***The Official MSI GT80 Titan Owner's Lounge***

If you have any questions, just let me know what I can help with as well. I'm glad to help out, just PM or email me.

 

I appreciate you being here as I will probably order from XOTICPC as well

 

Hey guys I am considering ordering one of these from gen tech pc. The 980m sli with 6820hk slylake. Seeing as there are a ton of pages in this thread... I was hoping to get some quick feedback on how these perform for the price. Any throttling issues with cpu or gpu's? Just general performance feedback. Or any glaring issues anyone has found. If I'm going to spend over 4k it has to be worth it. Thanks to everyone in advance.

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Personally I believe that is the best value combo for performance. 6820HK is unlocked and can perform without power throttling, being limited only by temperature and possibly current (if you exceed too much multipliers haha). 980m performs great and so far you can play any game out there.

I am still rocking an original Titan 001 and I love it. Your version is simply faster

As for possible issues, depending on how things how updating and the like, you might stumble upon driver situations, but those are best addressed if they actually come up.

GentechPC is one of the many reputable resellers that participate with us here, and with the active community we have I am sure you can find any help you might need

Recommendations are to check temperatures in case you might want to repaste. Generally the CPU runs hotter than the GPUs and usually one GPU runs cooler than the other, up to 10 degrees difference. Average max temps for the GPUs are near 80s for one GPU and 70s on the other, while CPUs run on the 80s to 90s. Overclocking can be done if you flash unlocked vbios on the GPU and using intel XTU for the CPU.

We also have a thread dedicated for performance benchmarks for the GT80s here in the forum

 

Thank you very much for the well thought out reply. As far as the repaste goes I was actually going to have it done from day 1. They give you the option from gen tech to have it pre repasted. I would just do that for cpu and gpu

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Yeah that works, but I also buy thermal paste myself to try new ones I just received my new IC Diamond, CLU and pads. I think I might repaste my GT60 and GT80 on the holidays

the Gt80 is awesome indeed. And I does feel powerful. You can check if you can overclock your LCD successfully as many of us here have done it, and it does improve the overall snappiness and performance of the OS.

 

Have there been any issues with the sli? This will be my first sli machine ever. I was always hesitant about running dual cards for compatibility reasons. I just figured two 980m are better than one 980 desktop card.

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Yeah but they use ic diamond

 

You can always turn sli off

 

There would be no point in having sli if I needed to disable it. I'd rather just have the single 980 desktop version in that case.

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Honestly, this will also be my first time with SLI, so I understand...Technology is complicated...The industry I work in is hi-tech and ever-changing and there are problems every day. The challenge is what keeps me interested. You have one of the greatest resources ever created at your fingertips...The Internet!...It is at least as important as the printing press. Problems can be solved with searching the web and communication with others. This forum is an example of the resources available. Yes, you will have problems with hardware, with windows, with drivers, with compatibility, etc. The forums and firmware updates are usually the answer...I say go for it and do not hesitate to ask for help like you are currently doing.

EDIT:

Sorry, I forgot to mention, I regularly ask for help in my professional life and my personal tech issues.

 

Having SLI means that for the games it works with, everything is wonderfully fast. For the games that don't work with SLI, you turn it off for that game. Then turn it back on and rock on.

In other words, easier to turn off SLI when games don't play nice with it than to turn on SLI with only one video card when game do play nice with it!

 

Amen to that, I guess I'm just hesitant as well because my first laptop gaming experience with alienware was overall a nightmare.... I just want something to work and work well :/

I have bought one laptop with them yet I have had 3 models from alienware from warranty exchanges. Upgraded via warranty each year because of problems with the last. That's why I'm being so careful...

I'm hoping MSI impresses.

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Is compatibility good enough to where 980m sli is worth choosing over a 980 desktop version gpu?

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Most new games from a couple of years to this day, work great with SLI. Even recent games that launch sometimes without SLI support, it is added in a month or two later. I think the only recent game I didn't have SLI performance was with Batman Arkahm Knight, but that is because the PC port was a disaster hahaha

For the most part, performance is there, and even lower end games like League of Legends support SLI. I run that one maxed at 96fps vsync on all the time, and my GPUs only work around 35% hahahaha.

You make it sound as if that is bad hahaha. Sure, CLU can be better, but it is only marginally so compared to any top end paste like IC Diamond

 

That's actually very good to hear.. I feel like the games that don't support it hopefully run maxed out without sli. The games I struggle with now (I have a single 980m) hopefully support sli well!

