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.

Technology

The Top 8 Webinar Platforms For Your Next Virtual Event or Demo

Published

2 days ago

December 19, 2025

Skylar Lee

Webinars are a powerful marketing tool you need to incorporate into your business. So, next time you’re hosting an event or demo for your clients, here are the top webinar platforms you can consider for 2026.

Before we list down the ten best webinar platforms of all time, here are some examples of webinars you can host:

Customer onboarding
Employee training
Thought leadership
Product demonstration
Live classes
Corporate communications
New features
Lead nurturing

1. GoTo

GoTo is an all-in-one video conferencing and webinar solution for many businesses and hosts. With GoTo, you can subscribe to one product at a time. That said, their webinar solution ensures security, enables personalization, and increases audience engagement rates. One reason webinar hosts love GoTo is its Stripe integration. That said, you can accept payments easily without subscribing to another invoicing app.

Pricing (billed annually):

Reach (500 participants) – $69/mo
Elevate (1,000 participants) – $299/mo
Unlimited (Unlimited participants) Contact their sales team

2. WebinarNinja

WebinarNinja is the leading webinar platform for coaches and creators. This platform allows you to host a live, series, hybrid, and automated or evergreen webinar. Plus, you or your attendees won’t miss the webinar since they send automated emails for your upcoming events. In addition, you can engage audiences before or during the webinar with handouts, landing pages, chats, and audience presenters.

Pricing:

Monthly billing – $0.60 per attendee/per month

3. My Own Conference

If you are hosting a webinar with fewer than 20 attendees and want to host it for free, My Own Conference is your best option. It’s a no-fuss choice because you won’t download any software and can schedule webinars anytime! Like other webinar platforms on this list, you can send an automated email about upcoming lessons or seminars anytime.

Pricing:

Basic plan – Free
Business plan – $28/month for 30 attendees
Enterprise – Contact sales

4. Livestorm

Livestorm is another webinar platform offering a free version. It’s limited, but it’s ideal for audiences of fewer than 30 people. Like other webinar platforms on this list, you can integrate Livestorm with apps, such as marketing automation and CRM software apps. Additionally, you can also customize your Livestorm webinars with branding and track your analytics.

Pricing:

Pro – $105/mo
Business – Contact sales
Enterprise – Contact sales

5. Demio

If you’re a marketer and are hosting a webinar, Demio is one of the best webinar platforms to use! With Demio, you can host a live, automated, or series webinar. You can customize Demio by adding your business logo and colors to maintain brand consistency anywhere. Plus, you can increase engagement rates with polls and handouts. Finally, you can monitor your webinar’s results with their tracking and analytics systems.

Pricing:

Starter – $63/mo
Growth – $117/mo
Premium – $196/mo paid annually

6. Adobe Connect

Adobe doesn’t just develop design and video editing software application. They also have a webinar platform, Adobe Connect, you can use to host events. In terms of features, they have the basics, such as polls, breakout rooms, chats, and integrations. However, Adobe Connect goes further with features such as drawing and annotations, templates, and asynchronous browsing. That said, Adobe Connect is steeper than most webinar platforms.

Pricing:

Standard – $190 per year/per host
Premium – $290 per year/per host
Enterprise – $390 per year/per host

7. WebinarGeek

Here’s another webinar platform that doesn’t require a download when you use it. WebinarGeek lets you do everything on your browser, such as conducting live and hybrid webinars and co-presenting with other hosts. This platform is ideal for marketers since they have marketing integrations like Zapier, HubSpot, and MailChimp. However, creators, coaches, and teachers can benefit from the platform because of the engagement features.

Pricing:

Basic – $81/month
Premium – $116/month
Enterprise – From $409/month

8. BigMarker

The final platform on our list is BigMarker. Once again, marketers and sales teams are the target audience for this webinar platform since it’s made to get more leads. Landing pages and registration forms make it possible. Plus, they can learn more about their potential customers through customer profiles and other marketing integrations. That said, creators can use BigMarker to host their events and invite attendees to their next event with their Call to Action feature.

Pricing:

Basic (Up to 1000 attendees) – Request a quote
Enterprise (Up to 10,000 attendees) – Request a quote
Enterprise+ (Up to 500,000 attendees) – Request a quote

Final Thoughts

Webinars have increased in popularity because of accessibility and cost. For coaches and creators, they can engage with the audience even better through chats and downloads. Meanwhile, marketers can make the most out of webinars through tracking and analytics after talking to leads and customers. Luckily, for these creators, webinar platforms can help them achieve their goals and attract more audiences in different ways.

Business

How Marketing Optimization Tools Level Up Your Marketing Game

Published

1 week ago

December 12, 2025

Skylar Lee

While many companies and small businesses struggle to capture their target audience’s attention amidst competition from giant brands, it’s clear that marketing needs to be taken up a notch. To do this, it requires marketing optimization tools to not only achieve marketing objectives but also generate leads. But how do you go about optimizing your marketing efforts and what tools can help?

