Conclusion
Conclusion
When the GeForce GTX 980 Ti was released, a week prior to Computex, we were already impressed. And sure we expected board-partner releases, of course. But this good? Nah, we didn't see that one coming. Cards like shown today can get your performance upwards in a 10 to 20% region on top of the reference cards, whilst being more silent, better cooled and with killer looks really. A card like this Gaming OC edition simply beats the Titan X already, at a far better price. So yeah armed with 6GB of graphics memory and combined with the sheer rendering muscle this card has, you'll be future proof for a while. But do you really need a card as beefy as the GTX 980 Ti really is? Well no Sir, not at all if you are playing games in the 1080P or 2560x1440 monitor resolution domain. But it does help as you enable any quality settings you desire, and next to that DSR (super-sampling) is slowly becoming popular. With DSR you render at a higher resolution than sample it back to say 2560x1440, and that adds a level of extra image quality as pixels are calculated and rendered more accurately. We have an example of that in our benchmarks session, Shadow of Mordor which we rendered at a whopping Ultra HD and 5K and then output at 2560x1440. And yeah I know, it's all relative but these are options the true enthusiast crowd likes. Then there is Ultra HD, that brute resolution of 3840x2160 requires sheer raw horsepower to output its 4x Full HD resolution, and the GTX 980 Ti is one of two cards that can handle this resolution well with very decent image quality settings. Fair enough, value for money wise you are way better off with a card like the GeForce GTX 970 or 980, make no mistake about that. But this is enthusiast grade graphics hardware, and yeah it kinda rules.
Aesthetics
Personally I feel that MSI is going really well with the Gaming design, the dark matte PCB with red colored accents throughout the design. I absolutely like the new TwinFrozr revision V cooler, looks however are personal, that I have to mention. Then the overall dark design and the dark PCB combined with two fans and a MSI logo on top that you can configure based on animation are fun, but we recommend to just leave it at default, on. Otherwise it becomes a weird distraction.
Cooling & Noise Levels
The reference design of the GTX 980 Ti are set at an offset threshold of 80 degrees C. Once the GPU gets warmer the card will clock down and lower its voltage. MSI however throws in a cooler that manages roughly 500 to 600W of cooling performance. It is so good that up-to a degree or 60 on the GPU, this card remains passive and thus inaudible. Once the fans kick in, you can expect to hover around the 70 to maybe 75 Degrees C marker, with hefty games. Please do note that you will need proper ventilation inside your chassis to achieve that number. So MSI shaved off a good 10 Degrees C over reference. Noise wise, we can’t complain about cooling whatsoever. Expect sound pressure values in the 39 dBA range at max under load and warm circumstances. That's measured 75 CM away from the PC. This means you can barely hear the card while using it. Once overclocked with added voltage we do recommend a little more fan RPM, this does increase noise a tiny bit, but it's nothing dramatic by any standard. Overall this is a very sound and solid cooling solution.
Power Consumption
Much like the GM200 Maxwell GPU harbored in Titan X, this GTX 980 Ti is rated as having a 250 Watt TDP, our measurements back that up, bear in mind that this is a peak maximum value under full stress. At this performance level you are looking at a card that consumes roughly 450 Watts for the PC in total, that is okay. We measured 274 Watt for maximum graphics card power consumption. As such we would be comfortable advising a 600~650 Watts power supply if you do not go crazy overclocking wise. If you go with 2-way SLI, an 900~950 Watts power supply is recommended. Remember when purchasing a PSU, aim to double up in Wattage as your PSU is most efficient when it is under 50% load. Here again keep in mind we measure peak power consumption, the average power consumption is a good notch lower depending on GPU utilization. Also, if you plan to overclock the CPU/memory and / or GPU with added voltage, please do purchase a power supply with enough reserve. People often underestimate it, but if you tweak all three aforementioned variables, you can easily add 200 Watts to your peak power consumption budget.
Game Performance
We can't be any clearer about it, all ranges from 1080P to Ultra HD are very playable for the GeForce GTX 980Ti. Up-to WQHD (2560x1440) this card seems to be a true sweet-spot, however it is really capable of rendering games in that whopper of a resolution Ultra HD as well. You'll be in the 40 FPS on average domain with decent settings and the latest titles mostly, and that's ok. This much game rending horse-power versus the nice 6GB graphics memory helps you in Ultra HD, hefty complex anti-aliasing modes, DSR and of course the latest gaming titles. And that makes this the second viable single GPU solution that allows you to game properly in Ultra HD with some very nice eye candy enabled with a single GPU. Drivers wise we can't complain at all, we did not stumble into any issues. And with a single GPU there's no micro-stuttering to fight off. Performance wise, really there's not one game that won't run seriously good at the very best image quality settings. You must do gaming with a nice 30" monitor of course, at 2560x1440/1600 or Ultra HD.
Overclocking
The boost modes can be configured with temperature targets relative to maximum power draw and your GPU Core frequency offsets. Saying that; I realize it sounds complicated but you'll have your things balanced out quite fast as these products are easy to tweak. Our GPU sample could take a 1278 MHz base clock, add to that the dynamic boost clock and you'll see your games rendering in the 1400 to 1500 MHz domain. The memory you'll be able to get close to roughly 7.5 to 8 GHz effective. This card uses Hynix memory btw. Don't push memory too far though, and we certainly do not recommend adding voltage to that memory. The overclock potential is good, the cooler is doing a great job as well. Don't push it too much with added Voltage on the GPU, a mild 50mV extra was plenty for a nice tweak, whereas +87mV could create issues with down-clocking and crashes.
Concluding
Yes we can, must have been the catch phrase for MSI with the release of the Gaming OC edition of their GeForce GTX 980 Ti. From A to Z the board has been overhauled compared to reference, in fact the only common denominator is the usage of the Nvidia GPU, the rest MSI created themselves. The end results shows a very competitive GTX 980 Ti. The PCB looks beautiful, the GPU is kept at very acceptable temperatures, the components on-board remain at decent temperatures, the looks are grand, the board design is sturdy with metal plates,a nd even the backside is covered by a really well design back-plate. Seriously how can you not like this card ? So yes, the MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming OC edition is a stuly tremendous product that ticks all the right boxes. Heaps of performance, plenty of memory and a freaky experience in tweaking and overclocking is what I like. The performance is much faster than a GTX Titan X, yet pricing is much better at MSRP is $689.99 USD plus tax. Fluid framerates with low latency and frame pacing is what you'll play your games with. It does so while hardly making any noise and keeps itself at nice temperatures. Compared to the GeForce GTX 980 Ti at 2560x1440 you can expect an increase of up-to say 20% performance (over the reference GeForce GTX 980 Ti) and overclocked you can add another 10%. Interestingly enough at Ultra HD we see that number grow even better, the GTX 980 Ti likes exceptionally high resolutions. We adore the MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming OC edition, it is a tremendously nice build and definitely worth out top pick award. One fun thing remains though, it doesn't end here. MSI is working on a lightning edition of this card. We have no idea how much better a product like this can be, we can only dream. The MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming OC edition however is a terrific product, the GTX 980 Ti series however do come at a high price. But it can't get much better than this for sure. Superb job MSI. Well done.
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