As a non-reference GTX 980, and carrying the ‘Gaming’ branding, we expect extra features from this card and MSI doesn’t disappoint.
Twin Frozr V Cooler
The stand out is clearly the cooler – the Twin Frozr V is a bigger step forward from the previous version than we were expecting. MSI have stated that the Twin Frozr V was 18 months in the making and their R&D effort appears to have paid off. It’s thinner than the previous Twin Frozr IV by 4mm. That might not sound like much but it’s 10% narrower than the 40mm wide GTX 760 HAWK we reviewed last year and those 4mm might make all the difference for those keen enough to run these in SLI on an M-ATX board where the cards are sandwiched together.
The twin 10cm Torx fans are stronger but generate even less noise (advertised as ~5% less noise) than the Twin Frozr IV. They only spin when they need to and they work independently. On system start up, both fans will spin, then once we were in windows, the right fan would stop, then the left would stop. Periodically whilst idle, the left fan would tick over for 20 seconds or so in a silent flutter.
There is an LED MSI logo with the gaming dragon. It’s a white LED so it’s as design agnostic as MSI could get considering the black and red highlights of the heat sink shroud. It also looked great in our practical build.
Heatpipes… well SuperPipes actually. MSI has their special SuperSU architecture of SuperPipes and regular heat pipes connected and shaped to maximise the benefit from the airflow.
The Twin Frozr V is an impressive cooler. In general use it was basically inaudible and kept the GPU under 68C for all testing including extended overclocking. The impressive thing wasn’t the low temperature results but that the audio profile of the twin fans was so low. Our Corsair HX850 power supply made more noise than the cooler in the benchmarks and gameplay testing. We did run the fans at 100% so see how loud they could get and 100% is loud but in our testing, including overclocking, the fans were never required to spin up that fast.. We were able to overclock the GTX 980 GPU to 1501MHz (beyond the MSI OC boost setting of 1317) without the fan speed exceeding 58% or the temperature going beyond 68C.
Military Class 4 Components
We expected to see military class components on the GTX 980 Gaming 4G. MSI pride themselves on their products going the distance. They make a big deal about the Military Class components and list and it’s a differentiator for the ‘quality’ brands like MSI. I’m happy to spend a little more if the manufacturer has taken measures to improve the longevity of a product and engineer against a warranty claim. As an enthusiast, it’s also worthwhile peace of mind to know that the components on the GTX 980 Gaming 4G are more likely to stand up to the extra stress of overclocking and extended gaming sessions.
MSI references MIL-STD-810G standard (check out here if you are interested to know more), stating that they only use components certified to that level. As such they have incorporated:
Hi-c CAP (Highly Conductive Capacitor) for longer life, less leakage, increased GPU power stability for overclocking. The thermal profile of the card is reduced due to the high efficiency (93%) of the Hic-CAPs
Solid Capacitors with an aluminium core for increased longevity, anti rust coating, higher efficiency and they won’t burst. These are rated for over 10 years.
Super Ferrite Choke (SFC) for a more efficient and higher level of power delivery with better heat dissipation. This improves overclocking power stability beyond a reference design with generic chokes.
MSI Afterburner & the MSI Gaming App
I’ve been using MSI Afterburner on non-MSI cards for years and it’s been my go-to application for graphics card tweaking. It’s included in the software bundle but you can download it from their website and most enthusiasts probably already have it installed.
The Gaming App is basically a set of three pre-sets with a fourth available to be customised. Whilst it isn’t anything revolutionary, it is very simple to use and won’t spook novice PC users like Afterburner might. Gaming App screenshots below
Packaging
The packaging is sturdy and the card comes well protected in an anti-static bag and custom cut out foam. There is a box of accessories including:
- Driver CD
- DVI-VGA Dongle
- Reference Guide
- 1x 6 to 8pin adapters
