Conclusion - This Is Insanity!
Keeping their tradition alive of launching a new graphics architecture every two years, this year, NVIDIA introduced its Ampere GPU. The Ampere GPU is built upon the foundation set by Turing. Termed as its biggest generational leap, the NVIDIA Ampere GPUs excel compared to previous generations at everything.
The Ampere lineup offers faster shader performance, faster ray tracing performance, and faster AI performance. Built on a brand new process node and featuring an architecture designed from the ground up, Ampere is a killer product with lots of numbers to talk about. The fundamental of Ampere was to take everything NVIDIA learned with its Turing architecture and not only refine it but to use its DNA to form a product in a completely new performance category.
Today, we will be taking a look at the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB graphics card, a monster of a graphics card featuring the full fat GA102 GPU.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Gaming Graphics Cards - The Biggest GPU Performance Leap in Recent History
Turing wasn't just any graphics core, it was the graphics core that was to become the foundation of future GPUs. The future is realized now with next-generation consoles going deep in talks about ray tracing and AI-assisted super-sampling techniques. NVIDIA had a head start with Turing and its Ampere generation will only do things infinitely times better.
The Ampere GPU does many traditional things that we would expect from a GPU, but at the same time, also breaks the barrier when it comes to untraditional GPU operations. Just to sum up some features:
- New Streaming Multiprocessor (SM)
- New Turing Tensor Cores
- New Real-Time Ray Tracing Acceleration
- New Shading Enhancements
- New Deep Learning Features For Graphics & Inference
- New GDDR6X High-Performance Memory Subsystem
- New 2nd Generation NVLINK Interconnect
- New HDMI 2.1 Display Engine & Next-Gen NVENC/NVDEC
The technologies mentioned above are some of the main building blocks of the Ampere GPU, but there's more within the graphics core itself which we will talk about in detail so let's get started.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Pricing Per Segment
NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 series is made up of a diverse portfolio of graphics cards. The lineup starts at the GeForce RTX 3060 with an MSRP of $329 US and goes all the way up to higher-end configurations starting at $499 US for the GeForce RTX 3070, $599 US for the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, $699 US for the GeForce RTX 3080, $1199 US for the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and $1499 US for the GeForce RTX 3090. NVIDIA themselves call the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti the flagship graphics card and not the GeForce RTX 3090. With the arrival of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, we now have a new ultra-premium card starting at $1999 US.
The RTX 3080 & RTX 3070 are both priced well and in line with their predecessors but the GeForce RTX 3090 goes all out with a price of $1499 US. Even the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has seen a price hike compared to the MSRP of the RTX 2080 Ti ($999 US vs $1199 US). NVIDIA calls the GeForce RTX 3090 the "BFGPU" and as per the terminology, it seems like this is a new marketing name for the Titan graphics card. It is likely that we could see a Titan-based card under the Quadro branding with faster specs out of the box but the GeForce RTX 3090 is purely a gaming graphics card first with all the horsepower for intense professional and workstation workloads.
With that said, the GeForce RTX 3080 replaces the RTX 2080 SUPER at the same price point and the GeForce RTX 3070 replaces the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER at the same price point. Given this trend, we might see the more mainstream variants cost just as much as their RTX 20 SUPER series cards but with a higher performance out of the box.
