MSI GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G Review

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4K: AC: Unity / Battlefield 4

Assassin’s Creed: Unity

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While it may not be the newest game around and it had its fair share of embarrassing hiccups at launch, Assassin's Creed: Unity is still one heck of a good looking DX11 title. In this benchmark we run through a typical gameplay sequence outside in Paris.

Battlefield 4

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In this sequence, we use the Singapore level which combines three of the game’s major elements: a decayed urban environment, a water-inundated city and finally a forested area. We chose not to include multiplayer results simply due to their randomness injecting results that make apples to apples comparisons impossible.

 

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4K: Dragon Age: Inquisition / Dying Light

Dragon Age: Inquisition

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Dragon Age: Inquisition is one of the most popular games around due to its engaging gameplay and open-world style. In our benchmark sequence we run through two typical areas: a busy town and through an outdoor environment.

Dying Light

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Dying Light is a relatively late addition to our benchmarking process but with good reason: it required multiple patches to optimize performance. While one of the patches handicapped viewing distance, this is still one of the most demanding games available.

 

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4K: Far Cry 4 / Grand Theft Auto V

Far Cry 4

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The latest game in Ubisoft’s Far Cry series takes up where the others left off by boasting some of the most impressive visuals we’ve seen. In order to emulate typical gameplay we run through the game’s main village, head out through an open area and then transition to the lower areas via a zipline.

Grand Theft Auto V

In GTA V we take a simple approach to benchmarking: the in-game benchmark tool is used. However, due to the randomness within the game itself, only the last sequence is actually used since it best represents gameplay mechanics.

 

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4K: Hitman Absolution / Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Hitman Absolution

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Hitman is arguably one of the most popular FPS (first person “sneaking”) franchises around and this time around Agent 47 goes rogue so mayhem soon follows. Our benchmark sequence is taken from the beginning of the Terminus level which is one of the most graphically-intensive areas of the entire game. It features an environment virtually bathed in rain and puddles making for numerous reflections and complicated lighting effects.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

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With its high resolution textures and several other visual tweaks, Shadow of Mordor’s open world is also one of the most detailed around. This means it puts massive load on graphics cards and should help point towards which GPUs will excel at next generation titles.

 

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4K: Thief / Tomb Raider

Thief

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When it was released, Thief was arguably one of the most anticipated games around. From a graphics standpoint, it is something of a tour de force. Not only does it look great but the engine combines several advanced lighting and shading techniques that are among the best we’ve seen. One of the most demanding sections is actually within the first level where you must scale rooftops amidst a thunder storm. The rain and lightning flashes add to the graphics load, though the lightning flashes occur randomly so you will likely see interspersed dips in the charts below due to this.

Tomb Raider

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Tomb Raider is one of the most iconic brands in PC gaming and this iteration brings Lara Croft back in DX11 glory. This happens to not only be one of the most popular games around but it is also one of the best looking by using the entire bag of DX11 tricks to properly deliver an atmospheric gaming experience.

In this run-through we use a section of the Shanty Town level. While it may not represent the caves, tunnels and tombs of many other levels, it is one of the most demanding sequences in Tomb Raider.

 

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4K: Total War: Attila / Witcher 3

Total War: Attila

Total War: Attila is the only strategy title in our benchmarking suite simply because it is one of the most resource-hungry. It gobbles resources with good reason too: this game happens to be one the best looking of the series thus far. Our benchmark sequence uses the in-game tool since, after hours of gameplay, it seems to show a perfect blend of in-game elements.

Witcher 3

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Other than being one of 2015’s most highly regarded games, The Witcher 3 also happens to be one of the most visually stunning as well. This benchmark sequence has us riding through a town and running through the woods; two elements that will likely take up the vast majority of in-game time.

 

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Overclocking Results

Overclocking Results

Overclocking these custom GTX 980 Ti’s isn’t exactly a precise science nor an overly hard experience since the voltages are locked down to +87mB while the Power Limit tops out at +10%. One or the other will start holding back your frequency aspirations at some point, so most of these cards top out at about the same level of 1450MHz give or take 50MHz.

Our MSI sample is a bit of an exception since it was able to hit a continual frequency of 1506MHz in many situations while stepping back to a still-respectable 1493MHz in others. That’s the best we’ve encountered so far but, given our previous experiences with other GTX 980 Ti’s there’s absolutely no way to guarantee those results with every Gaming 6G sample.

Meanwhile, the memory was par for the course, overclocking to just over 8Gbps before the error correction routines kicked in.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

Reviewing these custom GTX 980 Ti’s is becoming a bit boring since there’s so little to critique. NVIDIA’s board partners have distilled the design of custom graphics cards into such an exact science that finding faults becomes nearly impossible. After looking at nearly flawless offerings from EVGA and Zotac, the Gaming 6G had me wondering if it could really get any better than what MSI had created.

Attaching a phrase like “the best GTX 980 Ti out there” to the Gaming 6G is likely going a bit too far since I’m still in the process of either reviewing or receiving offerings from other industry stalwarts like ASUS, PNY and Galax (Gigabyte has unfortunately chosen not to send us a card) so there’s plenty of opportunity to eclipse this card. However, I’m positive that once the dust settles the GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G will remain a must-have in my books. It just does so much right.

The Gaming 6G’s performance lies somewhere between EVGA’s GTX 980 Ti Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ and Zotac’s balls-to-the-wall GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme. That means it features significantly better framerates than a reference-clocked card while costing a good amount less than Zotac’s bruiser. With that being said, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the Gaming and AMP! unless you are running a benchmarking program. They’re literally that close performance-wise.

MSI’s delivery of their performance metrics is pretty damn impressive as well. The card remains absolutely silent in idle scenarios, during HD movie playback and low-load games. Even when in the most extreme situations its massive fans spin leisurely along without making a noticeable amount of noise. Temperatures were pretty eye-opening as well considering they were accomplished with a heatsink that’s nowhere near the mass of Zotac’s.

It’s hard not to appreciate the one-click performance options offered by the Gaming App since they’re well tailored for a wide range of environments. While it’s understandable that some may want to avoid yet another process running in the background, for ease of use and quick changes the app is a perfect companion. Even running it at the OC setting, there’s still something left in the tank for manual overclocking too.

While this card doesn’t lead the pack in performance, overclocking headroom or acoustics, it is a combination of all those elements in various quantities which make the MSI GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G such an appealing gaming compnion. The EVGA Superclocked+ offers less performance but slightly better acoustics and Zotac’s AMP! Extreme is absolutely massive yet boasts higher framerates. In both cases, sacrifices (albeit minor ones) have to be made in order to achieve either an optimal noise profile or extreme frequencies. Meanwhile, the Gaming 6G features great performance, near-silent operation, a compact design, good overclocking headroom and a very tempting price. In short, it doesn’t really have any noteworthy drawbacks to balance its long list of positive points and that’s a rarity in this segment.