MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio Review – The Most Stunning Tri Frozr With Dragon Design

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio Overview

The MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio features a fully custom card design. There are two things to note here, the Tri Frozr cooling and a beefy PCB design with Military Class components.

The Gaming X Trio has lots of similarities to MSI's flagship Lightning X, you may even go as far as calling it a more tamed version of the Lightning with its own advantages. This beefy graphics card features a 2.5 slot design and a triple fan cooler which looks amazing.

The Gaming X Trio features the latest revision of MSI’s Tri-Frozr cooling solution that houses triple Torx 2.0 fans with double ball bearings. This cooling shroud features a black, silver and red color scheme that is themed like a dragon. The card includes MSI's Mystic Light RGB technology on the backplate which is fully customizable.

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The cooling is provided by dual Torx 2.0 fans that come with dispersion fan blades and double ball bearings. These extend the cooling airflow and deliver low noise output even under intense loads. Furthermore, MSI's ZeroFrozr technology is onboard which means that the fans won't spin unless temperatures hit beyond 60C (Degrees). MSI is also using the latest Wave-Curved cooling system that splits the airflow and increases 10% effective heat dissipation area for better cooling.

The triple MSI TORX 2.0 Fan technology uses the power of teamwork to allow the hefty Tri-Frozr thermal design to achieve new levels of cool. These fans push air towards a very dense aluminum fin based heatsink block. This heatsink is fitted with a total of a total of 6 heatpipes that include 2 super pipes and 4 regular heatpipes, offering great cooling for the GPU, memory and VRM chips. The heatpipes lead towards are large nickel plated copper base which makes direct contact with the GPU.

MSI also features an anti-bending plate to support the PCB alongside a PCB backplate. The top of the shroud and the backplate comes with LED functionality allowing you to change the colors of MSI logo on the side of the card.

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There's also a separate PCB base plate that is called "Close Quarter heatsink". This delivers better thermal performance to memory, VRM and electrical components and even has its own separate heatpipe cooling.

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio Clock Specifications - A More Tamed Version of The Lightning X

As for clock speeds, the GP102 GPU with 3584 CUDA cores is configured in three modes. The Silent mode runs the card at 1480 MHz base and 1582 MHz boost clocks which is the reference speed. In Gaming mode, the card operates at 1544 MHz base and 1657MHz boost. Finally, we have the best Lightning mode which configures the card to operate at 1569 MHz base and 1683 MHz boost clock. For power delivery, the card features triple 8-pin connectors so we are looking at a very beefy VRM power delivery system.

Memory on the card is 11 GB of GDDR5X VRAM that is clocked at a reference speed of 11000 MHz. With Gaming and Lightning modes, the memory overclocks to 11120 MHz for a good performance boost. The display connectivity on the card includes dual DisplayPort DVI, dual HDMI 2.0 and a single DVI port. Overall, this card operates as the same frequencies as the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X graphics card.

In terms of clock speed, we are looking at three modes which are listed below:

Boost Clock / Base Clock / Memory Frequency

• 1683 MHz / 1569 MHz / 11124 MHz (OC Mode)
• 1657 MHz / 1544 MHz / 11016 MHz (Gaming Mode)
• 1582 MHz / 1480 MHz / 11016 MHz (Silent Mode)

Coming to the PCB, we are looking at a fully custom design that doesn't got to as extreme lengths as the GTX 1080 Ti Lightning. Featuring MSI's Military Class IV components and 10 DrMOS power phases the card is based on High-end components such as 60 A, DrMOS MOSFETs, Hi-C CAP, Super Ferrite Chokes and solid state capacitors. Unlike the triple 8 pin connector setup on the Lightning, the Gaming X Trio relies on two 8 pin power connectors that are still able to supply the card with 300 Watts of power.

There's also multi-temp monitor sensors on board the PCB which monitor temperatures of various parts such as GPU, Memory, VRM through MSI's AfterBurner application.

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9.5

WCCFTECH RATING

Once again, a solid performer by MSI that hits all the right notes by delivering a solid and refreshing new Dragon themed cooler while providing end users with great cooling and blistering fast performance that you would expect from the GTX 1080 Ti.

Pros

• Great performance at 4K resolution
• Upgrade From GTX 980 Ti and GTX 1070 will see huge performance leap.
• Factory Overclocked Out of Box. Ships with 3 profiles (Silent/Gaming/OC)
• Tri Frozr heatsink cooling performance is great
• Refreshing new MSI Gaming design which sticks to the roots of Dragon theme
• ZeroFrozr Technology Included on Torx 2.0 fans
• Great overclocking potential, full tuning options with MSI Afterburner app
• Memory modules on the Gaming X Trio can hit more than 500 GB/s bandwidth
• Backplate includes heatpipe solution for increased heat dissipation
• RGB Lighting support on the shroud and backplate are a plus
• Good driver support for GeForce products, compatibility with DX11, DX12, Vulkan, OpenGL titles
• Performance per watt is great on Pascal graphics cards
• Lot's of display connectivity, great for VR and multi-display PCs.

Cons

• High price, not for mainstream gamers. ($800 USD)
• Overclocking gains not noticeable in some games.
• Bulky design, requires lot's of room for installation.

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