MSI was at the front of the pack today when everyone scrambled to announce Turing-based graphics cards. The company put out an early press…
MSI was at the front of the pack today when everyone scrambled to announce Turing-based graphics cards. The company put out an early press release and microsite promising GeForce RTX 20-series cards from its Aero, Ventus, Sea Hawk, Duke, and Gaming X lines. However, only the Duke and Gaming X Trio cards have broken cover so far. Let’s have a look at them.
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio
As it turns out, for the RTX 2080-series cards, MSI is using a new Gaming X Trio nomenclature. That comes as a natural result of the new cards ditching the company’s previous Twin Frozr VI cooler used on the 10-series Gaming X boards and going with a newly designed triple-fan cooler bearing modest RGB LED accents. Both the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080 are getting Gaming X Trio versions.
Both cards will come with a trio of DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, a single HDMI 2.0b jack, and a USB Type-C connector with VirtualLink support. MSI is really going all-out making sure that overclockers have enough power to play with: the RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio requires a pair of eight-pin power connectors, while the RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Trio requires two eight-pin connectors plus an additional six-pin connector. Unsurprisingly, the cards’ huge heatsinks require three expansion slots.
MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Duke
MSI has also unveiled RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti cards in the Duke family. For those unfamiliar, offerings in MSI’s Duke series use an extremely long 12.3″ (31.5 cm) triple-fan cooler. These cards have the same port cluster as the Gaming X Trio series cards, but they don’t have the beefed-up power delivery. That means the Duke RTX 2080 needs a six-pin and an eight-pin connector, while the Duke RTX 2080 Ti takes a pair of eight-pin plugs. The Duke cards also fit in two slots, more or less.
We can assume that MSI will continue launching GeForce RTX cards from its other families in the coming months. For now, you can preorder some of the models above. Newegg is listing the RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio for a reference-matching $800, and the RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio for a similarly-standard $1200. Over at Amazon you can find the same listing for the RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio alongside a listing for the RTX 2080 Duke for the same $800.
