Technology

MSI 1080 TI Duke Unboxing & Review

Published

6 years ago

July 1, 2019

Today we get to unbox and review and new MSI 1080 Ti Duke. MSI released another version of 1080 TI Graphics Card recently under the brand name Duke. The new graphics card boasts 352-bit memory interface with a core base clock of 1480MHz, boost clock of 1582MHz, and 11GB of GDDR5X memory at 11016MHz. Today we’re going to do an unboxing of the MSI Duke 1080Ti, review the specs, and also do some real world benchmarking with it to see how it ranks amongst other 1080TI graphics card.

First, we want to make it clear that this isn’t MSI’s first 1080Ti graphics card, they have an entire lineup of them. You may be more familiar with the MSI Gaming X which features dual fan, a shorter profile, and has MSI’s signature red on the casing. We did an overview on the MSI Gaming X previously, you can check it out here.

Unboxing the MSi Duke 1080Ti

The MSI Duke ships in a beautiful carbon fiber skinned box with the essential letterings on the front side. The backside is more feature heavy and goes into details with all the offering you’re getting for a $750 graphics card.

One very nice and small touch that MSI added are the tabs to pull out the entire inside. Usually you’d have to do a little bit of wiggling to get everything out without ripping the box apart. Thanks to these little thumb tabs, you can pull the entire inside box easily.

Upon pulling everything out, we’re greeted with MSI’s subtle logo printed on the matted cardboard box. The top is a thin cardboard box containing the essential manual, some marketing materails, a 6 to 8 pin power adepter (if you’re using an older power supply, this is a nice little bonus), and the vestigial installation CD. If you’re building a gaming machine and throwing down $750+ on a graphics card, something tells me you’re not installing a CD drive. Not sure why manufacturers still include these in the higher end graphics card. For lower end cards it makes more sense.

The graphics card itself is encased snuggly inside the foam cushion wrapped in anti-static bag. Opening the wrap reveals a the magnificent looking MSI 1080 TI Duke. It’s construction is mostly hard plastic with carbon fiber print tastefully decorated on the face. Make sure you remove the plastic stickers on the fan plates before installing into your machine. The backplate is solid metal and features MSI’s logo and some more carbon fiber streaks for aesthetics.

Cooling

The graphics card features MSI’s proprietary Tri-Frozr fans. MSI claims the TORX fans have a combined of 2 different blade designs infused into one fan to give superior cooling capabilities. The unique about this card is that the fans actually stop spinning when temperatures are below 60C and only starts when temperatures are above 60C. Keeping the graphics card cool is a cornerstone of design and one many third party manufacturers focus on optimizing.

In addition to the fans, MSI also put a massive 8MM heatpipes that also helps dissipate heat during intense operation. The heatpipes also connect to a reinforced metal plate that acts as an additional heatsink and also prevent flexing due to the size of the graphics card.

The MSI Duke is also noticeable larger than the MSI X gaming therefore flexing may be an issue. Take a look at the picture below and you’ll noticed there’s 2 layers of reinforced plating sandwiching the circuitboard to provide both optimal heat dissipation and also anti-flexing. The anti-flexing held true as we did try to bend the graphics card and to no avail.

The Ports

The MSI 1080 TI Duke comes with your standard DVI port for those with older monitors. It has 2 HDMI 2.0 that can support 4K at 60Hz. You also get 2 1.4 Display ports that can support 4K at 120Hz or 8K at 60Hz (currently we don’t have any 8K displays yet, but in the future when we do, you’ll have a graphics card that can take advantage of it). This is the perfect configuration if you’re planning to setup your machine for VR.

For power, this graphics card (like all 1080 TI really) requires two 8-pin PCI Express power connectors that’s rated at 250 Watts. If your power supply doesn’t support 8-pin PCI, MSI graciously included an adapter for your 6-pin.

RGB Lighting

MSI promised that this is an RGB model meaning there will be configurable lights. The back plate looks nice and clean featuring MSI logo in all white and carbon fiber streaks, however it doesn’t light up. We don’t mind this, as when installed, the backplate is hardly visible anyway.

On the side, the MSI DUKE logo does light up and can be configured. The Geforce GTX doesn’t light up, probably not a bad thing for us because our poor wiring covers it anyway. Overall, the lighting aspect of the MSI 1080 TI Duke is disappointing as only the DUKE logo lights up.