1. Make Use of Data

According to Hubspot, marketing in 2025 will heavily focus on data. That said, data will give you insights into your target audience. Plus, you can better understand how your business works better through data. Fortunately, many marketing optimization tools have data and analytics to help you reach targets.

If your strategy is understanding your audience better through data, Google Analytics is your best free option. With Google Analytics, you’ll know where your users are coming from and how many of them are visiting your website.

Another data-heavy strategy is social media marketing. After all, you don’t want your social media marketing efforts to go in vain. Although MeetEdgar is primarily a social media scheduler, it will help you understand which of your posts are doing great in engagement. Plus, you can make decisions regarding your other non-performing posts.

2. Focus on SEO

Data isn’t enough when optimizing your marketing campaigns or strategies. Marketing strategies are best served with the help of SEO. You shouldn’t overlook or underestimate the impact of what SEO can do for your business. After all, you want to drive customers to your website, right? SEO is your best bet in getting more clicks and visits. Plus, you can earn your place on the coveted first page of search engines.

With SEO, you don’t have to overcomplicate it. Plus, you don’t want to skimp on SEO, especially if you want visitors to flock to your site. You can use one simple tool to help you research keywords, explore your competitors, and track your progress. Ahrefs is one of the tools you should have in your arsenal. They have an all-in-one tool ready to help you learn about your content, links, competitors, and more!

3. Stay Active on Social Media

Social media platforms are the best places to reach your target audience. You can post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to engage with your audience and promote your products or services. But posting on social media requires constant efforts and well-thought-out strategies. You need to post regularly with the right content, copy, and visuals to attract your target audience. Content creation tools like graphic design software and video editors will help you meet your social media marketing goals.

Canva is the go-to for many marketers because of its ease of use and UI. Plus, you can make graphics in minutes. Meanwhile, Clipchamp is a trusted name in video editing. Marketers can use templates to create videos in a snap. Plus, they can make compelling videos by adding filters and AI voiceovers.

4. Keep Content Consistent

During the planning stages, it’s important that your content should also be ready before it’s published. If you are launching a marketing campaign, you need your visual assets and marketing copy prepared. But you don’t create for creation’s sake. You need to keep your messaging and visuals consistent on every platform.

You want to ensure that people across various channels view and interact with your campaign assets while getting your main message out.

There are a couple of marketing optimization tools for this strategy:

Hubspot is the popular choice for content marketing since you can publish and schedule your blogs on this platform.
Like with social media marketing, you need content creation tools. However, an alternative to content creation tools is unlimited graphic design and video editing services. For graphic design, you can rely on Penji. You can request your graphics in one place while you work on your company. Meanwhile, Video Husky is a trusted video editing service helping you with short-form and long-form videos.
Email marketing is another content strategy you should consider when reaching your audiences. Mailerlite is your best bet in achieving your email marketing goals.

5. Research Your Competitors

Aside from learning about your audience, you should also keep an eye out for your competitors. After all, you want to see how your target audience responds to their posts. Plus, you want to compare how different your websites could be. This will give you an idea of how to improve your posts and websites.

Although Ahrefs has a competitor research tool, an alternative to this is SpyFu. They specialize in analyzing competitor keywords, traffic, ads, and domains.

Other Marketing Optimization Tools to Use:

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation tools have been the go-to applications for most marketers. After all, marketing automation streamlines your work. Plus, you can leave it to the AI or other automated sequences to do your job for you. That said, there are tons of marketing automation tools.

One stands out from the rest, and that is MailChimp. Although known as an email marketing tool, they have a marketing automation feature by building relationships with your customers and ad retargeting.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is one tool you need to reach more customers. This works best if you have an email marketing strategy. And if you need a CRM tool, Salesforce is the highly recommended one. You can run your marketing campaigns on their software. Plus, you can nurture leads and provide the best customer experience.

Project Management

One overlooked marketing optimization tool is project management. You should use a project management tool to help you get on track with your campaigns. Asana is a must-subscribe project management tool for marketing. You can collaborate with your teammates, assign them various projects, and organize them for each strategy.

Final Thoughts

In the competitive landscape of 2026, optimizing your marketing strategy is no longer optional, it’s essential. It can be challenging to entice your target audience digitally nowadays, especially if you’re hesitant to use optimization tools. That’s why it’s essential to use them to help you achieve your marketing goals. And with the tools above, you can be on your way to reaching your audience and increasing your sales.

Technology

Top 10 Presentation Software To Use in 2026

Published

1 week ago

December 12, 2025

Amaya Maravilla

Are you looking to create a stunning presentation that keeps your audience engaged? It would be best if you had excellent presentation software to take your slides to new heights. Let’s review the ten best presentation software in 2026 so you can choose the best for your business.

