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MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z review: Cool, fast, and quiet

By Koh Wanzi - 26 Jul 2016

Introduction

Roaring right out of the box

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z 8G

The Founders Edition of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is one good-looking card, but maybe you want some of the bells and whistles that NVIDIA’s partners are offering, like factory overclocks, fancy cooling shrouds, and RGB illumination.

But when it comes to picking out a custom card, you’re quite literally spoilt for choice. There is a wide range of looks, features, and clock speeds, and as it turns out, some of these are even cheaper than the S$1,188 Founders Edition card. Case in point: The Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Super JetStream costs just S$999, and is the cheapest GTX 1080 available locally.

Then again, maybe you want to squeeze extra performance out of the GeForce GTX 1080, and don’t quite want to overclock the card on your own. That’s where the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z comes in. This card boasts some of the most aggressive factory overclocks we’ve seen, even higher than the Gaming X series of cards.

The Gaming Z card actually upstages its Gaming X counterpart at the top of MSI’s product stack, and you can expect the best out-of-the-box performance, in addition to a couple of other features like an illuminated backplate and upgraded power phase design.

 

Same same but different

Which is which?

At first glance however, it’s actually a little tricky to differentiate the Gaming Z and Gaming X cards. If you don’t look at their backplates, the cards actually look identical. But flip them over, and you’ll start to notice the difference.

For starters, the subtle dragon insignia on the Gaming X card has been replaced by an illuminated MSI logo on the Gaming Z. We actually prefer the look of the Gaming X backplate, but this is probably as good a way as any to differentiate the two.

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z

Diving deeper into specifications, you’ll also notice that the Gaming Z is clocked quite a bit higher than the Gaming X card. Here’s a table comparing their respective clock speeds in Silent, Gaming, and OC mode:

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z and Gaming X compared
 
MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z
MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X
OC mode Base clock: 1,771MHz
Boost clock: 1,991MHz
Base clock: 1,708MHz
Boost clock: 1,847MHz
Gaming mode Base clock: 1,733MHz
Boost clock: 1,873MHz
Base clock: 1,683MHz
Boost clock: 1,822MHz
Silent mode Base clock: 1,607MHz
Boost clock: 1,733MHz
Base clock: 1,607MHz
Boost clock: 1,733MHz

To put things in perspective, the Gaming Z card has a nice 164MHz overclock over the base clock on the Founders Edition model. We managed to overclock the latter card to a high of 1,853MHz, so the Gaming Z actually covers a lot of that distance right out of the box.

There’s less of a difference when it comes to the memory clocks, and both cards have an effective memory clock of 10,108MHz in OC mode (the Gaming Z card retains this speed in Gaming mode, while the Gaming X drops down to 10,010MHz).

Here's a quick snapshot to sum up the card's specifications.

Remember the brief uproar over supposed “golden” cards being sent to reviewers? Well, there’s nothing special about our review unit, and it is a representative sample of what you’ll get if you buy the card through regular retail channels. The only difference is that our card operates in OC mode by default, whereas retail units will ship in Gaming mode.

You’ll need to use the MSI Gaming App to toggle between the three different clock speed settings, and also to play around with the lighting effects. You’ll have your choice of eight different lighting modes, but if you own an MSI motherboard with the Mystic Lighting feature, you can also sync the two together. In addition, the RGB lighting can be set to pulse in time with music or in-game sounds.

MSI Gaming App

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z 8G

Another edge the GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z has over the Gaming X is its custom PCB and upgraded power phase design. The card features a 10+1 phase power design, a doubling of the 5-phase power delivery circuit on the Founders Edition card. The additional power phases should theoretically help provide cleaner and more stable power, and MSI has clearly designed this card to be overclocked.

In addition, you’ll find an extra 6-pin power connector on board that supplies an additional 75 watts of power to the GPU. This puts the total available power draw somewhere in the range of 300 watts.

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z 8G

The card’s Twin Frozr VI cooler also sports several upgrades over the previous generation Twin Frozr V cooler. For one, the Torx fans have been upgraded to version 2.0, which use double ball bearings for quieter and more reliable operation.

The performance of more common sleeve bearing fans is known to deteriorate more easily over time as the oil in the bearings dries out, and this decline is accelerated when the fan is mounted in any orientation other than vertical (graphics cards fans are mounted horizontally when considering the vertical tower orientation). In comparison, the longevity of double ball bearing fans is not affected by the mounting orientation, and they use thicker lubricants that are less susceptible to evaporation.

The blades on the Torx 2.0 fans also feature steeper curves and are grouped closer together. According to MSI, the cumulative effect of this higher static pressure and airflow translates into improved cooling performance.

The heatsink itself has also been tweaked to perform even better. It utilizes smooth sintered copper heatpipes that flatten out at the bottom to maximize the surface area in contact with the copper base plate. The base plate itself is built from what MSI says is nickel-plated anti-oxidized copper that is designed to perform consistently even after long hours of high temperatures.

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z

This is actually a very silent cooler, and MSI has done an admirable job of keeping the card quiet under load. Even when we were running demanding titles, the card purred along silently, and you shouldn’t even worry about it bothering you.

Finally, the card has the usual array of display connectors, including three DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI port, and one DVI output. MSI hasn’t made any tweaks to facilitate better compatibility with VR headsets, so this isn’t one of those cards that you’ll be able to hook up both your monitor and VR headset to over HDMI.

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z

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9.0
  • Performance 9.5
  • Features 9
  • Value 7.5
The Good
Aggressive factory overclocks net you excellent out-of-the-box performance
Runs very cool and quiet
RGB lighting effects allow you to jazz up your system easily
The Bad
Higher power consumption than Founders Edition card
Doesn't overclock as well as expected
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