As far as the thermal paste I never had bad results from IC Diamond

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I'd say.... yeah. Specially if you are talking about laptops. 980 Desktop version is definitely the most powerful mobile GPU but due to its requirements in power and cooling, it doesn't shine that much more than a 980m, specially if you overclock. I think on stock it is about 30% faster and such laptops are near the power limit already. A 980m can overclock to close the gap.

980m SLI is way ahead of a single 980, and often matches 980Ti performance which is much higher performance than the laptop version of 980. This sounds confusing but the point is, the Desktop Class 980 for laptop is weaker than the actual 980 for desktops because it runs at a much lower power envelope and core clocks (and I think memory clocks in some versions)... (Except, perhaps the Clevo version but that is unconfirmed).

 

What games are you struggling with? The most hard hitting one I have right now is Assassin's Creed Syndicate, but I think my performance is near that of a 980 Ti so there isn't much I can do about it hahaha.

 

This has been a good break at work today. Getting great information! That makes perfect sense. How do these run full load temps? Decent overclock headroom? I do have some questions about cpu as well but I figure one question at a time.

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I want to be able to max out (including aa/msaa etc) metro last light, far cry 4, and witcher 3. All of which I can't do atm... Among others but those are the first 3 that are top priority.

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For max temps on the GPUs, simply use heavy hitting games like Witcher 3 maxed without vsync. It will surely tax the hell out of your GPUs hahaha. Don't use Furmark or prime95 for general testing in my opinion. Furmark is almost useless because nvidia blocks performance move of their GPUs with it to avoid damage and it does not push as hard as games anymore. Prime95 is the contrary, being an unrealistic punishing load on the CPU often making it crawl to its knees.

I prefer using Cinebench for CPU load, while games for GPU max temps.

Your overclock will be limited most likely by your power supply, because 980m is not very efficient powerwise if you start overclockng and raising voltage. You can probably use my secret overclock of +100 core/+100 memory overclock, as well as your CU at 4ghz, for optimum performance But this might mean pushing near your PSU limit

When I overclocked my 980ms to +235 core + 400 memory and +67.5mv I was going way over my PSU, which resulted in shutdowns during testing.

 

I have Metro and Witcher, I will max them and give you my stock numbers as well as my slight overclock numbers. I do remember running Metro maxed I think... I am around halfway through the game and I had 60 to 96fps performance but I forget at which settings.

I run witcher 3 all enabled/max except the AA in hairworks (Hairworks is enabled but with no additional AA) and I run around 45 to 60fps (with 45 being the min fps so far). I'd say an average of 55fps.

 

So 100 clock and memory without messing with voltage?? Also what cpu are you running because I want to pick your brain about that too haha.

I really appreciate all the information and help you are willing to provide. This will make my purchase that much easier. Up until last night I was thinking of doing a 980 desktop for my next machine. This is definitely giving me good insight.

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I understand your frustration with Alienware. Trust me when I say that Dell used to be awesome!..I own an Experion 9300 laptop with a 1900x1200 display. 17.3"..cost me about 4k when new ( it is still fully functional running XP Media Center Edition). It's successor is a Sony VAIO AGN VW model with red blue and green LED LCD lighting 18.4" (Rare!), running Win 7 Pro...also costing about 4k. If Dell comes to their senses, they could be highly respected again, but greed is hard to overcome. I am of course, ready to upgrade again...Wish me luck!...It is always a gamble, but I have never been dissapointed!

As you can tell, I am not a brand fanboy...I go with the gold!... But only once every 4 or 5 years...looks like it will be MSI this time.

 

I always wanted an Alienware as a kid but unfortunately in the end it felt short of what I expected. I bought the model with the 780m originally. Performance wise I think it was the best one I had of the three. However the keyboard failed in the first week. A tech came out to replace it and it went bad again...

They agreed to replace the whole machine but they didn't make that model anymore so I got the refresh... With the 880m card. Boy was that the biggest tease that ended up being the worst piece of crap card I ever used. Throttle city all the time. Had that card replaced twice with no improvement. Had the motherboard replaced with still no fix to my problem.

That fight went on so long that the next refresh came out with the 980 series. Yay first solid gpu in a laptop nvidia did good!! Oh but wait my terrible haswell cpu throttled like a sob all the time. Had the motherboard replaced as well as repasted both cpu and gpu.. Worked fine for a few months and here we are looking for a new laptop... Throttling is coming back little by little. Soooo as you can see I'm very worried about what to expect from MSI. I do not want to have to send my laptop in because of similar issues. Anyway that's my story haha.

