MSI quietly introduced the new members of its GeForce GTX 1080 Ti lineup - the GTX 1080 Ti Armor and Aero. The Armor 11G graphics card is also now available for purchase.
The MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G is the first of the company's new models to be available in stores. It is also the first custom add-in card (AIC) available. According to Blasting News, a number of other companies working with Nvidia to develop their own AIC cards have been hyping their customized GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPUs for a while now. However, none of them have yet to be made available. MSI's Armor GPU is already listed at Newegg though it currently says "out of Stock". The Armor 11GB card is priced $709.99 which is only $10 more than the Nvidia's stock 1080 Ti GPU. Newegg also requires an additional $10 for shipping.
The overclocked MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G GPU is faster than the non-OC Founder's Edition which makes the additional $10 well worth it. The new Armor 11G has a clock speed of 1,531 MHz base, up from 1,480 MHz base of the non-OC version. Additionally, the boost clock speed increased from 1,582 MHz to 1,645 MHz. That much speed needs something effective to cool it down and MSI managed to do just that with the dual MSI TORX fan setup. This GPU is a great fit for gaming laptops. In fact, Razer's impressive three-screened Project Valerie laptop will supposedly come with a Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU similar to MSI's GPU.
The MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Aero 11G, meanwhile, resembles Nvidia's Founders Edition. The most visible difference between the two is Aero's more colorful cooler. The Aero's cooler sports a black and green look with bright green stripes lining the top and bottom of the face. The new Aero graphics card comes in a thermal design which forces heat to go through a rear exhaust and out of the computer.
As PCGamer noted, the two cards come with two DisplayPorts and two HDMI ports each as well as a dual-link DVI-D connector. The Armor and Aero also need two 8-pin PCLe power connectors.
