Review of the senior graphics card MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO | Video Cards | Reviews

The announcement of the Ampere generation graphics cards has raised the bar for NVIDIA graphics accelerators to a new level with a new 8nm process technology, architecture optimizations and other changes. However, the first-borns of the Ampere architecture also distinguished themselves by negative features in the form of increased power consumption and heat dissipation, which required the partner companies to rethink the key elements.

MSI was one of the first to release non-reference video cards with new cooling systems and original printed circuit boards, designed for increased requirements. And in this vein, the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G graphics accelerator is the crown of the creation of the red dragon, aimed at demonstrating the strength and effective approach to the implementation of a new product. The younger solutions are built on a similar principle, but it was the GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G that became the top.

Full name: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G;

Manufacturer Code: GEFORCE RTX 3090 GAMING X TRIO 24G.

Packaging and equipment

The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G graphics card comes in a colorful package featuring a graphics accelerator and showcased in all its glory.

The complete set of new items consists of a special selection for a heavy model, a user manual, an interesting comic strip and a couple of brochures.

Appearance and design

MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO continues the glorious line of GAMING X TRIO graphics accelerators and is its top-end at the moment. And corresponding to the status of the elite, before us is a huge three-headed monster with a length of 323 mm, weighing more than 1.5 kg and occupying almost three expansion slots.

The design style has undergone minor changes and retains neutral dark gray shades. The new TORX 4.0 fans with a modified 92 mm impeller are responsible for active cooling.

The novelty is equipped with a proprietary backlight MSI Mystic Light in the form of two claw marks in the central part, the manufacturer’s logo and the front strip along the video card.

MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO is characterized by increased dimensions and to prevent sagging on the back side there is a reinforcing crosspiece in the area of ​​the GPU and a metal backplate, which additionally cools the memory chips.

The power consumption of the new video cards reaches 400 W, therefore, to evenly distribute the load, the new product is equipped with three 8-Pin additional power connectors at once. The TDP of the model is limited by the firmware level at 370-380 W, the recommended power supply is from 750 W.

The universal USB Type-C port has disappeared from the interface panel, making room for more perforations. The current set of video outputs is as follows – three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1.

Cooling system

The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO graphics card has a sophisticated cooling system with multiple mounting elements. The first is the support plate, which is endowed with two flat heat pipes to remove heat from a number of GDDR6X video memory chips located on the back of the PCB.

The main block of the cooling system is a massive two-piece cooler. Directly printed circuit board MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO repeats the structure of models of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti class with two rows of mosfets, and the CO of the novelty contacts each element.

The cooler is assembled with 80 and 88 aluminum plates of complex shape, pierced by 8 heat pipes with a diameter of 6 mm. It is not known what prompted the manufacturer to switch to direct contact with the GPU, because this technology is slightly less efficient. However, the engineers resorted to sealing the tubes by changing their shape to a square cross-section.

The fourth generation TORX fans have got twin blades, which, according to the manufacturer, has a positive effect on airflow and acoustic comfort. We see something similar on ASUS solutions, but there the impeller has a common ring around the perimeter: apparently, MSI engineers did not want to violate patents. The diameter of the turntables is 92 mm and they are made by the Power Logic brand.

The radiator featured undulating ribs at the top, and the technology was named Airflow Control. The main idea is to redirect the air flow using deflectors and make it easier for them to enter between the plates, and not to partially dissipate them on the surface.

The decorative shroud has become a haven for RGB lighting and exterior styling for the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G.

Printed circuit board

For full cooling and removal of the colossal heating of the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO video card, the new product is equipped with a huge 2.5-slot cooler, behind which the original printed circuit board is hidden.

MSI ditched the reference PCB and redesigned the PCB, remotely resembling the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

The heart of the review hero is the GA102-300-A1 graphics processor – currently the senior GPU of the Ampere architecture.

This GPU is manufactured using 8nm process technology in the 32nd week of 2020 and includes 10496 shaders, 112 rasterization units and 328 texture units. It is surrounded by 12 video memory chips on each side of the PCB with a density of 8 Gb, which gives a total memory capacity of 24 GB of GDDR6X standard, operating at a frequency of 19500 MHz!

On both sides of the front side there are two rows of power elements, the general scheme is made according to the formula “14 + 4”, where fourteen phases are allocated to the GPU, four – to the video memory. The harness uses OnSemi NCP302045 assemblies with amperage up to 75 A.

At the time of the growth in the rate of cryptocurrencies, the demand for video cards has increased and manufacturers are additionally reinsured by placing fuses. Of course not, this is not the main reason for the availability of additional protection in modern graphics accelerators, but the minimization of costs during warranty repairs, especially for ultra-expensive cards: after all, it is easier to replace several failed SMD elements than to send half of the VGA to scrap, and use the rest in donation.

