Introduction

Last week, we brought you the review of the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB OC, and today, we have MSI's counter-piece, the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim X 12 GB. The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB was stealth-launched by NVIDIA, back in January. It is designed to fill the gap between the original RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti so the company could better compete with the Radeon RX 6800 XT, or mainly be in a position to strike the $999 MSRP (Fantasyland pricing). The new 12 GB version of the RTX 3080 also brings with it the Low Hash Rate (LHR) mining performance limiter NVIDIA is putting on all new releases to deter miners from snatching up these cards.

The GeForce RTX 3080 "Ampere" launched back in 2020 with 10 GB of memory across a 320-bit memory interface even though the GA102 silicon it's based on supports a wider 384-bit interface, which was maxed out with the RTX 3090. The high-end graphics card landscape unexpectedly changed with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 series, and the RX 6900 XT based on the RDNA2 architecture restored competition to the high-end, causing NVIDIA to launch several SKUs to try and restore its price-performance supremacy, albeit only when looking at MSRP. During all of this, retail scalping and the crypto-currency mining boom have destroyed the MSRP, and predictable pricing.



The RTX 3080 12 GB isn't just the usual RTX 3080 with 20% more memory. In order to expand the VRAM size from 10 GB to 12 GB, NVIDIA had to up the number of memory chips from 10 to 12. The additional memory chips have to be connected to the GPU, which increases the bus width to 384-bit and, thus, overall memory bandwidth. NVIDIA has also taken the opportunity to add a little more muscle. The RTX 3080 12 GB is endowed with 8,960 CUDA cores across 70 streaming multiprocessors, while the original RTX 3080 has 8,704 across 68 streaming multiprocessors. This also marks proportionate increases in Tensor cores (280 vs. 272) and RT cores (70 vs. 68). ROPS has remained constant, at 96. All this, however, comes at a significant increase of the typical-board power, which is now rated at 350 W; the RTX 3080 only consumes 250 W.

The MSI GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB Suprim X is the company's most premium RTX 3080 12 GB offering—their flagship. Just like on other Suprim X cards, you're getting a large triple-slot, triple-fan thermal solution paired with a large factory overclock to 1890 MHz rated boost, or 180 MHz over NVIDIA's RTX 3080 FE baseline clocks. This makes it the highest-clocked RTX 3080 12 GB on the market. Te next-fastest card is the ASUS Strix with 1860 MHz. MSI also bumped the power limit up to 370 W from the 350 W default, and the manual adjustment range goes up to 430 W. Just like on other Suprim X cards, there's a dual BIOS feature with the "silent" BIOS active by default, and the "gaming" BIOS offering lower temperatures at higher fan speed. Official pricing guidance is not available, but we're currently seeing the card listed for around $1700.

Packaging

The Card

The MSI GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB Suprim X looks identical to the RTX 3080 Ti Suprim X and RTX 3090 Suprim X. These are some of the largest graphics cards in the market, with dimensions and aesthetics that make the already large RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio look much smaller. A premium brushed aluminium shroud dominates much of the card, with cleverly designed cutouts for the vents and some sharp edges and RGB LED diffusers. The amount of RGB bling is about the same as for the Gaming X Trio, but somehow comes across as more subtle and classy.


Dimensions of the card are 33.5 x 14 cm, and it weighs 1901 g.


Installation requires three slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include one HDMI 2.0 and three DisplayPort 1.4 ports.


The card has three 8-pin power inputs. This configuration is rated for up to 525 W of power draw.

You'll also find the dual BIOS switch here, which lets you toggle between the default "quiet" BIOS and the "gaming" BIOS that runs the fans at higher speeds for lower temperatures.


The GeForce RTX 3080 does not support SLI.

Teardown

MSI's cooling solution for the RTX 3080 Suprim X features two large aluminium fin stacks paired with seven heatpipes. A mirror-finish, nickel-plated copper base pulls heat from the GPU, while a flattened heat pipe runs around this plate, pulling heat from the surrounding memory chips. Thermal pads for the memory make contact with both this heat pipe and the GPU base plate.


Once the main heatsink is removed, you're still left with this black stabilizer plate which helps protect the card against sagging.


A metal backplate completes the card; this card has thicker thermal pads to fill in the gap of the missing rear memory chips found on the RTX 3090 Suprim X.

High-resolution PCB Pictures

These pictures are for the convenience of volt modders and people who would like to see all the finer details on the PCB. Feel free to link back to us and use these in your articles, videos or forum posts.



High-res versions are also available (front, back).

Circuit Board (PCB) Analysis

For GPU voltage, a 16-phase VRM configuration is installed, driven by a pair of UPI uP9512R controllers.


For GPU voltage, OnSemi NCP302150 DrMOS are used, which are rated for 50 A.


Memory voltage is a quad-phase configuration managed by an OnSemi NCP81611 controller.


OnSemi NCP302150 DrMOS are used with the memory power phases. These are rated for 50 A.


The GDDR6X memory chips are made by Micron and carry the model number D8BWW, which decodes to MT61K256M32JE-19G:T. They are specified to run at 1188 MHz (19 Gbps GDDR6X effective).


NVIDIA's GA102 graphics processor is the company's second Ampere architecture chip. it is the first one targeted at GeForce gamers and produced on a 8 nanometer process at Samsung. It has a transistor count of 28 billion with a die size of 628 mm².