Review: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio

Conclusion

...the cooler's capabilities are accentuated by the fact that the quickest partner card also happens to be the quietest.

Making sense of a £1,680 graphics card is nigh on impossible for us mere mortals. Most readers will assume, as we do, that anyone with an ounce of common sense will shun the range-topping RTX 3090 for a second-rung RTX 3080 that's plenty fast for gaming while costing half as much.

We, clearly, aren't the target market. For the enthusiast refusing to accept second best, RTX 3090 represents an undisputed king. Nvidia's flagship chip offers the best performance that PC gaming has to offer, and with the Ampere architecture married to a huge 24GB pool of GDDR6X memory, there's a large slice of future proofing and genuine attraction for creative types inclined to render by day and game by night.

Tapping into those credentials, MSI's Gaming X Trio is the fastest implementation of RTX 3090 that we've tested to date, and the cooler's capabilities are accentuated by the fact that the quickest partner card also happens to be the quietest. It is built like a tank and priced accordingly, but an ongoing lack of availability continues to dampen the card's appeal, and the longer the wait goes on, the closer we get to AMD's reveal of Big Navi.

Bottom line: MSI's RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is the fastest graphics card in our charts and, if you can find one, a fine fit for a no-holds-barred gaming rig.

The Good		The Bad
Chart-topping performance True 4K UHD gaming credentials 24GB makes it a Titan in all but name Default BIOS is quiet at all times Solid build quality and factory overclock		Stock availability still poor Requires three power connectors More than 2x the cost of RTX 3080

MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio

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The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio will be available to order from Scan Computers.

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This is something we will use mostly in ML (machine learning).
Sure there will be also a lot of people among the buyers who can simply afford this and buy for bragging rights.

What complete certified idiot would purchase this 3090 - clearly marketed at the gaming audience in its very name - which costs more than twice the 3080 and gives you an FPS advantage of around 10%.
I am utterly astounded Ngreedia released this joke - clearly trying to do anything to claim the gaming crown with that poor Samsung node. Of course, this applies to any 3090.

We - and Nvidia - already know an RDNA2 card BELOW AMD'd top sku is already on par with the 3080 (as now demonstrated). If all it takes is >10% to better the 3090 then guess where the 6900XT is going to land? - and, given AMD's previous ‘aggressive/disruptive’ Zen2 pricing on Intel (effective then…and now!), guess how AMD will price that in comparison to the 3090?
While I understand review sites need to be on good terms with manufacturers (if they want a free, pre-release option), I think being a little more honest in their conclusions would do them well.

well I am looking at the stats, the card does not really do much better than the 3080, and all the crap about people saying, that is is optimized for 4K… it is not or we would see the same numbers you get for 1080/1440p

I am horrible disappointed in the 3090, and it was a card I was looking to buy, but I AM TRUELY happy that I am of the breed that wait to see what it is all about, and I am very curious about what AMD has to offer as well.

From the company that scalped their own cards to make a few bob more, it could knit socks as well and I still wouldn't be interested

Joe91
What complete certified idiot would purchase this 3090 - clearly marketed at the gaming audience in its very name - which costs more than twice the 3080 and gives you an FPS advantage of around 10%.
I am utterly astounded Ngreedia released this joke - clearly trying to do anything to claim the gaming crown with that poor Samsung node. Of course, this applies to any 3090.

We - and Nvidia - already know an RDNA2 card BELOW AMD'd top sku is already on par with the 3080 (as now demonstrated). If all it takes is >10% to better the 3090 then guess where the 6900XT is going to land? - and, given AMD's previous ‘aggressive/disruptive’ Zen2 pricing on Intel (effective then…and now!), guess how AMD will price that in comparison to the 3090?
While I understand review sites need to be on good terms with manufacturers (if they want a free, pre-release option), I think being a little more honest in their conclusions would do them well.

In the absence of hard data from the new RDNA2 stuff from AMD…The Ampere cards are a class apart at the moment. This particular review card is a monster, both in performance and most notably, price. Many others have commented that this isn't a true gaming card…It's more suited to computational tasks - and i'd say that is correct. It would be insanity to use this for gaming whilst the 3080 is half the price.
We shall see in the coming weeks and months what AMD comes up with, but for now, this is the virtual king of the hill.
I say virtual, because it isn't to had anywhere because of Ngreedia's launch shenanigans.

Review: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio

Conclusion

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