Oh, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (opens in new tab)This is a very good graphics card, offering great generational performance boosts, very good power efficiency and unique features like DLSS 3. But it’s too expensive.
“There are no bad graphics cards, only bad prices,” wrote one wise commentator. To put the RTX 4080 in a nutshell, however, the price may change over time, but the characteristics of the card will remain the same. Given the period ahead, it certainly will), the RTX 4080 could end up being a gem. Time will tell.
Today I got my hands on MSI’s GeForce RTX 4080 Suprim X. $1,379 | £1,359 | AU$2,449 is one of the more expensive RTX 4080s at the time of writing, but you can get a noticeably better card for the extra bucks than the Founders Edition. Interesting Notably, the card’s price has dropped a bit in the UK and Australian markets in the weeks since its launch, and stock appears to be widely available. it is clear. Downward pressure on prices is definitely showing as we move further into 2023. Fingers crossed.
The Suprim X, like all other RTX 4080s, has at its heart the excellent 4N AD103 GPU built by TSMC. With 9,728 cores out of the 10,752 cores available, Nvidia is left with the option of releasing an almost inevitable RTX 4080 Ti in the future, which offers much better power efficiency than the RTX 3080. (opens in new tab) Its predecessor with a much larger GA102 GPU. The RTX 4080 is packed with 64MB of L2 cache versus 5MB for the RTX 3080. A Better Feature Set Is Expected For The Next-Gen GPU, RTX 4080 Suprim X With 16GB Of GDDR6X Memory, Improved Ray Tracing, Excellent DLSS 3 Voodoo, 320W TDP And Huge Cooling satisfies all these conditions.
Its 320W TDP is particularly noteworthy, offering much better performance per watt than the RTX 3080, RTX 3090. (opens in new tab), and its Ti brothers. This becomes a mockery of rumorers pointing out his TDP being ridiculous in the pre-launch period. Outstanding GPU, but did we say too expensive? Yes. Yes I did and probably will again.
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Suprim X Specs
The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Suprim X is MSI’s flagship RTX 4080. It sits on top of MSI’s Gaming Trio and Ventus models. For the extra money, you can get a more premium design, better materials, build quality and a slightly higher factory overclock. It’s worth mentioning that MSI includes a very sturdy metal GPU holder to prevent sagging, as well as a quality mouse pad.
RTX 4080 Suprim X Specs
GPUs: NVIDIA AD103-300-A1
Shader unit: 9,728
Boost clock speed: 2,625MHz
Storage capacity: 16GB GDDR6X
Memory speed: 22.4Gbps
output: 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x HDMI 2.1
Power connector: 16-pin x 1
price: $1,379 | £1,359 | $2,449 AUD
Suprim X’s official rated boost clock is 2,625MHz, but an additional 15MHz can be added via the MSI Center app. However, as is often the case, Nvidia’s rated boost clock doesn’t really mean much. In our tests, the card was able to sustain a boost clock of 2,745MHz while looping 3DMark Speedway.
The finish of the card is a masterpiece. How it looks is up to the beholder, but I think it’s the best looking of all the RTX 4080 cards. As you can imagine, it has some RGB and is a very classy implementation. Adjacent to the fan are three smaller elements, one at the top facing the outside of the case, with a logo on the backplate.
The card is surrounded by a brushed metal shroud and backplate. MSI smartly left the sides of the card relatively unobtrusive, allowing hot air to escape effectively. It’s also a big card and takes up plenty of four slots.
Like most 4080s, it comes with three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1 port. Ada Lovelace cards do not support DisplayPort 2.0/2.1. There is also a dual BIOS available with a silent option and a gaming option, but if the default settings are basically silent, you rarely need to use the silent option. A single 12VHPWR connector provides the juice, and MSI bundles his 3×8 pin power adapter.
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Let’s take a look at that cooler! The AD103 can’t be done with a single slot cooler, but at 320W, Suprim X’s 450W+ RTX 3090 Ti/ 4090 class cooler has no issues. Based on a vapor chamber, 10+ heatpipes dissipate heat deeper into a massive surface area.
