The Bottom Line
Introduction
NVIDIA officially launched its next-gen GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card this week, with my review on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition -- and now, it's time for the avalanche of custom RTX 3080 graphics cards.
Starting off with a big bang is MSI's new GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO graphics card, which is a beasty triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution that keeps the card much cooler than the (still impressive) cooling design on NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition.
MSI has some of the best out-of-the-box GPU boost clocks of the two custom GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards that I have, pushing close to 1975-2025MHz during heavy benchmark and gaming loads. This is impressive to see, as it can edge out the RTX 3080 FE.
MSI is charging a $60 premium over NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition, with a price of $760 -- if you can find one, that is.
Everything You Need to Know About Ampere
- Ampere GPU architecture: NVIDIA has so much going on under the Ampere GPU hood, with the GA102 GPU packing a huge 28 billion transistors (that's 28,000,000,000) on the Samsung 8nm node. We have a huge 8704 CUDA cores on GA102, over double the 3072 CUDA cores on the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER.
- RTX improvements: NVIDIA has effectively doubled everything when it comes to RTX, where it will rips and tears your games and delivers them to your eyeballs faster than ever before with Ampere. If you want to run any RTX-powered games, you'll want a new GeForce RTX 3080.
- GDDR6X memory: The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 10GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit memory bus, with a huge 760GB/sec of memory bandwidth. You should see the 4K gaming results for the evidence of the Ampere GPU + GDDR6X memory slaying it.
- PCIe 4.0 connectivity: NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards are now PCIe 4.0 compatible, so if you're building a new AMD Ryzen 3000 series system with an X570 motherboard -- you will be ready to rock and roll with PCIe 4.0 connectivity.
- HDMI 2.1: 4K 120Hz + 8K 60Hz = single cable: If you are buying a new TV in the coming months or years, HDMI 2.1 is going to be something you want. It opens up the bandwidth floodgates to 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz over the single HDMI 2.1 cable.
- RTX IO: NVIDIA's introduction of RTX IO with Ampere is very similar to the ultra-fast game load times on the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles. You can read all about RTX IO right here, which is something we'll see build more foundation in 2021 and beyond.
MSI marketing
MSI has deployed its TRI FROZR 2 thermal system on the custom GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO, with what MSI calls the "perfect balance of cool and quiet". It's true, the card runs incredibly quiet during gaming loads while keeping GPU clocks up nice and high.
We have the core pipes precision-machined for maximum contact on that Ampere GA102 GPU, spreading the heat along the entire length of the heat sink.
MSI has multiple thermal improvements with the TRI FROZR 2 thermal system, with wave-curved 2.0 fin edges that will disrupt unwanted airflow harmonics which give you a quieter-operating graphics card, while keeping the air running over it as quick -- but as quiet -- as it can.
A nice recap on what is going on under the hood of the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO graphics card.
The card doesn't just look great, have kick ass performance, awesome thermals -- but it's also tough as nails. MSI has used more fuses in its custom PCB that provide improved protection against electrical damage. The enhanced PCB material design is using 2oz thickened copper as well, which improves conductivity, improving heat dissipation, and high-performance reliability.
MSI wants you to bend the rules, not the card.
You get a brace in the box so your MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO doesn't sag in your rig.
MSI also has a comprehensive software package in its Dragon Center -- which lets you tweak, customize, and optimize your system in real-time in a few easy clicks of your mouse.
Detailed Look
MSI has some eye-catching retail packaging on its GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO, with no mention of the 10GB of VRAM or GDDR6X technology on the front. On the back we get some detailed information on the TRI FROZR 2 cooling system, and then some more specs in the bottom right with the mention of 10GB of GDDR6X.
Here we have the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO from the front, with its triple-fan cooling looking quite beast in the flesh. I actually love the style of this card from the front, with not too much RGB craziness going off when the card is powered up.
Once again from the back, with the RGB light bar at the bottom looking great (from the top) when the system is turned on.
You have a pretty chunky heat sink and fan system here, but if you're buying a card like this you will have the room in your PC ready for it. The huge heat sink for the GA102 and then the VRMs at the ned is visible here, and it is massive.
