MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio – details
No compromises in performance! If this is your motto, then you cannot miss the test of the graphics card GeForce RTX 3090. It will also feed 4K resolution, has the fastest ray tracing and OptiX acceleration, huge video memory and, the review sample from MSI also has many more attractive features. The biggest drawback, as is usual with high-end hardware, is the price. It is really high.
Under the Ampere architecture, Nvidia has released a GeForce graphics card where the last two digits exceed 80 after a very long time. The last time it was the GTX 690 (Maxwell) with two graphics cores on the PCB. It seems multi-GPU configurations are definitely behind us, and the GeForce 3090 has one huge GA102 core with 628.4 mm². This is, interestingly, a larger area than twice the GK104 in the mentioned GTX 690, but less than the sum of the areas of two Antilles XT GPUs in the HD 6990. With this Radeon, the RTX 3090 has a similar TDP. It also significantly exceeds 300 W, with the FE card Nvidia states 350 W, and with the Gaming X Trio, which we will discuss in this article, MSI states up to 370 W in the specs table. And that’s a huge one!
It is worth mentioning that the RTX 3080 also uses the GA102 core. However, the variant (300-A1) in the 3090 is better equipped and has 14 SM extra (82 in total) and proportionally other units, listed in the detailed table in the following chapter. The RTX 3090 also has a wider memory bus (384-bit), with the extreme 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 19.5 GHz effective clock.
MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio – details
The RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is a good chunk of hardware. It is 323 mm long, which is already a length where you need to increase your attention and measure the free space in the case. In some (cases) it could happen that such a long graphics card will collide with drive bays or today rather with a radiator of the liquid cooler, which is currently installed most often behind the front panel. Most cases will not let you down, but in the shorter or generally smaller atypical ones, it can be very close.
The new generation of the cooler Tri Frozr (2) with Torx 4.0 fans is characterized by a few changes, which mainly concern the fans themselves. After testing different formats and combinations on previous generations of MSI graphics cards, all fans now have a uniform 90 mm format, with all of them rotating in the same direction from right to left. But the main thing that has changed is the shape of the rotor. It did not change much in the last two generations of Tri Frozr and has not undergone significant adjustments until now.
The blades are straight (previously curved in the middle) and smooth-surfaced, without ridges, which contributed to a more laminar air flow across the heatsink. MSI wants to achieve this now, but in a different way. Namely, so that the blades are joined in pairs at the ends, which is also supported by a shiny surface. On a very theoretical level, this could help to achieve higher static pressure required to effectively push air through a massive radiator. The leading edges of the radiator fins are, by the way, jagged to achieve the most favorable cooling performance/noise ratio.
The back of the graphics card is covered by a massive backplate with a perforated back. However, it is implemented differently than it was on the recently tested RTX 3070 Gaming X. The PCB is significantly longer in this case and no longer allows the fan to blow the air along the whole structure. The perforated parts are thus here rather for more or less spontaneous heat escape from behind the space of the power phase design.
The RTX 3090 Gaming X has three 6+2-pin connectors for external power supply, which are located on the side of the card and are also slightly embedded in the body. And that’s good, because this graphics card with 140 mm is extra wide. The construction of the connectors and the bending of the cables adds roughly one and half centimeters, which must be taken into account before choosing a smaller case. In many dual-chamber cases, which have the interior divided by a vertical partition, you will not succeed with the RTX 3090 Gaming X.
The output selection is represented by three DisplayPorts (1.4a) and one HDMI (1.4a). All four connectors can be used simultaneously, and as we’re near the blanking plate, it should be noted that it is perforated, which can be beneficial for cooling as it’s a 370-watt card.
Although the card is large, it should be noted that among the RTX 3090 series it has “only” an average height. This means that although it successfully blocks the third slot, it no longer interferes with the fourth, which is not limited it in any way. In other words, there are also higher RTX 3090 cards, where it can be a bigger struggle when installing expansion cards.
The weight on the MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X stopped at 1,579 g (3.48 lb), which already includes the PCI Express holder. It is supplied as an accessory, either for aesthetic tuning (without it you will not achieve flawless horizontal plane) or because you want the load on the slot to be as low as possible. Aj keď tým spevnené, ktoré má každá čo i len trochu lepšia doska, ani takáto ťažia karta neublíži.
- Contents
- MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio – details
- Specs table
- Methodology: performance tests
- Methodology: how we measure power draw
- Methodology: noise and sound measurement
- Methodology: temperature tests
- Test rig
- 3DMark
- Age of Empires II: DE
- Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
- Battlefield V
- Battlefield V with DXR
- Borderlands 3
- Control
- Control with DXR and DLSS
- Counter-Strike: GO
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS and FidelityFX CAS
- Cyberpunk 2077 with DXR, DLSS and FidelityFX CAS
- DOOM Eternal
- F1 2020
- FIFA 21
- Forza Horizon 4
- Mafia: DE
- Metro Exodus
- Metro Exodus with DXR and DLSS
- Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan)
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (Dx12)
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider with DXR
- Total War Saga: Troy
- Wasteland 3
- Overall game performance and performance per euro
- CompuBench (OpenCL)
- CompuBench (CUDA)
- SPECviewperf 2020 and SPECworkstation 3
- FLOPS, IOPS and memory speed tests
- 3D rendering 1/2 (LuxMark and Blender@Cycles)
- 3D rendering 2/2 (Blender@Radeon ProRender and Eevee)
- Photo editing (Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo)
- Broadcasting (OBS and Xsplit)
- Password cracking
- GPU clock speed
- GPU and VRAM temperatures
- Net graphics power draw and performance per watt
- Analysis of 12 V subcircuit power supply (higher load)
- Analysis of 12 V subcircuit power supply (lower load)
- Analysis of 3.3 V subcircuit power supply
- Noise level
- Frequency response of sound
- Conclusion