Benchmark

Now it’s time to put the card to test. We decided to test single-player games instead of going online to really test the graphics card capabilities. Online games have the added layer of internet connection that could mislead our results.

For testing, we installed the MSI 1080 TI Duke into our rig. Below are the specs for our rig.

Owner’s Magazine’s Custom Rig

Case – Dark Base 900 Pro (Premium case, bit expensive but definitely worth every penny. Check out our first look HERE)

Power Supply – Dark Power Pro 11 850W

CPU – Intel 7700K Kaby Lake

CPU Cooler – Dark Rock 3

Motherboard – MSI Z270 Carbon Gaming Pro

RAM – 32GB DDR4 G.Skill Ripjaws 32

Graphics Card – MSI 1080 TI Duke

Monitor of Choice

We chose Pixio’s new 347c Prime monitor to review most of the higher end graphics card. Pixio’s 347c Prime is a $600 34″ monitor with aspect ratio of 21:9 giving us ultra-wide 1440p viewing with up to 5MM pixels. This is considerably more challenging output than traditional 1080P monitors, however not quite as demanding as 4K monitors. We enjoy the sweet spot in the middle and also enjoy the extra wide dimension of the Pixio 347c Prime. Review for the Pixio 347c Prime is coming soon.

Keyboard

For this review, we decided to use Das Keyboard 4 Professional keyboard. It’s a professional grade german-made keyboard that’s used by many pros in E-Sport. Review for Das Keyboard 4 Professional coming soon.

Disclaimer: Owner’s Magazine wasn’t paid by either MSI, Be Quiet! or Pixio to promote products. All of the parts in our PC were chosen due to their respected quality and value determined by our engineers. We used quite a bit of Be Quiet!’s products due to their products generally being whispers even during heavy operation. And we chose Pixio’s monitor due to it’s value and desirable pixel density for testing high end graphics card.

Witcher 3

Max FPS: 100

Low FPS: 92

Avg Temperature: 66C

Battlefield 1

Max FPS: 100

Low FPS: 77

Avg Temperature: 71C

Doom

Max FPS: 100

Low FPS: 74

Avg Temperature: 68C

Dishonored 2

Surprisingly dropped below 60FPS during intense fight scenes.

Max FPS: 100

Low FPS: 55

Avg Temperature: 64C

Call of Duty Infinity Warfare

Max FPS: 80

Low FPS: 52

Average Temperature: 79C

Tital Fall 2

Max FPS: 100

Low FPS: 66

Avg Temperature: 72C

MSI 1080 Ti Duke Verdict

After testing the MSI 1080 TI Duke for several hours the card never got over 77C, and fan speed was silent for the most part. The unit handle most games on the list without a hitch. However that’s not surprisingly since 1080 TI typically are made to handle higher end games. Cooling was not an issue with the triple Frozr fans silently doing their job. Frame-rate was capped at 100 for our testing, and most games remained at 100 FPS even during intense fight sequences. The only game that gave us any issue was Call of Duty: Infinity Warfare. The graphics card could only output 80FPS maxed and even dipped below 60FPS during a few sequences. All of this was on a 34″ 1440P ultra-side Pixio 347c Prime monitor, not a 4K monitor.

When you’re shopping for 1080 TI, whether you’re looking at Asus, PNY, EVGA, or MSI they’re all relatively great performing cards. What separates them are the options, features, and bonuses that they come with. At the time of writing, the MSI 1080 TI DUKE is priced at $750 shipped on Amazon and that’s quite a steal given everything you get with it. It’s a solid performing card that comes with all essential ports for VR, has phenomenal cooling, rigid construction with additional heat plates (why the cooling was so good), slim profile (much thinner than the Asus Strix 1080 ti) making it easy to have SLI configuration, and it runs at no louder than a quiet whisper. The only drawback is the lackluster RGB lighting which they may as well not have done at all. Other than that, we put the MSI 1080 TI Duke right up there with all the other big boys.

