NVIDIA video cards of the GeForce 30 family are definitely a success. This also applies to the older models (RTX 3080 and RTX 3090), whose task was to increase pure performance compared to the previous generation, and the younger ones (from RTX 3060 to RTX 3070), which should replace the existing positions of the 20th line. more affordable counterparts. The only reason for dissatisfaction with the new products is connected with how difficult it is now to buy fresh hardware, not to mention the fact that it is sold for acceptable amounts, and not several times more expensive than the prices recommended by the chip maker. To replace the old graphics card with something from the NVIDIA 30-series, most gamers will have to postpone their purchase for a few more months. Especially if we are talking about premium varieties – such as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO from MSI.

⇡ # Specifications, prices

The specifications of the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO indicate a significant overclocking of the GPU: while, according to the reference characteristics, the GA104 chip on the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is designed for an approximate frequency in games of 1665 MHz, MSI promises already 1830 MHz. As you know, the Boost Clock estimate for NVIDIA video cards is very conservative, so even in demanding games we will see even higher clock speeds. And if the GPU is overclocked (and, as in this case, significantly), it is necessary to increase the power reserve of the device: from 200 W, prescribed by the reference parameters, immediately to 240 W. Thus, MSI’s RTX 3060 Ti surpasses even the 3070W RTX 220 in maximum power consumption.

Manufacturer	NVIDIA	MSI
Model	GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO
Graphics Processor
Name	GA104	GA104
Microarchitecture	Ampere	Ampere
Technical process	8 nm (8N)	8 nm (8N)
Number of transistors, million	17 400	17 400
Clock frequency, MHz: Base Clock / Boost Clock	1 410 / 1 665	1 410 / 1 830
Shader ALU FP32	4 864	4 864
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)	152	152
Rasterization Operations Blocks (ROPs)	80	80
Tensor cores	152	152
RT cores	38	38
RAM
Bus width, bit	256	256
Chip type	GDDR6 SGRAM	GDDR6 SGRAM
Clock frequency, MHz (bandwidth per contact, Mbps)	1 750 (14 000)	1 750 (14 000)
Volume, MB	8 192	8 192
I / O bus	PCI Express 4.0 x16	PCI Express 4.0 x16
Performance
Peak performance FP32, GFLOPS (based on maximum specified frequency)	16 197	17 802
FP64 / FP32 performance	1/32	1/32
FP16 / FP32 performance	1/1	1/1
RAM bandwidth, GB / s	448	448
Image output
Display interfaces	DisplayPort 1.4a, HDMI 2.1	DisplayPort 1.4a, HDMI 2.1
TBP / TDP, W	200	240
Retail price (USA, excluding tax), $	399 (recommended at the time of release)	N / A
Retail price (Russia), rub.	39 990 (recommended at the time of release)	N / A

So far, the only unknown spec of the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO is the price of the device. Like most video cards of the new generation, it is simply impossible to find it on sale and not overpay several times. So if you are interested in buying, bookmark this review and come back to it in the summer, when, hopefully, the shortage has already subsided.

⇡ #Design

Under the GAMING X TRIO brand, MSI manufactures video cards based on two varieties of the GA104 chip – GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070, but they have the same design, including the printed circuit board, and the exact same cooling system is used in the GeForce RTX 3080. If the cooler is suitable for the RTX 3080, which in MSI’s design consumes up to 340 watts of power, it will no doubt cope with cooling the relatively economical RTX 3060 Ti.

Due to the large dimensions of the main radiator, the GAMING X TRIO takes up almost three expansion slots in the computer, and three 95 mm fans pump air into the cooling system. You might think this is overclocking for the RTX 3060 Ti, even with factory overclocking. But as the test results show, in this way the MSI product stands out among its simpler counterparts in terms of the performance characteristics that distinguish devices of different price categories based on the same GPU from each other: component temperature and, most importantly, noise level.

Another sign of a pedigree device is abundant LED backlighting: three-color LEDs are embedded in the casing of the cooling system and a few more diodes are scattered along the upper edge of the PCB under the transparent diffusing part of the backplate. The backplate is plastic, but, oddly enough, thermal spacers are laid between it and the hot parts of the PCB.

