Thanks to MSI team, MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming He sent the graphics card. In these times when games have reached a completely different dimension, it really felt like a medicine. Of course, as soon as we received the card, we discussed it in detail. After all, game performance, technical features, possibilities and many other details are an important issue. Now, we will talk about these in our MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review article. Of course, we will explain this in detail.
ADA Lovelace architecture and technologies
Before moving on to the MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review, it is useful to give information about the ADA Lovelace architecture. Nvidia's new Ada Lovelace architecture was built using TSMC's 4N manufacturing process. Nvidia was able to significantly increase the transistor count thanks to the smaller process. This means many more cores (70 percent more CUDA cores than the GA102). With 76.3 billion transistors, the new GPU is one of the most complex devices ever made, according to the manufacturers.
The island design now uses “high-speed transistors on key channels that would otherwise constrain the rest of the chip” to run at higher clock speeds. With clock speeds of 2,205 GHz at the core and 1,400 MHz on 16 GB GDDR6X with 256 bit bus, the RTX 4080 and the AD103 processor inside provide fast performance. Power consumption on common cards like MSI is shown as 320W, potentially expanding this limit.
The RTX 4080's AD103 GPU has 76 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), 7 Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), 40 Texture Processing Clusters (TPCs) and a 256-bit memory interface (8x 32-bit memory controllers). 152 FP64 cores (2 per SM) are also available but not shown in the diagrams. A small number of FP64 cores were present to ensure compatibility with FP64 code, which includes Tensor Core code. Moreover, Nvidia claims that the TFLOP ratio for FP64 operations is 1/64 of that of FP32 operations.
What else is there?
Opacity Micromap Engine and Displaced Micro-Mesh Engine are custom components that are part of the third-generation RT core (DMME) of these Ada GPUs. Alpha crossover acceleration Opacity micromap evaluation occurs in the first step. DMME enables the Ada RT core to ray trace complex objects and environments with much lower BVH build time and storage costs, creating a much faster and more efficient path when simplified. Nvidia claims that the Ada 3rd generation RT core is their most powerful creation yet.
One of the things we need to mention in our MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review article is DLSS technology. Of course, we will elaborate on this a little later. However, it is still worth mentioning. The move from DLSS 2.0 to DLSS 3.0 represents another significant advancement over the last generation. The stealth component is a unique frame rendering method that improves gaming performance by combining optical flow estimates with DLSS. In other words, a smoother gaming experience is achieved by interspersing already existing frames with precisely synthesized frames. Using DLSS will result in the biggest performance increase you will notice.
Also, Tensor cores are now more up to date. Ada has more than twice as many FP16, BF16, TF32, INT8 and INT4 Tensor TFLOPS as Ampere. It uses the Hopper FP8 Transformer Engine to process tensors at a rate of over 1.3 PetaFLOPS on the 4090.
Nvidia's NVENC encoder and existing OBS improvements eliminate the need for a dedicated PC for video capture, allowing users to playback and stream footage on a PC without sacrificing quality or performance. Ada goes one step further by including AV1 video encoding support with the 9th generation NVENC hardware encoder. Previous generations did not provide encryption; they could only decode. Allegedly, the AV1 encoder is 40% more efficient than the H.264 encoder found in 3000 series GPUs. With this upgrade, users can work at the same bitrate and quality when switching from 1080p to 1440p. Two NVENC encoders are used for this task by the 4080 and 4090.
What is DLSS 3?
In our MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review article, let's talk about an important feature. Of course, as you can see from the title, we are talking about DLSS 3 technology. With this generation, NVIDIA is introducing DLSS 3, a completely new method of producing frames. DLSS 3 Frame Generation uses two frames and develops an intermediate frame based on how objects move between those two frames, unlike DLSS 2 which focuses on upscaling and supersampling. Frame Rendering is not supported on older GPU architectures. Because Ada has updated its basic hardware engine, "Optical Flow Accelerator". To be clear, “DLSS 3” is the result of adding “Frame Generation” to “DLSS 2”.
Old NVIDIA graphics card owners can still enable “DLSS 3”. The upgrade feature will work flawlessly. The new “Frame Generation” option, which is a separate and independent option to enable, is now available in every DLSS 3 game. In fact, even if the DLSS upscaling feature is completely off, you can enable the Frame Generation feature or enable the DLAA + FG feature if you wish. Of course, it is also possible to combine the Frame Render feature with other DLSS modes such as “quality”, “performance” and “balanced”.
