MSI GeForce RTX 3090, very like its RTX 3080 sibling, appears to make the already-powerful RTX 3090 much more {powerful}. Gaming X Trio does this by elevating the increased clock and barely elevating the facility restrict, however, it’s best to mood your expectations – that is nonetheless a 3090, and never some graphics card of the long run. This added efficiency does come at a price, nonetheless. This card is meant to retail for $1,589 (£1,799, AU$2,969). In actuality, although, due to the widespread graphics card shortages, you are going to have a tough time discovering it at that worth.
At this worth level, nonetheless, a $90 worth enhance – once more, relying on if you happen to can really discover a card at MSRP – is way simpler to swallow. You are primarily paying 6% extra for a card that is round 4-5% quicker. It isn’t good, however in an ideal world the place graphics playing cards are recurrently accessible, it might make numerous sense to only get this card over the Founders Version – and the truth that it makes use of regular cables is a bonus.
If you need an extra in-depth take a look at what the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is able to, past the variations this add-in card brings to the desk, take a look at our Founder’s Version overview, the place we break down the Nvidia Ampere structure. Fortunately, as a substitute for going for the odd 12-pin energy connector that Nvidia debuted with its RTX 30-series Founders Version playing cards, this aftermarket monster has three customary 8-pin energy connectors.
As a result of we check out-of-the-box efficiency, we do not overclock as a part of our overview course of, however with that further energy connector – the Founders Version simply wants 2 8-pin energy connectors for its adapter – there’s potential to push much more energy by way of this GPU for further efficiency. In our testing, nonetheless, energy consumption stayed about the identical because of the RTX 3090 Founders Version, peaking at around 373W. However, with temperatures peaking at simply 74°C with the default fan curve, there’s undoubtedly some headroom there to tweak that if you happen to snug.
Read: The Accessories That You Should Have With The Apple iPad
Not that you will usually really feel the necessity to overclock the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio instantly. This MSI add-in card is around 4-10% quicker than the Founders Version in our testing, with essentially the most excessive case being in Far Cry 5, the place MSI was 10% quicker. One of many main causes this occurs is that in our testing, the MSI card is often hitting 1,800-1,900MHz in-game, which is 100-200MHz larger than the Founders Version.
We now have additionally spent numerous time enjoying video games with this card in our private machine, the place it really made Cyberpunk 2077 playable at 4K, although we did must depend on DLSS to truly squeeze by at a non-slideshow impact. It looks as if solely yesterday that Nvidia was pitching the RTX 3090 as being an 8K graphics card that may effortlessly smash by way of the whole lot at 4K.
With the MSI RTX 3090, you are going to have the ability to brute-force your method by way of the entire fairly lights to a playable framerate, however, do not count on to run the next-gen heavyweight video games at 8K 60 fps without turning the entire dials down. Now that we have caught our first glimpses of what subsequent technology video games really appear like, it looks as if numerous AAA PC video games are going to be shoving increasingly results into the sport, which implies it’s possible you’ll sadly want a card of this caliber to activate the entire eye-candy at 4K.
This may be much less of an issue if 4K wasn’t being pushed as the brand new norm for gaming as an entire – we advocate gaming at 1440p on the finish of the day. As soon as it is on your PC, although, the MSI Gaming X Trio is a pretty design. It is primarily identical because the RTX 3080 mannequin we already reviewed, so it measures a large 12.71 inches lengthy – this graphics card will not precisely slot in a mini-ITX case. In our private rig, which we lately, uh, transformed, it appears improbable, and that little RGB strip matches in extraordinarily effectively. Although, in fact, your mileage might range relying on the theme of your construct.
The MSI 3090 Gaming X Trio does include a help bracket you should utilize to help the sheer measurement of the cardboard, too, which shall be extraordinarily helpful to customers who’ve motherboards without PCIe help built-in. Although, if you happen to spend a lot of cash on a graphics card, you are in all probability going to have a premium motherboard, too.
Related: GeForce RTX 3090: Biggest and Chunkiest GPU For NVIDIA
So far as ports go, the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is an identical story because the Founders Version. You get three DisplayPort and one HDMI 2.1. The latter of which is just about required for 8K gaming, however as with the Founders Version, we want there was a USB-C port, as that will be extraordinarily helpful for artistic staff who want that 24GB of VRAM.
In an ideal world, the place graphics playing cards are available – and who is aware of, hopefully, that day will come quickly – the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is probably going to be the best model of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090. Efficiency is stronger, there’s room for overclocking and, in fact, RGB lighting which everyone knows is a crucial factor in a gaming PC in 2020. In case you’ve already determined that the RTX 3090 is the proper graphics card for you, then that is in all probability the most effective model of that GPU we have examined to date.
In case you’re available on the market for an RTX 3090, the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is among the greatest choices accessible. If the primary few “next-gen” video games have confirmed something, you are going to want a strong graphics card to activate all the gorgeous graphics settings at a strong frame-rate. The RTX 3090 goes to be the best choice for that. The MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has a pleasant RGB lighting strip alongside the facet, and it’ll look good in your case, assuming you will have room for it.
The MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is a completely huge graphics card, and lots of people with smaller instances are going to have a tough time becoming it of their chassis. The RTX 3090 is a costly card, to begin with, and the MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio provides an additional $90 to the asking worth – assuming yow will discover it at retail worth. In case you do not need to drop almost two grand on a graphics card, this is not for you.