This video card weighs a lot – 1,45 kg, therefore, for installation in a standard horizontal position, it is recommended to use a bracket that supports the free corner of the PCB.

In the longitudinal direction, the PCB is strengthened by a metal frame.

The massive heatsink GAMING X TRIO consists of three fin sections connected by six heat pipes. In the center, the heatpipes are pressed together and are in direct contact with the GPU crystal. The assembly of the base is done with high quality, without gaps and deep grooves. Aluminum blocks that compress the heat pipes on both sides transfer heat from the RAM chips. But the power stages of the VRM of the GPU are covered with a separate small heatsink, which, in turn, is pressed against the main one through the gasket. Not the most elegant solution, but, unfortunately, we are not able to measure the temperature of power stages on NVIDIA video cards using software tools to make sure of its effectiveness.

⇡ # Printed circuit board

MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO components are assembled on an original PCB design. Due to the fact that MSI engineers abandoned the fashionable design of the fan-through cooler, there is a lot of free space on the PCB. Looking at the reported power of the device up to 240W, we expected to see a reinforced VRM under the heatsink, but in reality the GAMING X TRIO is content with exactly the same voltage regulator configuration as the RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. The GPU power system contains 8 phases, recruited by ON Semiconductor NCP302045 power stages with a rated current of 45 A under the control of the NCP81610 PWM controller of the same company. The power supply of the RAM chips is two-phase. Filters at the input and output of the VRM phases are represented exclusively by through-wiring capacitors, while on the GeForce RTX 3080 board of the same GAMING X TRIO series, the manufacturer combines “cans” with SMD capacitors.

⇡ #Test stand, testing methodology

Test stand
CPU	Intel Core i9-9900K (4,9GHz, 4,8GHz in AVX, Fixed)
Motherboard	ASUS MAXIMUS XI APEX
RAM	G.Skill Trident Z RGB F4-3200C14D-16GTZR, 2 × 8 GB (3200 MHz, CL14)
ROM	Intel SSD 760p, 1024 GB
Power supply unit	Corsair AX1200i 1200W
CPU cooling system	Corsair Hydro Series H115i
Housing	CoolerMaster Test Bench V1.0
Monitor	NEC EA244UHD
Operating system	Windows 10 Pro x64
AMD GPU Software
All graphics cards	AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.2.2
NVIDIA GPU software
All graphics cards	NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Driver 461.64

Games without ray tracing
Game	API	Test Method	Graphics settings	Full screen anti-aliasing
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	DirectX 12	Built-in benchmark	Max. graphics quality	TAA High
cyberpunk 2077	DirectX 12	OCAT, script scene after prologue	Max. graphics quality	TAA
Borderlands 3	DirectX 12	Built-in benchmark	Max. graphics quality	TAA
Control	DirectX 12	OCAT	Max. graphics quality	TAA
DOOM Eternal	Volcano	OCAT, the start of the Mars Core mission	Max. graphics quality	TAA
Metro Exodus	DirectX 12	Built-in benchmark	Max. quality of graphics. Shading Rate 100%	TAA
Red Dead Redemption 2	Volcano	Built-in benchmark	Max. graphics quality	TAA High
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS	DirectX 12	Built-in benchmark (Battle Benchmark)	Max. graphics quality	TAA
Watch Dogs: Legion	DirectX 12	Built-in benchmark	Max. graphics quality	TAA

Ray tracing games
Game	API	Test Method	Graphics settings	Full screen anti-aliasing / scaling
Control	DirectX 12	OCAT	Max. quality of graphics. Ray Tracing Preset: High	TAA / DLSS 2.0 (Quality)
cyberpunk 2077	DirectX 12	OCAT, script scene after prologue	Max. graphics quality	TAA / DLSS 2.0 (Quality)
Metro Exodus	DirectX 12	Built-in benchmark	Max. quality of graphics. Shading Rate 100%. Ray Trace: Ultra	TAA / DLSS 1.0
Watch Dogs: Legion	DirectX 12	Built-in benchmark	Max. graphics quality	TAA / DLSS 2.0 (Quality)

In most test games, the average and minimum frame rates are derived from the array of individual frame render times, which is recorded by the built-in benchmark (or the OCAT utility if there is no benchmark).

