Corsair Breaks Into GPU Market – Partners With MSI To Launch Liquid-Cooled GTX 980 Ti

With pretty much every PC component under its belt, Corsair finally gets around to making an entry into one of the last remaining components an OEM manufacturer can provide – graphics cards. Corsair isn’t actually making the cards itself; that falls to MSI. What Corsair is providing is an H55 Hydro cooler pre-fitted to an overclocked MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti, creating the Hydro GFX.

The GTX 980 Ti is no slouch on its own, but with the help of a pre-fitted liquid cooler, the card gets a near 20% overclock resulting in a 15% increase in performance, while dropping temperatures by 30%. The H55 used is not a new design, and it’s been around since 2012 (reviewed), but the Hydro GFX appears to be a hybrid design, as the card still uses the built-in fan, probably to cool off the VRMs and RAM.

The full specifications of the Hydro GFX are listed below:

So how much will this bad-boy cost? Estimated to be around $740, which puts it in-line with the EVGA hybrid, another water-cooled 980 Ti. Availability is around October time, so keep an eye out at the usual retailers, or sign up on Corsair’s website to be notified of its release.

MSI will be releasing its own retail packaged cards, as well as Corsair, so there are technically two versions of the same card.

How long before Corsair starts making its own GPU designs is anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly interesting they chose now to break into the market. This likely ties in with its recently announced Bulldog HTPC chassis. If you look into the design, the H55 cooler was mentioned as a bracket that goes over the top of GPUs – so the Hydro GXF is likely a pre-packedged extension of that design.

All that’s left for Corsair to produce in the PC market is motherboards and soundcards.