MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Suprim SOC Review: Top of the Line

Introduction and parameters

The GeForce RTX 5080 Suprim SOC features a vapor chamber cooler just as massive as the one found on the 600W RTX 5090 Suprim SOC. With this extra cooling capacity, the fans on the more efficient RTX 5080 can run at lower speeds, resulting in excellent thermals and minimal noise. However, this high-end cooling solution also drives up the price—you’re paying a premium for one of the best factory-overclocked RTX 5080 cards available.

A detailed description of the new technologies brought by Nvidia’s new graphics cards has been compiled by Jan Olšan in the article Blackwell: GeForce RTX 5000 architecture and innovations. It introduces the individual graphics chips Nvidia is using in the new cards, the new GDDR7 memory type, and also covers changes in cache memory, GPU compute units, updates to shaders and tensor cores, as well as improved compute units for ray tracing. The new generation of GeForce also brings support for new standards such as DisplayPort 2.1b and PCI Express 5.0.

With the new generation of cards, DLSS capabilities are evolving as well. It now supports Multi Frame Generation, which allows the generation of up to three intermediate frames, and introduces Nvidia Reflex 2, the second generation of its latency-reduction technology. This includes Frame Warp, which adjusts object and camera motion in rendered frames based on the player’s most recent input device movement data received just before the already rendered frame is displayed. A more detailed explanation can be found in the aforementioned article.

We’ve already covered the reference specifications, so we’ll just recap them in a table and move on to the actual card, which, thanks to factory overclocking, comes with slightly higher clocks.

A more detailed parameter comparison with the closest models is shown in the following table.

MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Suprim SOC: A Massive Cooler for a Modest 360W TDP

Today we’ll take a look at an air-cooled model from the top of MSI’s lineup – the GeForce RTX 5080 16G Suprim SOC. It comes factory-overclocked and fitted with a massive cooler equipped with three large Stormforce fans.

The card is overclocked straight from the factory. It includes a dual BIOS with two cooling profiles – Gaming and Silent. Other parameters, including clock speeds, remain unchanged. The specifications for both BIOS profiles, as reported by GPU-Z, are shown in the screenshots below.

Primary BIOS (Gaming)

Both BIOS profiles have a power limit set at 360 W. You can increase this by another 11% to reach 400 W.

The rated boost clock speed is increased to 2745 MHz, with actual clock speeds detailed in the sections covering operational characteristics.

In theory, the higher performance BIOS helps the card achieve better performance through higher fan speeds, resulting in cooler operation and higher actual clock speeds. In practice, however, the difference is minimal.

Secondary BIOS (Silent)

The secondary BIOS also has a power limit of 360 W. The rated boost clock is likewise increased to 2745 MHz.

On the back of the packaging, the manufacturer highlights key technologies used by the card – Hyper Frozr cooling with Storm Force fans, heatpipes with a square cross-section at the base for better contact with the vapor chamber and with each other. “Wave Curved 4.0” refers to the wavy fin edges designed to reduce turbulence, and “air antegrade fin” indicates V-shaped cutouts that direct airflow through the fin array. It also reminds users of the MSI Center app for managing MSI components, and the popular MSI Afterburner for overclocking.

Included in the accessories is a quick installation guide, a power adapter, and a support pillar to prevent the card from sagging.

The grooves on the pillar may look like threads, but they are not. The pillar rotates freely. You adjust the height of the brace by loosening the ring at the bottom, setting the desired height, and then tightening it again. This is more convenient than adjusting the height by screwing.

• Contents
• Introduction and parameters
• Cooler design, Connectors
• Test build
• Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition
• Cyberpunk 2077, native + FSR
• Cyberpunk 2077, native + DLSS
• F1 24
• 3DMark Port Royal, VRAY 6.0, Blender benchmark
• Noise level, Operating characteristics – Cyberpunk (Gaming)
• Operating characteristics – Cyberpunk (Silent)
• Operating characteristics – F1 24 (Gaming)
• Operating characteristics – F1 24 (Silent)
• Operating characteristics – Metro (Gaming)
• Operating characteristics – Metro (Silent)
• Closing summary