From the top we have a chunky card, coming in at a large triple-slot design -- with a rather insane, and unnecessary triple 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
See, triple 8-pin PCIe power connectors -- versus the single 12-pin connector on NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition graphics card.
Here's the metal stabilization bar, keeping the card from sagging as much.
We have 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, and a single HDMI 2.1 connector -- the HDMI 2.1 port can handle 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz over a single cable. So if you're going to buy a new high refresh rate gaming TV -- this is what you want.
The RGB lighting on this card is not over the top, and I'm kinda digging it.
Test System Specs
I've got a new upgrade inside of my GPU test bed before my change to a next-gen test bed, where I will be preparing for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics cards and AMD's next-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards.
Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.
Anthony's Test System Specifications
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 (buy from Amazon)
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5GHz (buy from Amazon)
- Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO (buy from Amazon)
- Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Predator DDR4-2933 (buy from Amazon)
- SSD: Sabrent Rocket Q 2TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
- SSD: 1TB Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2 (buy from Amazon)
- SSD: 512GB Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2 (buy from Amazon)
- Power Supply: InWin 1065W
- Case: InWin X-Frame
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (buy from Amazon)
Additional Images
Benchmarks - Synthetic
3DMark Fire Strike
3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.
3DMark TimeSpy
Heaven - 1080p
Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.
Benchmarks - 1080p
DOOM Eternal is one of the best-looking, but superbly-optimized games of 2020 with the folks at id Software truly putting their all into the id Tech 7 engine for DOOM Eternal. We're using the Vulkan API on DOOM Eternal here.
You can buy DOOM Eternal at Amazon.
Another new entry into our regular graphics card benchmarks is Red Dead Redemption 2, which is powered by the RAGE engine by Rockstar Games. The RAGE engine has been tuned from its normal use in the Grand Theft Auto series. We're also running this on the Vulkan API.
You can buy Red Dead Redemption 2 at Amazon.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.
You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.
Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.
Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.
1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts
I would not recommend buying the GeForce RTX 3080 for 1080p gaming, period. I almost don't even want to discuss performance thoughts at this resolution because you'd be nuts to buy the RTX 3080 for 1920 x 1080.
We have a few more FPS over the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition in most of the games and testing, with the MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO breaching 244FPS average in DOOM Eternal on the Ultra Nightmare preset.
Benchmarks - 1440p
DOOM Eternal is one of the best-looking, but superbly-optimized games of 2020 with the folks at id Software truly putting their all into the id Tech 7 engine for DOOM Eternal. We're using the Vulkan API on DOOM Eternal here.
You can buy DOOM Eternal at Amazon.
Another new entry into our regular graphics card benchmarks is Red Dead Redemption 2, which is powered by the RAGE engine by Rockstar Games. The RAGE engine has been tuned from its normal use in the Grand Theft Auto series. We're also running this on the Vulkan API.
You can buy Red Dead Redemption 2 at Amazon.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.
You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.
Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.
Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.
1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts
2560 x 1440 is about where I would start to recommend the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO -- well, any RTX 3080. You will want a high refresh rate 120/144/165Hz 1440p monitor, I wouldn't recommend getting the RTX 3080 with a 1440p 60Hz monitor.
We have 225FPS average in DOOM Eternal, 5FPS better than the RTX 3080 FE -- and an identical 102FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2, both running the Vulkan API. For the rest of the tests, the MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO is virtually neck and neck with the RTX 3080 FE.
So you're getting a slightly faster card at 1440p, but it runs virtually silent in comparison.
Benchmarks - 4K
DOOM Eternal is one of the best-looking, but superbly-optimized games of 2020 with the folks at id Software truly putting their all into the id Tech 7 engine for DOOM Eternal. We're using the Vulkan API on DOOM Eternal here.
You can buy DOOM Eternal at Amazon.
Another new entry into our regular graphics card benchmarks is Red Dead Redemption 2, which is powered by the RAGE engine by Rockstar Games. The RAGE engine has been tuned from its normal use in the Grand Theft Auto series. We're also running this on the Vulkan API.
