MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X Review

1. Introduction
2. New 16-pin PCIe 5.0 Power Connector
3. RTX 3090 Ti 24GB Tech Specs
4. Detailed Look
5. Test System Specs
6. Benchmarks - Synthetic
7. Benchmarks - 1080p
8. Benchmarks - 1440p
9. Benchmarks - 4K
10. Power Consumption & Temps
11. What's Hot, What's Not
12. Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 100%

The Bottom Line

MSI's new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X is everything you expected, and more. This is Ampere at its absolute limits, with up to 500W of power ready to go... but man, data performance, yo.

Buy at Amazon

Introduction

NVIDIA's new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is finally here, and we have MSI's new flagship custom GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X graphic card which puts all of the Ampere dials to 11.

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If you're gaming at 4K 60FPS with ray tracing enabled, or 4K 120FPS without ray tracing enabled (and both with DLSS) then the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and GeForce RTX 3090 are normally the ones you'd flock towards. But now that the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is here, well that's what this review is here for -- but you know the spoiler -- the RTX 3090 Ti is now the best, the very best GPU on the market.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is giving me TITAN RTX vibes, which was a ridiculous over-the-top GPU with a huge amount of VRAM at the time -- 24GB -- a lot of VRAM for a GPU released in 2013, nearly 10 years ago now. There's also 24GB of GDDR6X memory on the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, which is now tuned up and clocked at 21Gbps with over 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth at its disposal.

• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 GAMING X TRIO Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3070 GAMING X TRIO Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 GAMING X TRIO Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3050 GAMING X 8G Review

The new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is a gigantic upgrade for 4K and better yet, 8K gamers -- and then even better again for content creators -- you've got the most wicked-fast Ampere GPU ever made, as well as a huge and now even faster 24GB of GDDR6X memory.

We've still got NVLink and SLI with its new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, with NVIDIA's third-generation NVLink pushing up to 112.5GB/sec of bandwidth between the GPUs. There's more SLI support natively inside of games now -- thanks to APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan -- with games built with SLI natively in the game ready to truly rock and roll with the new RTX 3090 Ti cards in SLI.

New 16-pin PCIe 5.0 Power Connector

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti does one thing very different to the previous flagship GeForce RTX 3090, which saw the custom MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X using 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors... but the new RTX 3090 Ti uses a single 16-pin PCIe power connector.

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But... how will you plug your PSU into the new 16-pin PCIe power connector, which you don't have? Well, that's why you'll use the 1 x 16-pin PCIe power connector to 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Your PSU might be able to handle it, but I would suggest looking at upgrading your PSU for the new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti... especially with the RTX 40 series GPUs right around the corner, and man they're going to need all the power they can get.

That's why MSI sent over their new MSI MPG A1000G power supply, pumping 1000W of power with 80 PLUS Gold-certified efficiency. It also looks great, with MSI using patterns that can be infused beautifully -- with tons of power at your disposal -- with the MSI MPG VELOX 100P AIRFLOW PC case and MSI MPG Z690 CARBON WIFI motherboard.

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MSI's new MPG A1000G PSU has a single-railed design, which will deliver clean currents under heavy loads... making it perfect for MSI's new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card. MSI's new MPG A1000G PSU is also "future-proof" as it meets the new standards for the upcoming PCIe 5.0 specification... for even higher-wattage GPUs.

I used MSI's new MPG A1000G PSU for all of my GeForce RTX 3090 Ti reviews, starting here with MSI's new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X. I will also be using the MPG A1000G PSU for NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition, and the new flagship ASUS ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3090 Ti that should be with me any minute now.

RTX 3090 Ti 24GB Tech Specs

NVIDIA is using the full GA102 on its new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, with 10,752 CUDA cores compared to the 10,496 CUDA cores on the same (GA102 GPU) as the GeForce RTX 3090. There are other tweaks, with the same 82 RT cores but 336 Textures Units (328 TUs on the RTX 3090).

There's the same 24GB of GDDR6X on the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti as the previous GeForce RTX 3090, on the same 384-bit memory interface -- but with a big change: it's clocked at 21Gbps -- providing it with up to 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth, up from the 936GB/sec on the RTX 3090.

However, I've overclocked every custom GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card that I've got -- before, and leading up into this review -- and pushed the 24GB GDDR6X up over 21Gbps and enjoyed 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth for the last year or more.

