The RTX 3090 is the pinnacle of the second-generation RTX series from NVIDIA. It is by no mean an ordinary graphics solution for gamers. In fact, this GPU actually brings balance between the content creators and gamers using massive 24GB VRAM, 28 billion transistors, high bandwidth of 936.2 GB/s, and driven by 8nm GA102 chip. MSI has sent us their GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio graphics card for review and an upgrade on our test bench. The card is based on the second-generation RT cores, third-generation Tensor Cores, and PCIe 4.0 interface with backward compatibility.
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Key Takeaways
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Specifications
Packaging And Unboxing
The graphics card is shipped inside a cardboard box which is placed inside a paperboard packing.
Box Contents
MSI has bundled various brochures and a quick user guide in the box.
Design
It is time to take a closer look at the design of the graphics card.
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is a behemoth design measuring 323 x 140 x 56mm. The 323mm is the length of the graphics card which needs to be kept in consideration with regard to the PC case clearance.
Having a width of 56mm, we have a triple-slot design here. The height of the graphics card is 140mm which is another consideration for the PC Case clearance. The shroud has quite a style to it with angular cutouts on the frame border. We have a black color frame with a gray color border lining on the angular cutouts. The card has 3x 80mm fans with black color blades and MSI branding on the center. Each fan has 10 blades with every two blades connected on the outer frame. This working in pair style creates more focused airflow towards the heatsink. There is no alternate spinning on this card.
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio features ZERO FROZR technology meaning that the fans will stop spinning at a predefined thermal value and would only kick in if that temperature exceeds that thermal value.
MSI is using double-ball bearings on TORX fans employed on the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio graphics card.
MSI has stated that the airflow control guides the air exactly where it needs to be to maximize the cooling of the graphics card. Deflectors provide additional surface area and guide air to where it’s needed for maximum cooling. Wave-curved 2.0 fin edges disrupt unwanted airflow harmonics resulting in reduced noise.
The above picture shows the cutout pattern on the shroud with diffusers underneath. This is the one RGB zone on the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio as we have three cutouts on the top and three on the lower section.
The above picture shows the RGB lighting in action.
The above picture shows the PCIe connector of the graphics card. As mentioned above, the card is based on PCIe 4.0 interface with backward compatibility.
TRI FROZR 2 is at the heart of the cooling system. Above is a symbolic picture showing the massive heatsink, support bracket, PCB, fans, etc on the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio. The TORX Fan 4.0 employees 3x 90mm fans on a plastic shroud throwing focused airflow on the aluminum heatsink. The heatsink consists of two bulk portions which are interconnected via the nickel-plated copper heat pipes.
We have a total of 7 heat pipes though the inter-connectivity is done via the 5x heat pipes. 2x heat pipes are on the left heatsink as this is the one making a contact with the GPU and surrounding area of the socket. The support plate also acts as a heat exchanger by covering a certain portion of the VRM using the thermal pad. Speaking of thermal pads, the MSI has extensively used thermal pads all around the PCB covering the VRM, MOSFET, VRAM, etc.
Usually, we have a rounded or bend round shape copper heat pipes in the cooling solution. MSI is using what they call Core Pipe. The pipes are in rectangular shape over the area where they make direct contact with the GPU IHS. I would have preferred a cold plate but this would do as well. These pipes are precision-machined to spread the heat evenly across the length of the pipes.
Looking at the top side of the graphics card, we can see that the maximum area over the heatsink is exposed for proper ventilation. The shroud is a bit extended over here with MSI branding having RGB backlighting. The GEFORCE RTX text is in white color and does not illuminate.
Notice the black color metallic frame from the rear of the graphics card extended towards the mid-section. This is a support plate or bracket which in-built in the frame and protects the PCB from bending plus provides additional cooling support for the VRM area.
We have a red color and a black color header here for fans and RGB.
Looking at the base of the graphics card, there is a whole lot of vented area available there. The shroud is a bit extended over here but not fully. There are two headers (white and black color) in parallel to each other. They are probably to power the fans and the RGB LEDs.
MSI is using a metallic backplate on MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio. The MSI branding is in the white color along with the GEFORCE RTX. A serial number sticker is pasted above the socket. 11 screws are holding the backplate with the PCB and heatsink. There is a white color sticker on one of the 4x socket spring-loaded screws. Tearing or removing it would void the warranty.
The above picture shows the close-up view of the GPU socket area.