NVIDIA GeForce GPU Segment/Tier Prices
| Graphics Segment | 2023-2024 | 2022-2023 | 2021-2022 | 2020-2021 | 2019-2020 | 2018-2019 | 2017-2018 | 2016-2017 | 2014-2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titan Tier | GeForce RTX 4090 | GeForce RTX 4090 | GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 3090 | Titan RTX (Turing) | Titan V (Volta) | Titan Xp (Pascal) | Titan X (Pascal) | Titan X (Maxwell) |
| Price | $1599 US | $1599 US | $1999 US $1499 US | $1499 US | $2499 US | $2999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $999 US |
| Ultra Enthusiast Tier | GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER | GeForce RTX 4080 | GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 Ti |
| Price | $999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $999 US | $999 US | $699 US | $649 US | $649 US |
| Enthusiast Tier | GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER | GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB | GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB | GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 980 |
| Price | $799 US | $799 US | $799 US | $699 US | $699 US | $699 US | $549 US | $549 US | $549 US |
| High-End Tier | GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER GeForce RTX 4070 | GeForce RTX 4070 GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB | GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GeForce RTX 3070 | GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GeForce RTX 3070 | GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER | GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 970 |
| Price | $599 $549 | $599 US $499 US | $599 $499 | $599 $499 | $499 US | $499 US | $379 US | $379 US | $329 US |
| Mainstream Tier | GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GeForce RTX 4060 | GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GeForce RTX 4060 | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB | GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER GeForce RTX 2060 GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GeForce GTX 1660 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 960 |
| Price | $449 $299 | $399 US $299 US | $399 US $329 US | $399 US $329 US | $399 US $349 US $279 US $229 US $219 US | $249 US | $249 US | $249 US | $199 US |
| Entry Tier | RTX 3050 8 GB RTX 3050 6 GB | RTX 3050 | RTX 3050 | GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 | GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 | GTX 950 | GTX 750 Ti GTX 750 |
| Price | $229 $179 | $249 US | $249 US | $159 US $149 US | $159 US $149 US | $139 US $109 US | $139 US $109 US | $149 US | $149 US $119 US |
In addition to the specs/price update, NVIDIA's RTX technologies are being widely adopted by major game engines and APIs such as Microsoft's DirectX (DXR), Vulkan, Unreal Engine, Unity, and Frostbite. While there were only three RTX titles around the launch of the RTX 20 series cards, NVIDIA now has at least 28 titles that utilize their RTX feature set to offer real-time ray tracing with more coming soon.
In addition to that, with the upcoming consoles confirmed to feature ray tracing, developers can also make use of the RTX technology to fine-tune future games for the GeForce RTX hardware. Currently, NVIDIA has 13 game engines that are leveraging their RTX technologies for use in their upcoming and existing games while both Vulkan and DirectX 12 Ultimate APIs are part of the RTX ecosystem on the PC platform.
So for this review, I will be taking a look at MSI's latest GeForce RTX 30 SUPRIM X series graphics card which includes the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB SUPRIM X.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB Graphics Card
At the heart of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card lies the GA102 GPU. The GA102 is the flagship gaming GPU and also the fastest gaming GPU that NVIDIA has produced. The GPU is based on Samsung's 8nm custom process node designed specifically for NVIDIA and features a total of 28 Billion transistors. It measures 628mm2 which makes it the 2nd biggest gaming GPU ever produced right below the Turing TU102 GPU which powered the RTX 2080 Ti and Titan RTX.
The new shader core on the NVIDIA Ampere architecture is 2.7x faster, the new RT cores are 1.7x faster while the new Tensor cores are up to 2.7x faster than the previous generation Turing GPUs. The 2nd Generation RT core delivers dedicated hardware-accelerated ray-tracing performance & features twice the ray/triangles intersection with concurrent RT graphics and compute operations.
For the GeForce RTX 3090, NVIDIA has enabled a total of 84 SM units on its flagship which results in a total of 10,752 CUDA cores (vs 82 SM / 10496 cores on RTX 3090 Non-Ti). In addition to the CUDA cores, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3090 Ti also comes packed with next-generation RT (Ray-Tracing) cores, Tensor cores, and brand new SM or streaming multi-processor units. The GPU runs at a base clock speed of 1560 MHz and a boost clock speed of 1860 MHz. The card has a TDP of 450W (a 100 Watt increase over the RTX 3090).
In terms of memory, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti comes packed with 24 GB of memory and that too the next-generation GDDR6X design. With Micron's latest and greatest graphics memory dies, the RTX 3090 Ti can deliver GDDR6X memory speeds of 21 Gbps. That along with a bus interface of 384-bit will deliver a cumulative bandwidth of 1008 Gbps.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card is also going to be the first PCIe Gen 5.0 compliant graphics card, rocking a single 16-pin power connector that can supply up to 600 Watts of power to the card. The new connector is rated for 600W power delivery is PCIe Gen 5.0 compatible & not designed for legacy PCIe Gen 2 or Gen 3 cards. All cards with a PCIe Gen 5 interface will come with a 3x 8-pin to 1x 16-pin connector adapter within the package. The Founders Edition is also going to utilize what seems to be an updated revision of the PG136 PCB board known as PG136C.
