INTRODUCTION

   If you've been in the PC "arena" since the early 90's like i have then you should be all too familiar with names like Trident, S3, Matrox and 3DFX. Trident used to produce "very basic" VGA chips (TVGA/TGUI series) whereas S3 (Trio/Virge/Savage), Matrox (Mystique) and 3DFX (Voodoo/Banshee) focused most of their resources in the development of 3D capable chips primarily aimed towards gamers. Now the reason i didn't mention NVIDIA and ATI initially is because their arrival in the market all but signified the start of the 3D revolution in graphics (3D accelerator wars as some like to refer to that era) and effectively the beginning of the end of all the other companies i mentioned above and even though 3DFX was by all accounts the real "pioneer" of 3D graphics both NVIDIA and ATI offered far more affordable models and with wider game compatibility (which ended in 3DFX's acquisition by NVIDIA in December 2000). For good or bad the "3D accelerator wars" between NVIDIA and ATI continued not only up until the acquisition of the latter by AMD in 2006 but even today and so after testing the very good AMD Radeon 5700 XT Nitro+ by Sapphire the time has come for me to test yet another NVDIDIA model, the GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio by MSI.

   MSI is a world leader in gaming, content creation and AIoT solutions. Bolstered by its cutting edge R&D capabilities and customer-driven innovation, MSI has a wide-ranging global presence spanning over 120 countries. Its comprehensive lineup of laptops, graphics cards, monitors, motherboards, desktops, peripherals, servers, IPCs, robotic appliances, and vehicle infotainment and telematics systems are globally acclaimed. Committed to advancing user experiences through the finest product quality, intuitive user interface and design aesthetics, MSI is a leading brand that shapes the future of technology.

   Just like the GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card the GeForce RTX 2080 Super is based on the 12nm TU104 chip, this time however completely unlocked resulting in 3072 shader units (2944 for the RTX 2080), 192 texture mapping units (184 for the RTX2080), 384 Tensor cores (368 for the RTX 2080), 64 ROPS (same number for the RTX 2080) and 48 RT cores (46 for the RTX 2080). The RTX 2080 Super also sports the same number of transistors (13.6 billion) and GDDR6 RAM (8GB by Samsung for this model) as its predecessor but comes with increased clock speeds on both the core (1815MHz/1710MHz) and RAM (15.5Gbps/14Gbps) and a higher TDP (thermal design power - 250W/215W). On top of all of the above the Super Gaming X Trio model by MSI also offers a factory overclocked boost clock of 1845MHz (RAM clocks remain the same), 12 phase VRM custom PCB, Tri-Frozr cooling solution (triple fan, dual heatsink design with 7 heatpipes, copper base and support for zero RPM mode when in idle), reinforced metal frame, rear backplate and Mystic Light compatible RGB LEDs (20 effects). As for available outputs the GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio comes ready with 3 DP v1.4 ports, single HDMI v2.0b port and a USB-C port thus supporting a total of 4 displays with resolutions of up to 7680x4320p.