MSI, Corsair Partner Up To Create GeForce GTX 980 Ti Sea Hawk (Updated)

By Kevin Carbotte
published

During the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, MSI and Corsair made a surprise announcement. The two companies have teamed up to bring their respective expertise to the table to create the GeForce GTX 980 Ti Sea Hawk, an overclocked 980 Ti cooled by one of Corsair's popular closed loop coolers.

MSI's GTX 980 Ti Sea Hawk features a hybrid cooling solution. The GPU is chilled by Corsair's proven H55 120 mm closed loop cooler. The H55 features a high-speed circulation pump and a low-profile aluminum radiator equipped with a silent variable speed fan. The GPU block features a micro-fin copper base which Corsair said manages efficient heat transfer.

The GPU is the only component cooled by the water block, but MSI has incorporated active air cooling for the VRMs and memory modules. The Sea Hawk's shroud includes a ball-bearing radial fan to blow fresh air across these components, which helps MSI push the memory to higher clocks than reference GTX 980 Tis.

The 6 GB of memory equipped on the card has received a slight bump in speed to 7096 MHz, up from the 7012 MHz designated by Nvidia's reference design. The GPU clock has seen a much more substantial increase. Nvidia's specifications call for a 1000 MHz GPU clock and 1075 MHz boost clock. With the H55 cooling the GPU, MSI was able to push the graphics processor to an unbelievable 1190 MHz, and the card will boost to 1291 MHz. MSI said there's more headroom for owners to push the card even further using the company's Afterburner overclocking software.

MSI and Corsair have not yet revealed when the GeForce GTX 980 Ti Sea Hawk will be available, and the suggested price has yet to be announced.

Update, 9/17/15, 7:40am PT: After publishing this article, it came to our attention that Corsair will also be selling a version of this exact same card. Corsair is calling its version the Hydro GTX GeForce GTX 980 Ti.

It shares pretty much every detail, right down to the MSI logo in the GPU shroud, but Corsair has announced the pricing and availability of its rendition. The Hydro GTX will have a suggested price of $739.99, and it will go on sale in October in the U.S. Corsair is offering a 3-year warranty for its first branded graphics card.

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

33 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Xivilain
    Active air cooling AND water cooling? Now I understand the "Sea Hawk" name.
    NEAT.
    Reply
  • jaber2
    I am surprised this happened before, can we have the same with CPU's now?
    Reply
  • thundervore
    Its right on their site for $739.99
    http://www.corsair.com/en-us/landing/hydrogfx

    Also I do not understand this halfassed approach to GPU cooling. What is stopping them from using a full GPU water block that covers the VRMs and memory and just move the pump elsewhere. There is allot of room where the blower fan is, why not place the pump there with inlets and outlets?
    Reply
  • geopirate
    Thundervore I believe thermodynamics is holding them back. A full coverage block would likely require a bigger radiator than the 120mm provided here which is used for maximum compatibility. Also enough people already complain about the clearance of these things so adding a pump on to the rad would only make things worse. Also the sort of customer looking to buy one of these things likely already has a similar 240mm unit for their CPU and there is a limited selection of cases that will fit 2 240mm rads without modifications as the modding crowd would go for a full custom loop instead of this AIO. Also the manufacturers of the pumps/radiators would be cannibalizing their own custom loop business which has higher margins most likely than these AIO solutions.
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    Asetek has had this unit for years(740GN). I am sure Corsair just had it re-branded.
    http://www.asetek.com/desktop/gpu-combo-coolers/740gn/

    On that topic, users have been doing this for years with cpu all in ones(my self included) :)
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    16642222 said:
    Asetek has had this unit for years(740GN). I am sure Corsair just had it re-branded.
    http://www.asetek.com/desktop/gpu-combo-coolers/740gn/

    On that topic, users have been doing this for years with cpu all in ones(my self included) :)

    True but I wonder if this is Corsair trying to break into the GPU market. They only really make one type of PC hardware, RAM, the rest is peripherals. I could imagine they wouldn't mind to take some market share from the others.
    Reply
  • airborn824
    Asetek has had this unit for years(740GN). I am sure Corsair just had it re-branded.
    http://www.asetek.com/desktop/gpu-combo-coolers/740gn/

    On that topic, users have been doing this for years with cpu all in ones(my self included) :)

    Yes but that is only the pump. I am looking for a good hybrid cooler like this that has better VRM cooling. I have 2x R9 290 PSC+ and i wish i could hybrid cool them but choices are slim here in the US. You have NZXT and Corsair but i dont have reference fan for the Corsair and the NZXT seems flimsy and bad at VRM, vRAM cooling. I dont have the time, budget or patience for a custom loop
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Looks nice! I wonder how well that sea hawk will compete against the EVGA 980 ti hybrid.
    Reply
  • thundervore
    Thundervore I believe thermodynamics is holding them back. A full coverage block would likely require a bigger radiator than the 120mm provided here which is used for maximum compatibility. Also enough people already complain about the clearance of these things so adding a pump on to the rad would only make things worse. Also the sort of customer looking to buy one of these things likely already has a similar 240mm unit for their CPU and there is a limited selection of cases that will fit 2 240mm rads without modifications as the modding crowd would go for a full custom loop instead of this AIO. Also the manufacturers of the pumps/radiators would be cannibalizing their own custom loop business which has higher margins most likely than these AIO solutions.


    I find it hard to believe thermals are preventing them from doing this when there is a R9 295X2 with a 120mm radiator

    http://www.asetek.com/customers/do-it-yourself/amd/amd-radeon-r9-295x2/

    A 240 radiator is not really needed for normal cooling unless the end user is overclocking.
    Reply
  • snx
    Hopefully the card is reference and they sell a separate kit for $90-$100 like EVGA does.
    Reply