As for its feature set, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB graphics card rocks all the modern NV feature set such as the latest NVENC Encoder and NVCDEC Decoder, support for the latest APIs, 2nd Generation ray-tracing cores, 3rd Gen Tensor cores. It packs all the modern RTX features such as DLSS, Reflex, Broadcast, Resizable-BAR, Freestyle, Ansel, Highlights, Shadowplay, and G-SYNC support too.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Graphics Card Specifications
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Name | Ampere GA102-350? | Ampere GA102-300 | Ampere GA102-225 | Ampere GA102-220 | Ampere GA102-200 | Ampere GA104-400 | Ampere GA104-300 | Ampere GA104 | Ampere GA104-200 Ampere GA103-200 | Ampere GA106-300 | Ampere GA106 | Ampere GA106-150 | Ampere GA107-325 |
| Process Node | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm | Samsung 8nm |
| Die Size | 628.4mm2 | 628.4mm2 | 628.4mm2 | 628.4mm2 | 628.4mm2 | 395.2mm2 | 395.2mm2 | 395.2mm2 | 395.2mm2 (GA104) | 276mm2 | 276mm2 | 276mm2 (GA106) | 200mm2 (GA107) |
| Transistors | 28 Billion | 28 Billion | 28 Billion | 28 Billion | 28 Billion | 17.4 Billion | 17.4 Billion | 17.4 Billion | 17.4 Billion (GA104) | 13.2 Billion | 13.2 Billion | 13.2 Billion (GA106) | 8.7 Billion (GA107) |
| CUDA Cores | 10752 | 10496 | 10240 | 8960 | 8704 | 6144 | 5888 | 4864 | 4864 | 3584 | 3584 | 2560 | 2048 |
| TMUs / ROPs | 336 / 112 | 328 / 112 | 320 / 112 | 280 / 104 | 272 / 96 | 184 / 96 | 184 / 96 | 152 / 80 | 152 / 80 | 112 / 64 | 112 / 64 | 80 / 32 | TBD |
| Tensor / RT Cores | 336 / 84 | 328 / 82 | 320 / 80 | 280 / 70 | 272 / 68 | 184 / 46 | 184 / 46 | 152 / 38 | 152 / 38 | 112 / 28 | 112 / 28 | 80 / 20 | TBD |
| Base Clock | 1560 MHz | 1400 MHz | 1365 MHz | TBA | 1440 MHz | 1575 MHz | 1500 MHz | 1410 MHz | 1410 MHz | 1320 MHz | 1320 MHz | 1552 MHz | TBD |
| Boost Clock | 1860 MHz | 1700 MHz | 1665 MHz | TBA | 1710 MHz | 1770 MHz | 1730 MHz | 1665 MHz | 1665 MHz | 1780 MHz | 1780 MHz | 1777 MHz | 1470 MHz |
| FP32 Compute | 40 TFLOPs | 36 TFLOPs | 34 TFLOPs | TBA | 30 TFLOPs | 22 TFLOPs | 20 TFLOPs | 16 TFLOPs | 16 TFLOPs | 13 TFLOPs | 13 TFLOPs | 9.1 TFLOPs | TBD |
| RT TFLOPs | 74 RFLOPs | 69 TFLOPs | 67 TFLOPs | TBA | 58 TFLOPs | 44 TFLOPs | 40 TFLOPs | 32 TFLOPs | 32 TFLOPs | 25 TFLOPs | 25 TFLOPs | 18.2 TFLOPs | TBD |
| Tensor-TOPs | TBA | 285 TOPs | 273 TOPs | TBA | 238 TOPs | 183 TOPs | 163 TOPs | 192 TOPs | 192 TOPs | 101 TOPs | 101 TOPs | 72.8 TOPs | TBD |
| Memory Capacity | 24 GB GDDR6X | 24 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X | 12 GB GDDR6X | 10 GB GDDR6X | 8 GB GDDR6X | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6X | 8 GB GDDR6 | 12 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 6 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bus | 384-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 384-bit | 320-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 96-bit |
| Memory Speed | 21 Gbps | 19.5 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 15 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Bandwidth | 1008 GB/s | 936 GB/s | 912 Gbps | 912 Gbps | 760 GB/s | 608 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 608 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 384 GB/s | 240 GB/s | 224 GB/s | 168 GB/s |
| TGP | 450W | 350W | 350W | 350W | 320W | 290W | 220W | 175W | 175W | 170W | 150W | 130W (GA106) 115W (GA107) | 70W |
| Price (MSRP / FE) | TBD | $1499 US | $1199 | $999 US? | $699 US | $599 US | $499 US | $399 US | $399 US | $329 US | TBD | $249 US | TBD |
| Launch (Availability) | 29th March 2022? | 24th September 2020 | 3rd June 2021 | 11th January 2022 | 17th September 2020 | 10th June, 2021 | 29th October 2020 | October 2022 | 2nd December 2020 | 25th February 2021 | October 2022 | 27th January 2022 | 2024 |
In case you want to read our full NVIDIA Ampere GPU architecture deep dive and GeForce RTX 30 Founders Edition review, head over to this link.