The bulk of RGB on MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has been implemented on the front side of the PCB. We have a thick diffuser here with RGB backlighting. This is the prominent RGB place on this graphics card when installed in a horizontal layout.
The above picture shows the RGB lighting in action.
Since the VRAM chips are implemented on the backside of the PCB, MSI has used a metallic backplate along with flat copper heat pipes and thick thermal pads on the backside of the PCB for some active cooling.
The RTX 3090 supports NV Link though one must keep in mind that we no longer have implicit SLI capability on the Ampere card.
MSI is using standard 3x 8-pin power connectors on their GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio graphics card unlike the 12-pin connector on the reference NVIDIA’s card. We are roughly talking about 525W power input though the card has an onboard power limit of 370W which is slightly higher than the reference design. MSI has recommended using 750W PSU for this RTX 3090 though we would suggest using 850W or so depending on the rest of the PC configuration.
Following connectivity options are available at the user’s disposal:
- 1x HDMI port 2.1
- 3x DP ports 1.4a
The card has support for DSC using the DisplayPort 1.4a meaning we have the support to connect 4K, 120Hz display as well as the 8K display. Now with the support of the HDMI 2.1 interface, this generation of graphics cards from NVIDIA has much higher bandwidth supporting the higher resolutions.
The card features an enhanced PCB material design with 2oz thickened copper increases conductivity, improving heat dissipation, and high-performance reliability. Additional fuses are built into the custom PCB to provide additional safeguards against electrical damage.
MSI has provided a metallic support bracket in the box which is a wise move as this card weighs around 1.5Kg.
MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio Testing:
Following is the information regarding the test system and drivers that I have used to test this graphics card:
- Intel i9 9900k [5.0GHz]
- Asus Strix Z390-E Gaming Motherboard
- Ballistix Elite 16GB kit @ 3000MHz
- EK-AIO Elite D-RGB 360
- Lexar 610 NVMe 250GB SSD
- Fractal Design ION+ 860P PSU
RTX 3090 Drivers:
- Nvidia driver 411.70 For ASUS ROG Strix GEForce RTX 2070 OC
- Nvidia driver 417.71/461.72 for GEForce GTX 1080 [Required for Battlefield V]
- Nvidia driver 430.86 for ASUS ROG Strix GEForce RTX 2080 OC and ZOTAC GEForce RTX 2070 Amp Extreme
- Nvidia driver 431.60 for GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super Gaming OC 8G
- AMD driver Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.2.2 for MSI Radeon RX 5700XT MECH OC
- Nvidia driver 461.72 for GeForce RTX 3070 VISION OC
- Nvidia driver 461.96 for GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio
RTX 3090 Monitoring Software:
MSI Afterburner 4.63 was used to monitor and record the FPS for the games without in-built benchmarks.
RTX 3090 Synthetic Benchmarks:
Following synthetic benchmarks have been used:
- 3DMark Fire Strike
- 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme
- 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra
- 3DMark Time Spy
- 3DMark Time Spy Extreme
- 3DMark Port Royal
- 3DMark Nvidia DLSS Feature Test
- 3DMark DirectX Raytracing Feature Test
- 3DMark VRS Feature Test
- Unigine Superposition
Games:
The following games have been benched:
- Battlefield V (DX11, DX12, DXR]
- Metro Exodus [DX11, DX12, DXR]
- Assassin’s Creed Origin [DX11]
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider [DX12, DLSS]
- Grand Theft Auto – V [DX11]
- Far Cry 5 – [DX11]
- Middle Earth – Shadow of War [DX11]
- The Witcher 3 [DX11]
- DOOM Eternal [Vulkan]
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus [Vulkan]
- Control [DX12, DXR]
- Red Dead Redemption 2 [Vulkan]
- Cyberpunk 2077 [DX12, DXR]
Our testing includes the Ray Tracing and DLSS as well. I will be covering the RT and DLSS in a separate section.
RTX 3090 Synthetic Benchmarks:
The graph is sorted on Fire Strike score. With 49048 graphics score the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has unmatched performance in our graph. We would like to see the results from RTX 3080 and RTX 3080Ti for some handy comparison.
The graph is sorted on Time Spy score.
The graph of Unigine Superposition is sorted on the 4K Optimized preset. We have a roughly 41% boost with RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio over the RTX 2080Ti which is impressive for the 4K display.
