MSI took a bit longer to prepare their custom-design RX 6800 XT than other vendors, hopefully also to wait for better GPU supply from AMD. We've been covering their Gaming X series of graphics cards for many years, and MSI always delivered. The RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio comes with the same thermal solution as the company's GeForce RTX 30-series cards, with the design language also identical. Out of the box, MSI has set their card to tick at a frequency of 2285 MHz, slightly lower than other flagship cards, which reach up to 2360 MHz. In terms of relative performance, this makes the RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio 3% faster than the RX 6800 XT reference at 4K resolution. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 is only 3% faster, the RTX 3090 is 14% faster and much more expensive, and AMD's new RX 6900 XT costs upwards of $1000 and is only 5% faster. Compared to the Radeon RX 6800 non-XT, the Gaming X gives you 15% more FPS, and the RTX 3070 is even slower at -22%. Performance uplifts compared to older cards are impressive as well, as it is almost twice as fast as the RX 5700 XT and more than three times as fast as the RX 590.

With these performance numbers, the Radeon RX 6800 XT is the perfect choice for 4K gaming at 60 FPS. It achieved that mark in nearly all titles in our test suite. Things are different once you turn on raytracing. Just like on NVIDIA, there's a hefty performance hit when running with the DirectX Raytracing API. We only tested two games so far, but it seems the loss in performance is bigger than on NVIDIA, who improved in that area with Ampere. Remember, this is AMD's first-generation raytracing implementation. Performance is still very respectable, reaching roughly RTX 2080 Ti levels. Now that RT hardware is available for both AMD and NVIDIA and game developers are making console games on AMD's new RDNA 2 architecture, it'll be interesting to see how raytracing performance evolves in the coming months.

The massive MSI thermal solution works really well for the RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio. Temperatures are lower than on any other RX 6800 XT we've tested with the exception of the water-cooled ASUS STRIX LC. Just 67°C while dishing out over 60 FPS at 4K resolution is truly impressive. I'm happy to report that noise levels are good, too. With 32 dBA, the cooler is a tiny bit louder than the AMD reference and other competing custom designs—the differences will be hard to notice subjectively. MSI definitely wanted to dominate the temperatures of other RX 6800 XT heatsinks, which they achieved. Our new graphics card independent cooler testing confirms these findings; the cooler is significantly better than the AMD reference, by around 5°C, and better than all the other RX 6800 XT coolers we've tested. Somehow, I feel like I'm missing the dual-BIOS feature here for a choice between outstanding noise levels and low temperatures, like on most other custom designs, even cheaper ones. Just like on the AMD reference design, idle fan stop is included, which provides the perfect noise-free experience during desktop work, Internet browsing, media playback, and light gaming.

With this review, we're introducing a new power consumption testing methodology, which uses better equipment and looks at additional test cases with newer games. The most surprising revelation of this change is that AMD's non-gaming power draw isn't as spectacular as we thought. While 1080p desktop will run at super-low power levels, even 1440p 60 Hz sees power consumption jump to around 30 W, and a second monitor will add 10 W on top. Video playback also requires more power than before, almost 50 W. In gaming, things are better, the RX 6800 reference is more power efficient than NVIDIA's RX 3080—what a huge achievement. On the MSI Gaming X Trio, power draw is increased by 30 W, though, because MSI bumped the voltage a bit. This is common practice for factory-overclocked graphics cards.

The Radeon RX 6800 XT launched exactly a month ago, and there is still zero stock anywhere. Scalpers are listing these cards at way above $1000—let's hope nobody gives in to such obscene pricing. AMD's reference design comes at an MSRP of $650, which is just as much a fantasy. It seems fake pricing was made up to lure potential buyers away from NVIDIA, who aren't much more realistic with their prices either. With almost no stock, everybody in the supply chain is raising their prices, so I doubt we'll ever see pricing close to $650 for the 6800 XT. MSI wasn't able to provide final market pricing yet for the RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio. I do appreciate their openness in telling me that the price will be "at least $849." This is a $200 increase over the AMD MSRP and impossible to justify in any way when comparing what it offers over the AMD reference. However, all RX 6800 XT custom designs are sitting at similar pricing, or well above. I've received a lot of angry feedback in the past days about giving awards to cards that are priced so high. Are they? Just a few months ago, people happily paid way over $1200 for an RTX 2080 Ti while moaning about how AMD will never be competitive. Now that AMD is competitive, the RX 6800 XT is objectively better than RTX 2080 Ti in every regard, and people complain that they have to pay up? Releasing products with fake pricing isn't acceptable, and that definitely sets false expectations, but what can we do? If you have $1000 to spend on a graphics card today, the MSI RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio is a really, really good choice and should definitely be considered. Another important alternative is NVIDIA's RTX 3080, which is way overpriced, too, and out of stock. It runs slightly louder, with more power, but offers better RT performance. I'm just hoping we'll see better volume in 2021, so competition heats up and everyone can grab their choice of card at better pricing.