Test stand

• Motherboard: MSI MPG Z490 CARBON EK X;
• Processor: Intel Core i5-10600K;
• Cooling system: EKWB EK-KIT Classic RGB P240;
• Thermointerface: Noctua NT-H1;
• RAM: Team Xtreem 8Pack ~ 4000 MHz (2 x 8 GB);
• Video card: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G;
• Drives: Western Digital Black SN750, 500 GB;
• Power supply: be quiet! Straight Power 11, 850W;
• Monitor: AOC U2790PQU.
• Case: open stand;

Software

• Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10 x64;
• Driver: GeForce 456.71 WHQL.

Testing tools and methodology

For overclocking video cards, as well as monitoring temperatures and fan speeds, we used the proprietary MSI Afterburner utility.

To check the temperature conditions of the video card in conditions close to everyday ones, we used the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme stability test.

The noise level was measured using a TM-102 digital sound level meter. The measurements were taken from a distance of 30 cm. The background noise level in the room is no more than 28 dBA. All system fans were turned off. On the graphs, the conditional noiselessness limit for the system is determined at the level of 30.5 dBA, the conditional comfort limit is 37 dBA. The room temperature was 25 degrees Celsius.

Additionally, readings of the power consumption were taken using a Robiton PM-2 wattmeter and the temperature of the printed circuit board with a Fluke 59 Max IR thermometer.

MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO Standard Frequencies

The factory overclocked MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO graphics card is 90 MHz in terms of GPU Boost, thanks to the improved technology, the dynamic frequency in games and applications is even higher, however, it is limited by the Power Limit indicator, which is an important parameter on the new NVIDIA RTX 30 graphics accelerators.

At idle, the fans are turned off thanks to the support of the Zero Frozr technology. We get the following indicators:

• 40 ° C and 0 rpm when working with MS Office documents;
• 45 ° C and 0 RPM when watching videos and surfing the Internet.

Here are the detailed BIOS specifications for the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO. The TDP level is 370W, expandable up to 380W.

BIOS of the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G video card (download).

The gaming load was emulated by the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme stability test with 25 runs, where the MSI model performed well. The novelty boosts up to 2025 MHz, but taking into account the power consumption, the average value is kept at around 1815-1845 MHz.

The fans only spin up to 1400 rpm, which makes the video card very quiet even under full load. The temperatures of the main components are as follows: 74 ° C on the GPU, the VRM zone warms up to 73 ° C.

The results of testing MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G in 3DMark package in various tests:

Moving on to examining the gaming performance of the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO. NVIDIA recommends using high-resolution monitors to unleash the full potential of the new product, in my case it is the AOC U2790PQU (resolution: 3840×2160).

The most interesting and illustrative example is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Tested in Full HD, 2K and 4K resolutions.

It is clearly seen that a video card with such a power level starts to be loaded by 98-100% when switching to a resolution of 2560×1440, and temperatures also increase. However, power consumption also rises, and the dynamic frequency of the GPU is reduced from 1995 MHz to 1890 MHz and 1930 MHz, depending on the selected resolution.

It is worth noting that the video card GeForce RTX 3090 has an excess of 24 GB of video memory, since in many benchmarks and games the occupied volume of VRAM is 6-14 GB, and is probably in demand in specialized programs. Therefore, in the future it would be interesting to see the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO version, for example, 12G.

Разгон MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO

The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO graphics card has a Power Limit, which limits the dynamic growth of the GPU clock speed, and manual overclocking adds only a little performance. We managed to raise the core and memory frequencies by 95 MHz and 750 MHz, respectively.

The results of the overclocked video card MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO 24G.

Performance in games and benchmarks

The performance of MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO increases 1-3% from manual overclocking.

Conclusion

The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO graphics card is the oldest model in the manufacturer’s hierarchy and combines the best features of MSI graphics accelerators, demonstrating excellent performance, high cooling system efficiency, low noise level and a whole set of proprietary technologies aimed at realizing the full potential of the new product.

With the increase in performance, the new generation of video cards increased the requirements for the system and the power supply, required reworking of the cooling system and the printed circuit board: the dimensions of the new products became shocking. And the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO is no exception. The final touch is a huge cost by modern standards, which the tops will only allow themselves to be professionals for solving certain problems and enthusiasts.

But what can you say in the conclusion? The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X TRIO graphics card turned out to be a truly excellent video card that realized the potential of the GA102 graphics chip, which can be safely recommended for purchase (if you allow yourself that). The only thing I want is for the manufacturer to release a BIOS firmware update with the Power Limit 380W extension, so that the new product will more boldly and confidently automatically take new heights.

Advantages:

• High performance and speed;
• Factory overclocking of the video card;
• 24 GB GDDRX6 video memory;
• Appearance and design of the novelty;
• Efficient and quiet cooling system for dissipating 370-380 W;
• Includes a special bracket.

Disadvantages:

• High requirements for the power supply;
• Large dimensions;
• Cost.