Another huge upgrade over the RTX 3090 is that the new RTX 3090 Ti has its spiffy new 16-pin PCIe 5.0-ready power connector with up to 450W available on the RTX 3090 Ti... up from the 350W on the RTX 3090. NVIDIA is making plenty of references to its near 10-year-old TITAN RTX, and sure it kinda is... but it's replacing the RTX 3090, not the Ampere-based TITAN RTX that never materialized.

And if this is the Ampere TITAN RTX... then maybe it should've been called that, so I will not be referring to the TITAN RTX (even though I could, I have the results recently tested on my Ryzen 9 5900X) but no one in their right mind still has that as a gamer... they'd have a new RTX 30 series GPU so they have RT + DLSS... right?!

Right, NVIDIA?!

Anyway... onwards with the review!

Detailed Look

MSI hasn't changed the retail packaging of its new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X, as its identical to the retail packaging for MSI's other SUPRIM X cards -- except for one big difference -- man, the box is HUGE compared to the already large SUPRIM X packaging. But the card itself... well, it's warranted.

As always, MSI impresses with its TRI FROZR 2S cooling system deployed on the new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X. It looks great, matching the aesthetics of the other SUPRIM X cards but packing a decent chunk more of performance on top.

It's a massively thick card, standing out from the already 2.5-slot+ RTX 3080, RTX 3080 Ti, and RTX 3090 SUPRIM X graphics cards from MSI. This is one of MSI's thickest graphics cards yet, so you'll want to ensure you have the room inside of your PC to install it. This won't be going into many SFF gaming PCs, I can tell you that.

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[MSI RTX 3090 SUPRIM X on top, the new MSI RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X on bottom]

I didn't want to just snap photos of MSI's new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X to show you how thick it is, so I have my MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X graphics card for some side-by-side comparisons. Then we get a look at the thickness of each of the cards, the difference between the PCIe power connectors, and more.

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Oh yeah, baby, that new 16-pin PCIe power connector is so good. It just looks so much better inside of your PC, a much smaller, thinner 16-pin PCIe power cable that feeds out to the triple 8-pin PCIe power connectors that are required to run the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X. The card can handle up to 480W of power, and I was pulling that during gaming and benchmarking without a problem.

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MSI hasn't changed its display connectivity on the new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card, with 4 x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.1 connectors... all capable of 4K 120/144Hz and 8K 60Hz on either displays or high-end gaming TVs through HDMI 2.1.

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Test System Specs

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Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

The biggest upgrade to the GPU testbed is the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor, offering 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 3-powered CPU grunt at up to 4.8GHz.

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That's plenty of CPU power and offers a great upgrade over the Ryzen 7 3800X that I was using previously.

I will be upgrading this system in a few months, and maybe running it side-by-side with the new Alder Lake-powered Intel Core i9-12900K processor. I'm using one inside of the Allied M.O.A.B.-I gaming PC that I reviewed a few months ago, and man the 12900K is like the Godzilla of CPUs.

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Sabrent is the most recent partner of mine to help build out my systems, sending me oodles of the fastest NVMe M.2 SSDs on the planet. I'm using Sabrent's flagship Rocket 4 Plus 4TB M.2 SSDs which offers 7GB/sec+ reads and writes with a huge 4TB of capacity.

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• Read more: ASUS ROG Strix XG438Q Review: It's So Good, ASUS Will Hate This Review
• Read more: ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ Review: Perfect For The GeForce RTX 3080
• Read more: ASUS ROG Strix XG43UQ Review - The Best HDMI 2.1 Gaming Monitor

ASUS has been a tight partner of mine for a few years now, providing their huge 43-inch 4K 120Hz gaming monitors for my benchmarking and gaming needs. I'm using two of them at the moment, the ROG Strix XG438Q and the ROG Swift PG43UQ gaming monitors.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 4TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro x64 (buy from Amazon)
• Display: ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ (4K 120Hz) (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

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Benchmarks - 1080p

Note: All games run on Ultra/Maxed Out visual settings, motion blur disabled, V-Sync disabled.

Performance Thoughts

Please, please, please... do not buy the new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti for 1080p gaming. I mean, if you want to have like 300FPS in multiplayer titles or something because you've got a 360FPS display, then sure. But for the most part you don't need to spend this type of money for gaming at 1920 x 1080.

Benchmarks - 1440p

Note: All games run on Ultra/Maxed Out visual settings, motion blur disabled, V-Sync disabled.

