MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 3060 Ti Review

Final Score: 84%

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti series in general and the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio video card in specific are odd ducks. On the one hand you are getting levels of performance that only RTX 2080’s offered, and are getting it for a lot less that what those (now pretty PO’ed) buyers spent on their x80 card not that long ago. On the other NVIDIA has severely handicapped, neigh hobbled, the RTX 3060Ti’s with a TDP that may indeed be higher than any previous x60 class card in recent memory it is still pretty darn low given the sheer number of shader units (and RT cores) it has to feed. To put into proper perspective just how low the power is… a RTX 2080 came with 2944 shader units, 368 Tensor cores, and 46 Ray Tracing cores with a TDP of 215 watts. While yes, the RTX 3060Ti ‘only’ has 152 TU’s and 32 RTs, it has a whopping 4864 shader units. Shader units that are going to consume the lions share of power in most games… and yet NVIDIA gave it a mere 200 watt TDP. Sprinkle in all the refinements and smaller node process enhancements you want but that is just not enough power per shader unit. Even NVIDIA admits this was foolish and allows their Founders Edition to hit 220 out of the box.

In this regards MSI has done everything possible to feed these hungry beasts and lets you push things all the way to 240watts or even 250 watts of power (i.e. basically the same as many a RTX 2080 Super came configured ‘out of the box’ to use). It still is not enough. Even with an additional 50 watts of power this card still begs for more. Power that NVIDIA has refused to give it lest it take sales away from the RTX 3070 series. This artificial, and rather cynical, limitation is the Achille’s heel of all RTX 3060 Ti cards and especially overclocking centric cards like the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio. Put bluntly, you will never, ever get to see what this card can truly do. Board power limits will be the wall you hit long before anything else when manually overclocking it.

That is a shame, as this new GA104-200 core is a fire breathing beast. One that if had been allowed to go full tilt boogie would have made for one heck of a killer deal for 4K gaming. It never is left off its leash and that is why 1440P is where it will excel at. Conversely, we would be hesitant to recommend any RTX 3060 Ti over a RTX 3070 F.E. at 4K. The extra shader/rt/tensor cores will be just as power starved but can compensate (or at least obfuscate) better through sheer numbers (as “quantity has a quality all its own”). This places the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio and all other premium priced RTX 3060 Ti’s in a precarious position. One where justifying their cost close to the RTX 3070 models is… well, rather difficult to say the least. In other words, this is indeed an excellent video card but one that is going to be a bit niche given the limitations NVIDIA has decreed. As such, we would take a wait and see approach to this particular flavor of RTX 3060 Ti’s and wait for them to go on sale. Once they are about $50 less than what a RTX 3070 Founder’s Edition demands then we would consider them a rather decent deal. One that can crush 1440P resolutions but do so without crushing your budget. So be on the look out for the inevitable sales… or if you are in a rush go up to the RTX 3070 class. Either way you will get incredible gaming performance with relatively good overall value.