The average frame rate in the charts is the reciprocal of the average frame time. To estimate the minimum frame rate, the number of frames formed in each second of the test is calculated. From this array of numbers, the value corresponding to the 1st percentile of the distribution is taken. Red Dead Redemption 2 is an exception: its built-in benchmark automatically records the 1st percentile of the frame’s render time, from which the corresponding frame rate is derived. In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, we are forced to focus on the minimum frame rate according to the integrated benchmark.

The power of video cards is recorded separately from the CPU and other PC components using the NVIDIA PCAT device. As a test load for the power and noise tests, the game Crysis 3 is used at a resolution of 3840 × 2160 without full-screen anti-aliasing and maximum graphics quality settings, as well as the FurMark stress test with the most aggressive settings (resolution 3840 × 2160, MSAA 8x). Measurements of all parameters are performed after the video card warms up, when the GPU temperature and clock frequencies stabilize.

⇡ #Test participants

The following video cards took part in performance testing:

• MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO (1410/1830 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 8 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (1500/1730 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 8 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (1410/1665 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 8 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (1320/1837 MHz, 15 Gb / s, 12 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition (1350/1635 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 11 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (1480/1582 MHz, 11 Gb / s, 11 GB);
• AMD Radeon RX 6800 (1700/2105 MHz, 16 Gbps, 16 GB);
• AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (1605/1905 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 8 GB).

Note. In brackets after the names of video cards, the base and boost frequencies are indicated according to the specifications of each device. Factory overclocked video cards are brought in line with the reference parameters (or close to the latter), provided that this can be done without manual editing of the clock frequency curve. Otherwise (NVIDIA GeForce 16 series accelerators, as well as GeForce RTX 2070/2080/2080 Ti Founders Edition), the manufacturer’s settings are used.

⇡ #Clock speeds, power consumption, temperature, noise and overclocking

The MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO benchmark results will start with the fact that, although this video card does not reach the 240W power, which the specifications say, it consumes up to 226W in resource-intensive games, while the RTX 3060 model Ti Founders Edition, corresponding to the reference parameters, is content with 200 watts. This means that factory overclocking of the GAMING X TRIO is not just a formality. Indeed, the stable GPU clock speed here is almost 100 MHz higher than the Founders Edition.

MSI equipped such a graphics card with a huge cooling system for a reason, which would look quite appropriate on a GeForce RTX 3080 board. The cooler provides the graphics processor with a low temperature under load (only 65 ° C) and at the same time an extremely low noise level within 22 dBA at a distance of 30 cm from fans! From a practical point of view, we can say that this accelerator works silently.

Performance under load (Crysis 3)
Video card	Settings	GPU clock frequency, MHz		GPU supply voltage, V		Fan speed, rpm (% of max.)	Fan speed 2, rpm (% of max.)
		Avg.	Max.	Avg.	Max.	Avg.	Avg.
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO (1410/1830 MHz, 14 Gbps, 8 GB)		1965	1965	1,06	1,06	1053 (37%)	1053 (37%)
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO (+100 MHz, 16,4 Gbps, 8 GB)	+ 4% power	2055	2055	1,08	1,08	1162 (40%)	1162 (40%)
Palit GeForce RTX 3060 Dual OC (1320/1837 MHz, 15 Gb / s, 12 GB)		1938	1957	1,04	1,08	1730 (47%)	1730 (47%)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE (1410/1665 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 8 GB)		1867	1905	0,98	1,01	1619 (46%)	1619 (46%)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 FE (1500/1730 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 8 GB)		1919	1935	1,00	1,01	1767 (50%)	1766 (50%)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FE (1480/1582 MHz, 11000 Mbps, 11 GB)		1735	1810	0,96	1,01	2377 (50%)	N / A
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE (1350/1645 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 11 GB)		1723	1860	0,91	1,03	2082 (56%)	2082 (56%)
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (1605/1905 MHz, 14 Gb / s, 8 GB)	ARCTIC MX-2 thermal paste instead of graphite gasket	1795	1819	1,07	1,18	2102 (43%)	N / A
AMD Radeon RX 6800 (1700/2105 MHz, 16 Gb / s, 16 GB)		2076	2198	N / A	N / A	1603 (48%)	N / A

Note. All parameters are measured after the GPU warms up and the clock frequencies stabilize.