The VRM and memory chips are cooled via thermal pads, and there’s an extra frame on top of the PCB to add stiffness and cool the extra components. The backplate also has a thermal pad for heat dampening components mounted on the back.
The PCB itself is a custom design with 18+3 phases and 50a stages.Simply put, it’s overkill for the AD103 GPU’s requirements, but it’s better to be overspec than underspec! Just like we saw with the Zotac RTX 4080 Amp Extreme Airo. (opens in new tab)Suprim X includes 24Gbps rated GDDR6X memory, faster than the card’s 22.4Gbps rated clock. This means there is some OC headroom.
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Suprim X Benchmarks and Performance
Of course, a good-looking card with great build quality won’t get high marks if it performs like a turkey.
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The giant Suprim X cooler really helps. A peak temperature of 57°C is one of the best GPUs I’ve seen, high-end or not. That’s 5 degrees cooler than the Zotac Airo. And manage it mostly in silence. The CPU cooler fan and pump on my test platform are more prominent. Admittedly 57°C is on an open test bench, so it’s a bit hotter in some cases, but it would still be an excellent result for a 320W GPU even in the mid-60s.
One of the RTX 4080’s most impressive features is its relatively low power consumption, or more specifically performance per watt. Suprim X’s maximum system power consumption was 399W. That’s lower than the Zotac RTX 4080, RTX 3080, RX 6900 XT and even RX 7900 XT. Contrary to all the pre-release whispers that the RTX 40 series’ power consumption is running out of control, the RTX 4080 is more power efficient than any card released to date.
However, it consumes less power and therefore slightly lower performance. Using an extra 20 or so watts, the Zotac 4080 is 1-2 percent ahead in some of the following benchmarks.
Synthetic game performance
1440p gaming performance
4K gaming performance
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Suprim X Analysis
The RTX 4080 Suprim X offers very good performance, but MSI seems to be more focused on cool and quiet operation than performance. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s good that the manufacturer is more aggressive with his BIOS on his second and perhaps he allows a power limit of 450W. However, Nvidia may not be happy with that.
test equipment
CPU: Intel Core i9 12900K
Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Apex
sheep: 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident-Z DDR5-6000 C36
Storage: 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530
cooling: Cooler Master PL360 Flux 360mm AIO
Power supply unit: Corsair AX1000
At 1440p even the most demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 without DLSS are possible, and in many cases even a 12900K CPU will bottleneck the card.
Most games that struggled to break 60Hz at 4K can now do so with ray tracing effects enabled, even before DLSS was enabled.
At the time of writing, I haven’t had the chance to comprehensively benchmark the Radeon RX 7900 XTX myself. Looking at the launch day reviews, we can see that it’s a decent enough competitor to the RTX 4080, but it can’t match Nvidia in ray tracing games. , and more importantly, it’s worth considering whether you can live without DLSS.
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Suprim X Verdict
Ignoring the price for a moment, the RTX 4080 is a great graphics card and the MSI Suprim X is arguably the best. Built like a battleship, it’s cool, quiet, looks great, and has a PCB that’s not stressed by the AD103 GPU’s power requirements.
Ignoring the price for a moment, the RTX 4080 is a great graphics card and the MSI Suprim X is arguably the best.
That second is now. $1,379 | £1,359 | AU$2,449 This is his one of the pricier RTX 4080 cards, meaning Nvidia or someone in the supply chain is making big bucks. But those are today’s prices. I don’t see it staying at these levels in the short term. If someone were to search for ‘RTX 4080 Suprim X review’ a year after him, the graphics card situation and what you get for your money could look very different. At this time, it’s difficult to recommend a high-end graphics card from a cost-performance standpoint.
If you pull the trigger and buy a Suprim X, you’re getting a great graphics card that can at least play all your games in 4K, and it’s arguably the best example of Nvidia’s Ada GPUs. Nvidia’s feature set cannot be ignored either. All we need is good news on the price side. When that happens, the RTX 4080 and Suprim X flavors will simply go from good to great.
