A few weeks ago I purchased the MSI Gaming 3080 12GB GAMING Z TRIO LHR from Newegg.
I finally built my PC, installed Windows, etc and finally got around to testing / tweaking the GPU in MSI afterburner.
I ran Heaven 4.0 Benchmark maxed out at 4K to gauge the card's thermal and sound performance and I was absolutely shocked by the terrible results ... it jumps from mid 40s C idle to 83C in about 30 seconds with the fans spinning at 100% ... super loud. It downclocks at that point. Using GPU-Z, the memory temps are actually decent ... low 80s C but the GPU core runs hot and the hot spot temp is 15 C higher than the die itself.
I first checked all the screws on the card ... maybe some were not screwed in tightly from the factory. Nope. All were screwed in tightly.
I then took the cooler off to check the thermal paste for the GPU. Maybe the factory misapplied the paste. Nope. Plenty of thermal paste covering the GPU die and cooler heat pipes.
maybe 1 of the fans wasn't working? Nope. All 3 fans spin properly.
All thermal pads are making correct contact with the card's components. There are indentations on all of them.
I had Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut laying around so I cleaned the factory paste and applied that paste instead. Instantly the idle temperature dropped about 8 degress and it takes 10-15 MORE more seconds to reach 83C now. All clocks, power limits, etc are stock.
If I undervolt to 0.825mv on the GPU core, I have a very stable 1800MHz core that the temps never go above low 70s C and the card's much quieter ... but I do loose about 5% performance vs stock (Heaven 4.0 Benchmark at least).
Reviews say this card is whisper quiet so I'm lost here. Are they just fake reviews or oblivious? Or is my cooler somehow defective? Or maybe the 3080 12G and 3080 TI cards just run hot and are loud and no one really cares?
Please provide your input.
I do have a 3070ti ASUS TUF card. While that card is also loud at stock, I can quiet it down quite a bit by limiting the GPU core to 0.95mv at high 19XX MHz. Maybe 1-2% max loss in performance vs stock.
At 8.75v the card isn't really even audible over the room noise when gaming from the couch running at full GPU utilization.
I have a basic understanding on how to undervolt and tweak these cards.
MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Video Card RTX 3080 GAMING Z TRIO 12G LHR - Newegg.com
Buy MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 12GB GDDR6X PCI Express 4.0 ATX Video Card RTX 3080 GAMING Z TRIO 12G LHR with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com
I finally built my PC, installed Windows, etc and finally got around to testing / tweaking the GPU in MSI afterburner.
I ran Heaven 4.0 Benchmark maxed out at 4K to gauge the card's thermal and sound performance and I was absolutely shocked by the terrible results ... it jumps from mid 40s C idle to 83C in about 30 seconds with the fans spinning at 100% ... super loud. It downclocks at that point. Using GPU-Z, the memory temps are actually decent ... low 80s C but the GPU core runs hot and the hot spot temp is 15 C higher than the die itself.
I first checked all the screws on the card ... maybe some were not screwed in tightly from the factory. Nope. All were screwed in tightly.
I then took the cooler off to check the thermal paste for the GPU. Maybe the factory misapplied the paste. Nope. Plenty of thermal paste covering the GPU die and cooler heat pipes.
maybe 1 of the fans wasn't working? Nope. All 3 fans spin properly.
All thermal pads are making correct contact with the card's components. There are indentations on all of them.
I had Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut laying around so I cleaned the factory paste and applied that paste instead. Instantly the idle temperature dropped about 8 degress and it takes 10-15 MORE more seconds to reach 83C now. All clocks, power limits, etc are stock.
If I undervolt to 0.825mv on the GPU core, I have a very stable 1800MHz core that the temps never go above low 70s C and the card's much quieter ... but I do loose about 5% performance vs stock (Heaven 4.0 Benchmark at least).
Reviews say this card is whisper quiet so I'm lost here. Are they just fake reviews or oblivious? Or is my cooler somehow defective? Or maybe the 3080 12G and 3080 TI cards just run hot and are loud and no one really cares?
Please provide your input.
I do have a 3070ti ASUS TUF card. While that card is also loud at stock, I can quiet it down quite a bit by limiting the GPU core to 0.95mv at high 19XX MHz. Maybe 1-2% max loss in performance vs stock.
At 8.75v the card isn't really even audible over the room noise when gaming from the couch running at full GPU utilization.
I have a basic understanding on how to undervolt and tweak these cards.
Last edited: