Differences between MSI Armor and MSI Gaming X Cards

[Cavalry Canuck]

Hi folks.

 

I'm going to be watercooling one of the GPUs in my SLI setup. I haven't bought the second card for it yet. I'd like to stick to the MSI brand as I already have a GTX 1080ti Gaming X. 

 

I know MSI generally lists lower boost clocks as you go from the Gaming X series down to the Armor series. Is that soley due to the inferior cooling of the armor, or are there other differences such as binned chips, lower quality VRM/PCB, etc? In other words, if I were to watercool an Armor card and a Gaming X card, would I be able to get them to OC the same, or would the Armor still result in an inferior OC?

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Matt

[Mephi00]

You'd need an actual engeneer or some employee from msi to answer that Question, what I can tell you that gpus always oc differently, even with the same binned chip. With watercooling you should be able to get somewhat similar results, or as I'm doin it atm don't oc at all and let the boosting do the trick for ya (Modern Warefare (2019) doesn't like me having msi afterburner running).

 

Afterall I suppose the Gaming X cards might be binned but with some more aggressive OC you should  get them really close to each other.

[Cavalry Canuck]

5 minutes ago, Mephi00 said:

You'd need an actual engeneer or some employee from msi to answer that Question, what I can tell you that gpus always oc differently, even with the same binned chip. With watercooling you should be able to get somewhat similar results, or as I'm doin it atm don't oc at all and let the boosting do the trick for ya (Modern Warefare (2019) doesn't like me having msi afterburner running).

I get the concept of the silicon lottery. But if chips are binned, it affects the probability of whether you get a good one or not.

[Mephi00]

2 minutes ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

I get the concept of the silicon lottery. But if chips are binned, it affects the probability of whether you get a good one or not.

My edit from before:

Afterall I suppose the Gaming X cards might be binned but with some more aggressive OC you should  get them really close to each other.

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, Mephi00 said:

You'd need an actual engeneer or some employee from msi to answer that Question

no you dont. why would you need an engineer from MSI to answer a question you can check yourself. 

 

22 minutes ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

Is that soley due to the inferior cooling of the armor

its got worse cooling, while it doesnt cover the memmory chips the same as the gaming X. 

24 minutes ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

lower quality VRM/PCB

it appears to be using a lower end VRM aswell. i say it seems, because i havent looked into the specific VRM chips used. 

24 minutes ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

would the Armor still result in an inferior OC

considering you will be water cooling, its entirely down to the silicon lottery. 

[Cavalry Canuck]

2 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

no you dont. why would you need an engineer from MSI to answer a question you can check yourself. 

 

its got worse cooling, while it doesnt cover the memmory chips the same as the gaming X. 

it appears to be using a lower end VRM aswell. i say it seems, because i havent looked into the specific VRM chips used. 

considering you will be water cooling, its entirely down to the silicon lottery. 

So I wouldn't be fucking myself over if I tried saving a few bucks to buy an Armor or Aero series card instead of another Gaming X card?

[GoldenLag]

11 minutes ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

So I wouldn't be fucking myself over if I tried saving a few bucks to buy an Armor or Aero series card instead of another Gaming X card?

Putside of perhaps some binning. Not really. 

 

Its not like id recommend doing anything related to SLU, unless you know what you are getting into. 

 

Just keep in mind that not all watercooling blocks fit all cards. 

[Cavalry Canuck]

 

6 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Putside of perhaps some binning. Not really. 

 

Its not like id recommend doing anything related to SLU, unless you know what you are getting into. 

 

Just keep in mind that not all watercooling blocks fit all cards. 

 

I have an EK-FC1080 GTX TI TF6 waterblock from EK. It's supposed to be compatible with the Armor, Duke, and Gaming X. 

[Jurrunio]

GTX 1080ti? The 1080ti Armor actually shares all critical components and number of them as the Gaming X, it's only the air cooler on it that's much worse and I think LED header gone (since Armor doesnt have any LEDs from the start)

 

47 minutes ago, Mephi00 said:

You'd need an actual engeneer or some employee from msi to answer that Question

All it takes is someone to open it up

[Cavalry Canuck]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

GTX 1080ti? The 1080ti Armor actually shares all critical components and number of them as the Gaming X, it's only the air cooler on it that's much worse and I think LED header gone (since Armor doesnt have any LEDs from the start)

 

All it takes is someone to open it up

But the components themselves wouldn't be of any lower quality?

[Jurrunio]

9 minutes ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

But the components themselves wouldn't be of any lower quality?

Quality? If they dare offer the same warranty, then they are the same. Heck even the cooler is decent quality, it just sucks because it's meant for 120w and 150w class GPUs (1060 and 1070), but 1080ti does 250w stock.

[Cavalry Canuck]

9 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Quality? If they dare offer the same warranty, then they are the same. Heck even the cooler is decent quality, it just sucks because it's meant for 120w and 150w class GPUs (1060 and 1070), but 1080ti does 250w stock.

So what do you think of this guy's upgrade?

 

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details.html?adId=1482360709

 

Thinking I should try to haggle him down a bit...

[Jurrunio]

4 minutes ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

So what do you think of this guy's upgrade?

 

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details.html?adId=1482360709

 

Thinking I should try to haggle him down a bit...

is that the stock heatsink with 2 80mm or 92mm case fans?

 

I won't haggle though, people under Trump the wall Builder are seeing $500 in their dollars for a used 1080ti. Better condition than this usually, but a 1080ti is a 1080ti.

[Cavalry Canuck]

4 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

is that the stock heatsink with 2 80mm or 92mm case fans?

 

I won't haggle though, people under Trump the wall Builder are seeing $500 in their dollars for a used 1080ti. Better condition than this usually, but a 1080ti is a 1080ti.

Yea. Looks like a pair of 92s.

 

And you never don't haggle. You can get Gaming Xs for that low and Dukes for $550. There was a Gaming X Trio up for $700. I'd love to get my hands on that and water-cool the Gaming X I already have. So far the only thing I haven't haggled was the SLI bridge, which buddy had posted for $5. I suspect it may be broken at that price, but I bought it anyway.

[Jurrunio]

7 minutes ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

And you never don't haggle. You can get Gaming Xs for that low and Dukes for $550. There was a Gaming X Trio up for $700. I'd love to get my hands on that and water-cool the Gaming X I already have. So far the only thing I haven't haggled was the SLI bridge, which buddy had posted for $5. I suspect it may be broken at that price, but I bought it anyway.

I just dont like haggling. In fact I block everyone who try do that to me, I know how much I can get out of electronics. In other categories I may be more flexible just because I dont know them that well.

[Cavalry Canuck]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

I just dont like haggling. In fact I block everyone who try do that to me, I know how much I can get out of electronics. In other categories I may be more flexible just because I dont know them that well.

Do what you gotta do. When I sell stuff I usually list the price a bit high, and post the price as non negotiable, expecting people to try to haggle me down anyway.