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Well even in my GS30 you can get a nice constant 3.2-3.3ghz out of the quad, MSI seem to do power/thermal management correctly.

 

Unpark your CPU, Sager/CLEVO.

Even though both my GPUs died (7970M aka hot garbage)

The rest of the computer ran solid for nearly 3 years and had no issues for the most part.

 

@Firebat246 you don't need to turn off SLI if the game doesn't support SLI, it's automatic - the 2nd GPU idles

It doesn't happen often, but then again, one of the qualifying items for buying a new game is "does it support SLI"... but I still buy new releases that haven't had an SLI profile added by Nvidia to the driver releases.

Just Cause 3 is typical, first driver had an SLI place holder, the next driver actually did something with the SLI profile, and now I am waiting for the driver that has 100% SLI balancing - right now I get 95% on 1 GPU and 38% on the 2nd.

With a 980 you might have boring consistency - but with SLI you have a range of ever improving performance

I am getting 80 fps now in Just Cause vsync at 80 hz OC for the display, it's very nice - but someday I know I might get 100 fps @ 100hz

 

Tried the unparking before that didn't help :/. It's beyond stupid how the haswell cpu's performed. It was an issue on other laptops as well but doesn't give dellianware a free pass for everything else. I just hope slylake impresses. I am trying to get more information on the 6920hq vs the 6820hk. Seems for the 980m sli version you can't get the 6920hq, though.

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It seems like overall the sli is the way to go. If it's automatic that makes it even easier. Hopefully if I run into any issues I can get answers here on how to resolve it. I guess I just don't want to have to wait months to play a new game maxed out because of compatibility. That has been my main concern... Or the fact that now I have 2 cards that could fail on me instead of one. Alot of this fear probably stems from my previous issues... But it's hard not to be cautious haha.

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Just keep in mind what Meaker said about MSI being good at power/thermal management and remember that a significant part of that is in your hands. Monitor your temps..especially if you are overclocking and take steps to keep your system from overheating. If your ambient temp is high, provide additional air circulation. Components and thermal compound degrade faster if they are stressed by overheating.
If you are overclocking or using your system in high ambient temperature environments you may need to re-paste frequently to avoid throttling. Monitoring your temps will tell you what to do.

 

I used to run it without any voltage but lately I add 12.5mv. Mostly for any stability that might arise but I did ran about 6 months without upping the voltage at all. My CPU is the entry level core i7, 4720HQ. I have it undervolted with -45mv in dynamic CPU voltage, and processor cache ratio reduced to 30x, running at 3.6ghz quad core and 3.7ghz dual/single core. Games that push CPU tremendously, making it run past its 47w TDP, will run around 3.4Ghz.

My display I run it at 96hz right now, though I have tested and used 100hz as well.

 

Has anyone looked into whether the keyboard is forced to be red or if the led's are only red?
Or if it's bios or software controlled vs hardware controlled?

@MSIGeno ?

 

Why reduce the speed? Can OC'ing the lcd damage it? If I add an ir emitter can I halve the fps and make it 3D?

 

I am so glad I'm not getting a haswell. Never again... I went through 3 haswell CPUs and all of them throttled to either 2.8 or 800mhz no matter what I tweaked in xtu. Absolutely worst experience with any processor

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I wanted to add... Is the 6820hk the best slylake cpu available? I saw a 6920hq and wasn't sure if the extra clock was worth it or if the 6820 being unlocked has the same potential? I'm not even sure the 6920 is available in the model I'm getting.

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It's not even out yet much less available in that model...

 

I am pretty sure the actual LEDs are red which is why you can't change them via software. This might change in a future iteration, but even the regular MSI laptops with backlit keyboard started this way (not red necessairly, just single color).

Mwuahahaha because the processor cache speed already runs plenty fast and I have so far in all benchmarks attained a basically net zero performance drop for reducing, but I have gained about 1 watt or a bit more of power envelope that can be used by the IA cores. If you have an unlocked 6820HK, this is useless to you except maybe reduce temps a bit. In haswell cases, this means more CPU performance because we are mostly power limited.

I am sure that overclocking anything can, potentially, damage anything. How much damage? I don't know. I have had zero adverse effects from running my display this high in almost a year. You can always use a more conservative overclock like 72/75hz which is still a great upgrade over 60hz. As for the 3D part, I suppose? Honestly I always felt that 3D implementation was lackluster and one of the reasons it didn't catch on as much. Everyone has different implementations and requirements. Perhaps you could, but even at 100hz, your best bet would be 50fps per eye.