In such favorable conditions, it’s a sin not to try to overclock the video card even more. The BIOS does not allow increasing the power reserve by more than 4%, but this was enough to move the Boost Clock parameter another 100 MHz higher, which resulted in an increase in the actual clock frequency in games by 90 MHz. Now the GAMING X TRIO is almost 200 MHz higher than the reference. In addition to this, MSI’s RTX 3060 Ti, like all the 30-series devices we have dealt with so far, significantly increases the memory bandwidth: from 14 to 16,4 Gbps per bus pin.

If we again take the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition as a sample, the core of the proprietary NVIDIA graphics card is overclocked to frequencies around 2010 MHz, and this is not much less than 2055 MHz for the GAMING X TRIO, but the main advantage of the MSI product is the excellent cooling system. The power consumption of the accelerator in Crysis 3 reached 250 W, but the temperature of the GPU remained practically unchanged, and the difference in the noise level is hardly felt by the human ear.

Game tests (1920 × 1080)

Overclocking modern high-performance GPUs rarely results in a proportional increase in performance, let alone noticeable changes in frame rates. As for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, this model responds best to overclocking RAM, which video card manufacturers do not like to mess with.

At 1080p, when the RTX 3060 Ti can handle any modern game (no ray tracing) at maximum speed with a good frame rate margin, the MSI GAMING X TRIO factory overclocking resulted in an average performance increase of only 2% FPS, which has almost no effect on the results ratio. between the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, on the one hand, and other devices of the current and previous generations, on the other. For example, the GAMING X TRIO delivers 27% more frames per second than the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, and 24% more than the Radeon RX 5700 XT. The older NVIDIA model based on the same GPU, the GeForce RTX 3070, outperforms the GAMING X TRIO by 13% of the average frame rate, and the Radeon RX 6800 by 21%. GeForce GTX 2080 Ti owners also don’t have to worry about the upgrade: the former flagship’s 1080p performance is 15% better. And finally, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in the GAMING X TRIO modification is much farther from the formally related GeForce RTX 3060 offering without the Ti index than one might suggest by looking at the model numbers: the difference averages 30% FPS.

⇡ #Game tests (2560 × 1440)

In games at 1440p, the factory-overclocked effect of the GAMING X TRIO still translates into a modest increase in frame rate – about 3% FPS. The ratio between MSI’s version of RTX 3060 Ti and other powerful NVIDIA accelerators has also remained practically unchanged: the performance of the GeForce RTX 3070 and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is higher by 13 and 15%, respectively. The Radeon RX 6800 also delivers 21% higher frame rates.

Along with the resolution, only the distance between the GAMING X TRIO and simpler devices or hardware of the previous generation has increased. So, from the Radeon RX 5700 XT, GeForce RTX 1080 Ti and the basic version of the GeForce RTX 3060 (which are almost equivalent in games without ray tracing) GAMING X TRIO broke away by 30, 31 and 33% FPS, respectively.

⇡ #Game tests (3840 × 2160)

Graphics cards of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti class are not designed for games in 4K with maximum graphics settings: even without ray tracing, only in DOOM Eternal the average frame rate crossed the 60 FPS mark. However, if we consider a frame rate above 30 FPS, but less than 60 as an acceptable result, MSI GAMING X TRIO only folds in front of two of the nine test games: Cyberpunk 2077 and TOTAL WAR: Three Kingdoms.

