Best MSI graphics card 2024

Balancing price and performance, we picked the RTX 3080 Sea Hawk X as our best MSI graphics card. The 3080 itself is a great GPU, with great performance across the board. It can easily handle any games that you throw at it and has the potential to even run them at 4k, which is four times larger than 1080p. So tough to do but still good without having to go for the more expensive 3080 Ti or 3090.

Comparing the 3080 vs 6800 XT you do get better performance from the Nvidia card. Although the launch price for the card is $50 higher, at $699. But for that price you also get great ray tracing performance that works much better on Nvidia cards. Along with access to DLSS and other upscaling technology that can improve the quality and framerate of the games.

For the MSI model, the Sea Hawk offers a great cooling solution for your GPU. Increasing TDPs make cards bulkier and harder to keep the temperatures under wraps. This would prevent the graphics card from thermal throttling and underperforming. So Sea Hawk makes sure it won’t come to that and offers all-in-one liquid cooling. Which also gives it plenty of overhead for overclocking to extract the most out of it. Giving the card plenty of capability to be the best performing 3080.

The 3080 contains the GA102-202-KD-A1 made with Samsungs 8nm process creating a 628mm² die with 28.3 billion transistors. Which consists of 8704 CUDA cores and 68 RT cores clocked at 1440 MHz and with a boost of 1785 MHz. Whilst consisting of 10GB GDDR6X memory with a bandwidth of 760.3GB/s all passing through the PCIe 4.0 x16 bus interface.

At the top of the current generation, you can expect to see the RTX 4090. It is the enthusiast level of performance from Nvidia, and there’s nothing on its level. It leads across the board with no other gaming GPU on the same level.

The AD102-300 GPU is the flagship of the Ada series and currently is the best value for money in the series. As even though it is the most expensive it also gives the best performance for it.

With its 4nm TSMC process, it has a die size of 608mm², along with 76.3 billion transistors. It also features 24GB of GDDR6X memory, along with a 384-bit bus. Which is clocked at 21 Gbps leading to a bandwidth of 1,008 GB/s.

The GPU features 16,384 CUDA cores, with 512 TMUs, 176 ROPs, and 128 RT cores. Leading to a 450W TBP makes the cooling more significant. With the cooling block on the card only two slots with a radiator to keep it under wraps.

AMD has made great progress in its graphics department as well as CPU, so we like to recommend the RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio. The card may lag slightly behind the 3080 but it’s still a great offering on its own. With good performance across the board. With great recent software support, such as RSR coming out for the range allowing for upscaling in any game.

Whilst the Gaming X Trio build also gives the GPU more potential with a sharp design and plenty of cooling. The three-slot design with three fans offers plenty of thermal capacity to dissipate all the heat generated by the chip. This means that you’re unlikely to find the thermal throttle of the card and worry about it underperforming. Along with some dashes of RGB to light up the look of it.

The RX 6800 has the larger AMD chip in the Navi 21 XT. Also built with TSMCs 7nm process it comes in a 520mm² package size with 26.8 billion transistors. It contains 4608 shading units, with 72 RT cores that are clocked to 1850 MHz, with a game clock of 2045 MHz and a boost of 2285 MHz. With 16GB GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 512GB/s over a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface.

For a more budget-friendly option, we suggest the RX 6600 Mech 2x. Aimed towards 1080p gaming it does limit its capabilities but for an MSRP of $329, it can be a better choice for some people. Especially if your gaming experience is more focused on esports titles relying more on FPS than quality. But with the support of AMD’s software, you may be able to get even more out of it. Such as with RSR and FSR support for upscaling is in most games so you can run them higher if needed.

The Mech 2x is a simpler design, it doesn’t have any flashy RGB but still gets the job done and keeps costs down. Featuring a metal backplate and dual-slot cooler it can manage the lower TDP of the AMD GPU and keep it performing well. Also, the help of the dual fans and cut-out pass-through allows for good airflow and heat transfer. Giving the card good performance over long periods of time and not taking up too much space.

The RX 6600 is made with the Navi 23 XL chip made with TSMCs 7nm process. Creating a die the size of 237mm² made up of 11.06 billion transistors. Along with 1792 streamers and 28 RT cores, which have a base clock of 1626 MHz, game clock of 2044 MHz, and boost of 2491 MHz. Along with 8GB of GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 224 GB/s going through a bus interface PCIe 4.0 x8.

For a more constrained and compact graphics card there is an offering of the RTX 3050 Aero ITX OC. The card has a low enough TDP of 130W that it does not require the biggest cooling solution. This allows it to fill the smaller market of ITX GPUs, able to fit in much smaller builds without too much penalty on them. The Aero card features a fan able to dissipate all that heat away effectively to be overclocked from the factory.

While the 3050 is a great entry card into the scene. As the lowest-end option from Nvidia, it isn’t aimed at the best performance, but it can achieve good 1080p performance edging on 1440p. With it being an Nvidia card it also has access to good software support. Ray-tracing performance is good, whilst DLSS allows the card to scale up and gain performance benefits.

RTX 3050 utilizes the GA106-150-KA-A1 chip built upon Samsungs 8nm process to create a 276mm² die. It contains 12 billion transistors which feature 2560 CUDA cores, along with 20 RT cores. These have a base clock of 1552MHz and a boost of 1777MHz. And the card holds 8GB of GDDR6 with a bandwidth of 224 GB/s over a bus interface of PCIe 4.0 x8.