I know what you mean, thankfully my throttled and limited speeds ARE 3.4 ghz not 2.8ghz or 800mhz. MSI did a good job on trying to squeeze the most out of these limited CPUs by intel. If anything, I am more angry with intel because of how misleading they were with 4th gen CPUs. If you didn't know the first thing about tweaking the CPUs, most of their line performed very similarly. Only advanced users and in some cases, could actually unleash the great potential they could have even on notebooks.

All in all I am happy with my CPU. I wish it could at the very least maintain its full turbo speeds 100% of the time, but even as it is, I get excellent performance. There isn't much I can do anymore to it, so might as well enjoy it until I change machines.

Personally yes, 6820HK is the best mainly because it is unlocked and it seems to be the only one that can ignore TDP regulation to run at high speeds. 6920hq is most likely locked and only higher end because it should pack a strong integrated GPU, and the higher turbo bins for a locked CPU. But I don't think it will perform better than a tweaked 6820hk under stress.

 

I never asked this, has anyone tried project cars on the gt80?

 

Why does that matter? I can always wait that's why I ask

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Good stuff!! Thanks again. There will be no need to wait or inquire about the 6920hq in that case. I don't know if I'll get into overclocking right away but I'm sure I'll tweak stuff sooner or later.

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It's the best for a single GPU setup, which is why there are those MXM 980s out there.

Actually those are larger cards (The singles are not the SLI variants)

The "K" processors are meant to be overclocked because there is capacity and power left to do it.

"Headroom"


Any SLI config barely has room for Overclocking, but this mainly goes for laptops.

 

Just to elaborate more on this.

Played a full mission of Metro Last Light, all enabled, very high (max), 2X SAA and 16x AF, very high tessellation, no vsync, and got a min fps of 80 and a max of about 130. This was on an underground mission that you use a car to travel the railways and get inside various mini areas to explore, and end up pushing a huge cart later. I'd say the average fps was on the 90s.

Witcher 3 all max, enabled, high nvidia gameworks, 8x AA on nvidia hairworks. I just ran around a small town near the beginning and then deep into the woods. min fps was 40, max fps was about 65. Average is on the 50s. Some parts of the woods are the hard hitting ones with around 45fps average. I normally reduce nvidia hairworks to low and no AA and I get higher overall framerates, but after playing with these settings, I don't think the game is too impacted.

This was on stock speeds, no overclock. And my laptop caught fire and burned from playing such hard hitting games my CPU was peaking at around 88~C and my GPU1 at 70, GPU2 in the 84, all without turbofan. I suspect turbofan would shave off 2 or more degrees. My small overclock does not really impact temps btw, I see the same temps with such a small OC in general. GPU usage was 99% on both GPUs, CPU did reach 90% in some cores, but overall they had high utilization.

I need to clean my laptop too, it's a bit dusty

 

I'm hoping the slylake cpu runs a tad cooler... That's what I kept hearing about slylake vs haswell. Plus this laptop obviously has better cooling than my Alienware does.

So refresh my memory with witcher. Were those AA settings maxed? Or can then be pushed further. I know I'm splitting hair here but curious. I actually am surprised it brings fps down to 40-45. I guess it's way more taxing than I thought. But I'm definitely not willing to get the sli 980 desktop version in a laptop, haha.

Could you also let me know what you get in metro with msaa set to x3 and x4? Thanks!

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Witcher indeed was completely maxed out. Its really a hard game to play. A lot of people always say "im running it maxed at 60fps! Just disabled.... etc" so yeah if you move a setting or two, it will run better but then again it isnt maxed huh?

Sure i can run metro with 3x and 4x later. I usually dont because its basically needless. 1080p with 2x saa already looks fantastic. I will run and let you know.


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I only needed to overclock my 980Ms when trying to run metro at 1440p in 3d.

 

Metro last light, all maxed with 4x SAA I ran it between 48 and 70fps, and it seemed quite stable even with gunfights happening. I will try 3x later to see if it's a nice compromise between 2x and 4x.

 

That's actually pretty impressive.. And that's with no overclock. Do you use MSI afterburner for overclock? That's what iv always used. I guess 980sli could be compared to a desktop 980ti? Or so I thought someone mentioned...

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How can I connect mine to a 4K 3D tv?

 

Have you tried hooking it into the HDMI? Remember TVs run 3d at a very low refresh rate.