MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 3080 Graphics Card Review

The latest and greatest range of graphics cards from Nvidia are here at last. Of course, not just Nvidia, as their partner brands such as MSI have their own versions to shout about too. Promising bigger performance than ever before, these FPS smashing titans are sure to impress. Not only that, but they’re at a much more competitive price point than the RTX 2000 series launch, making them extremely appealing to those wanting to upgrade their current hardware.

MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 3080 Graphics Card

The Gaming X Trio is a monster of a card, taking an already powerful Nvidia RTX 3080 platform, and delivering even more impressive performance. MSI is aiming to achieve this with their impressive Tri Frozr 2 cooler, which features a trilogy of TORX Fan 4.0 fans, extensive heat pipes and a high-airflow body. Throw in extra power, remove extra heat and dial-up those clock speeds, it’s a technique that we all know works really well, so I’m pretty confident the Trio RTX 3080 will deliver some record-breaking performance. Keep in mind, this isn’t even the flagship model from MSI or the RTX 3080 series either.

Features

• 10GB GDDR6X Memory
• 8704 Cuda Cores
• VR Ready/PhysX/CUDA Enabled
• NVIDIA Ampere Architecture
• 8nm Process
• Real-Time Ray Tracing

What MSI Had to Say

“The latest iteration of MSI’s iconic GAMING series once again brings performance, low-noise efficiency, and aesthetics that hardcore gamers have come to recognize and trust. Now you too can enjoy all your favourite games with a powerful graphics card that stays cool and silent. Just the way you like it.” – MSI

Boost Clock / Memory Speed

• 1815 MHz / 19 Gbps
• 10GB GDDR6X
• DisplayPort x 3 (v1.4a) / HDMI 2.1 x 1

TRI FROZR 2 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-crafted 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.

RGB Mystic Light

• Mystic Light gives you complete control of the RGB lighting for MSI devices and compatible RGB products.

Dragon Center

• MSI’s exclusive Dragon Center software lets you monitor, tweak and optimize MSI products in real-time.

Packaging

The box is classic MSI design, with lots of bright colours, and a lovely big image of the card on the front. However, all their usual logos and colours are what we saw on previous generations.

On the back, there’s a quick breakdown of the main features. Tri Frozr 2 cooling, with TORX Fan 4.0, as well as a sneaky peak at some of the RGB integration.