Differences in performance between the compared video cards at 2160p resolution reach the maximum value. Factory overclocking guarantees the GAMING X TRIO a 4% average frame rate advantage over the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition, which is already roughly equal to the difference in GPU clock speeds between these devices. The gap between GAMING X TRIO, on the one hand, and lower class accelerators, on the other, has also widened. Thus, the MSI product produced 39% more FPS compared to the Radeon RX 5700 XT and 35% more compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 along with the GTX 1080 Ti.

The position of the initially more productive video adapters – GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 2080 Ti and Radeon RX 6800 – relative to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has not undergone significant changes. The performance of these devices outperforms the achievements of the GAMING X TRIO by 13, 16 and 19%, respectively.

⇡ #Overclocked gaming tests

Custom overclocking of the GPU and, just as important, on-board memory of MSI GAMING X TRIO, in addition to the initially increased clock speeds, allowed to squeeze an average of 6% of the frame rate out of the device, and if we compare the result with the performance of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition running on reference frequencies, the MSI card wins as much as 10% FPS.

Ray-traced gaming tests

The MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO is powerful enough to run relatively undemanding ray traced games at max settings without DLSS, and get comfortable frame rates – but only at 1080p. In 1440p and 2160p modes, you no longer have to rely on a frame rate close to the coveted 60 FPS.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti copes much better with traced games than the RTX 3060 without the Ti index: depending on the resolution, the Ti advantage in the average frame rate ranges from 20 to 35%. The transition to the next oldest model of the 30th series, GeForce RTX 3070, is no longer associated with such a jump in performance: here it is typed from 14 to 18% FPS. Roughly the same can be said about the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, if we do not take into account the tests in 4K, when the RTX 3060 Ti no longer has enough VRAM, but the RTX 2080 Ti is quite. But ray tracing at maximum speed, in 4K, and even with a high frame rate, in any case, lies beyond the capabilities of consumer hardware. The Radeon RX 6800 drops off sharply when it comes to ray-traced benchmarks: the MSI GAMING X TRIO is 13-15% faster.

DLSS radically simplifies the RTX 3060 Ti’s task in traced games. Even in high-quality mode, when the original frame resolution is at its highest, the brakes disappear in all tests at 1080p. In order to gain a foothold at 60 FPS at 1440p at maximum speed, in some cases you will have to use a compromise scaling mode. And already in 4K, you simply cannot do without DLSS speed settings, when the size of the source frame is 1/4 or even 1/8 of the target.

⇡ #Game test results

× 1920 1080
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE	AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6800
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	TAA High	37 / 77	34 / 67	42 / 78	42 / 84	39 / 72	43 / 83	40 / 81	44 / 106
Borderlands 3	TAA	86 / 100	65 / 76	83 / 97	98 / 113	74 / 84	98 / 112	80 / 89	117 / 135
Control	TAA	94 / 106	73 / 81	95 / 103	106 / 120	71 / 76	116 / 127	75 / 84	117 / 130
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	62 / 78	47 / 58	60 / 75	71 / 89	42 / 52	73 / 91	44 / 55	69 / 86
DOOM Eternal	TAA	138 / 234	106 / 176	136 / 224	158 / 255	88 / 161	167 / 257	112 / 176	195 / 291
Metro Exodus	TAA	39 / 69	29 / 50	38 / 67	45 / 79	30 / 60	47 / 81	30 / 54	45 / 76
Red Dead Redemption 2	TAA High	56 / 59	42 / 45	53 / 58	62 / 67	38 / 42	60 / 65	38 / 42	55 / 65
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS	TAA	58 / 69	44 / 52	57 / 68	67 / 78	48 / 57	70 / 85	39 / 48	64 / 81
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	51 / 74	41 / 57	51 / 73	59 / 84	45 / 62	61 / 87	42 / 64	60 / 89
Max.			−13%	+ 1 %	+ 14 %	−6%	+ 23 %	+ 5 %	+ 38 %
Avg.			−23%	−2%	+ 13 %	−21%	+ 15 %	−19%	+ 21 %
Min.			−28%	−4%	+ 9 %	−33%	+ 8 %	−30%	+ 10 %

