GPUs Hardware Reviews

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio review – Quiet, fast, colorful, cool and heavy | igorsLAB

I took a closer look at the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio and found that it is a bit different from the larger map in the board and also in the cooler. This doesn't even have to be a disadvantage in terms of performance and cooling, if you just do it smartly enough. But for that I have the test and colorful enough the map is always...

Tear Down and Board Analysis

MsI relies on a true own design for this card right from the start, now even in revision 3.2. The two ATX power supply connections are not special in this power class. There are also two real rails from the sockets to the board. These two rails, as well as the power supply from the motherboard slot, were each again with two 330 mH and provided with a 1H coil for smoothing possible spikes and each perform a separate shunt for monitoring the current flow. In addition, MSI also installs fuses for each power rail.

Let's start with the most interesting part! MPS's relatively new MP2888A (Digital Multi-Phase PWM Controller with PMBus and PWM-VID) takes on the task of the PWM controller, which has been specially developed to provide high-precision output voltage systems for the latest generation of GPUs. It has programmable output voltage and active voltage positioning functions to adjust the output voltage depending on the load current, so that it is optimally positioned for a good load current transition.

The MP2888A supports NVIDIA Open Voltage Regulator Type 4i+ with PWMVID function. The PWMVID input is buffered and filtered to create a very accurate reference voltage. The output voltage is then precisely controlled on the reference input. The integrated SMBus interface offers enough flexibility to optimize performance and efficiency and also to connect the appropriate software. The controller also supports new Smart Power Stage chips (PLCs). Appropriate PLC then provide very accurate information about e.g. currents (IMON) and temperatures (TMON).

The real special feature of this chip is that it could drive up to 10 phases simultaneously. If you just add up the coils or power stages for the GPU, you're also going to get 10. But what would seem to be assumed is still wrong! And no, in reality there are not 10 phases, but "only" eight. If you monitor the phases and their displacement among themselves at the PWM node with the oscillograph, then you quickly notice that a total of 8 phases are generated and two of the control circuits are assigned a further control circuit controlled in parallel.

One feature of the MP2888A is the direct parallel connection of several voltage converter circuits without the usual doublers, since due to the necessary direct communication with the PLC no doubler chips can be used. However, since Nvidia's "Base Design Kit" is oriented towards a neat 8-phase design, two of the 8 phases are connected in parallel and phase-equal in the PLC double pack and 6 more are simple. The two phases for memory are generated by a separate uP9512P in 2-phase mode.

If you want to know more details about this type of power supply and the improvements at Turing, I refer to our investigative article "Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti – Internal details about power supply, deviating components and where the spikes have remained!" which is always worth reading. There you will also learn more about the new Smart Power Stages, which replace the traditional, individual VRMs. The following table contains the most important components:

GPU Power Supply

PWM Controller MP2888A
Mps
8-phase
Vrm 10x FDMF 3170
ON Semiconductor
Smart Power Stage
 
Coils Encapsulated Ferrite Choke
330 mH Ferrite Choke MSI Label

Memory and power supply

Modules MT61K256M32
Micron
8x 8GB GDDR6 SGRAM Modules
2 Channels x 256 Meg x 16 I/O
2 Channels x 512 Meg x 8 I/O
14Gb/s
PWM Controller uP19512P
UPI Semiconductor
2 phases
Vrm 2x FDMF 3170
ON Semiconductor
Smart Power Stage
Encapsulated Ferrite Choke
330 mH Ferrite Choke

Other components

Controller 8295FN
Ite
Embedded Controller
 
Bios 25WP080
Eeprom
Single BIOS
Shunts 1x Shunt per 12v rail (3), coil and fuse

More details

Other
Features
– 2x 8-pin PCI-Express connectors for power supply

 

Cooler and backplate in detail

The actual radiator body alone weighs 1018 grams including the cover and fans. The photos also show that MSI works with a partially opaque mounting frame on the top of the board to cool the memory. The voltage converters are cooled separately via a VRM heat sink embedded in the cooler.

A thick 8 mm heat pipe and five 6 mm heatpipes then distribute the waste heat to the cooling fins. This time, MSI uses a rather unusual fan arrangement with a smaller 8.5cm fan above the mounting frame, as well as two adjacent 9.5cm fans above the rest. We can see how well this works. Compared to the RTX 2080 Ti, however, MSI relies almost exclusively on the cheaper cup capacitors, so both coolers are NOT compatible! this also applies to any water blocks on the market for the MSI RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio!

The 141 gram brushed aluminium backplate indirectly cools the memory via thermal pads, but the large pad for the GPU could almost have been saved. It's all cool enough.

Cooling system at a glance
Type of cooler: Air
Heatsink: Nickel-plated heatsink, GPU
Cooling fins: Aluminum, horizontal alignment
related
Heatpipes 1x 8mm, 5x 6 mm, nickel-plated
VRM cooling: 10 GPU VRM via built-in heat sink
2 Memory VRM via built-in heat sink
RAM cooling via mounting frame
Fan: 2x 9.5 cm fan, 14 rotor blades
1x 8.5 cm fan, 14 rotor blades
semi-passive lyrised
Backplate Aluminum
Cooling function

 

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About the author

Igor Wallossek

Editor-in-chief and name-giver of igor'sLAB as the content successor of Tom's Hardware Germany, whose license was returned in June 2019 in order to better meet the qualitative demands of web content and challenges of new media such as YouTube with its own channel.

Computer nerd since 1983, audio freak since 1979 and pretty much open to anything with a plug or battery for over 50 years.

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