MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X

amazon MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X reviews

About two months ago, when I held and tested the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio, I thought I had touched the most powerful RTX 3090 on the market. I forgot MSI still has an even more advanced line of graphics cards, Lightning. To celebrate 20 years of entering the graphics card market, MSI has launched a brand new line of graphics cards, SUPRIM X, replacing Lightning as the company’s most advanced graphics card line. Because it is a high-end line, this graphics card line is only equipped with an RTX 3080 or RTX 3090 GPU.

Fortunately, today I got my hands on a graphics card that can be called “top of the top” on the market at the moment. The first impression is that the box is redesigned with the main white tone and the open box style also creates a more “luxurious” feeling.

However, the packaging inside is not too different from other MSI graphics card products, with a thin foam sheet slotted to place a black envelope containing all kinds of manuals. There is still a slight difference when the manufacturer has added a card with a relatively bold message “Change the game.”

In addition, I don’t know if MSI will learn how to do AMD, but the “red dragon” team also gives gamers a mouse pad with a design in tune with the product. With the size of the largest and leanest on the market, the indispensable accessory of the RTX 3090 SUPRIM X is the graphics card stand to prevent the card from sagging due to its excessive weight.

The overall design of SUPRIM X impressed me. Although the design form is still traditional with three fans, the frame and body of the card are made from scratched metal with a gray color scheme to help this somewhat oversized graphics card become more elegant and sophisticated. Combined with the polished metal edges dotted around the heatsink fan further embellish the overall aesthetic of this graphics card.

The RTX 3090 SUPRIM X cooling fan shares the same TORX FAN 4.0 technology with the Gaming X Trio. While still providing good heat dissipation, using the same fan technology with the lower-end version made me relatively disappointed. The cooling performance part is also another disappointing part that I will cover in more depth later.

The edges of the RTX 3090 SUPRIM X are also nothing special; most of what we see are large heatsink metal foils to ensure cooling for the monster GA102 and VRM chips or chips around.

The number of connection ports is limited with 3 Display Port 1.4a ports and 1 HDMI 2.1 port, which is also a surprise. Using up to 3 8pin pins, the number of power pins is almost the common denominator for high-end RTX 3090s.

The backplate of this graphics card is also designed in sync with the body on the front. Because it is the most advanced version, MSI has added the RGB logo on this side. An additional detail worth the money is the Silent and Gaming mode switch instead of going to the MSI homepage to download the corresponding BIOS and install it like the Gaming X series and below.

I repeat that this card is very big and heavy, with a length of up to 336mm and a thickness of up to 61mm, equivalent to more than three slots. Its weight is also up to 1.9kg. Put it next to the ITX case that I use every day to see how the force correlation is different.

ALTHOUGH CONSISTENT WITH THE OVERALL DESIGN, the LED layout on this RTX 3090 SUPRIM X does not stand out from products from rival brands. Of course, compared to products in the lower segment of MSI itself, this LED part is indeed on a very high level.

Enough about the exterior; now comes the testing part. The test configuration is as follows with the two products compared, both of which are RTX 3090s from MSI.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

Mainboard: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY

RAM: Patriot Viper Steel 2 x 8GB 4000MHz CAS19

NVMe: Samsung PM981a 1TB

PSU: MSI MPG A750GF

CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D15 Chromax

Case: Benchtable

In terms of performance, in the 3DMark test, it can be seen that the highest difference in the performance of these two graphics cards is only 6% at TimeSpy.

Meanwhile, the processing and rendering capabilities in Indigo Supercar of this terrible duo differ by less than 1%.

In another 3D performance test, Unigine Superposition, the difference is even only 0.2%.

The performance of the graphics card is not talking about games. With the RTX 3090, it is almost meaningless to benchmark the game at 1080p resolution because then the bottleneck is the CPU and the score has no reference value. If you have money to buy an RTX 3090, drag the resolution to 4K, set the max settings, and then play whatever you want. Scores in the games tested showed almost no difference between the RTX 3090 duo from MSI. Maybe the difference is the error during the benchmarking process.

Although I know that players who have money to buy RTX 3090 do not need to care about electricity, when I measured the power consumption of up to 420W of the RTX 3090 SUPRIM X, I was also startled. Consuming a lot of power also makes the GPU hotter, peaking at 76 degrees Celsius compared to the Gaming X Trio’s 71 degrees Celsius even though the weather in Hanoi is now a little over 20 degrees Celsius. The noise level of the cooling fan is also acceptable.

However, as I said above, despite being redesigned on the outside and equipped with the most carefully selected GA102 GPU to achieve high clocks, the cooling fan system of the RTX 3090 SUPRIM X is not adequate. Therefore, higher clocks also mean higher temperatures with no resolution. The point of removal is that this graphics card has almost no ceiling to overclock.

To sum up, the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X once again shows MSI’s ability to push graphics cards to the limit, both in performance and design. The expectation for this graphics card is great. Buy, plugin, and play to get the highest performance of the RTX 3090 series on the market. The difference of $130 compared to the RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio version may make those who do not have enough financial potential to buy it think. Still, I am sure that those who invest in the RTX 3090 will want a card “top of the top” graphics, and the MSI RTX 3090 SUPRIM X is a corresponding choice in both price and performance.

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