You can buy Red Dead Redemption 2 at Amazon.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.
You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.
Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.
Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.
4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts
This is why you'll want to buy the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO: 4K gaming, where you can drive a huge 144FPS at 4K in DOOM Eternal, which is simply amazing to see in action. This is 7FPS more than the 137FPS that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition achieves.
Once again, the MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO is only a few FPS better than the RTX 3080 FE card, so you're getting the same performance -- with some overclocking headroom I'll discuss after our RTX + DLSS benchmarks -- but the card runs almost silently during gaming sessions.
That's the type of experience you're after -- powerhouse performance, whisper quiet operation.
Benchmarks - RTX + DLSS
I've now got an entire section dedicated to ray tracing and DLSS benchmarks, where I'll slowly benchmark more and more titles and add them into future reviews. First up, we have 4A Games' Metro Exodus which is a constant pressure on our GPUs.
Metro Exodus
- Metro Exodus RT + DLSS performance: With RT enabled @ 4K we're seeing 36FPS out of the MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO -- but enabling DLSS magic sees that performance skyrocket to 52FPS, which is virtually identical to the no RT and no DLSS score of 55FPS.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider RT + DLSS performance: Another game where turning on DLSS is like flipping a magic switch on your graphics card -- equally as good, if not sometimes better graphics while there's also more performance. We're looking at 100FPS at 4K in Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO.
Overclocking
MSI has really squeezed about all it can from the GA102 GPU in terms of GPU clocks with the GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO -- where I have virtually zero wiggle room for overclocking.
The card sits comfortably at 2000MHz all day long in benchmark and gaming sessions, where with a 25MHz overclock I was sitting the GPU boost hit a max of around 2070MHz. For the most part, GPU clocks sat at 2025MHz and had momentary bursts to 2040MHz.
I don't think you're going to see any real-world difference outside of a few FPS with an overclock on the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO. There's just nothing left in the card to OC, which makes me question the requirement of triple 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
But what I did do was overclock the hell out of the 10GB of GDDR6X, cranking that up by 1000MHz and seeing memory bandwidth skyrocket up to 840GB/sec.
Here you can scope out when I had the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO overclocked, with its fans at 100% and the GPU temps sitting in that chilly 54C area. You can see the GPU chip power draw is 185-190W or so on its own, with the entire card using 350W -- the entire system, 440W at this point.
Overclocked Benchmarks
Once I had pushed that large 1000MHz overclock on the GDDR6X and the small 25MHz bump on the GPU (as well as the fans at 100%) I ran some benchmarks again to see what type of improvement we'll see.
3DMark overclock: The overclock helps our 3DMark scores ever so slightly at 1440p in TimeSpy, wtih another slight bump at the TimeSpy Extreme benchmark. But let's now dive into some games and see how that +25MHz on the GPU and +1000MHz on the GDDR6X goes.
Metro Exodus overclock: Starting with Metro Exodus we have an additional 4FPS with the OC enabled, bumping us up to 80FPS average. This isn't bad considering that's an additional 5.2% in performance over the already brutally fast GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition.
Shadow of War overclock: I thought we'd see more interesing results here with Shadow of War and the overclocked MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO, but nope -- we still have a 3FPS increase at 1440p and 3FPS more at 4K -- a boost of 2.8%.
Power Consumption & Temps
MSI's new GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO is the coolest graphics card I've tested in a while, taking a chunky 7C off of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition and its 79C temperatures.
MSI's new custom GeForce RTX 3080 operates at a damn chilly 53C with its fans at absolute maximum 100% blast, seeing that TRI FROZR 2 cooler shine. It keeps the overclocked Ampere GA102 GPU and 10GB of heavily overclocked GDDR6X memory nice and cool.
NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3080 is a power hungry graphics card, but if you want monstrous 4K gaming performance then it's going to chew through some power to get there.
Even when the card is pushed to its limits with another 25MHz coursing through its GPU veins, doubled with that 1000MHz overclock on the GDDR6X memory and we still only have an additional 10W power consumption with my entire Core i7-8700K test bed consuming 440W at stock, 450W with the OC.
