MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio 10G Review: Big card, big performance

Sleek looks, solid performance

The MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio is one of MSI's top-end GeForce RTX 3080s, boasting a beefy triple-fan cooler, upgraded components, and fancy RGB lighting. It's a familiar offering in the company's longstanding Gaming X Trio line of cards, and is a very capable contender in the sea of custom GeForce RTX 3080s, assuming you can find one.

For starters, the cooler is MSI's Tri Frozr 2 design, featuring an upgraded double-ball bearing 10-blade Torx 4.0 fan. The fan's design is pretty unique, and each pair of fan blades is bound together with a linked outer ring design. MSI says this helps channel air more effectively through the heatsink, allowing for more efficient cooling. The company has also opted out of a GPU contact plate here, choosing to go with direct contact heat pipes that have been precision-machined for a smoother surface and improved contact. This supposedly helps spread the heat along the full length of the heatsink for more optimal cooling.

The heatsink has been tweaked to reduce noise as well. Integrated deflectors provide additional surface area and guide air to where it's needed, while so-called wave-curved 2.0 fin edges break up unwanted turbulence to keep overall noise levels down. The fans also support semi-passive operation with MSI's Zero Frozr tech, so they'll spin down entirely when your GPU temperature falls below a certain threshold, useful when you're not actually gaming. 

Elsewhere, MSI has paid attention to the details with a lightweight composite graphene backplate that also structurally reinforces the card while doubling as a passive heatsink. The custom 10-phase PCB features additional fuses for more robust safeguards against electrical damage, while the PCB itself has been redesigned with 2oz thickened copper for improved conductivity, heat dissipation and reliability. Crucial components like the VRMs and capacitors are kept cool with the generous use of thermal pads, which further aid in heat dissipation.

To further reinforce a card this size, a rigid metal anti-bending strap has been added to guard against flexing. The card also comes bundled with a support bracket, which you can attach to the card for additional reinforcement. This will take up an extra PCIe slot however, in addition to the three that the card already requires. 

Finally, MSI's Mystic Light RGB lighting adds the finishing touches to the card. You can customise the effects in MSI's Dragon Center software, and also sync it with other compatible RGB products.

At a whopping 323mm long, you'll need a large case to accommodate this card. It's also powered by three 8-pin PCIe connectors, so you won't need NVIDIA's adapter at the very least. MSI lists the recommended PSU wattage at 750W, and you really won't want to skimp on your power supply if you're thinking of including this card in your build.  

Test setup

Here are the specifications of our test rig:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU
• MSI MEG X570 Godlike
• Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD
• Windows 10 Home 64-bit
• ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ 4K Gaming Monitor

We'll be comparing the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition and the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080.

The following synthetic benchmarks and games were run, with the games chosen from a wide range of genres to give a better indication of performance across different segments:

• 3DMark
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War: Three Kingdoms (Battle)
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Metro: Exodus
• Watch Dogs: Legion
• Control

3DMark

3DMark is a synthetic benchmark that tests graphics and computational performance at different resolutions, starting at 1080p and going all the way up to 4K. A series of two graphics test, one physics test, and then a combined test stresses your hardware in turn to assess its performance.

All three cards were neck-and-neck in 3DMark, despite their differing boost clock speeds. The MSI card has a base clock of 1,440MHz, the same as the other two cards, and a boost clock of 1,815MHz, slotting in between the ASUS and Founders Edition cards. The performance differential in 3DMark was negligible however, amounting to just a couple of percentage point differences between the ASUS and MSI models. 

1440p Benchmarks (Max Settings)

The GeForce RTX 3080 is more than capable of taking on the 1440p resolution at maximum settings. The MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio trailed the ASUS card slightly, likely owing to its less aggressive boost clock speeds. 

4K Benchmarks (Max Settings)

4K performance is extremely tight across all three cards, and there's almost no significant difference for the most part. 

Ray Tracing Benchmarks (4K, Max Settings)

With ray tracing turned on, the already narrow performance differential closes even more, and no card has a clear advantage over any other. 

Temperature and power

Temperature and power consumption are where the cards start to really differ. Unfortunately, the MSI card doesn't have a good showing here, and it runs even hotter than the Founders Edition card. That's especially disappointing, given the effort that MSI has seemingly put into beefing up its cooler. Power consumption is exceptionally high too, despite the card not even having the most aggressive clock speeds. 

Conclusion

At S$1,288, the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio slots into the middle of the pack of custom GeForce RTX 3080s. However, there are a couple of caveats to take into consideration if you're looking at this card. While gaming performance is excellent, thermal performance is quite a different story altogether, and the Tri Frozr 2 cooler doesn't really do a good job of keeping the card cool. Similarly, power consumption is particularly high, which doesn't leave the card in a good light either. Small form factor builders need not bother with this card too, given its large size and triple slot requirement.

That said, if you can overlook these shortcomings, the MSI card is still a more than capable alternative from a performance standpoint.

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