Business

10 Best AI Tools for Entrepreneurs

Published

2 days ago

November 14, 2025

Margaret Zander

AI tools have evolved fast, and entrepreneurs now rely on them not just to automate tasks but to scale entire workflows. That said, it’s not surprising that many business owners are leveraging the power of cutting-edge technology. And this is where AI tools for entrepreneurs come in. Let’s look at what they are and a few examples you can check out.

1. Aomni Agent

Packed with powerful AI-driven features, Aomni Agent is a tool that can help you grow your company’s outbound pipeline by conducting research to give you new Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). With it, you no longer have to create account plans for each of your prospects, as the AI tool will do it for you.

Aomni Agent engages with your customers, provides support, automates routine tasks, and gives you real-time insights and analytics, among many other features. To know its pricing and additional information, you need to contact them directly through their website.

2. Pictory

A video creation tool, Pictory, can help you create engaging and professional videos in minutes. It uses AI that automatically generates videos from your text, images, and audio. This means you get excellent results even without any video editing skills.

You can use Pictory to generate videos from your blog posts, articles, and other text. It can also edit existing videos and add images, music, or text. It offers a free trial and three plans with subscription fees that range from $23 to $119 per month.

3. Zeda.io

Zeda.io has grown into a powerful AI-powered product operating system. With its 2.0 update, the platform now connects customer feedback, product strategy, roadmapping, and internal documentation into a single intelligent workspace.

Its AI engine analyzes thousands of customer inputs, from surveys to reviews to support tickets, to identify patterns, prioritize features, and suggest product improvements. What used to take days of manual synthesis now takes minutes. The updated version also includes AI-generated product briefs, automated roadmap updates, and integrations with popular tools like Slack, Notion, and HubSpot.

4. Slite Ask

Slite Ask is one of the most reliable AI knowledge-base assistants for teams. Instead of manually searching docs or old messages, entrepreneurs can simply “ask” a question and get an instant answer based on their workspace knowledge.

The AI scans company documents, policies, SOPs, and internal notes to deliver accurate responses without hallucinations. This makes onboarding smoother and speeds up decision-making, especially for remote or hybrid teams.

5. Credal.ai

Keep your data safe with an AI tool that’s perfect for entrepreneurs. Credal.ai is a software that provides a secure environment for AI applications to run and monitors them for any potential security threats. This helps you protect your business’s sensitive data from unauthorized users.

Credal.ai protects your data from leaks, malicious codes, and unauthorized access. It has a free plan but with limitations, so to get the most out of this AI tool, a Team or Enterprise plan is recommended. Pricing starts at $500 per month.

6. Webscraping.AI

Web scraping is the process of extracting data from a website, such as stock prices, product details, company contacts, and many more. If you want access to this information, you’ll need Webscraping.AI. It is easy to use and won’t require you to have any coding or technical skills. All you need to do is enter the website you want to scrape, and the tool will automatically get the data from the website.

Webscraping.AI can help business owners make better decisions by providing accurate data to identify new opportunities. It can also help them make better decisions for their strategies. Pricing for this AI tool for entrepreneurs ranges from $29 to $249 per month, with no hidden fees.

7. ValueProp.dev

A value proposition is a statement that tells your customers what your product or service is all about. This can be tricky, but worry no more, as ValueProp.dev is an AI tool for entrepreneurs created explicitly for this. It uses machine learning to analyze your customer data to generate unique value propositions for you.

ValueProp.dev can help you improve your business by generating value propositions that significantly increase customer acquisition, retention, and sales. It is free for up to three value propositions, but they also have premium plans for more options and features. Pricing starts at $29 per month.

8. Lovo.ai

A text-to-speech and text-to-video platform, Lov o.ai can help you create engaging and informative content for your content marketing strategies. It uses AI to generate realistic and human-loke voiceovers, videos, avatars, and others. You can extend your reach globally as this tool can do voiceovers and videos in more than 140 languages.

Lovo.ai can help you increase your engagement, improve your SEO rankings, and boost conversions. You can try their free plan to give you an idea of what the tool can do for you. But for more features, a paid plan that starts at $19 per month can provide more value.

9. Zigpoll

Zigpoll remains a solid choice for collecting customer insights, but its capabilities have expanded over the past two years. Today, Zigpoll uses AI to generate survey questions, summarize responses, detect sentiment, and even segment customers automatically.

