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MSI GeForce GTX 1080 ARMOR 8G OC (8 GB)

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 ARMOR 8G OC

8 GB

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5 reviews

  • arsarsars1337

    8 years ago

    Quiet. Fast. Unreasonably expensive.

    I am using this with a i7-3770K inside a Fractal Node 304 Mini-ITX case. The host is running ArchLinux and I am using VGA passthrough to assign the GPU to a Windows VM (for gaming) or a Linux VM (for machine learning). Output is connected to a BenQ W1070 projector.

    First impressions:
    - Witcher 3 is butter-smooth at 2560x1440 @ultra settings (using DSR from the Nvidia control panel to render at that resolution.)
    - Theano runs around 20-30% faster than on a Titan X on various workloads.
    - Fans do not spin until 60C. Totally silent on idle. When playing Witcher 3 the fans spin up but still sound smooth (wind noise) with a just a hint of motor drone. They are significantly quieter than the projector, and much much quieter than the Founder's Edition blower-style fan.
    - Power usage is 8-9W on idle. This is higher than the Founder's Edition (4-6W) but quite acceptable. The max power limit is 240W, which is higher than the Founder's Edition (180W).
    - This card does not have a backplate. It feels slightly less rigid and is a bit harder to handle than the Founder's Edition cards.
    - This card takes a 8 and a 6pin power connector. The Founder's edition takes just a single 8pin connector.

    Verdict: excellent performance, good acoustics, super expensive. For most use cases, this is a better choice than the Founder's Edition cards.     

    Pro

    • Quieter and cooler than the Founder's Edition cards. Silent on idle
    • Excellent gaming performance at 1440p-1800p @ultra settings
    • Excellent performance for machine learning
    • Low idle power draw
    • No backplate helps in tight Mini-ITX setups

    Contra

    • This is currently 120-150chf more expensive than the MSRP
    • No backplate makes it harder to hold, install and clean
    • This thing is surprisingly heavy
    • Nvidia driver shenanigans to block virtualisation. Does not support Linux GBM or Wayland.
  • Nemo92

    6 years ago •
    purchased this product

    Do not regret the purchase

    Replaced my old 760 with this card, although it is now known that the 11xx series will be announced soon. I just couldn't wait any longer. Here are the reasons why I still don't regret the purchase:

    The card idles at about     30 degrees and just gets up to 70 degrees Celsius under load (gaming: PUBG/Witcher 3) and that even though the airflow in my case is suboptimal and also stays quiet - without overclocking and max/ultra settings. So it cools very well (the Strix from ASUS is certainly better, but also completely exaggerated). Overclocking is very easy with MSI Afterburner and you can even adjust the fan curve. Performance can therefore be optimised very well.

    Installation in the case was relatively easy. I bought an old X2000 from digitec in summer 2013. Unfortunately, the 3.5 inch bay with the multi-card reader had to be removed because it was 1 cm away - not a big deal since I never use the thing anyway. In terms of size, however, this 1080 should fit in most cases (midi tower) without any problems (with the Strix you have much more problems here).

    I bought it for 700.- (which is still 100.- over MSRP) here recently. Considering the price situation in the graphics card market, this card is currently the clear price/performance winner (unless you find a 1070 ti for 600.-, which you can then easily overclock and bring to the performance of a 1080).

    Finally, the last factor: the look. The 2 fan design looks good and does what it should, as mentioned above. Of all the models, the black and white colour scheme suits the planned build best, which is also coming in a few months. Unfortunately, the thing comes without a backplate, which is absolutely wrong for a high-end graphics card and at this price. So I'll have to get another one on the net for an extra 50.- and then screw it on myself...     

    Pro

    • Price/performance (as of end of April 2018)
    • Cools well and remains quiet
    • Design that suits me
    • MSI Afterburner for easy overclocking

    Contra

    • Price
    • without backplate
  • Wyrx

    8 years ago •
    purchased this product

    Significantly better than the reference cards

    I upgraded from a reference GTX 980 Ti due to my old card dying.
    Performance is noticeably better, but not really worth the price. The 980 Ti is still a very decent card by comparison, even in 4k.

    The biggest improvement     over my reference 980 Ti is the noise and cooling. The 980 Ti would very quickly get very hot under load. It didn't perform quite as well as it should have (according to benchmarks), likely because it quickly hit its target temperature (83°C) and started throttling. Trying to get the fans turn faster improved performance, but also made the card very loud. At 110% power target and with sufficiently fast fans, the card would come close to a 1080 at the cost of extreme noise.

    Enter the MSI 1080 Armor.
    On idle, the fans don't spin (as opposed to the 22% minimum fan speed of the reference 980 Ti). The card still manages to run cooler than the reference 980 Ti.
    Under load, the card would never reach 80°C and still remains very quiet. At 70% fan speed, the card is still very quiet. At 100% fan speed, it gets a bit loud. If you wear a headset, you probably won't hear the card, even at 100% fan speed.

    Even though it was quite expensive, I don't regret buying this card. The better performance wasn't quite worth the price, but the significantly better cooling makes up for it.

    If you're looking for a silent card that performs well, buy this. If you have a 980 Ti and are very satisfied with it, wait for the next generation.     

    Pro

    • Quiet, even under load
    • Great cooling performance
    • Best performance money can buy (aside from the Titan X 2016)

    Contra

    • Price a bit high; not quite worth it for owners of a 980 Ti
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