1. Visme

Visme is a cloud-based presentation software that enables users to create visually engaging and interactive presentations, infographics, and other visual content. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for users to add text, images, charts, and other elements to their presentations. Likewise, it offers design options like custom color schemes, fonts, and layouts. On top of that are interactive features like videos which can engage audiences and make the presentation more interactive.

Visme also offers collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously. Users can also share it for feedback and review.

Best for: Visme is perfect for small and large businesses, marketers, project managers, content creators, and educators.

Pricing:

Personal: $12.25/month paid annually
Business: $24.75/month paid annually
Enterprise: Custom

2. Prezi

Prezi offers a great alternative to the typical presentation format that goes slide by slide. Prezi’s creative idea is to create an animated, non-sequential flow of slides with hidden topics and subtopics until you zoom in. While Prezi’s interface can be slightly complicated, it is a good option for people who want to add a creative touch to their slides.

Best for: Businesses and educators.

Pricing:

Free plan: $0
Plus: $15/month
Premium: $25/month
Teams: Starts at $39/month

3. Google Slides

One of the most used tools online, Google Slides is a web-based presentation software part of the Google Suite of productivity tools. Google Slides is a web-based presentation software part of the Google Suite of productivity tools. It enables users to create, edit, and share presentations online, and it is similar in functionality to other presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint.

With Google Slides, users can create a new presentation from scratch or use one of the many templates provided by Google. Users can add text, images, charts, and other elements to their presentations using a simple drag-and-drop interface. Google Slides also offers a wide range of design options, including custom color schemes, fonts, and layouts, as well as the ability to add animations, transitions, and other effects to slides.

Best for: Business professionals, educators and students

Pricing:

Free to use for anyone with a Google account.
Plans for business accounts start at $6.30/user/month.

4. Keynote

Keynote is an Apple presentation software and one of the original alternatives to Microsoft’s PowerPoint. The best thing with Keynote is that it is the most similar to PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Best for: Keynote is good for businesses, educators, and individuals.

Pricing: Free for anyone with Apple ID

5. Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is the world’s most widely used presentation software. It is similar in functionality to other presentation software such as Apple Keynote and Google Slides.

PowerPoint also offers collaboration capabilities, including sharing presentations for feedback and review. It also allows users to work on presentations with other users simultaneously. Plus, it enables users to export their presentations in PDF, PPTX, and JPG formats.

Best for: Businesses, individuals, students, teachers and individual who use a Windows PC or device.

Pricing:

Free to download on desktop or mobile devices
Microsoft 365 Personal starts at $9.99/month

6. Ludus

Ludus is one of the coolest presentation tools available online. The main attractions of Ludus are the clean black screen to edit on and the number of integrations that provide importing capabilities for all sorts of content.

Best for: Designers and business owners

Pricing:

Starts at $14.90/month for teams of 1-15 people.
Offers a 30-day free trial

7. Slides

Slides promotes itself as “pixel-perfect” presentation software. Its editor includes a built-in grid to help with composition. Slides have a lower cost at the highest price tag, which suits smaller businesses.

Best for: Small business owners, startups, and individuals.

Pricing:

Free plan
Paid plans start at $5/month

8. Slidebean

SlideBean is a cloud-based presentation software that enables users to create visually engaging and professional presentations quickly and easily. The software is developed as user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for users to create high-quality presentations without any design experience.

Slidebean also takes pride in its AI pitch deck creator, which offers a fast way to create a presentation.

Best for: Small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs.

Pricing:

Paid plans start at $12/month

9. Beautiful.ai

The cloud-based presentation software Beautiful.ai uses artificial intelligence to help users create visually stunning and professional-looking presentations. It has user-friendly and intuitive features, making it easy for users to create high-quality presentations without any design experience.

Best for: Beautiful.ai is a perfect tool for beginners and non-designers.

Pricing:

Pro plan: $12/month, billed annually
Team plan: $40/month, billed annually
Offers a 14-day free trial

10. Zoho Show

Zoho Show is a web-based presentation software developed by Zoho, a company that provides a suite of productivity and collaboration tools. It is part of the Zoho Office Suite, which also includes tools such as Zoho Writer for word processing, Zoho Sheet for spreadsheets, and Zoho Meeting for online meetings.

With Zoho Show, users can create a new presentation from scratch or use one of the many templates provided. Users can add text, images, charts, and other elements to their presentations using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Best for: Businesses, entrepreneurs, educators, and students.

Pricing:

Free plan: up to 5 users
Paid plans start from $2.5/user/month, paid annually

The Lowdown

Presentation software is the most common tool used to pitch an idea to investors and present proposals to prospective clients. Likewise, it is utilized by many organizations to introduce new products or services, train staff on new policies, or teach students new or complex concepts. The collection of the best presentation software will help broaden your choices regarding the tools that will improve your productivity.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by RDNE Stock project from Pexels