Item#: N82E16814137784

Pros: Fast Looks great MSI Afterburner is garbage Quiet RGB is persistent. You can set it and uninstall MSI Control Center Large metal plate in the GPU keeps the card from warping

Cons: MSI Control Center collects data Power hungry Low headroom for overclocking The manual doesn't explain the dual bios switch The card is large and heavy

Overall Review: The card came very well packaged, so props to whoever packaged it at Newegg! Inside the carrier box is the graphics card retail box loaded with tons of marketing! Inside is a black box that slides out. Opening that up, you'll find an average small size mouse pad. I likely won't be using it except for maybe my laptop. The actual contents of the box include the graphics card, mouse pad, 12v 16-pin PCI cable adapter, GPU support bracket (not shown in the photo) and a small instruction booklet for installation. In the last photo is the MS Gaming X Trio White RTX 4080 pictured next to a Gigabyte Auris 4070 TI, which I'm returning, but it still shows a size comparison. Setting up the card is straightforward. I use a vertical mount by Cooler Master that holds the weight flawlessly without needing to rest on the bottom of my o11 Dynamic. There was a bit of difficulty trying to understand the dual bios switch. By default, it's set to "quiet." MSI afterburner recognised the GPU instantly. And here comes the annoying part. MSI Afterburner controls everything on the GPU except the RGB LEDs. For that, you need MSI Control Center, which makes me wonder why? Why not just integrate the function into MSI Afterburner? Spending almost $1400 isn't enough. Now they collect your data and sell that too. Opening the application, you have to download separate modules called "Feature Sets". There are many shown in the list; Mystic light, Smart priority, Game highlights, MSI Companion, Gaming Mode, Graphics Fan Tool, Lan Manager, Smart Image Finder, System Diagnosis, True color, User Scenario, and MSI Router. "Graphics Fan Tool" is absolutely pointless. It has a mode that puts the fans at 100% for 30 seconds to "quickly cool the GPU"; however, you're unable to activate it again for 5 minutes!? Just why. Honestly, there isn't really anything in that app worth using outside of the "Mystic Light" to control the RGB, and even then, all the lights on the card appear far too white. There are no deep hues on the card. Going into settings on the MSI Control Center app at the bottom is an option to "Allow MSI to collect, process, and use your product information to improve your user experience" where you can turn that off. Power-wise, at idle, the card sits at 25-35w of power draw and heats up rather quickly at idle to over 35c in low ambient temperatures around 15c. It's a bit disappointing, especially for the size. Trying to overclock the card is rather difficult as it quickly gets voltage-limited and power limited. At most, I got +200 on memory and +150 on the core. I could get +165 on the core without touching the voltage, but at that point, the card is drawing well over 320w at load and dropping it back a little bite to 150 keeps the card under 300w. Overall, it's a great card that beats Gigabyte's garbage software, but MSI Control Center is a redundant disaster that shouldn't exist.

Overall Review: Much better than my old 2080