P is the same voltage controller as on the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070.


This is why the card is called "Plus". The memory chips have been upgraded to faster chips from Micron, which are marked with "D9VRL," which decodes to MT58K256M321JA-110. They are specified to run at 1375 MHz (11,000 MHz GDDR5X effective); the non-Plus card has memory chips that are rated for 1,250 MHz.


NVIDIA's GP104 graphics processor is the first consumer chip using the Pascal architecture. It is produced on a 16 nm process at TSMC, Taiwan, and has a transistor count of 7.1 billion and a die size of 314 mm².