RTX 3090 Gaming Benchmarks:
The RTX 3090 is designed for high-resolution gaming. Yet, for the purpose of having complete graphs, we have tested the card on 1080P resolution, and in a few games like Assassin’s Creed Origin and Far Cry 5 we saw CPU cores bouncing to 100% utilization with GPU load sitting between 70 ~ 80% clearly highlighting the bottleneck on this resolution. We will be discussing the 4K result only.
Battlefield V [DX11]
We are seeing a rough increase of performance by 46% over the RTX 2080Ti.
Battlefield V [DX12]
We observed the same trend as is on the DX11 result of this game.
Metro Exodus [DX11]
Again we are seeing a performance improvement by 45% over the RTX 2080Ti.
Metro Exodus [DX12]
Similar scenario as is with the DX11 result of this game.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider [DX12]
Here we are seeing a boost in performance by 47% over the RTX 2080Ti.
Assassin’s Creed Origin [DX11]
Here we have a boost by 34% over the RTX 2080Ti.
DOOM Eternal [Vulkan]
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has a whopping 66% performance boost over the RTX 2080Ti at 4K.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus [Vulkan]
Far Cry 5 [DX11]
We have a boost of over 43% over the RTX 2080Ti.
Grand Theft Auto – V [DX11]
Grand Theft Auto – V does not have any graphics quality Presets. We have used maximum settings with 4x MSAA. We have a boost of over 50% over the RTX 2080Ti.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War [DX11]
We have a boost of over 50% over the RTX 2080Ti.
The Witcher 3 [DX11]
We have a boost of over 67% over the RTX 2080Ti.
Control [DX12]
*This game is added recently hence we don’t have the results from other cards due to the non-availability of these cards. We have a boost of over 30% over the RTX 2080Ti.
Cyberpunk 2077 [DX12]
*This game is added recently hence we don’t have the results from other cards due to the non-availability of these cards. This is probably the only game where the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio dropped below 60 FPS on 4K resolution.
Red Dead Redemption 2 [Vulkan]
*This game is added recently hence we don’t have the results from other cards due to the non-availability of these cards. With 75 FPS, the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has a solid performance on 4K.
Needless to say that the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is a solid performer at 4K resolution with unmatched rivalry in our graphs. We would like to test the RTX 3080, RTX 3080Ti, and AMD’s RT 6800XT and 6900XT for handy comparison.
GeForce RTX 3090 Ray Tracing and DLSS Benchmarks
Let’s start with the synthetic benchmarks.
The result is self-explanatory.
3DMark has introduced DLSS feature test to measure the performance gain if any using the DLSS using the Port Royal benchmark. The test repeats itself without DLSS and with DLSS. The user can select from three resolutions. We have used DLSS2 for the testing. Both metrics have been tested: Performance and Quality. We have the Ultra Performance mode enabled for the RTX 3090 hence its result is also included.
The game is strong with DLSS2 as evident from the above results.
DirectX Raytracing Feature Test
VRS Feature Test
We have tested Tier1 and Tier2 metrics for VRS testing.
Let’s take a look at the gaming benchmarks.
Battlefield V DXR
We have a 40% hit on 4K with Ray tracing. Despite that hit, the gameplay was smooth and buttery with over 70 FPS.
DLSS feature was only available on 4K resolution using the RTX 3090 and we saw 22% improvement with FPS boost to 89 FPS. Nvidia has definitely upped their game with the Raytracing and DLSS in particular.
Metro Exodus DXR
Next, we turned on the Raytracing in Metro Exodus with overall graphics settings at Ultra. The performance hit is evident as can be seen. We have roughly 39% hit on 4K resolution.
Next, we enabled the DLSS feature in the settings and repeated the tests. The performance boost was of 45% was observed using the DLSS and the resulting FPS were over 70 on 4K.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider also has DLSS feature at the user’s disposal.
Control
The performance hit was roughly 36% on 4K resolution.
Cyberpunk 2077
We have roughly 38% performance hit on 4K resolution. The Ray tracing was set at Medium settings without DLSS.
Next, we set the DLSS to a Balanced profile and repeated the tests. Nvidia is delivering quite a punch here as we saw a 100% boost in FPS on 4K using the DLSS.
RTX 3090 Boost Clocks
Now that we have taken a look at the gaming and synthetic benchmark results, it is time to take a look at the maximum boost clocks.