Entrepreneurs can embed polls on websites, email campaigns, or post-purchase pages, then let Zigpoll’s AI categorize feedback into actionable insights. This helps brands quickly spot trends, product issues, or opportunities for upselling.

10. Pitches.ai

Are you looking to increase your business funding? Then creating the perfect pitch deck should be your priority. You can easily and quickly do this with Pitches.ai. It is an AI-powered tool for entrepreneurs to develop and refine pitch decks.

Pitches.ai analyzes pitch decks and gives you feedback on their structure, persuasiveness, and clarity. This gives you a higher probability of success. It offers four premium plans with prices ranging between $95 to $1,195.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence is slowly becoming popular among business owners. Thanks to their many advantages, it’s no surprise that many will be using the technology from now on. These AI tools for entrepreneurs are a great example, and you should check them out today.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

Technology

Our Top 10 Video Editing Tools for Smarter Content Production

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2025

Scarlett Holiday

Video editors are always on the lookout for the best tools and software. After all, everyone wants to create something memorable and that will last for years to come. And since video editing is the last step in creating ama z ing videos, finding the best is a challenge. To help you find the right one, here is our top 10 list of the best video editing tools:

10. Microsoft Clipchamp

Platform: Windows 10

Price: Free with Windows 10

Features: If you’re on Windows 10, you can use its built-in video editor, Clipchamp. It is more powerful and polished than its old Photos app editor. It’s ideal for trimming clips, adding text overlays, or layering transitions and music. Just search for “Clipchamp” in your Start menu or download the app from the Microsoft Store.

This little program will also help you add 3D effects to your video. It’s surprisingly user-friendly and helps add simple embellishments.

9. Nero Video

Platform: Windows and Mac

Price: One-time payment of $55.95

Features: Formerly known as Nero Vision, Nero Video is a classic video editing software that provides some of your simple functions. There’s also an advanced mode that provides multitrack keyframe and timeline functions. It’s great for beginners and people who are somewhat accustomed to video editing.

8. Animaker

Platform: Any computer

Price: $27 to $79 per month

Features: What’s cool about Animaker is that it’s an online service. The lightweight app will run right within your web browser. It has a drag-and-drop feature that lets you create professional videos with no hassle.

7. InVideo

Platform: Any computer

Price: $35 to $999 per month, depending on your plan.

Features: InVideo is an AI-powered, completely cloud-based program. There are no downloads and no potential progress loss. It’s a true game-changer amongst video editing tools. InVideo is great for those who truly value convenience. It comes with over 6,000 templates to get any beginner started. Advanced users can begin editing from scratch, adding a list of transitions, frames, and stickers as they go.

6. VideoStudio Ultimate

Platform: Windows 8, 10, and 11

Price: $59.99

Features: If you’re up for more advanced features, VideoStudio may be right up your alley. Not only is this program user-friendly, but it also has a list of distinct features. It offers 360-degree VR and 4K support, plus new AI-assisted tools for faster editing and smarter effects. It’s also credited for being one of the first video editing tools to offer motion tracking. This allows users to track individual objects within each video cut, enabling very precise editing.

5. Adobe Premiere Elements

Platform: Windows and Mac

Price: $99.99

Features: Adobe Premiere Elements is cited as the best video editing tool for beginners. If your editing skills aren’t up to par yet, but you still want an in-depth program, then this tool is your best bet. This is a simplified version of Adobe Premiere Pro, which we’ll get to later. It gives you automatic motion tracking, video stabilization, and face detection, among other features.

4. Filmora

Platform: Windows and Mac

Price: $9.99 to $39.99

Features: If video editing is your main hobby, Filmora may be a great investment. It has a very clean and simple interface, with many Advanced options. Filmora offers built-in visual effects, along with title and text tools. It also offers 4K support. This video editing tool is all about high quality, with an attractive interface.

And the cherry on top? There’s also a mobile version. You can get FilmoraGo and tap into your video editing hobby anywhere.

3. iMovie

Platform: macOS and iOS

Price: Free with any macOS and iOS 15.3 or later.

