MSI Readies Faster Memory GTX 1080 11Gbps and GTX 1060 9Gbps Gaming X Plus Cards

MSI is getting ready to release two refreshed video cards from NVIDIA’s GTX-1000 series line, now sporting faster memory for higher bandwidth and better performance.The reference GTX 1080 for example has a bandwidth of 320GB/s but the new refreshed model runs at 10GHz on a 256-bit bus so it essentially has 352GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 1060 9Gbps on the other hand, has increased from 192GB/s to 216GB/s. The improved bandwidth should provide some noticeable bump in performance in newer several titles.

There is no clear official naming scheme yet for these refreshes other than the 11Gbps designation for the GTX 1080 and 9Gbps designation for the GTX 1060. NVIDIA seems to prefer these type of messy naming schemes, but on MSI’s part, they are adding on the ‘Plus’ designation to these cards to differentiate from the regular GTX 1080 Gaming X and GTX 1060 Gaming X video cards. The release date for these faster memory GeForce video cards is expected in two weeks, specifically on April 11th, just in time to go head to head against AMD’s own set of refreshed Radeon RX 580 video cards.

There is no word yet on pricing or whether these new models will exist concurrently with the non-Plus versions.