Performance Thoughts

Now, this is where the real fun begins: 2560 x 1440. In a flagship game like CD PROJEKT RED's masterpiece Cyberpunk 2077, where the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X hums along with a huge 97FPS average at 1440p... compared to the 90FPS of the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 Ti GPUs.

You're going to be speeding along at 120FPS average in Forza Horizon 5, 60FPS+ if you turned RT and enabled DLSS in a beautiful-looking game like Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. 1440p gaming is going to be no issue for the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, it dominates here as well.

Benchmarks - 4K

Note: All games run on Ultra/Maxed Out visual settings, motion blur disabled, V-Sync disabled.

Performance Thoughts

4K gaming is where the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti shines.

Previously, NVIDIA still owned the performance crown in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K with its previous flagship GeForce RTX 3090 which spits out 47FPS average, but the new RTX 3090 Ti pushes it further... right up to 51FPS average. With RT + DLSS enabled, you can enjoy 4K 60FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 on the RTX 3090 Ti.

Forza Horizon 5 pushes 92FPS (up from 88FPS on the RTX 3090) and 42FPS in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (a decent leap from the RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 Ti with 38FPS average each). NVIDIA passes AMD in the Radeon-friendly Assassin's Creed: Valhalla with the new RTX 3090 Ti hitting 71FPS, compared to the RX 6900 XT with 67FPS (identical to the RTX 3090, too).

I've been playing Warzone and Overwatch on the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X on a 77-inch LG 4K 120Hz HDR OLED TV and man... there is nothing better than the RTX 3090 Ti for 4K 120FPS gaming. It's the ultimate GPU.

Power Consumption & Temps

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On the left we've got the "SILENT" profile BIOS, while on the right we have the "GAMING" profile BIOS.

You can see the obvious changes here: GPU boost is at 2010MHz on SILENT, while up to 2040MHz on GAMING. GPU temps are hitting 79-80C on the SILENT BIOS with the fans at 59% (1830RPM or so) while on the GAMING BIOS the GPU temps are 8C cooler down to 72C, thanks to the fans being spooled up to around 66% (2150RPM).

Power consumption is about the same, 450-470W or so while the GPU alone is consuming a huge 370W of that.

But you will see here that the new 21Gbps GDDR6X inside of the new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is much freaking cooler than the regular RTX 3090, with GDDR6X memory temperatures of 74C (SILENT BIOS) and only 66C (GAMING BIOS) which is down from a huge 90-110C on the RTX 3090s GDDR6X chips.

What's Hot, What's Not

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What's Hot

• The best GPU on the planet: If you want the fastest GPU on the planet, look no further than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti -- MSI does an incredible job as always with its custom RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X -- offering blistering performance in every game, every resolution, and every test you can throw at it. The RTX 3090 Ti laughs in their faces, that is until Ada Lovelace and RDNA 3 later this year.
• The fastest GDDR6X memory on the planet: NVIDIA already had super-fast GDDR6X memory on the GeForce RTX 3090, which was clocked at 19.5Gbps -- and overclocked to 21Gbps easily -- but now 21Gbps is offered as default.
• 24GB GDDR6X operates FAR cooler than RTX 3090, while clocked faster: The 24GB of GDDR6X memory on the GeForce RTX 3090 can run at up to 110C when stressed, with my NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition hitting 110C instantly when mining. But now... the 24GB of even-faster GDDR6X clocked at 21Gbps runs at just 65-70C or so... chilly in comparison.

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• The best GPU for 4K 120FPS gaming: I'm a massive advocate of 4K 120FPS gaming, as I personally own a 77-inch 4K 120Hz LG OLED TV and the RTX 3090 has been my GPU of choice since it was released, but now that honor goes to the new MSI RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card. Incredible stuff @ 4K 120FPS, especially when you're playing a game with DLSS enabled.
• The only GPU for 8K 60FPS gaming: If you are gaming at 8K 60FPS on a new TV through HDMI 2.1 then you're all good to go... once again, especially if you've got DLSS enabled... then the 24GB of ultra-fast GDDR6X memory and new RTX 3090 Ti is here to rock your 8K gaming world.
• It's finally here: NVIDIA was meant to release their new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti at the end of January... then nothing... and now NVIDIA has released the RTX 3090 Ti without a single word about why it was delayed by two entire months.

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• MSI aesthetic on-point with RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X: MSI has put some serious design work into its SUPRIM X, and I love it. It looks mean AF inside of my system... the only pity is that I would have truly loved to have seen MSI release a new LIGHTNING Z series card now that the RTX 3090 Ti is here. It warrants the RTX 3090 Ti LIGHTNING Z, especially with the beefed-up 450W power.

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• 16-pin PCIe power connector: The new 16-pin power connector is so very welcomed, it takes all of the bulk away from the MSI RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X and away from the card, so you can have the PCIe power cables neatly tucked away for the ultimate look inside of your gaming PC.
• Better than overclocked RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090: MSI's new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X tops the benchmark charts without a problem, besting the previous RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 graphics cards we've looked to for the best performance from a GeForce GPU. The new RTX 3090 Ti is here to be your new king.
• Not LHR, so great for mining: No Lite Hash Rate (LHR) gimping here, you've got the full crypto mining performance here with the new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti... if that matters, of course. Please don't go out and buy a bunch of RTX 3090 Ti cards for crypto mining farms, mmmkay?

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• 112MH/s mining out of the box, untweaked: Yeah, 112MH/s out of the box without any optimization. I'll be re-visiting this in the coming days and weeks up against the RTX 3090 because of its GDDR6X memory temperatures being so much higher than the new RTX 3090 Ti, which has radically cooler GDDR6X memory chips.
• The best GPU for ray tracing: If you want to play some of the best-looking games on the market, then you know they have ray tracing and you also know that NVIDIA is the dominant force -- the absolute leader, at least until RDNA 3 -- but for now the RTX 3090 Ti is the very best GPU for ray tracing.

What's Not

• 5-10% faster than RTX 3090: Is it worth it over the RTX 3090? Probably not. But enthusiasts don't care, overclockers don't care, I don't care. If you've got the money and want it, there is no justification... MSI's new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X is a fucking BEAST.
• Insane 440W+ power draw: 440W at stock, 480W with overclocking... I'll have more on this in the next article.

Final Thoughts

MSI smashes right out of the gate with its new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card, their new crown jewel in the Ampere GPU lineup, a fully maxed-out RTX 3090... and some.

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The new MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X is everything you wanted it to be, and probably a bunch of things that you didn't. For the things you wanted: brute performance with 5-10% or more above the RTX 3090, tweaked and now faster GDDR6X memory, a spiffy new 16-pin PCIe power connector, and up to an insane 480W of power delivered into the card.

I'm a big advocate of 4K 120FPS gaming, where I personally purchased an LG 77-inch 4K 120Hz HDR OLED TV a while back and over HDMI 2.1 into a high-end GPU... there is nothing else like it. Once you dive into the world of 4K 120Hz OLED TVs you'll never go back. If you buy the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X, then if you can afford it -- and if you're spending $2199+ on the GPU you can -- you need to do it.

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There are only a few upgrades over the last 25+ years that I can fondly remember... where they had an effect that I would recommend to my friends in the way of "if you do this... you will not regret it... you will come back to me and say "holy shit, Anthony, you were right". They are:

• NVIDIA's GeForce 256 GPU
• AMD's Athlon X2 dual-core CPU
• SSDs

The next one after SSDs in my opinion is a 4K 120Hz OLED TV. LG makes the very best, and sells them in all shapes and sizes: 48, 55, 65, 77, 83-inch... all HDMI 2.1, all 4K 120Hz HDR. Windows 10 and Windows 11 isn't a steaming pile of crap on an OLED display, HDR gaming is actually amazing. I despise HDR gaming on LCD and LED monitors, but it blows my mind on the OLED TV.

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Wrapping up, MSI slays it with the new flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X. You've got the very fastest Ampere GPU that NVIDIA can craft until we get to the next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU architecture later this year, suped-up GDDR6X with 24GB now clocked at 21Gbps (up from 19.5Gbps on the RTX 3090) and another 100W+ of power to play with.

It culminates in an absolute unforgiving monster of a GPU... unforgiving in power consumption, but freaking hell it makes up for it in performance. There is going to be much salt in the hours after the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti reviews go live and I can't wait to read it all.

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You know what I've got to say? Buy it. You know you're going to. I don't need to convince you. I just need to be the vessel that plays with these awesome toys and with 25+ years of experience in the industry now, I can safely tell you that if you want the very best GPU silicon on the planet... the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is your next purchase.

That is if you haven't already purchased the largest LG 4K 120Hz OLED TV that you can afford.

Onwards to Ada Lovelace now, peeps.