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has boosted to 1935MHz out of the box without any tweaking. This 1935 MHz boost was for a fraction of a second. The sustained boost was around 1780 MHz under gaming load.
3090 Thermals and Noise
The ambient temperature was around 32~33°C. The testing was done on stock settings. The fans on the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio are set to run on a low RPM side. MSI’s focus seems to be on silent gaming with a bit elevated thermals. The temperature limit on stock is set to 81°C and our card was hitting this thermal limit. The memory temperature was reaching 96°C under gaming load on 4K.
| GPU Temperature | Memory Temperature | ||
| Fan 1 Speed | 55% | 80.6°C | 96°C |
| 1685 RPM | |||
| Fan 2 Speed | 55% | ||
| 1682 RPM |
The above table summarizes the maximum speed of the fans in RPM and %age on stock/factory settings. We can see that there is no aggressive fan curve on stock settings. The result is high temperature but low noise or almost silent gaming.
Next, we set the fans to run at 65% under gaming load and run the Witcher 3, Ultra Settings on 4K and record the thermals again.
| GPU Temperature | Memory Temperature | ||
| Fan 1 Speed | 65% | 75°C | 90°C |
| 2045 | |||
| Fan 2 Speed | 65% | ||
| 2065 |
With this increased fan speed the thermals are improved on the same ambient without much increase in the noise level.
We recorded a noise level of a mere 41 dBA at an ambient of 32 dBA. The noise level was 43 dBA when the fans were set to run at 65%. The acoustic performance is quite good even with a little tweak on this card.
Thermal Imaging
We have used an Hti-18 thermal imaging camera. The card was put under the stress test using Time Spy Extreme and the images were recorded after 18 minutes.
The power connectors’ side is getting heat up as we recorded up to 80°C on this area. The GPU socket’s temperature was 79.8°C which is within the error margin as the software was showing 80°C. The backplate seems to be doing a good job here as the heat spread is even.
RTX 3090 Overclocking
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has its power limit set at 370W which is slightly more than the one on the reference design. The way MSI has implemented the on-board power limit and power limit target we have less headroom for the overclocking. The user can only increase the power limit to 102% with a temp limit increase of 91%.
We have used the MSI Afterburner for overclocking. The voltage slide was set at 100%. We were able to push the Core Clock to a mere +150MHz and the Memory clock to a mere +125MHz before experience instability. The Unigine Superposition 4K Optimized run was initially used to verify the stability of the overclock followed by the actual gaming.
Overclocking Result
We have roughly 7.3% gain with this overclock which is not bad at all. We saw the average FPS boosting from 127.26 stock to 136.56 OC in the Unigine Superposition.
The Shadow of the Tomb Raider was benched on DX12, Ultra settings at 2160P. We have a performance gain of 3.1% from overclocking.
Power Consumption
Techpower GPU-Z was used to monitor the power draw. We played the Witcher 3 at 4k for 60 minutes and then record the reported maximum power draw. The PC was set to idle for like 15 minutes before the gaming session.
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio was drawing roughly 370W power on stock settings and roughly 385W power on the overclock. As mentioned above, in terms of power, this card does not have much headroom. The Suprim X version from MSI has a more aggressive and unlocked power profile for better overclocking.
RTX 3090 Compute Performance:
We also ran a few rendering tests using the graphics card. Here are the results:
Conclusion
MSI has released 4 SKUs in their RTX 3090 lineup with Ventus being the low end, Suprim X being the high end, and Gaming X Trio sitting in between. MSI has sent us their GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio for review and an upgrade on the test bench. The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is based on the GA012 chip which is also powering the RTX 3080 lineup but 3090 has higher shader cores 10496 over the 8704 shader units on the RTX 3080.
The GPU has a whopping 28000M transistors on a die size 628mm². Another major difference is the 24GB GDDR6X VRAM on the 3090 compared to 10GB VRAM on the RTX 3080 and 12GB on RTX 3080Ti. The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has a base clock of 1395MHz with a boost clock of 1785MHz. The memory clock is 1219MHz. The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is a factory overclocked graphics card with a custom PCB and cooling solution. The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio packs 112 ROPs and 328 SMUs.
MSI is using MICRON 24GB GDDRX6 VRAM rated at 19.5 Gbps using 384-bit bus width having a bandwidth of 936.2 GB/s. This card has a 1x HDMI 2.1 port and 3x DP 1.4a ports. The maximum supported digital resolution is 7680×4320. NVIDIA is aiming at 8K gaming with their RTX 3090 GPU for which they have introduced an 8K playable concept using DLSS. Thanks to HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.4a ports with DCP support, now the user can connect the 8k display using a single cable.