× 2560 1440
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE	AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6800
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	TAA High	29 / 63	33 / 52	32 / 64	44 / 70	29 / 57	40 / 69	36 / 60	38 / 83
Borderlands 3	TAA	62 / 71	46 / 53	59 / 68	69 / 81	51 / 58	71 / 79	57 / 62	88 / 99
Control	TAA	67 / 73	50 / 54	68 / 70	76 / 81	46 / 49	85 / 88	48 / 54	85 / 92
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	39 / 48	29 / 34	37 / 45	45 / 54	26 / 31	47 / 56	26 / 31	44 / 53
DOOM Eternal	TAA	120 / 188	93 / 142	117 / 179	136 / 209	75 / 124	140 / 204	93 / 136	161 / 226
Metro Exodus	TAA	34 / 57	25 / 41	32 / 55	39 / 65	28 / 50	41 / 66	26 / 44	39 / 65
Red Dead Redemption 2	TAA High	49 / 52	36 / 39	46 / 49	54 / 58	33 / 36	51 / 56	32 / 36	53 / 57
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS	TAA	40 / 46	30 / 34	39 / 45	46 / 53	32 / 37	49 / 58	26 / 31	45 / 55
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	43 / 57	33 / 44	42 / 57	49 / 66	35 / 46	50 / 69	35 / 48	50 / 68
Max.			−17%	+ 2 %	+ 16 %	−10%	+ 26 %	−5%	+ 39 %
Avg.			−25%	−3%	+ 13 %	−24%	+ 15 %	−23%	+ 21 %
Min.			−29%	−6%	+ 11 %	−35%	+ 8 %	−35%	+ 10 %

× 3840 2160
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE	AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT	AMD Radeon RX 6800
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	TAA High	27 / 40	22 / 32	28 / 40	26 / 44	24 / 34	25 / 44	15 / 34	31 / 50
Borderlands 3	TAA	35 / 40	26 / 29	33 / 38	39 / 45	28 / 32	39 / 43	28 / 31	49 / 54
Control	TAA	33 / 37	24 / 27	34 / 36	37 / 42	21 / 23	42 / 45	24 / 27	45 / 49
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	18 / 21	13 / 15	17 / 20	21 / 25	11 / 13	22 / 26	10 / 13	20 / 23
DOOM Eternal	TAA	71 / 104	61 / 82	76 / 103	92 / 121	50 / 73	92 / 120	49 / 61	98 / 127
Metro Exodus	TAA	24 / 38	17 / 27	23 / 36	28 / 43	20 / 32	28 / 44	19 / 29	29 / 44
Red Dead Redemption 2	TAA High	35 / 38	26 / 28	33 / 36	39 / 42	23 / 26	38 / 41	24 / 26	38 / 41
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS	TAA	21 / 24	15 / 18	20 / 23	24 / 27	16 / 19	26 / 30	11 / 16	24 / 27
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	29 / 36	22 / 26	28 / 35	33 / 41	20 / 27	34 / 42	23 / 28	33 / 41
Max.			−20%	0%	+ 19 %	−15%	+ 25 %	−15%	+ 35 %
Avg.			−26%	−3%	+ 13 %	−26%	+ 16 %	−28%	+ 19 %
Min.			−29%	−5%	+ 10 %	−38%	+ 8 %	−41%	+ 8 %

⇡ #Ray-traced gaming benchmarks

× 1920 1080
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE	AMD Radeon RX 6800
Control	TAA	60 / 64	46 / 50	58 / 62	67 / 71	69 / 73	49 / 52
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	34 / 38	24 / 28	32 / 37	38 / 43	35 / 41	N / A
Metro Exodus	TAA	34 / 57	25 / 40	33 / 55	41 / 66	42 / 68	35 / 53
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	37 / 48	29 / 36	36 / 47	42 / 55	42 / 54	32 / 42
Max.			−22%	−2%	+ 16 %	+ 19 %	−7%
Avg.			−26%	−3%	+ 14 %	+ 13 %	−13%
Min.			−30%	−4%	+ 11 %	+ 8 %	−19%