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio specifications:
In our MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review article, we will also tell you about the technical features. Of course, we will talk about these features later. However, it would be useful to share the technical specifications now.
- Model Name: MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming
- Graphics Processing Unit: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB
- Interface: PCI Express Gen 4
- Kernel Clocks: Exceptional Performance: 2610 MHz (MSI Center) & Boost: 2595 MHz (GAMING AND SILENT MODE)
- CUDA Cores: 9728 Pieces
- Memory Speed: 22.4Gbps
- Memory: 16GB GDDR6X
- Memory Bus: 256-bit
- Exit: DisplayPort x 3 (v1.4a) HDMI x 1 (Refresh Rate as specified in 4K@120Hz HDR, 8K@60Hz HDR and Variable HDMI 2.1a)
- HDCP Support: Yes
- Power consumption: 320W
- power connectors: 16-pin x 1
- Recommended PSU: 850W (Min. 750W)
- Card Size (mm): 337 x 140 x 67mm
- Weight (Card/Package): 1876g / 2816g
- DirectX Version Support: 12 Ultimate
- OpenGL Version Support: 4.6
- Maximum Views: 4
- VR Ready: Yes
- G-SYNC technology: Yes
- Digital Maximum Resolution: 7680 x 4320
How does MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio greet us?
One of the things we need to talk about in our MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review article is our first look experience. Now, let's talk about the first things that caught our eye when we picked up the card. First, the intensity of the black color attracts attention. After all, it makes up the majority of the MSI Gaming X. Moreover, there are accents in various gray colors. There is a premium metal backplate on the back. MSI has added two RGB LED lights on the front cooler. The card measures 34.0 x 14.0 cm and weighs 1876 g. Additionally, your system needs three slots for installation. For display connectivity, there are three traditional DisplayPort 1.4a connections and one HDMI 2.1a port.
With the island architecture, NVIDIA came up with the idea of dual NVDEC and NVENC Codec. Additionally, since there are two separate sets of hardware accelerators, you can encode and decode two video streams simultaneously or one stream at two frames per second. Moreover, the new 8th Gen NVENC also accelerates AV1 encoding along with HEVC. There is also an “optical flow accelerator” that can calculate intermediate frames for smooth video playback. In DLSS 3, frame generation uses the same hardware component.
The new 12+4 pin ATX 12VHPWR connector is used by the card, which is rated to handle up to 600W of power. Additionally, a 3x PCIe 8-pin adapter cable rated at 450 W is also offered. The RTX 4080 will of course work with the 4x 8-pin – 16-pin adapter cables from the RTX 4090. However, the card will not need this much power. You can also switch between the standard silent BIOS and the gaming BIOS, which uses a more aggressive fan curve, with the help of the BIOS switch.
The design philosophy is clearly heading towards the quiet side, from copper plates and metal backplate to new and more effective cooling systems, fans and copper plates. It also keeps the temperature low, maintaining a comfortable 60 degrees in many benchmarks and stress tests.
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio performance review
In our MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review article, we talked about the features and appearance of the card. Now we will talk about the most important part for us. Of course, that's the important thing, gaming performance. We will talk about the average FPS we obtained from the gaming tests we conducted. Currently, we have listed the results we obtained from the gaming tests we conducted. In this way, it is possible to see FHD, QHD and 4K resolution performances.
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MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review result
In our MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio review article, we explained this graphics card in detail. Now it's time for the results. We would really like to comment on the prices. However, since the situations are obvious, we cannot say much about this. However, we can talk about the prices at the time we prepared this article. Currently, if you want to buy it brand new on the internet, it is possible to find it for around 30,000 TL. Of course, generally a few thousand lira higher, but we also came across a few lower priced listings. We cannot say anything about what will happen in the coming days.
Prices aside, overall it is a very nice card in terms of performance. Frankly, we did not use DLSS 3 technology much. Because we didn't need it. Because the performances we have received are obvious. The MSI team manages to make products that are charismatic in terms of appearance. That's why we think it will definitely suit the case. However, this cable duplication issue makes things a little ugly. Of course, it is not a big problem, but if you are obsessed with the image, it may bother you.
If you are going to build a new generation computer and are looking for a high-end card, MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Gaming X Trio is a very suitable card. Anyway, we think that if you are building a new generation powerful PC, you will not care too much about the prices. Additionally, it is a card that you can use for a long time after purchasing it. Therefore, you can also see it as a long-term entertainment investment.