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB SUPRIM X is one of the best custom variants designed for the GeForce RTX 30 series family. MSI has gone all out with the design of SUPRIM X series graphics cards which now stand a tier above the Gaming X Trio lineup. MSI has also adopted new cooling & acoustics design for the SUPRIM X series which we will be talking about in detail.
In addition to the custom design, the RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB SUPRIM X graphics card comes with a non-reference PCB, featuring a 24 phase power design that features higher quality components than the reference variant which is already a really good design by itself.
In terms of clock speeds, the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card features an 1830 MHz boost clock (Gaming & Silent Mode) with a TGP of up to 500W. The card is powered up through a triple 8-pin connector configuration. The rest of the specifications including the memory clocks are rated at stock specifications.
Following are some of the features of the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB SUPRIM X before we go into detail:
Boost Clock / Memory Speed
- 1890 MHz / 21 Gbps
- 24 GB GDDR6X Memory
- DisplayPort x 3 / HDMI x 1
TRI FROZR 2S Thermal Design
- TORX Fan 4.0: A masterpiece of teamwork, fan blades work in pairs to create unprecedented levels of focused air pressure.
- Core Pipe: Precision-machined heat pipes ensure max contact to the GPU and spread heat along the full length of the heatsink.
- Airflow Control: Don't sweat it, Airflow Control guides the air to exactly where it needs to be for maximum cooling.
- Close Quarters Heatpipe & Heatsink: Memory modules have their own close quarters heat pipe and heatsink for dedicated cooling.
- Copper Baseplate: A solid nickel-plated copper baseplate transfers heat from the GPU to all the heat pipes.
Dual BIOS
- Dual BIOS gives you the choice to prioritize for full performance in GAMING mode or low noise in SILENT mode.
Dragon Center
- MSI's exclusive Dragon Center software lets you monitor, tweak, and optimize MSI products in real-time.
Mystic Light
- Controls lighting for both MSI and compatible third-party RGB products.
MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB SUPRIM X Graphics Card Gallery:
The MSI SUPRIM X Graphics Cards With Tri Frozr 2S Cooling
With the differences out of the way, now let's talk about the similarities and the main highlights of the SUPRIM X design. The SUPRIM X graphics cards look vastly superior to the Gaming X Trio models and I can even say that they match the quality of the Lightning series which is exclusive for flagship designs. Both cards use advanced Tri-Frozr coolers which are the replacement of the MSI Twin Frozr series which have been widely used in current and last-generation graphics cards from MSI.
SUPRIM means more than just a new graphics card series from MSI. Decades of circuit engineering and cooling development have led to a new product design that
embraces prestige in its appearance and capabilities.Concept turns to reality with high quality materials coming together such as thickened copper inside the PCB to brushed aluminum plating with precision cut edges on the exterior of the cooler.
