Packaging

The Card

The visual style of the MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Suprim X matches that of the other Suprim X models. 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 34.0 x 14.0 cm, and it weighs 2146 g.


These GeForce RTX 3090 Ti cards are enormous in size. From top left to top right: EVGA RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 Ultra, Zotac RTX 3090 Ti AMP Extreme, MSI RTX 3090 Ti Suprim X, and ASUS RTX 3090 Ti STRIX Liquid Cooled.

See the small AMD card in the bottom left? That's the Radeon RX 6900 XT, the fastest card the red team currently offers. Also included is GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition in the bottom right. $10,000 in graphics cards right there!


Installation requires four slots in your system.


The dual BIOS switch lets you toggle between the default "quiet" BIOS and "gaming" BIOS that runs the fans at higher speeds for lower temperatures.


Display connectivity options include one HDMI 2.1 and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports.


The RTX 3090 Ti introduces the new 16-pin power connector—note the four small pins above the larger 12 pins. This connector is specified for up to 600 W power delivery. All RTX 3090 Ti cards come bundled with a 3x 8-pin to 12-pin adapter (the four small sense pins aren't used). While the ATX specification technically states that if the four small sense pins aren't connected, the card should limit itself to 150 W, NVIDIA made sure even the 3x 8-pin adapter scenario, which can provide 525 W total (3x 150 W + 75 W from the slot), runs the card at optimal settings.


The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti supports SLI, but know that NVIDIA isn't supporting SLI as implicit multi-GPU (SLI as you know it), but explicit multi-GPU that's developed and supported by game and application developers. With multi-GPU game support pretty much non-existent, this basically means SLI is dead.

Teardown

MSI's cooling solution features two large aluminium fin stacks paired with eight heatpipes. The baseplate not only provides cooling for the GPU, but also the memory chips.


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


The backplate protects the card against damage during installation and handling.