Introduction

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a mean machine based on NVIDIA's second biggest implementation of its "Pascal" architecture, the 16 nm "GP102" silicon. This is the same chip that drives the TITAN X Pascal. The GTX 1080 Ti features the same number of CUDA cores as the latest TITAN, at 3,584 spread across 28 streaming multiprocessors. There is some cost-cutting here, but none that is designed to lower performance - the chip has a slightly narrower memory bus at 352 bit; that's one memory chip less than what you'd find on the TITAN X Pascal. The total memory amount is hence 11 GB. A cluster of ROPs is also disabled, so you now get 88 ROPs (as opposed to the 96 ROPs on the TITAN). The memory chips are, however, clocked 10% higher to make up for the 8.3% narrower memory bus. This move also translates into cost savings due to the lack of a 12th memory chip and probably better yields for the GP102 chip.



The MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X is one of the more hotly anticipated custom-design GTX 1080 Ti cards owing to the reputation the company built over its predecessors' exceptionally low noise output and power draw. The GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X we review today features a beefier 2.5-slot thick version of the TwinFrozr VI cooling solution which debuted with the GTX 1080 Gaming series, mated to a custom-design PCB that draws power from a pair of 8-pin power connectors. The card also comes with a moderately high factory overclock out of the box and is priced at a $50 premium over reference.