1920 × 1080 (DLSS)
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE
Control	TAA	85 / 90	69 / 73	85 / 89	90 / 97	76 / 84
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	55 / 64	42 / 50	52 / 63	62 / 73	56 / 69
Metro Exodus	TAA	N / A	N / A	N / A	N / A	N / A
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	48 / 64	36 / 49	46 / 63	53 / 72	49 / 66
Max.			−19%	−1%	+ 14 %	+ 8 %
Avg.			−21%	−1%	+ 11 %	+ 1 %
Min.			−23%	−2%	+ 8 %	−7%

× 2560 1440
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE	AMD Radeon RX 6800
Control	TAA	39 / 43	30 / 33	38 / 41	45 / 48	46 / 49	33 / 36
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	21 / 23	14 / 16	20 / 22	24 / 27	22 / 26	N / A
Metro Exodus	TAA	27 / 42	19 / 30	26 / 40	31 / 48	32 / 49	28 / 39
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	28 / 34	21 / 26	28 / 34	32 / 40	31 / 39	23 / 30
Max.			−23%	0%	+ 18 %	+ 17 %	−7%
Avg.			−26%	−3%	+ 15 %	+ 15 %	−12%
Min.			−30%	−5%	+ 12 %	+ 13 %	−16%

2560 × 1440 (DLSS)
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE
Control	TAA	63 / 66	49 / 52	62 / 65	70 / 74	65 / 68
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	38 / 43	28 / 32	35 / 42	43 / 48	40 / 46
Metro Exodus	TAA	31 / 49	23 / 35	31 / 47	37 / 57	38 / 59
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	38 / 50	30 / 38	38 / 49	45 / 57	41 / 53
Max.			−21%	−2%	+ 16 %	+ 20 %
Avg.			−25%	−2%	+ 14 %	+ 9 %
Min.			−29%	−4%	+ 12 %	+ 3 %

× 3840 2160
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE	AMD Radeon RX 6800
Control	TAA	20 / 22	14 / 16	19 / 21	22 / 24	22 / 25	17 / 19
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	4 / 7	6 / 8	4 / 7	5 / 9	10 / 12	N / A
Metro Exodus	TAA	16 / 23	11 / 17	15 / 22	18 / 27	19 / 27	17 / 22
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	16 / 19	12 / 14	15 / 18	19 / 22	18 / 21	12 / 16
Max.			+ 14 %	0%	+ 29 %	+ 71 %	−4%
Avg.			−16%	−4%	+ 18 %	+ 28 %	−11%
Min.			−27%	−5%	+ 9 %	+ 11 %	−16%

3840 × 2160 (DLSS)
	Full screen anti-aliasing	MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE
Control	TAA	35 / 38	27 / 29	34 / 37	40 / 42	40 / 43
cyberpunk 2077	TAA	19 / 22	13 / 15	18 / 21	22 / 25	21 / 24
Metro Exodus	TAA	24 / 35	17 / 25	23 / 33	28 / 40	30 / 43
Watch Dogs: Legion	TAA	26 / 31	20 / 24	25 / 31	30 / 36	29 / 35
Max.			−23%	0%	+ 16 %	+ 23 %
Avg.			−27%	−3%	+ 14 %	+ 15 %
Min.			−32%	−6%	+ 11 %	+ 9 %

⇡ #conclusions

MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO perfectly illustrates what is the advantage of premium and, accordingly, expensive varieties of video cards in the price range to which the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti belongs. The factory overclocking of the GPU, albeit quite significant, as in this case, does not change the overall performance card. Residual power reserve overclocks the GPU even further, and you can count on a bonus of around 10% game frame rate over what the reference spec RTX 3060 Ti offers.

However, all this is far from the main thing, what makes the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO good. The best thing about MSI’s product is the huge cooling system. At first glance, the cooler is even excessively powerful, but otherwise you cannot make the device truly quiet, and from a practical point of view, the GAMING X TRIO can be considered completely silent even under overclocking conditions. You just need to make an allowance for the fact that open cooling systems need good ventilation in order to work as efficiently as on an open bench. However, buyers of high-quality hardware are unlikely to save on trivial PC components – a case and fans.