As will quickly become the reoccurring theme of this review, the RTX 5080 16G Expert OC (or simply ‘5080 Expert’, we are going to call it for brevity’s sake) ships in a shipping container that is tailor-made for mature(r) buyers.
Put simply, this is a shipping container that a professional adult would not be embarrassed to pick up and buy at their local Buy More store. Put another way, this is pretty much everything everyone but an Emo tween would want in a shipping container. Bluntly stated, this shipping container is big, but not too big; it is colorful, but not garish; it is attention getting, but will not induce seizures in the unsuspecting passerby; and more importantly still it is liberally covered in information – in both written and picture format we might add – that makes the decision making process quicker and easier. Both of which are important to actual adults who live by the ‘time is money’ mantra. In other words, this shipping container is a great example of what a premium product should come clad in… even if the MSRP (surprisingly) does not reflect its (actual) “premiumness”.
Opening up this impressive box, a few things do stand out. The first is not the large ‘Expert’ in the lever-action lid.
No it is the extremely understated (arguably too easy to miss) slogan printed on the front that states “Graceful Power”. This, quite honestly, is how you do a humble brag properly. So yes, the design team behind this shipping container deserved to have taken a victory lap or three… but did not, as that would have contradicted the mature philosophy behind this new RTX 5080 Expert.
In either case, you can see that MSI uses so much internal medium-density foam that mister shipping agent could easily drop kick this box across two warehouses, and the RTX 5080 16G Expert OC housed inside probably would not even notice. The same goes for Sir Stab McCuttington the Third. That part-time rogue moonlighting as an Amazon warehouse picker could go full ham with a +2 dagger of true damage, and the 5080 Expert would laugh at his roguish antics.
Of course… there is a downside to this mature design philosophy. Namely, the cost of all that protection. Thus, in order to keep the total build cost in check, the accessory list is a bit on the anemic side. To be precise, you will get a manual, a 12v-2×6 to 3x PCIe 8-pin adapter, and a support riser. Nothing more. Nothing less. As such, if you like goo-aws and other price-inflating dross, the Expert series in specific… and MSI in general probably is not going to be a great match for your… “energy”.
With that said, both are perfectly executed. First, the adapter. If you are not lucky enough to have purchased a latest generation MSI PSU, and do not have access to really custom-looking 12v-2×6 cable(s), this adapter is going to help add a dash of elegance and style to your build… while also adding a bit of extra safety to said build. Make no mistake, a single 12v-2×6 can easily handle 400 watts of power (let alone the non-manually overclocked setting of 360 watts). That is well within the realm of reasonable. The same is true if the adapter was a 12v-2×6 to dual 8-pin plus 6-pin. 375 watts + 75 from the PCIe slot itself is more than enough to handle the power demands this card will place on your PSU. MSI did not do that. Instead, for additional safety headroom this adapter will easily supply 450 watts all on its own via three 8-pin cables. Mix in the 75 from the PCIe slot itself and one is well below the (golden) “80-percent” rule that all electricians live by.
In this vein over-protectiveness MSI also made sure to use their premium yellow go/no-go gauge version of the adapter. Something that was sorely missing from the 5060 Ti we looked at not that long ago. Put simply, this adapter and its visual indicator baked into the header makes it very, very hard to mess up fully seating the power cable.
No, impossible… but hard. So hard that unless you are color blind, you will know when it is firmly seated… as you will no longer see any yellow. So push until you hear the ‘click’ and then visually confirm it is fully seated. Do both, and you will have peace of mind that you did everything you could to keep your system safe from that fire bug, Mr. Murphy.
Equally impressive is the seemingly simple “throw-away” plastic bag it comes in also serves a purpose beyond keeping dust out of the headers while in transit. Instead, on the back of the bag, a large sticker tells you specifically how much distance you need to give it before you start bending it. The included secondary sheath covering at the end is a little short for our likening but… it is darn close to the 25mm mandatory minimum, and a single (or dual) wrap of black ~8mm wide electrical tape will let you hit the safer end of the mandatory minimum standoff… or you know 16mm long piece of black heat shrink tubing if you want to make it look neat works well too.
Moving on.
In this vein of Graceful Power, this seemingly simple adapter comes replete with a tight all black sheathing that once again boosts the mundane into something worthy of using in a higher-end mainstream build… and certainly helps give the impression of this card costing (even) more than it does! As such, if ‘you’ are only going to include one accessory, this is how you do it right, as MSI has knocked it right out of the park with this one. So much so other companies need to crib their notes and step up their game… as nearly everyone will give up goo-gaws for good gear. Just the way it should be.
Moving on.
This maturity in action, that is the Expert series, also extends to the riser support MSI included. Typically, these el-cheapo supports consist of a magnetic base, a bolt, and a plastic topper. To use, you unscrew the bolt until it supports the weight of the card. With MSI, they have included a quick-release mechanism that allows one to quickly extend the adapter (from its ~6cm height to nearly 10cm) in an instant.
Simply twist (to unlock), pull up, twist back (to lock), and if necessary fine fine-tune the height by spinning the riser. This refinement is elegant in its simplicity and just underscores how much effort MSI put into making the Expert tailormade for experienced builders who will not only notice but enjoy this seemingly simplistic value-added addition.
Overall all we can say is… color us impressed. So far, this is not the first impression we were expecting from a more value-priced series, and yet here we are with heavy Suprim vibes wafting off the Expert OC.
