Final words and conclusion
Performance
No matter how you look at or observe the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, it's an unearthly product, eccentric even. Price, performance, and power consumption are all unorthodox. However, it's a product only 8% faster than a reference 3090 whilst consuming 100 Watts more energy and costing 500 USD more as well. Realistically, this is a device that does not really need to make sense, but we believe the RTX 3070/3080 series provides far better value for money. As previously said, you must feed the card what it requires, preferably a GPU-intensive game in Ultra HD. NVIDIA says that this card is capable of running games at 8K resolution; however, we cannot verify this objectively. At Full HD, you'll frequently encounter bottlenecks and CPU constraints. However, even there, the performance boost in some games with good programming and the appropriate API (DX12/ASYNC computation) is amazing. The venerable rasterizer engine smashes straight over the extreme performance barrier. All of this is possible because to the 10+ K Shading processors. We can confidently declare that this is a real Ultra HD capable graphics card, as it should be at this price point. However, whether you use regular rendering or games that support ray tracing and DLSS management all come together in that UHD resolution. An updated generation (more powerful) Ray tracing and Tensor cores have been added to the RTX 30 series. Therefore, do not be misled by the real RT and Tensor core counts. They're positioned close to the rendering engine, which means they've become more efficient, which shows. When using an RTX 2080 with Port Royale, we can get over 30 frames per second. Almost 70 frames per second, the RTX 3090 Ti greatly doubles that. Tensor cores are more difficult to quantify, but given what we have observed thus far, everything appears to be in balance. Overall, the GeForce RTX 3080 makes sense starting at a Quad HD resolution (2560x1440), whereas the RTX 3090 and Ti make sense starting at an Ultra HD resolution (3840x2160). As is typically the case when comparing apples to oranges, performance statistics differ slightly between architectures due to each architecture's inherent benefits and weaknesses in certain game render workloads.
Cooling & noise levels
The SUPRIM X series supports two distinct BIOSes. By default, SILENT mode is selected. And at 33~34 DBa, we have to admit, gosh, this thing is silent! Remember this product has a 450 Watt TGP, and that requires serious real-estate cooling wise. The trade-off is that temperatures in this mode are closer to 80 degrees C. Although this is not an issue for the card, we know and realize that end users will always have peace of mind if the card operates at or below 80 degrees Celsius. Alternately, you can use the GAMING BIOS setting. Here performance drops under 70 Degrees C, which is terrific; however, your acoustic noise level will rise a notch. This is still very okay, but you will hear airflow. I really feel that the SUPRIM X series needs to have a silent mode that offers temps at the 80 C range, much like the TRIO series offer. Then again, leave it at SILENT mode, and accept that 80 Degrees C value would be my advice. Please ensure that your chassis is well ventilated since the 450 Watts of heat generated is largely lost inside the chassis and must be expelled.
Energy
NVIDIA is listing a TGP at 350 Watt for the 3090 FE. This 3090 Ti factory tweaked one has a ~450 Watt TGP. Our measured total board power passes that 450 Watts when looking at peaks. Add to that any tweaks you might apply, and you're closing in at 500 Watts. Regardless of how I look at it, I am not comfortable with this kind of power usage in this day and age with rising KWh prices throughout Europe.
Coil whine
Where the FE produces some, we had a hard time detecting coil whine on this card. Graphics cards all make this in some form, especially in high framerates this can be perceived. In a closed chassis, that noise fades away in the background.
Pricing
NVIDIA is pricing the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti at USD 1999 and in the EU that's exclusive of VAT. It's excessive money for something to play PC games on. This product is so exclusive that it creates its own niche. This AIB card will probably get listed at €2350 with a similar number in USD. But if availability is low, we can easily see the prices hike to the sub-2500 EUR/USD marker.
Tweaking
We've been mildly conservative with tweaking this card, and so should you. Remember you're already at a power budget close to 500 Watts. Our card has a restricted power limiter, e.g. you cannot increase power usage. Also, voltage regulation was not in place just yet. In the end, a +125 Mhz on the core offset brought the card towards 2200 MHz depending on the game. However, due to the power limiter, you'll be more restricted. The memory easily could take another +750 Mhz. And at double data rate, it worked perfectly fine at 22500 MHz (effective data-rate). Overall we've been able to bump roughly 4-5% additional performance out of the card.
Conclusion
The conclusion for the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti must be that the device delivers bizarre performance levels at an irrational pricing point with power usage numbers that we're not comfortable with. Regardless of how many superlatives we use, this is an x-factor product, which means that regardless of the price, people will buy these cards like it is candy. That discussion aside, MSI has created a ravishing graphics card, both in terms of aesthetics and component choices for this hardware setup. For a suggested retail price the card is clearly a hard sell; for that money, you should seriously consider a 3080 / Ti at half the price.
The 3090 Ti SUPRIM X increased performance by close to 8% compared to the 3090 founder edition. And at 1950 MHz it's clocked 100 MHz faster than the new Ti founder edition. We have no numbers on that one though, as NVIDIA is not seeding founder samples this round. Everything is relative. Nonetheless, it's a stunning product—both in terms of gaming performance and, of course, rendering quality. My primary considerations are not performance, cooling, or even cost. This card uses close to 500 Watts of power, which is just too excessive for my taste. Many will disagree with me or will be unconcerned about energy use. For this card to make any sense, you must be gaming in Ultra HD or above. Regardless of me frowning on price and energy consumption; I do adore this chunk of gear within a PC, though, since it is a magnificent creation. Please ensure that you have enough ventilation, as the RTX 3090 Ti generates a great deal of heat. Although it is large, it still looks fantastic. Remember this though, the card is extremely powerful if you provide it with the proper circumstances, these are the highest resolutions, image quality settings, and GPU bound games. MSI did almost everything right with the SUPRIM X. Design and aesthetics are, of course, subjective manner. We do like the looks, but that goes just as well for the Gaming X TRIO models. Performance-wise inbetween brands really, you trade perhaps 1% or 2% here and there. So that is not the decisive factor to beat. Tweaking-wise, this card series will offer another 5% performance. My advice is to leave the card configured at SILENT bios mode, under the assumption you have proper airflow inside your chassis, as this card needs to ditch 425~500 Watts of heat. In the end, this GeForce RTX 3090 Ti with 10,752 CUDA cores is up to 8% quicker in 4K than the GeForce RTX 3090 with 10,496 compute units. Whether or not that is worth the extra 100 Watts and pricing ... it's a hard call to make really. Especially with Hopper architecture now on the horizon. The card itself easily is definitely the new flagship product though, but whether or not you can find one in the stores or if you are even willing to spend this kind of cash for a graphics card to play games on, well .. that's your call to make. This is a bit of a beast.
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