MSI GEFORCE RTX 3080 SUPRIM X

amazon MSI GEFORCE RTX 3080 SUPRIM X reviews

It can be said that the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim X is the most powerful RTX 3080 graphics card you can buy on the market today, a way for MSI to assert its position with its brand new product line. However, it comes with a price that is not “easy to breathe” at all.

Released at the end of November, Suprim X is the latest line of high-end graphics cards from MSI “Red Dragon,” positioned in the higher segment of Gaming X Trio and, of course, Ventus. Most likely, Suprim X will act as a replacement for its Gaming Z series, which is often misunderstood as just a boosted version of Gaming X, when in fact, they often include improvements in terms of internal performance hardware.

In addition to wearing a fresher design, Suprim X is also pre-set to “excessive” high clocks right out of the factory and a few other exclusive features. The new Suprim X series is currently limited to high-end graphics card models, RTX 3090, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 – the main character in this review.

The MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X parameters include 10GB GDDR6X memory, PCIe Gen 4 protocol, boost clock up to 1905 MHz in Gaming and Silent modes, and 1920 MHz in Extreme Performance mode. For ease of visualization, the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio version has a boost clock of 1815 MHz, while Nvidia’s Founder Edition version is 1710 MHz. Thus, the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X has a clock speed up to 210 MHz higher than Nvidia’s reference graphics card model. In turn, the recommended power output that MSI gives for the RTX 3080 Suprim X is up to 850W – even higher than the RTX 3090.

Design: Worthy of flagship

Inside the product box, in addition to manuals, stickers, and other papers, the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X is also included with a high-end card support stand and an M-size Suprim X mouse pad. That is the first time that MSI comes with a mouse pad when buying such a graphics card. Unfortunately, although it is a gift with the meaning of “limited edition,” this Suprim X mouse pad is very… normal, both in design and material. An RGB mouse pad, for example, will at least stand out and contribute to the user’s gaming corner.

Coming to the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X card, not to mention the design, the first impression that you will not be able to ignore is that it is very big, heavy, and fashionable. In fact, with dimensions of 336 x 140 x61 mm, respectively, taking up three PCIe slots and weighing 1,882 kg. The MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X is even bigger and heavier than the MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio that I have reviewed, larger than any other card that BiaReview has the opportunity to experience. Therefore, make sure your case has enough room to fit and air this monster, and use the included kickstand to avoid damaging the motherboard’s PCIe slot.

Seeming to have “broken up” with the previous red and black tones, MSI put on the RTX 3080 Suprim X with a high-end gunmetal gray metallic finish, smart cuts to improve air circulation. Compared to the overall design, the RTX 3080 Suprim X looks much better than the design of the Gaming X Trio, which has been appreciated in the gaming community.

On the Suprim X series, the cooling system has been upgraded by MSI with the name Tri Frozr 2S, compared to Tri Frozr 2 on Gaming X Trio. These include three TORX Fan 4 heatsinks, equipped with a Double Ball Bearing that pairs each of the two blades together to help focus airflow on the aluminum fins. Each memory module has its heatsink for increased efficiency; The copper and nickel heatsink helps transfer heat from the GPU to the heat pipe better. Tri Frozr 2S is the quintessence of MSI’s heat dissipation technology at the moment.

Like the Gaming X Trio versions, the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X still uses an 8-pin power supply port with a total of 3 ports instead of using a 12-pin port like Nvidia’s Founder Edition version.

The MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X’s RGB LED system is focused on the upper part, which will face the outside of the case when plugged into the PCIe slot. Along with the included kickstand, it can be seen that MSI wants users to plug the card traditionally instead of erecting the card with a riser cable. As usual, users can synchronize and customize LED lights through the Mystic Light software integrated into MSI’s Dragon Center.

Behind, the backplate of the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X is made of metal (it seems that MSI no longer uses graphene-like the RTX 3080 and 3090 Gaming X Trio) is heavily scratched, with the MSI dragon logo with RGB LEDs. That can be said to be the pinnacle of MSI’s backplate design; the company can continue to use this design on all future products without any gamers “complain.”

The MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X is equipped with three DisplayPort 1.4a ports and one HDMI 2.1 port. The USB-C port for VR headsets has been removed. DisplayPort 1.4a ports all support Display Stream Compression (DSC) 1.2a, allowing you to connect displays up to 4K 120Hz or 8K 60Hz.

The RTX 3000 generation is also the first GPU to support the HDMI 2.1 standard, increasing bandwidth up to 48 Gbps to support higher resolutions, like 4K 144Hz or 8K 30Hz with a single cable. Together with DSC, this can go up to 4K 240Hz and 8K 120Hz.

Notably, the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X is integrated with dual bios with a switch right on the card body. “Silent” is the default mode, while “Gaming” has a higher clock and fan curve. Both bios have Zero RPM mode, i.e., the cooling fan will not run when the card’s temperature is still within the allowable threshold to limit noise.

