The Ventus is a reasonably easy graphics card. In one other life, it’d even be near the RTX 5080‘s MSRP. For the reason that graphics card market is a little bit of a shambles proper now, it isn’t. Nowhere shut. That makes it a tricky suggestion, although it’s a lot succesful in some ways.
The Ventus 3X OC White has three Torx 5.0 followers and measures 303 x 121 x 49 mm, which suggests it isn’t high percentile measurement or weight for the RTX 50-series. It is fairly commonplace fare and may match inside most instances in consequence. The primary draw of this explicit Ventus 3X mannequin is that it is available in white, although there’s additionally the kind of the identical Ventus OC 3X Plus in black and silver. Do not be a scaredy-cat although, I promise you will discover loads of white PC components today to convey a construct collectively, and this clear card ought to simply match most different elements.
Eradicating the metallic backplate and plastic fan shroud, I will get a greater have a look at the nickel-plated copper baseplate and heatsink, which I’ve measured at 27 mm thick. I am not eradicating this totally as I nonetheless want to make use of the cardboard for comparative assessments, however between the baseplate covers the reminiscence with particular person thermal pads and seems to make good contact. It additionally makes contact with the ability supply and, once more, extra thermal pads right here.
The baseplate itself erupts out to eight heatpipes, 4 stubbier ones protecting the PCB in direction of the IO, and 4 longer ones extending all the way in which out to the opposite facet of the cardboard. MSI has used a chunk of thicker metallic as a strengthening construction between the IO plate and throughout practically three quarters of the heatsink, which does seem to assist with the rigidity of the cardboard in situ on my take a look at bench.
Ventus 3X OC White specs
Oh and a pleasant contact with the development of this all-white card is that the shroud’s fan cables are white, too. Little particulars and all that.
So, how does this card fare in testing? Very similar to the RTX 5080 Founders Version for frames per second, although it additionally runs fairly cool. I measured it at 69°C throughout three runs of Metro Exodus Enhanced Version at 4K, which is simply a single diploma hotter than the Founders Version in the identical take a look at, which I can simply drum as much as inside take a look at variance.
The MSI card runs a tad slower on this identical Metro take a look at in comparison with Nvidia’s Founders Version—the Ventus 3X hit a median clock velocity of 2654 MHz. The FE managed 2736 MHz. That’s barely defined away by the upper energy draw of the FE mannequin versus MSI’s OC card, over 8% increased energy draw on common, although it’s a must to marvel what OC stands for if not a better clock than the FE mannequin.
PC Gamer take a look at platform
Equipped by Cyberpower | MSI
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D | Motherboard: MSI MPG X870E Edge Ti WiFi | RAM: Kingston Fury Beast RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) @ 6,000 MT/s | Cooler: MAG CoreLiquid i360 White | SSD: Spatium M480 Professional 2 TB | PSU: MPG A1000GS PCIe 5 | Case: MAG Pano 100R White
For the report, the Ventus 3X OC Plus is rated to a better clock velocity than the FE mannequin out of the field. That is 2,640 MHz enhance, with an Excessive profile to spice up it as much as 2655 MHz, accessible within the MSI Middle app. The FE mannequin runs at 2617 MHz. Whereas it is technically appropriate to name the Ventus 3X OC a manufacturing facility overclocked card, it is one of many slimmest round. As such, it does not imply a lot if you begin speaking about precise sport clocks, boosting algorithms, and overclocking.
For our Metro take a look at, the Ventus 3X ran at 2654 MHz on common. The FE model ran at 2736 MHz, by means of what seems a barely bigger thermal envelope and enough cooling. This stands as instance of why these two letters ‘OC’ do not all the time imply an entire lot at this time—a GPU will enhance past its limits on the field if there’s headroom accessible, and you’ll tweak this additional your self fairly simply, as we’ll get into now.
Picture 1 of 3
I opted for the usual enhance profile for all of my benchmarking, as if you wish to go above that, you may as effectively overclock the cardboard. That is simple to do with the RTX Blackwell technology, and this is what I managed to set in MSI Afterburner with out a lot tweaking by any means.
- Core clock: +515 MHz
- Reminiscence clock: +800 MHz
With a loop of 3DMark’s Metal Nomad take a look at, I might push in extra of each of those offsets, however I discovered the cardboard would shortly fall over as quickly as I would run it by means of Metro Exodus or F1 24. With the settings famous above, I had a clear run by means of our benchmarks at 1440p and 4K.
Picture 1 of 3
Purchase if…
✅ You will get your fingers on one for a good value: If you need an RTX 5080, you may need to pay a reasonably penny for one. Ideally, you do not pay over the chances for this one, nevertheless, as it isn’t value any greater than its already inflated value.
Do not buy if…
❌ You need granular overclocking controls: You can’t tweak the ability profile of this card, so it is principally a write-off for severe overclockers.
Although, once more, I do should report that the Ventus 3X OC is bested by the Founders Version, which reached a better steady core overclock at +525 MHz. Whether or not from this marginal overclock or the FE’s pure proclivity for reinforcing past its rated speeds, it finally ends up performing a bit higher than the Ventus 3X OC in most video games. Homeworld 3 is a little bit of an outlier, however this sport loves a speedy CPU, and it is at the moment having fun with increased body charges with our 9800X3D than it has beforehand, which could assist clarify that one.
One factor to notice on the Ventus 3X OC is that, in contrast to many different playing cards, the ability restrict and voltage can’t be tweaked right here. It is locked in. So, in case you’re seeking to push your card on a extra granular degree, you’ll be able to’t do this right here, nevertheless it does imply that overclocking it is so simple as typing a number of digits into Afterburner’s offset and seeing what runs. As long as it is steady, job completed.
There we now have it, an ‘OC’ card that runs slower than the Founders Version for a lot extra money proper now. If we ignore the actual fact you can not purchase certainly one of these playing cards simply at this time, you need to anticipate to pay round $1,300 for one. That is $300 greater than the Founders Version MSRP. That is not a really enticing proposition.
If I am in search of a silver lining, this is likely to be the cardboard to purchase in six months, offering demand has slowed, provide has improved, and AIBs alter the worth premiums they’ve whacked on this stuff. I am not taking that wager, nevertheless, and I can solely assessment the cardboard in entrance of me, because it stands at this time. Meaning it is a first rate sufficient card, and one which’d I would fortunately stuff right into a white PC construct, have been it not finally priced out of consideration.