A focus on the user experience and quality is reflected in the details, such as the dual BIOS
being set to Silent out of the box for comfort .This card is amped up with robust power stages for durability, cooled with an extensive
heatsink system for sustaining extreme performance, and clad in a modern aesthetic to reflect a high performance lifestyle
MSI has incorporated and refined a couple of things in the new Tri Frozr design for SUPRIM X which is now referred to as Tri Frozr 2S while the Gaming X Trio variants feature the Tri Frozr 2 cooling. First is the TORX fan 4.0 which uses a ring design that connects two fan blades with each other to increase airflow towards the internal heatsink assembly. These fans are made up of a double ball bearing design which ensures silent functionality in heavy loads.
The fans are fully compliant with the Zero Frozr Technology and are actually comprised of three areas. All of these would stay at 0 RPM (idle state) if the temperatures don't exceed 60C. When it does exceed 60C, all fans would start spinning. You can change that through the MSI configuration panel if you want more cooling performance over noise load but it's a nifty feature that I do like.
In addition to the cooling fans, the new VIP heatsink has been designed to be denser by using the brand new wave curved 2.0 fin design. The new heatsink makes use of deflectors to allow more air to pass through the fins smoothly, without causing any turbulence that would result in unwanted noise. MSI estimates a 2 degrees (C) drop in temperatures with the updated design versus the previous generation cooling system.
Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is comprised of seven copper squared-shaped heat pipes with a more concentrated design to transfer heat from the copper base to the heatsink more effectively. The base itself is a solid nickel-plated base plate, transferring heat to the heat pipes in a very effective manner. To top it all off, MSI uses their exclusive Thermal Compound X which is said to offer a higher thermal interface and heat transfer compared to traditional TIM applications.
Rocking a classy brushed look, the backplate on the SUPRIM X series provides a nice visual finish to the card. It also strengthens the card and thanks to some cleverly placed thermal pads even help to keep temperatures low.
We used the following test system for comparison between the different graphics cards. The latest drivers that were available at the time of testing were used from AMD and NVIDIA on an updated version of Windows 11. All games that were tested were patched to the latest version for better performance optimization for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.
MSI GeForce RTX Test Setup:
| CPU | Intel Core i9-12900K |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | AORUS Z690 Master |
| Video Cards | MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB SUPRIM X MSI GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB SUPRIM X MSI GeForce RTX 3080 TI SUPRIM X MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X MSI Radeon RX 6900 XT Gaming X Trio MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z MSI GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X |
| Memory | G.SKILL Trident Z5 Series 32GB (2 X 16GB) CL36 6000 |
| Storage | Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB) |
| Power Supply | ASUS ROG THOR 1200W PSU |
| OS | Windows 11 64-bit |
| Drivers | AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 21.12.1 NVIDIA GeForce 512.16 WHQL |
- All games were tested on 2560×1440 (2K) and 3840×2160 (4K) resolutions.
- The “reference” cards are the stock configs while the “overclock” cards are factory overclocked configs provided to us by various AIB partners.
Doom Eternal
DOOM Eternal brings hell to earth with the Vulkan-powered idTech 7. We test this game using the Ultra Nightmare Preset and follow our in-game benchmarking to stay as consistent as possible.
DOOM Eternal
Red Dead Redemption 2
Developed by Rockstar San Diego, Red Dead Redemption II is one of the most visually stunning open-world games I've played to date that is backed up by a rich story set around the protagonist, Arthur Morgan. The game is based on the RAGE engine which features an insane amount of graphics fidelity but also requires a lot of power to run maxed out. For the purpose of this test, we set the graphics settings to Ultra with AA turned disabled.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Wolfenstein is back in The New Colossus and features the most fast-paced, gory, and brutal FPS action ever! The game once again puts us back in the Nazi-controlled world as BJ Blazkowicz. Set during an alternate future where Nazis won the World War, the game shows that it can be fun and can be brutal to the player and to the enemy too. Powering the new title is once again, id Tech 6 which is much acclaimed after the success that DOOM has become. In a way, ID has regained their glorious FPS roots and are slaying with every new title.
Wolfenstein
Ashes of The Singularity: Escalation
NVIDIA and AMD have been tweaking the performance of their cards for Ashes of the Singularity since the title was released. It was the first to make use of the DirectX 12 API and the first to leverage the new Async compute technology that makes use of the DX12 renderer to improve performance.