The 24GB onboard RAM will come in handy at that resolution though it is yet to be tested. 24GB is a massive storage capacity and it has definitely added more to the price tag. NVIDIA has launched the RTX 3090 as a “Titan class performer” and 8k playable, so in the coming time, this much VRAM may prove its point and worth.
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is a massive card measuring 323 (L) x 140 (H) x 56 (W) mm. It is a triple-slot design having a weight of 1.5Kg. MSI has bundled a stylish metallic support bracket in the box to counter the graphics card’s bending. The user would need to check for the PC Case clearance beforehand.
The MSI is using TRI FROZR 2 thermal cooling solution in their GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio graphics card. The card features 3x 90mm fans named TORX FAN 4.0 with a paired blades design for focused airflow. The fans feature ZERO FROZR technology. The fans would stop spinning under a certain thermal value. This is nowadays a common feature.
The graphics card has a dual heatsink concept which is interconnected via 5x nickel-coated copper heat pipes. The left heatsink has two more heat pipes. The copper pipes make direct contact with the GPU. There is no cold plate between the GPU and the copper heat pipes. MSI has extensively used thermal pads on appropriate places like VRAM, VRM, and MOSFETs. Since the VRAM chips are also placed on the backside of the PCB, the metallic backplate has flat copper heat pipes and thermal pads to ensure proper cooling on the back as well.
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio comes with 3x standard 8-pin power connectors which when combined with the PCIe slot power gives a total power output of 525W. The graphics card has a 370W power limit. The power target limit only allows for 2% more above 100% hence we don’t see much room for overclocking. The Suprim and Suprim X variants have unlocked power targets for better overclocking.
The fans on stock are tuned for more silent operations giving a bit elevated temperatures. MSI has offered an optional BIOS update named Low-Temperature BIOS in which they have tweaked the fans to run at a higher speed which would result in more noise levels. Speaking of BIOS, this card does not have a dual BIOS feature which is a kinda let down in this price tag though the high-end models come with this feature.
In our testing, we have seen these fans working at their 55% rated speed at max. We set these fans to reach 65% of their rated speed without compromising much in the noise level and we saw a temperature drop of up to 5°C on the memory temperature and the GPU temperature. The user can define the custom fan curve for that matter. The card runs hot as it easily reached 80°C on GPU and 96°C on the memory under stock settings at an ambient of 32°C.
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio features RGB lighting on three zones. One zone is on the fan shroud. The MSI branding on the top also lights up and the bulk of lighting is taken on the front top with a thick diffuser with RGB backlighting. The user can use the MSI Dragon Center to control almost every aspect of the graphics card like tweaking, monitoring, RGB lighting. We have used MSI Afterburner for overclocking. We were able to push the GPU core to +150MHz and +125MHz on the Memory. This is light overclock by all means but it gives us up to a 3% FPS boost in the gaming.
We now have a solid performer for 4K gaming in a single graphics card solution. The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio has performed superbly on 4K gaming with the majority of the titles playing well above the 60 FPS mark and in a few, there were drops below the 60 FPS but the DLSS make up for it very well. We are seeing an impressive up to 45% improvement over RTX 2080Ti at 4K gaming. The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is listed at PKR 572,000/- on Shing Distribution System who are MSI’s official distributor here. This price is taken at the time of the review and it is a high price tag but given the absolute sheer performance, this is the card if one has a budget for it. Shing is offering 3 years warranty on MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio.
We are thankful to MSI for giving us the opportunity to review their GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio graphics card.
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[Hardware Reviewer & Editor]
Meet Nauman Siddique, a highly experienced computer science graduate with more than 15 years of knowledge in technology. Nauman is an expert in the field known for his deep understanding of computer hardware.
As a tech tester, insightful reviewer, and skilled hardware editor, Nauman carefully breaks down important parts like motherboards, graphics cards, processors, PC cases, CPU coolers, and more.
- 15+ years of PC Building Experience
- 10+ years of first-hand knowledge of technology
- 7+ years of doing in-depth testing of PC Hardware
- A motivated individual with a keen interest in tech testing from multiple angles.
- I majored in Computer Science with a Masters in Marketing
- Previously worked at eXputer, EnosTech, and Appuals.
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