Introduction
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is
that I reviewed recently also showed how its low TDP and form factor’s potential makes it a great gaming card for small and power PC builds. So, when MSI offered to send in their latest GeForce RTX 3060 Ti card to me for review, the naivety in me had assume the company will be sending over a model based on a NVIDIA’s reference card design – compact designed, twin fan design and all that.
So, instead of its entry-level Twin Fan OC or Ventus OC variants, MSI sent over an RTX 3060 Ti graphics card that’s built upon their more premium Gaming X Trio label. It’s essentially a full-length card that come fitted with all the premium bells and whistles that MSI has to offer. This includes its TORX 4.0 triple fans, coupled with its Tri Frozr 2 cooling system and massive heatsink sitting beneath it. Of course, as a gaming branded card, MSI’s Mystic Light RGB LEDs are obligatory too.
In fact, its Gaming X Trio moniker even made it looks uncannily alike to my previously reviewed MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio 24G review – sharing pretty much the same HSF cooling system.
Powering up the card will require two 8-pin power connectors, which is one more than Founders Edition version. The RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio card is primed for overclocking, after all. As for its performance, MSI has upped the card’s boost clock to run at 1830MHz (up from the standard 1,665Mhz) but that’s rendered partially irrelevant due to NVIDIA's GPU Boost technology, which will often see this GPU far exceed that under load. Like the Founders Edition, the card is outfitted with NVIDIA’s GA104, 8nm Ampere silicon, GPU. So, it comes with a shader core count of 4864 stream processors and gets paired with 8GB GDDR6 graphics memory at 256-bit running at 14Gbps.
kiIts larger form also means that while it occupies two expansion bays on your casing, it effectively uses up three PCIe slots. On the back panel, there’s the standard three DisplayPort and a single HDMI port. The card is no lightweight (literally) either, so MSI has included a mounting bracket to give it a bit more support. Overall, the card’s quality feels as premium as it should be, and the Gaming X Trio’s reputation as MSI’s best in terms of aesthetics is a well-deserved one. I personally like the RGB LED that runs along the edge of the card, where it’s most visible.
Performance
I will be comparing the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio against the Founders Edition model, since I have not received other custom cards yet. I’ll also be running a more limited selection of games benchmarks as the results don’t normally vary too much from the base-level Founders Edition – you can read my RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition full benchmarks here anyway.
Games featured:
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood
- Total War: Three Kingdoms (Battle)
- Watch Dog Legions
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Metro: Exodus
- 3DMark (synthetic benchmark)
Temperature and Power comparisons
| Temp (Peak) | Board Power Draw (Peak) | |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE | 73-degree | 205W |
| MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio | 70-degree | 246W |
I measured both card’s temperature and board power using GPU-Z while
running 20 loops of 3DMark’s Time Spy Extreme Stress tests, and
the results above are based on their peak loads. The MSI card actually
ran cooler than the Founders Edition, which can be attributed to its
larger and well-designed surface heatsink - which no doubt allowed for
better thermal efficiency. Unfortunately (in comparison to the Founders
Edition), it also draws a higher power no thanks in part to its larger
circuitry, more powerful fans and of course the RGB lightings – these
add-ons do have an impact on the board’s power draw.
At S$739, the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio is priced a little on the premium side. According to MSI’s local distributor, Corbell Technology, the more down-to-earth MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 2X OC retails for S$659 with performances likely to be on par with the Founders Edition equivalent. So, it really comes down to thermal performance and aesthetic preference – RGB, for instance, isn’t available on the Ventus 2X OC.
If overclocking isn’t your thing or a small PC build is what you’re gunning for, then that option might be more palatable to you. Otherwise, with the Gaming X Trio variant greater cooling and performance, it’d be my preferred choice. After all, who wouldn't want a bit of RGB lights in their graphics card? Okay, don't answer that.
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