What's Hot, What's Not
What's Hot
- Impressive temps: NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition sits at around 80C under load, but MSI's new GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO runs at a much cooler 72C under load. With the fans at 100% we're looking at just 53C temps.
- Slick design: I really dig the design, but question the RGB lighting -- it feels very 'quick, let's add RGB to it' at the last minute. It's not over the top, but the front of the card looks slick. It looks great in my rig, while I find the 'GeForce RTX' branding on the back distracting (but that's not just MSI).
- It is WHISPER quiet: Seriously, during my many hours of testing I couldn't hear it running -- at one point I had to move closer to my test bed to make sure the fans were even running. Pumping Metro Exodus away at 4K Extreme settings and I can't even hear it -- and the entire system is chugging away with 450W.
- TRI FROZR 2 triple-fan cooler: It looks great, performs even better -- 72C under load, 53C with fans at 100% and it is whisper quiet during all of it. A much better experience than the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition.
- 4K gaming beast: Do not buy this for 1080p, really consider it for 1440p, but 4K performance is just bonkers. You won't regret this purchase, at least until the GeForce RTX 3090 and Big Navi in the near future.
- GDDR6X memory overclock: I'm squeezing another almost 10% performance in high-end games that really squeeze everything out of the VRAM and memory bandwidth, with 20.5Gbps memory clocks being simply insane.
What's Not
- Virtually no GPU overclock: I could barely get another 25MHz out of the GPU overclock, which didn't really result in anymore performance. However, the GDDR6X can be cranked up which is where you'll get your performance from with OC.
Final Thoughts
MSI's new GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO is the first custom card I've reviewed after the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition, and it has left me impressed.
You're not going to get much more performance with the MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO over the RTX 3080 Founders Edition, but what you will get is a much cooler, much quieter Ampere gaming experience. It is whisper quiet, to the point where you can't hear it on through your case window.
MSI is still offering that balls-to-the-wall performance in the GeForce RTX 3080 itself, you're just getting it in a quieter, RGB-infused fashion. You're buying this because you want a quiet RTX 3080, but I haven't tested the others just yet so we'll have to see how they go.
In the hours before wrapping this review up, I began testing the ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity and the GPU boost clocks were nowhere close to the MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO. This is important, so we'll have to see we go as the custom RTX 3080 cards start flowing through my doors.
After a couple of weeks and amassing multiple custom GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards I will do a roundup of them all so you guys can sit back and compare them all at once.
MSI has always killed it with cooling, but the new TRI FROZR 2 cooler here on the GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO is on another level. The triple 8-pin PCIe power connectors are a total waste here I feel, which is about the only downside to this card.
You can juice it up with a huge 1000MHz overclock on the 10GB of GDDR6X memory which will give you a nice performance boost in some games (4K and 1440p especially). The MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO is already pushing the boundaries of the GA102 GPU boost clock as it is, but another 25MHz can be applied and it's still whisper quiet.
But right now, if you can somehow get your hands-on MSI's new custom GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO you won't regret it. You get that powerhouse RTX 3080 performance that can usher in 4K 120FPS gaming, but it does it all without making noise.
Performance |
100% |
Quality |
90% |
Features |
100% |
Value |
100% |
Overall |
98% |
MSI has the fastest GeForce RTX 3080 so far with its new GAMING X TRIO, and a radically chilled-out cooler. That RTX 3080 brute speed + 72C under load + WHISPER QUIET - you can't ask for more.
What's in Anthony's PC?
- CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K
- MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE Z690 AERO-G
- RAM: Corsair 32GB DDR4-3200
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24GB
- SSD: Sabrent 4TB Rocket 4 Plus
- OS: Windows 11 Pro
- CASE: Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL
- PSU: ASUS ROG Strix 850W
- KEYBOARD: Logitech G915 Wireless
- MOUSE: Logitech G502X Wireless
- MONITOR: LG C3 48-inch OLED TV 4K 120Hz
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