In terms of software, normal users only need Dragon Center to monitor the operation status, the card’s temperature, change the User Scenario to optimize performance based on their needs, and customize the LED lights. We will use MSI Afterburner software for more experienced users, considering overclocking to maximize the card’s potential.

Impressive performance can be overclocked but doesn’t mean much.

To evaluate the performance of MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X, BiaReview uses a system including:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

GPU: MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X

Motherboard: MSI B450m Mortar Max

RAM: Teamgroup T-Force Xtreem ARGB 16GB 3600 MHz

Source: Antec EA750G Pro 750W

Operating system: Windows 10 Pro version 20H2

Driver: 460.89 (latest at time of writing)

Performance benchmarks:

3D Mark

-TimeSpy Extreme: 4K DirectX 12″ gaming emulator benchmark

-Port Royal: Real-time Ray Tracing benchmark, default at 2K resolution

-DLSS feature test: Port Royal benchmark but with DLSS enabled to improve the frame. With the RTX 3000 generation, Nvidia has also introduced DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) 2.0, which further improves performance while minimizing display quality.

Unigine

-Unigine Superposition: The benchmark tool requires the processing capacity of the entire system. BiaReview chooses two resolutions, 4K Optimized and 8K Optimized, DirectX graphics library.

Gaming benchmark: Games with built-in benchmarks in settings, 4K resolution, highest graphics settings

– Shadow of the Tomb Raider

– Far Cry New Dawn

– Final Fantasy XV

Gaming, real experience

-Red Dead Redemption 2

Other tests

-Overclocking

-Temperature

-Electric used

where can you get a MSI GEFORCE RTX 3080 SUPRIM X online

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDRR6X 320-Bit HDMI/DP 1920 MHz Ampere Architecture OC Graphics Card (RTX 3080 Suprim X 10G): Buy it now

MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X 10G Graphics Card, 10GB GDDR6X, VR Ready, Ray Tracing, PCI Express Gen 4, TORX Fan 4.0, DisplayPort x3(v1.4a)/HDMI 2.1×1 w/ Mytrix HDMI 2.1 Cable(4k@120Hz/8K@60Hz): Buy it now

That is not ideal for evaluating the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X performance, especially since the source is below the MSI recommendation. However, this is the only system that BiaReview currently has available, and we also conducted stability tests before conducting the review.

Unfortunately, BiaReview does not have a large enough database to compare the MSI RTX 3080, Suprim X, with other RTX 3080 graphics cards as it usually does with smartphones, and the results cannot be referenced from other sources. However, the above performance benchmark results have partly shown the power of MSI’s high-end graphics card model. For example, 3D Mark Time Spy Extreme shows that the card can “balance” Battlefield V at 2K resolution with frames per second (fps) above 170 with the score achieved. Perhaps the most notable is the DLSS test, when at 4K resolution in performance mode, Nvidia’s DLSS 2.0 helps the number of frames increase from 25 to 65, equivalent to 2.5 times. Soon, when DLSS 2.0 is supported by more games, the RTX 3080 will be the right choice when playing games at 4K resolution.

In the integrated benchmarks of the games, at Full HD resolution at the highest graphics setting, the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X averaged 93 fps with Shadow of the Tomb Raider and 98 fps with Far Cry: New Dawn. Meanwhile, the benchmark of Final Fantasy XV scores this card 7,137 points at 4K resolution at the highest graphics setting, equivalent to being able to play this game smoothly at over 60 fps according to the scoring method.

Real gaming experience, BiaReview chooses Rockstar’s open-world game Red Dead Redemption 2. That is one of the most hardware-demanding games at the moment, and the snowy early game is a huge challenge for any card. The gameplay is recorded by the Windows Capture tool (for unknown reasons, we can’t use Nvidia Shadowplay); the increase ranges from 10-20fps when not recording.

Due to the source below the recommended level, we are also very cautious in setting the card’s clock in terms of overclocking. Not to mention, the default clock speed of the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X is already very high compared to Nvidia’s reference card. In the end, we were satisfied with Core Clock +100 MHz and Memory Clock +650 MHz, but the performance increase was only about 2-3% compared to the “Gaming” bios spec. Overall, you won’t need to worry much about overclocking with cards like the MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X.

Temperature and power consumption were measured and monitored by us after running the Superposition benchmark. In a closed case, the room temperature is below 20 degrees Celsius. The MSI RTX 3080 Suprim X has a resting temperature of about 34-35 degrees Celsius. The maximum recorded temperature is 70 degrees Celsius. The maximum power consumption of the card, via GPU-Z software, is 437.4 W.

Conclude

Overall, the RTX 3080 Suprim X fully deserves MSI’s “flagship” title, with a fresh, beautiful design and powerful performance, conquering 4K resolution within reach with Nvidia’s DLSS. The biggest problem with this card is the price when it is $140, more expensive than the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio version. Of course, when you put names like RTX 3080 Suprim X on the table, $140 is not a big amount. Still, you will need to consider whether the changes and upgrades of the Suprim X series are worth that money, or it would be better if you invest in a new set of mechanical keyboards or gaming headsets to enhance your gaming skills.