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The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 Super Expert represents an advancement in graphics card technology, featuring a meticulously designed cooler. The construction of this model is highlighted by its all-aluminium cooling system casing and rear reinforcement plate, finished in a champagne color, which omits the use of plastic to enhance its sophisticated appearance. Upon unpacking, the focus shifts to the graphics card itself, including a VGA stand and power adapter. It has a substantial size and weight, approximately 1.9kg, the card occupies 3 slots in a computer case, indicating its considerable size for installation.
Internally, the card is equipped with an advanced heatsink system developed by MSI. This system adopts a push-pull airflow scheme, integrates vapor chamber cooling, and includes precision-engineered heatpipes for effective heat dissipation. Although similar in construction to the aluminum die-cast build of Nvidia's RTX 40 Founders Edition GPUs, MSI's design introduces distinct elements that differentiate it. Among these is a patented fan technology that not only contributes to the card's sleek aesthetic but also optimizes airflow through the heatsink. Included are VGA stand (this product weighs 1.9kg) and a power adapter cable, which feeds from three 8-pin PCIe PEG power headers. Of course, if your power supply supports the new 12VHPWR directly with one cable, connect that.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a refresh successor in the ADA series, and is set to replace the current Ampere based 4080. This graphics card is equipped with 16 Gigabytes of GDDR6X memory, operating at an effective data rate of 23 Gbps. This configuration results in a memory bandwidth of 736 GB/sec. Detailed insights into the product's features and specifications are provided in the subsequent sections. While last-gen GeForce RTX 3080 Ti featured 10240 stream/shader processors, the RTX 4080 SUPER also offers 10240 shading cores and delivers markedly higher performance.
NVIDIA exclusively provides power adapters for the RTX 40-series graphics cards, applicable to both Founders Edition and custom designs by partners. The 12VHPWR connector has recently been a topic of discussion due to isolated overheating incidents, potentially linked to cable bending, user installation, or quality control issues. However, these connectors generally maintain a safe temperature under normal usage conditions.
The GeForce RTX 4000 series, while adhering to PCIe Gen 5 specifications, operates using a PCIe Gen 4.0 x16 host interface. Similarly, the RTX 4080 / SUPER 16GB GDDR6X memory, with its 256-bit wide memory bus, offers significant bandwidth and storage capacity. Despite its 320W Total Graphics Power (TGP), a 650-watt power supply is recommended, although the actual power consumption typically ranges between 275-320 Watts. Keep in mind that board partners may allow for higher TGP, potentially leading to increased power usage in certain configurations, alongside a notch of extra performance of course.