Ashes of The Singularity Escalation
Battlefield V
Battlefield V brings back the action of the World War 2 shooter genre. Using the latest Frostbite tech, the game does a good job of looking gorgeous in all ways possible. From the open-world environments to the intense and gun-blazing action, this multiplayer and single-player FPS title is one of the best-looking Battlefields to date.
Battlefield V
Battlefield V RTX+DLSS / SAM
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Humanity is at war with itself and divided into factions. On one end, we have the pure and on the other, we have the augmented. That is the world where Adam Jensen lives in and this is the world of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game uses the next-generation Dawn Engine that was made by IO interactive on the foundation of their Glacier 2 engine. The game features the support of DirectX 12 API and is one of the most visually intensive titles that taxes the GPU really hard.
Deus Ex Mankind Divided
Death Stranding
Sam Porter Bridges has delivered one of PS4's most anticipated games to the PC community and opened a whole new world of possibilities. This was the first game to feature the Decima Engine on PC and unarguably did it the best. Death Stranding may not feature ray tracing effects but it does showcase that DLSS can be used effectively even when RT isn't around. We tested this one just like we did in our launch coverage with DLSS enabled.
Death Stranding
Death Stranding DLSS / SAM
Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 carries on the open-world racing tradition of the Horizon series. The latest DX12 powered entry is beautifully crafted and amazingly well executed and is a great showcase of DX12 games. We use the benchmark run while having all of the settings set to non-dynamic with an uncapped framerate to gather these results.
Forza Horizon 5
Hitman 2 (DX12 Highest Settings)
Hitman 2 is the highly acclaimed sequel to 2016 Hitman which was a redesign and reimaging of the game from the ground up. With a focus on stealth gameplay through various missions, the game once again lets you play as Agent 47 who embarks on a mission to hunt down the mysterious Shadow Client. The game runs on IO Interactive's Glacier 2 engine which has been updated to deliver amazing visuals and environments on each level while making use of DirectX 12 API.
Hitman 2
Shadow of The Tomb Raider
Sequel to The Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of The Tomb Raider is visually enhanced with an updated Foundation Engine that delivers realistic facial animations and the most gorgeous environments ever seen in a Tomb Raider Game. The game is a technical marvel and really shows the power of its graphics engine in the latest title.
Shadow of The Tomb Raider
Shadow of The Tomb Raider RTX+DLSS / SAM
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus continues the journey of Artyom through the nuclear wasteland of Russia and its surroundings. This time, you are set over the Metro, going through various regions and different environments. The game is one of the premier titles to feature NVIDIA’s RTX technology and does well in showcasing the ray-tracing effects in all corners.
Metro Exodus Extreme Preset
Metro Exodus RTX+DLSS
Assassins Creed: Origins
Assassins Creed Origins is built by the same team that made Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. They are known for reinventing the design and game philosophy of the Assassins Creed saga and their latest title shows that. Based in Egypt, the open-world action RPG shows its graphics strength in all corners. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 engine which boosts the draw distance range and delivers a very impressive graphics display.
We tested the game at maxed settings with TAA enabled and 16x AF. Do note that the game is one of the most demanding titles out in the market and as such tweaks and performance issues are being patched out.
Assassins Creed Origins
Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3 has made its way into the test lineup thanks to strong demand by gamers and simply delivering MORE Borderlands. The game was tested with max settings under the DX11 preset since the DX12 preset doesn't deliver any visible improvement in either frame rate or graphics at the moment.
Borderlands 3
Far Cry 5
Far Cry 5 is a standalone successor to its predecessor and takes place in Hope County, a fictional region of Montana. The main story revolves around doomsday cult the Project at Eden’s Gate and its charismatic leader Joseph Seed. It uses a beefed-up Dunia Engine which itself is a modified version of CryEngine from Crytek.
Far Cry 5
Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV
Grand Theft Auto V
GTA V is the most optimized gaming title that has been made for the PC. It’s so optimized, it even runs on my crap GT 840M-based laptop with a smooth FPS on a mix of medium/low settings. I mean what???
Aside from being optimized, GTA V is a great game. It was the Game of The Year for 2013. At 1440p Ultra quality, the game gave us smooth frames on all cards tested.
