MSI GeForce GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X review
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Embra
Great review, great temps! The price??
Loophole35
Boss are you going to get a chance to test the custom loop card from MSI or just this AIO?
Newegg was listing it at $750.
Agent-A01
Because passive cooling on VRM is stupid. Those AIOs only cover the GPU.
oh cool 50c max on gpu but VRMs are hitting 90+c
I don't see the logic in the gigabyte one.
GeniusPr0
This is $1100 CDN. I would rather have an eVGA hybrid. The price is quite high though. Same price as 2 1070s.
Embra
You should definitely grab one.
Loophole35
Naw if I get one it will be the cheapest reference board and slap a EK full cover on it. That's if I get one. I may wait for big Pascal or Vega/Navi
GeniusPr0
3 year warranty vs. Gigabyte's cheaper liquid card's 4 year
EL1TE
Thank you very much for this review, i had it under consideration and after seeing it doesn't get past 50ºC under load i'm quite interested on it.
However, it costs more 110€ than the ASUS Strix/MSI Gaming X, besides the temps what real advantages would i expect? (Never had a Water cooled GPU before).
Overclock vs air cooled options doesn't seem that much different, i'd say not worth the difference in price, am i missing something? Thanks.
EDIT: I've Ordered mine, let's see how long will it take to arrive. 🤓
haslam22
It's £699 at Overclockers. £829 at Scan. You've misread the prices.
Scan actually has the most unreasonable prices across the board, for all GTX 1080's. Overclockers or Amazon have the best prices as of now AND they offer free shipping.
It amazes me how people still shop at Scan.
chispy
Great review Hilbert thanks. Temperatures are awesome for this card , but the expensive price and the same overclocking as every other Founders edition on it is a let down 😏, let's hope it gets better with the 1080Ti 🙂
Fender178
Not bad OCing for the card. It surely out OCs some FE cards that I have seen them getting not to much past 2060mhz at max.
waltc3
I often wonder if the people who knowingly spend $1000 on a 3d card fully understand that in six months (or less) some other card is going to be released that will be faster/better in several respects and maybe cost 1/3 as much or less? And often these cards are released by the same IHV who released the cards for which they paid $1k. The depreciation is worse than an automobile...! I'm happy for people who find pleasure in this kind of product--good for them--but I confess to not understanding them much at all...!
RmVA
Does anyone SLI these? 🙂
geogan
Yeah I was a sucker once when I paid 600 for the 5970 at the time when it was top of the range, then only sold it for about 100 years later.
When the 7990 came out, it was originally over 1000 when it was best-of-the-best but in a few months, it was down to about 400 I think - that's when I got it.
The thing that annoys me is people buying the fastest card last year for x amount, running the **** out of it and/or overclocking it for a year, and then when the next gen card comes out, they attempt to sell their old one for the same price they bought it for, pretending it was an "unwanted present" or "bought two weeks ago" or the other bloody annoying obvious lies on second-hand adverts :bang:
The Goose
Which is why i chose to sli my Evga gtx980ti classified and score 13xxx in extreme test and 75xx in ultra just a shame Ets2 doesn't take advantage of the power.
The Goose
Scan`s prices are all over the place, i was looking at there MSI GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X last week for £651 and now its £709....ive used Scan for years but ive never seen prices jump like this, although theyve knocked £100+ of there evga 980ti`s
JBinDC
Hi there! Great review, thanks! I do have a question about OC'ing, however. I bought this exact card the day after launch -- mainly because it was the only 1080 they had at the MicroCenter store I went to in Northern VA, but also because I tend to prefer MSI products -- my previous gfx card was a GTX 970 Gaming 4G and it worked great. Had the store had a Gaming X in inventory, that would've been my first choice.
With my new MSI 1080 Sea Hawk, I've been playing around with the Afterburner utility in an attempt to find the sweet spot for OC'ing as well. However, I'm not able to ramp up my memory clock anywhere near +700 mhz, as you've suggested. In fact, anything above a +100 mhz boost creates artifacts and/or crashes the driver. I'm wondering, does this simply mean I had bad luck with the memory? Another issue I've had is with the Gaming App. When I installed and began using it, it really messed with my fps. As soon as I uninstalled it, this problem went away.
Otherwise, I've really enjoyed the card -- it handles anything I throw at it, which right now is mainly Overwatch, WoW, Witcher 3 and MGS5 PP.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Hey JB,
Welcome at Guru3D.
The +700 MHz on the memory is pushing it, but some boards run stable where others don't. Realistically +500 or +600 should be a sweet spot for the Samsung memory. I'd suggest 9 Gbps as very stable target.
The +100 on the core indeed seems a little low. Here again, it might be bad luck with ASIC quality. The MSI APP (and any other software based app from other brands) all do suck and often show crazy stuff. I've seen OC Guru from Gigabyte do the weirdest stuff for example, hence we do not test with such software anymore. If you installed the MSI Gaming APP, ran OC mode and later on tried AfterBurner .. that might be where your trouble is to be found. Please uninstall the APP and try again.
Tweaking always can differ per and even PC (components used in the PC) and yes .. you need a bit of luck. Admittedly, my card overclocked like a lunatic on steroids 🙂
JBinDC
Gotcha. I dl'ed the Afterburner 4.3 Beta 4 yesterday, after reading this review, and started playing around with it. The Core Clock seems fine at +150, it's just the memory clock that doesn't seem to like more than +100 very much. The Gaming App is definitely uninstalled, and I don't plan to use it anymore.
Thanks for the feedback! All in all, I'm quite happy with the card. Even if it cost me an arm and a leg!
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Ahw okay ? The memory clock that low is indeed weird as it should be capable of a +500 fairly easily, weird. Ah well, the +150 on the GPU sounds alright though.
Enjoy the card, it's a nice one alright.
