MSI Announces GeForce GTX 1080 Ti LIGHTNING Z
by Nate Oh on June 21, 2017 11:00 AM EST
After posting a teaser video last week, MSI has followed up by announcing their latest ultra-high-end Lightning-branded graphics card: the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti LIGHTNING Z. The triple-slot-width, triple-fan, and triple-8-pin power connector card comes equipped with all the latest in thermal solutions, overclocking design, and shiny colors. Yes, for those hoping that ‘Lightning’ correlates with ‘lighting,’ the LIGHTNING Z comes LED-strewn and slickly-hewn with Mystic Light RGB control, backplate, and alternate colored shroud highlights.
A key feature of the LIGHTNING Z is a BIOS switch that toggles “LN2 Mode,” which lifts power/current and thermal limits. The allure here is that for extreme overclockers used to hard volt-modding (with pencil or otherwise) can simply flick the switch when necessary. At the same time, MSI also advertises Military Class 4 components, as well as card features such as V-Check Points, a hardware-based voltage measurement design, and Quadruple Overvoltage, a specialized auxiliary voltage system.
| MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti LIGHTNING Z | |||
| Boost Clock | 1721MHz (Lightning Mode) 1695MHz (Gaming Mode) 1582MHz (Silent Mode) |
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| Base Clock | 1607MHz (Lightning Mode) 1582MHz (Gaming Mode) 1480MHz (Silent Mode) |
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| Memory Clock | 11124MHz (Lightning/Gaming Mode) 11016MHz (Silent Mode) |
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| VRAM | 11GB GDDR5X (352-bit) |
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| TDP | 250W | ||
| Outputs | 2x DP1.4, 2x HDMI2.0b, 1x DL-DVI-D | ||
| Power Connectors | 3x 8pin | ||
| Length | 320mm | ||
| Width | 2.5 Slot (61mm) | ||
| Weight | 1.7kg | ||
| Cooler Type | Open Air | ||
| Price | TBA | ||
Keeping the beast cool is MSI’s Tri-Frozr design, armed with 3 TORX 2.0 Fans (1 x 9cm, 2 x 10cm). Alongside the main heatsink/heatpipe complex, the card has a flatter memory/MOSFET heatsink and heatpipe, as well as a rear heatpipe in between the PCB and backplate. The custom PCB itself possesses 10 layers, 14 GPU power phases, and 3 memory power phases.
And as for Mystic Light, MSI’s LED control software enables users to synchronize and adjust lighting across devices, other components, and peripherals, even changing color schemes from the luxury of your smartphone.
MSI has not released pricing information at this time. The LIGHTNING Z is “expected to be available in July.”
Source: MSI
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Foeketijn - Saturday, June 24, 2017 - link
Thanks. That made my dayWinterCharm - Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - link
Only Palpatine would need Unlimited Power!!!!!!!!AllIDoIsWin - Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - link
Probably heaps more money, but for 1-4 fps difference?peterfares - Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - link
Not a fan of 2xHDMI and 2xDP, I think 3xDP is betterDanNeely - Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - link
IIRC when more recent cards started going to 2 and 2 the marketing argument was that the 2nd HDMI was for a VR headset in addition to an HDMI monitor.peterfares - Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - link
Why not have 2xHDMI and 3xMiniDP then? Could easily be fit on there.DanNeely - Wednesday, June 21, 2017 - link
Maintaining legacy support for DVI. I wouldn't be surprised if that goes away in the next few years since AMD and NVidia finally killed VGA last summer (vs an original commitment to do so in 2013) with DVI end of life scheduled for a few years afterwards (but with the original deadline already blown).peterfares - Thursday, June 22, 2017 - link
But they could easily fit the 2xHDMI and 3xmDP on the bottom row and keep the DVI port. Not all ports have to work simultaneously - I don't think the 5 current ports all work simultaneously, can't you only use 4 displays per card right now?DanNeely - Thursday, June 22, 2017 - link
OK, that'd potentially work. I'd assumed (apparently incorrectly) the card was capable of driving all 5 outputs at once; if that's not the case adding a 6th port is probably feasible. I'm caveating myself because it's possible the GPU itself has 5 outputs with a few that can be configured as either DP or HDMI, and adding a 6th port would require some sort of extra switch/multiplexer hardware (or on card MST and all the limitations that would impose). OTOH I don't think I've ever seen a mini port on a full size desktop GPU; there seems to be some resistance to doing so. Probably because it'd require the use of dongles (or new cables) to connect.BurntMyBacon - Friday, June 23, 2017 - link
@DanNeely: " I'd assumed (apparently incorrectly) the card was capable of driving all 5 outputs at once."Incorrect for this card, but the confusion is understandable. ATi can drive up to six outputs from a single card. nVidia can drive up to four.
@DanNeely: "I don't think I've ever seen a mini port on a full size desktop GPU; there seems to be some resistance to doing so. Probably because it'd require the use of dongles (or new cables) to connect."
I'm not aware of a consumer nVidia card that employs miniDP, but they've been around on ATi cards since the 5000 series. Initially, they were mostly used for six MiniDP eyefinity edition cards and they did require dongles. However, it became fairly common place to see two of them (in addition to other standard ports) in the 6000 and 7000 series. MiniDP cables were also much more available at this point. Several monitors (notably enthusiast and professional models from NEC) launched that make use of MiniDP inputs as well. There are still some consumer cards that make use of MiniDP in the R9 200 series, but it has become rare again. I haven't seen an RX400 or later series card that makes use of them. Here's just a few links to a few video cards I found in a 5 minute search that can use MiniDP:
AMD Radeon 5870 Eyefinity
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-5870-ey...
MSI Radeon 6970
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N...
VisionTek Radeon 7870
https://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-GDDR5-Mini...
MSI Radeon 7870
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N...
Club3D Radeon R9 295X2
http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.e...
I think they shelved MiniDP, not because of cables or dongles, but because (at least for a while) MiniDP was behind on supporting the latest DP standard. Not sure if they've caught up yet, but a quick search only shows DP 1.2 compliant MiniDP cables. Standard size DP is at DP 1.4.