Grand Theft Auto V
No graphics card review is complete without evaluating its temperatures and thermal load. The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card comes with a triple-fan cooler with 0db fan technology, a massive 4-slot heatsink that is composed of several aluminum fins and heat pipes, and an extended backplate that covers the entire PCB.
Temperatures
Note – We tested load with Kombuster which is known as a ‘power virus’ and can permanently damage the hardware. Use such software at your own risk!
I compiled the power consumption results by testing each card under idle and full stress when the card was running games. Each graphics card manufacturer sets a default TDP for the card which can vary from vendor to vendor depending on the extra clocks or board features they plugin on their custom cards. Default TDP for the RTX 3090 Ti is set at 450W while the MSI custom model has a TDP of around 500W.
Also, it's worth noting that the 8nm process from Samsung increases the density by around 2x versus the previous generation. NVIDIA is cramping even larger amounts of transistors and more cores than their previous cards, making it one of the densest chips built to date. It's likely to consume a lot of power and the results are reflective of that.
Power Consumption
The MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB screams premium, from its design, performance, and to its price.
MSI's SUPRIM X Custom Design, Bigger Fins, Bigger Cooling
The card comes with the same cooling design and premium PCB components which are outfitted with a top-of-the-line and updated, Tri Frozr 2S cooling system. The cooler is very much needed to keep the card running at stable clocks both cards have a 450W+ TGP. The extra power limit for these cards also provides some decent OC capabilities but you can push Ampere all you want but only get minute returns. Do note that the RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB gets close to 500-550W usage which is literally bonkers for a single graphics card.
The cooler does an incredible job by keeping both cards steady and cool at 70C. The RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB saw temps peak around 70 but the memory was always under control with a max temp of 89C during peak gaming load. The card is coupled with a superb silent profile which equals near-zero fan noise. If you want that extra cooling performance, then turning the fans all the way to 100% will lead to sub-60C temps but in return, you'd have to face the louder fan noise which gets a bit noticeable at that point.
The triple-fan solution comes with 0db fan technology which unless or until you're touching 60C won't spin at all. This allows lower noise levels when you're not doing any graphics-intensive tasks. MSI went all the way by including a full metal backplate on the card which comes with dual copper heat pipes to effectively transfer heat from the back.
The RGB is not overdone and the Mystic Light cuts on the front and sides provide really good aesthetics for the card itself. The brushed aluminum backplate, the dual BIOS switch, and the stunning design are what make these cards truly stand out from the Gaming X Trio variants.
10% More Performance For A 33% Higher Price, Is It Worth It?
When it comes to prices, we knew that the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti was going to be one of the priciest launches ever and that it is. Starting at $1999 US, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is the most expensive single-chip graphics card ever released and has a 33% premium over the already ludicrous $1499 US pricing of the Non-Ti model. One way the RTX 3090 Ti could have benefited was if NVIDIA had dropped the pricing on its Non-Ti model and replaced the $1499 US with the Ti release but NVIDIA is going one step up with the 3090 Ti.
That's the cost of having a full Ampere GPU onboard. One interesting point of comparison is that NVIDIA compares the 3090 Ti to the Titan RTX hence highlighting its creation horsepower. The Titan RTX retailed for $2499 US so the Ti is a better value compared to that but in the same sense, the non-Ti version is an even better value considering all three cards have the same memory buffer of 24 GB. Sure the extra cores and higher clocks on both GPU and memory allow for some nice gains of up to 15% in content creation workloads but for gaming, the 3090 Ti should offer around 5-10% performance improvement which isn't worth the extra 33% premium.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is a monster card in all regards but it is also a learning curve for AIBs to get themselves ready for next-gen products. The design methodologies used by AIBs for the 3090 Ti suggest that the upcoming generation is going to be far more power-hungry but it looks like the performance of those cards is also going to be bonkers. This is one reason why the 3090 Ti is going to have limited availability across various outlets and most users should wait a few months to see what NVIDIA has in their stack for the next generation. Overall, the 3090 Ti is a powerhouse and one that puts NVIDIA back on the GPU throne but the pricing and design of this product make me worried about what's next to come.
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About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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