Corsair's Hydro GFX 1080 Is Part MSI, Liquid Cooled And All Badass

by Brandon Hill — Friday, August 12, 2016, 11:22 AM EDT

There’s no question that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is a beastly graphics chip. Marco reviewed the graphics card back in mid-May and praised its stellar performance and relatively low power consumption compared to the competition. For the most part, we’ve mainly seen air-cooled versions of the GeForce GTX 1080 make their way to the market, but Corsair has just announced a new card for water-cooling enthusiasts.

Corsair worked in conjunction with MSI to introduce the Hydro GFX GTX 1080. The graphics card features a Hydro Series H55 cooler mounted on the GPU along with a fully-sealed liquid cooling system complete with a 120mm radiator and LED-lit 120mm fan.

Whereas stock GeForce GTX 1080 cards have a base clock of 1607 MHz and a boost clock of 1733 MHz, the Hydro GFX GTX 1080 offers a Gaming Mode which clocks the GPU at 1683 MHz / 1822 MHz (Base / Boost), while OC Mode cranks it up ever so slightly to 1708 MHz / 1847 MHz (Base / Boost). Gaming Mode provides the best balance of performance and noise levels, while Silent Mode still delivers the stock GTX 1080 experience (and speeds) with minimal noise output.

Installation is a breeze, since everything that you need to get started comes preassembled out of the box. Simply insert the card into a free PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot and mount the radiator, then you’re ready to install the latest MSI software and get started.

The Corsair Hydro GFX GTX 1080 is available to purchase right now in the United States, and it is priced at $749.

Tags: MSI, Corsair, geforce gtx 1080, hydro gfx 1080

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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