Conclusion
The ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity is a great card because at its heart its an RTX 3090 reference board. When you get right to it all RTX 3090 reference boards are pretty much the same hardware wise so it really doesn’t matter which one you get to some extent. That being said, the ZOTAC IceStorm 2.0 Advanced Cooling and FireStorm software that rounds out the package are all specific to ZOTAC, and while it may feel like another reference card to some extent that’s what you are really buying when you choose a card like the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity.
The thermal solution is absolutely first-rate providing excellent cooling and low noise. My only complaint here is that the manufacturer is a bit too conservative with the default behavior of the card in that it can still remain just as silent on more aggressive cooling settings. Even at 40-50% fan speed the card can’t be heard over your average 120mm case fans that come with an AIO like Corsair’s H series coolers. Unfortunately, this leads to the clocks sometimes being lower than they would for other RTX 3090’s we’ve seen and that’s unfortunate.
Of course, ZOTAC’s FireStorm utility allows you to change the fan curves and the results of that can dramatically increase boost clocks and overall performance. It’s also a great solution for overclocking although that does come with the usual trade-off of noise, we’ll get to that shortly.
Aesthetically, the card isn’t covered in hideous E’s or overdone branding. ARGB LED lighting is kept to a fairly tasteful level and isn’t as garish as some brands are. It was given a sort of black/stealth fighter type of aesthetic with hard angles reminiscent of early stealth aircraft. Yet, it manages to come across as relatively tasteful.
Additionally, ZOTAC offers a three year extended warranty on these cards for free with product registration.
Performance
From a performance standpoint, the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity at first glance seems a little underwhelming compared to the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC which was faster in the majority of our testing at stock speeds. Sometimes this lead was minimal and sometimes it was relatively large. In Watch Dogs Legion for example the difference at 1440P was 4FPS with the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity only matching the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 Ti when overclocked somewhat significantly.
At 4K, the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity and GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC were close enough that you could claim the difference was within an acceptable margin of error. The ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity was faster when overclocked managing to achieve 60FPS when the other cards could not. Of course, the standout in this test was the Radeon RX 6900XT which was considerably faster at 1440P, though I can chalk that up to the better CPU in that system.
However, when you remove that variable with ray tracing or by increasing the resolution we see a massive shift away from the 6900XT which helps prove that point. Of course, you can also use DLSS on the NVIDIA side but ultimately, the performance between the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity and the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC is virtually the same, even when overclocking the former.
In Ghost Recon Breakpoint there is no ray tracing or DLSS to favor NVIDIA and the game is an AMD sponsored title so it’s no surprise that the 6900XT is faster here. However, the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity falls well behind the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC at stock speeds and matches or exceeds it when overclocked. At 4K, the difference is substantial in favor of the GIGABYTE RTX 3080 Ti and when looking at it, what became clear is that the cooling at default speeds holds the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity back.
In FarCry 6, things shift with the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity being faster than the RTX 3080 Ti in all cases at stock or overclocked speeds. It was actually slower than the 6900XT at stock speeds but surpasses it when overclocked. It was about the same story in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
In Cyberpunk 2077, the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity and GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Gaming OC are almost identical until the former is overclocked. Now, I’d caution you that Cyberpunk 2077 is a game best experienced with mods and when you start modding it, things could favor the RTX 3090 more given the increased VRAM. You can set a flag to allow the game to use more memory at 4K than the RTX 3080 Ti’s even have. NVIDIA absolutely walks away from AMD in this game and the RX 6900XT would be thought of as a complete joke of a card where this game the only benchmark people cared about.
To put it more succinctly, based on our testing the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity is slower than an RTX 3080 Ti roughly half the time but easily pulls ahead of it when you start overclocking. I think as a long-term solution having the increased memory offered by the RTX 3090 could be beneficial if you are the type of person to hold onto GPU’s for several years.
Overclocking
Using ZOTAC’s Firestorm utility, overclocking the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity is super easy. You just set your offsets and you are basically good to go. The only limitation I ran into with this is that the software didn’t allow me to actually increase the power limits for whatever reason. I do not know. Normally the value is locked by the tiny padlock icon, and though it would let me unlock it any changes would always revert back to 100% instantly. I didn’t try overclocking with another utility so it might simply be a limitation with the manufacturer’s software.
Being that I couldn’t increase the power limit with the Firestorm software, I think the card was quite good from an overclocking standpoint given that limitation. That being said, I think it’s really the increase of the fan speeds allowing it to clock higher more so than my settings. I think the 100% power limit held the card back more than anything. It certainly wasn’t temperatures. Essentially, I think ZOTAC has been overly conservative with these cards in that the cooling prioritizes silence more than cooling performance but the solution is rather good on that front when it’s allowed to be.
At the end of the day the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity overclocks at least as well if not better than my personal RTX 3090 FE. So that’s definitely something although that’s definitely up to the silicon lottery gods on that one. Either way, I think the cooling solution will allow for good overclocking on these cards given the temperatures in the low 70’s when pushing the card. I’ve also seen clocks as high as 2100MHz on the GPU core. I think with increases to power limits and or voltages, there is a lot more left in the tank on this one.
Pricing and Value
Ordinarily, it’s hard to talk about halo-type products being a good value option. However, when it comes to 4K gaming there aren’t many options if you want decent frame rates in some of the better-looking AAA games out there. You can still argue that we aren’t quite there technologically when it comes to 120FPS+ 4K gaming without features like DLSS. While its possible in some games its off the table with any kind of ray tracing.
It’s also hard to discuss MSRP given market conditions in early 2022. It’s especially hard to recommend the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity as a value even on the high end when AMD’s RX 6900XT has a significantly lower MSRP and since the RTX 3080 Ti hit the market. The latter MSRP’s for around $300 less and is about 95% as good and in some cases faster unless you start overclocking.
In these times especially, value is largely irrelevant for these products. Anyone who is willing to spend $1,500+ on a GPU is looking for performance above all else. On that front, the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity is capable of delivering.
Final Points
When it comes down to it, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity is a fantastic card. While it’s a reference board for the most part, the cooling solution was rather impressive once I increased the fan speeds by even a small amount. The solution does get annoying above 80% fan speed but that’s par for the course. I don’t know of an air cooling solution for any GPU that’s not somewhat annoying at more than 80% of their potential RPM range.
Because of the excellent cooling solution, solid aesthetics, and its FireStorm software we are awarding the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity the silver award. It would have earned the gold if the stock fan speeds were slightly higher and if the Firestorm utility would allow for increases to the power limit whether this is a bug or an intentional decision on ZOTAC’s part. We really didn’t factor in pricing so much due to market conditions as all cards of this class are extremely and sometimes equally as expensive.
That being said, if you do score a ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity I don’t think you will be disappointed.
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