Features: There are many reasons why I am an Apple fangirl, and this is one of them. All Apple Macs and newer iOS’ come with this really intuitive video editing tool called iMovie. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, iMovie passes the vibe check. It has a very simple drag and drop feature, it has accessible visuals unlike any other, and it comes with a number of templates. Just ask any middle schooler if they’ve worked on a video editing project. Yeah, it’s that easy to use.

If you need any other reason to get an Apple product, this is it.

2. CyberLink PowerDirector

Platform: Windows and Mac

Price: $24.99 to $34.99

Features: Now on to the advanced video editing tools. This is CyberLink PowerDirector. It’s great for those who aren’t beginners but also aren’t necessarily professionals. It’s like a very detailed middle-ground software. What stands out about this tool is that it gives access to the Shutterstock library. There are so many options to choose from with this program; it has extra features that you probably didn’t even consider when downloading it. It’s one of the first tools to feature 360-degree video editing. You also get super-fast rendering and 4K visuals.

1. Adobe Premiere Pro

Platform: Windows and Mac

Price: $37.99 to $49.97 per month

Features: If you’re a professional video editor with little time to spare, this is the best option for you. Adobe Premiere Pro is the software that YouTubers and industry workers use to create high-quality, carefully crafted videos. It has everything you’ll need and more. This includes cross-platform compatibility, multi-cam options, multiple collaboration features, and best of all, free updates.

Technology

How TikTok and Instagram Track You Using In-App Browsers

Published

4 days ago

November 11, 2025

Jeffrey Davidson

Every time you take your phone out, you should be conscious of what information apps can download passively from you. While there’s always a level of information one can deny and consent to give, not all apps are transparent about what they can receive. If you’re an iOS user, however, there’s a newfound threat to your safety while browsing – particularly for two of the biggest social media platforms, Instagram and TikTok. But there’s a way you’ll be able to tell which in-app browsing tool will keep tabs on you.

The In-App Browsing Tool

The Verge is one of the first media outlets to report the new in-app browsing tool: InAppBrowser.com. But how do you use this tool? Well, Felix Krause, the developer, has said that you can open this site by sending this link through your friend’s DM OR posting it as a comment in any post. Open the site, and you’ll see technical jargon. However, Krause provides users information on what type of data Instagram and TikTok might be getting from you.

Krause posted about the security vulnerability on his blog last Aug. 10, 2022. Even if the in-app browsing tool is a great way of knowing what Instagram or TikTok can be tracking, it still has its flaws. But it will help non-technical users learn more about how their activities can be tracked. Plus, he made the app open source so other developers could improve on this script.

In addition, TikTok and Meta have even responded to Krause’s findings. TikTok has mentioned that they do not in any way collect keystroke (typing-related tracking activity) on the code, but it has been used for “debugging and performance monitoring.”

Meta has also said their piece about Krause’s findings. The code in question was for “measurement.” It’s to ensure they respect users’ decisions on what data they can track for advertising purposes.

Is TikTok and Instagram Safe to Use?

As of 2025, TikTok faces ongoing scrutiny over data privacy, with U.S. operations transitioning to Oracle-led control to address concerns about potential Chinese government access to user data. However, direct messages on TikTok still lack end-to-end encryption, leaving private conversations less secure compared to other platforms¹.

Another thing to note when using this app is that messages aren’t encrypted either. Your messages to friends will not be as secure as other chat apps that would use end-to-end encryption.

How about Instagram?

Well, being a company under the Meta group, Instagram also collects information from users’ behaviors.

What TikTok tracks?

According to Wired, here are the data that TikTok gets from its users. Other social media networks do the same.

Activities and preferences
Clipboard files, such as text, videos, and images
Location, which you can turn off

What Instagram tracks?

pCloud, a cloud storage firm, found that Instagram was the most invasive app in 2020. Based on their study, it appears that Instagram collects the following data:

Purchases
Location
Contact details
User content
Search and browsing history
Identifiers
Usage data
Diagnostic
Financial info

How to Stay Safe from These Apps?

Even if these apps collect your data, you can still enjoy using them. However, you might have to limit usage by:

Not sharing your personal info (numbers, addresses)
Making your profile private
Turning off location

Of course, the one solution to help you be safe from these apps is to delete them. You may have used it, and they have collected data from you. But if you no longer want more of your information tracked, deletion is the best way to do so.

And for other news and stories, read more here at Owner’s Mag!