MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO Review

TweakTown Rating: 99%

Our Verdict

I don't know how you couldn't like the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which offers some truly great performance for 1080p, 1440p, and even 3440 x 1440 for UltraWide gamers. Also a great buy for Cyberpunk 2077!

Introduction

NVIDIA launched its new GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in the last couple of days, with my review on the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition glowing about the card -- priced at $400, it's a pocket rocket game slaying card.

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MSI has a tweaked and suped-up GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO on the review chopping block today, our first custom RTX 3060 Ti. I've got some stock and overclocked results, where I've pushed the card to its limits -- 2145-2160MHz or so which provides some truly kick ass OC headroom on an already kick ass card.

I didn't know if I would get the GAMING X TRIO right away considering MSI just released its new SUPRIM X family of cards -- my review on the MSI RTX 3090 SUPRIM X and review on the MSI RTX 3080 SUPRIM X. But nope, we have the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO -- which is actually a very impressive sub $500 graphics card.

• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 GAMING X TRIO Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3070 GAMING X TRIO Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Review

Everything You Need to Know About Ampere

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NVIDIA directly compares the new GeForce RTX 3060 Ti against the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER -- although in performance, it is battling out with the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER. Anyway, we're looking at 38 SMs, 4864 CUDA cores, 152 Tensor Cores, 162 TUs, and 80 ROPs.

We have the GPU boost hitting 1665MHz while the 8GB of GDDR6 memory is at 14Gbps on a 256-bit memory bus with 448GB/sec of memory bandwidth. NVIDIA has the TGP at 200W, up from the 175W on the RTX 2060 SUPER.

MSI marketing

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MSI has its new TRI FROZR 2 keeping the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO, which when you dig into the review you'll see how impressive it is at keeping the card very, very nice and cool.

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Yep -- silent is right, the card doesn't make a peep for the most part -- unless you are really pushing it and need to crank the fan speed up. During games when you've got sound on through speakers or headphones, I don't think you're going to hear anything at all from the card. It's just quiet, and powerful.

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MSI does this in a few different ways where it 'outplays the heat'.

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You also get an anti-benching strap in the box.

Detailed Look

MSI uses its normal retail packaging for its GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO, the same as its GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3090 variants.

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We have that same iconic, and great-looking TRI FROZR 2 and backplate -- although, I've been spoiled by the SUPRIM X and definitely prefer that cooler and backplate design.

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We have a 2.5-slot card here.

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You will need dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors for the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO.

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Display connectivity remains the same: 3 x DP 1.4 + 1 x HDMI 2.1 connector.

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

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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.

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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.

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Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

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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.

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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.

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Benchmarks - 1080p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

When the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO is overclocked, we see performance in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla shooting up the charts to bypass the RTX 3070 -- and is just 3FPS shy of the RTX 3080. Impressive stuff there, from both NVIDIA and MSI.

Performance across the board is a few FPS faster than the RTX 3060 Ti FE -- and when overclocked, another 5-10% depending on the game and resolution.

Benchmarks - 1440p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

The same type of performance comes out of the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO at 1440p as it does at 1080p -- where in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla we have 62FPS average -- and 67FPS average when overclocked. When overclocked, the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO beats the RTX 3070 FE.

In Shadow of War, we have around 120FPS average -- with the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO beating NVIDIA's previous-gen flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE at 1440p. More impressive stuff out of the RTX 3060 Ti.

Benchmarks - 4K

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I do not recommend buying any GeForce RTX 3060 Ti for 4K gaming, but it's definitely not a bad card when we hit 4K. In Assassin's Creed: Valhalla we're looking at 42-44FPS from the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO, battling it out with the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3070 -- overclocked, the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO beats those higher-end cards at 4K.

It's very close to the RTX 3070 and RTX 2080 Ti in Shadow of War at 4K, while in Metro Exodus we have 30FPS or so average. Shadow of the Tomb Raider easily handles over 60FPS at 4K on the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO.

Overclocking

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Out of the box I was seeing around 1950-1980MHz out of the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO, with the card running at around 68C under load with the fans at 41% (1190RPM or so).

I was able to get a really great overclock from my sample of the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO, pushing another 120-150MHz through the card. At this stage, the GPU boost was stable at around 2145MHz -- dipping into 2130MHz and up to around 2175MHz which was impressive to see.

With the manual OC applied we're looking at the board drawing around 240-245W power, while the GPU on its own is using around 195-200W.

Power Consumption & Temps

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NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition ran cool, at 71C -- but MSI's better TRI FROZR 2 cooler keeps the RTX 3060 Ti (and its higher boost GPU clocked) GAMING X TRIO at 68C with fan settings on default. However, with the manual OC applied and fans at 100% the temps plummet to just 48C.

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Out of the box we're seeing the entire Ryzen 7 3800X test bed with the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO chewing down 300W, while the manual OC saw the power consumption go up another 30W to 330W total.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

NVIDIA already has an impressive card on its hands with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, but what does MSI stand out with when it comes to the RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO?

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• GAMING X TRIO style: If you like the style of the MSI GAMING X TRIO cards and didn't want to spend over $500 on a graphics card (hopefully they don't go over this price, as the card sells for $470) then you've got a great card here with kick ass performance on the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO.
• Better than Founders Edition cooling: MSI's use of the custom TRI FROZR 2 cooler is great, with the RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO running nice and cool at all times.
• Great OC headroom: There's a bunch of OC fun to be had on this card!
• Runs silent, also runs cool: The MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO was surprisingly quiet, to the point of me having to manually check it to make sure it's on -- you know you're onto a good one when that happens.

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What's Not

• Only 8GB of VRAM: Yes, I had this in the 'What's Not' as well, but with the competitor launching their new cards with 16GB of RAM -- 8GB doesn't feel like enough. Not that most people would need, or even use anything over 8GB of VRAM -- it's something to bring up.

Final Thoughts

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MSI has a great card on its hands with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO, offering some amazing levels of performance for $470 -- beating out the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at times which launched starting at $1000.

The card is silent for the most part, and has some great OC headroom that provides performance that helps the card more easily beat the RTX 2080 SUPER and even RTX 2080 Ti. If you can find the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO in your country and it's not sold out -- and waited through the GeForce RTX 20 series cards and want to upgrade from the GTX 10 series?

Perfect -- RTX 2080 Ti levels of performance for half the cost.

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I wouldn't necessarily recommend the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO for 4K gaming, but for 1080p and 1440p monitors -- and especially UltraWide 3440 x 1440 (or 2560 x 1080) monitor owners will want to consider the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. You should get stellar performance on UltraWide gaming monitors with the MSI RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO.