The Micro-Star International company based in Taiwan is known for its very good quality MSI brand cards. It is one of the top 3 computer equipment manufacturers in the world. , we will test and give our opinion on one of its graphics cards called MSI RTX 2080 Gaming
Introducing the MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio graphics card
The MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio graphics card has an elegant and modern look. It adopts a mix of black and gray colors. 3 imposing Torx fans are located on the facade. At the back, we note a brushed metal plate in perfect harmony with the front part. The whole thing is crowned with an RGB LED on the front and on the side. The MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio graphics card measures 327 x 140 x 55.6 mm and weighs 1.553 kg . This card occupies 3 slots in width. It is connected to the motherboard via its PCIe 16x 3.0 slot. A metal fixing system is provided by MSI in the box. The latter is nevertheless less effective than the monopod fixing system provided by KFA2 on its HOF cards.
The GPU has 2944 shader cores . The GPU of the MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio operates at 1.515 GHz. When overclocked, its 13.6 billion integrated transistors switch at 1.860 GHz . The GPU was cast with a 12-nanometer etching process. This card is quite robust and benefits from a 2-year manufacturer's warranty.
8 GB GDDR6 memory 256-bit memory bus . The bandwidth used is 448 Gb/s . The memory operates with a frequency of 7 GHz. The MSI RTX 2080 consumes a TDP power of 260 Watts . It is recommended to use a 650 Watt power supply
In terms of the cooling system, MSI uses a cooler called Tri-Frozr that is quite quiet and efficient. The GPU is in contact with a nickel-plated copper plate. MSI uses premium thermal paste. The radiators adopt wave-shaped edges allowing for a more efficient cooling system. The 3 Torx 3.0 fans are also equipped with curved dissipation blades to improve air circulation. Two of these fans have a diameter of 9.5 cm and one has a diameter of 8.5 cm. The fans thus direct the air towards the large radiator below. MSI used a 2-row ball bearing system on the fans. This allows them to have the robustness and endurance necessary for intense gaming moments, for years. The cooling system keeps the card components below 69°C . Which is much better than the RTX 2080 Founders Edition card provided by Nvidia. With the latter, the components had a peak temperature of 78°C. Once the GPU temperature drops below 56°C, the ventilation system is completely cut off for better energy management and noise pollution.
The card has 5 outputs including 3 DisplayPort 1.4, 1 HDMI 2.0b and 1 USB-C. It can control 4 screens simultaneously. The MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio supports, among other things, DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.6 technologies. You can use Dragon Center software to optimize your system and gaming environment.
Advanced features of the MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio graphics card
The MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio graphics card is based on the Turing architecture and the RTX platform. This allows for a performance 6 times that of the previous generation. Indeed, Ray tracing and DLSS optimized by Artificial Intelligence take you into a realistic and very immersive gaming environment. This is the first card to benefit from real-time Ray tracing technology. The effect produced is breathtaking.
Regarding the RGB lighting , we have 5 lighting zones including 4 around the card and one on the edge. Different effects can be applied. Management is easier using MSI's Mystic Light software . This software allows you to control all of your peripherals equipped with MSI RGB LED lighting to form a coherent effect: keyboard, mouse, motherboard, headset, speaker and even equipment from other partners (Corsair, G.skill , Razer, Thermaltake, SteelSeries, Cooler Master etc.)
The Dragon Center allows you to optimize your PC and your MSI graphics card. It offers 8 functions such as System Monitor, System Tuner, LED Wizard, Voice Wizard, Gaming Mode, Mobile Center, Shift and Tools & Help function. From these functions you can customize the power supply , overclock, optimize cooling, set fan speed, manipulate the RGB lighting system, monitor the system, activate gaming mode, etc.
RTX 2080 GPU Benchmark
By testing the RTX 2080 on Fortnite, we obtained the following results: at 720p, the average frame rate per second is 425 FPS; at 1440p, the card displays 82.5 FPS and at 4K/2160p resolution, we measured 42.5 FPS.
If we compare the RTX 2080 against the closest competing cards, it shows the same performance as the GeForce GTX 1070 SLI . It is -6.18% from the Titan RTX , -9.16% from the GeForce RTX 2080 Super . The RTX 2080 performs better than the GeForce RTX 2070 Super (97.46%), GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (95.16%) and Titan V (92.21%)
Comparing the RTX 2080 card against other cards taking into account their scores on G3D Mark, it leads the list with a score of 18,579. It is thus ahead of, among others, the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (G3D Mark score 18,093 ) , the Radeon RX 5700 _ _ _ .
When testing the RTX 2080 on 3DMark, it is ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 and the NVIDIA Titan XP . However, it is slightly less efficient than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti .
In short, the MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio card is a card that displays very good performance. It is also equipped with Ray tracing and DLSS functionalities optimized by Artificial Intelligence. We have no complaints about the cooling system which is efficient and quiet. We can only recommend this card to you. It is available online and in particular on Amazon for the price of €850.
