Introduction
The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT has a unique design for a partner video card and an aesthetic that should impress the enthusiast and professional alike. MSI is flipping the script, and providing a design that closely matches NVIDIA Founders Edition video cards, but in a partner-developed video card.
Typically, NVIDIA is behind its Founders Edition designs, and you do not see those replicated among vendor video cards. Typically vendors design heatsinks and fans with a level of aesthetics that separates themselves from the Founders Edition design and opt for a traditional fan design compared to NVIDIA’s push/pull fan design.
With the new MSI EXPERT series, MSI has its own unique cooling design that offers a push/pull fan configuration in cooling, with a fan on one side and a fan on the other with an airflow design through the heatsink. Not only is MSI providing a push/pull cooling design, but MSI has made the aesthetics uniquely and different enough from NVIDIA which gives a new look to video cards that we haven’t seen before. MSI’s design is both eloquent, and artistic, but also robust and appealing.
MSI’s website describes this design as such: “Expert series graphics cards are designed to excel. A push-pull airflow system directs internal heat either away or outside the graphics card to enhance GPU cooling. The aluminum alloy casing bestows durability and stability while imparting a refined appearance that emphasizes the premium graphics card design.”
Before we dive into the MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT, we need to understand that this video card is based on NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER refresh GPU which was released in January 2024. The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is NVIDIA’s AD103 die fully realized, with full SM’s increasing specifications over the GeForce RTX 4080.
The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER has 80 SMs, 10,240 CUDA Cores, 80 RT Cores, 320 Tensor Cores, 112 ROPs, 320 TMUs, and a Boost Clock of 2550MHz. It also has 16GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus at 23Gbps providing 736GB/s of bandwidth with a TGP of 320W. The MSRP for the Founders Edition reference design is $999.
MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT
If we look at MSI’s graphics lineup for NVIDIA GPUs you’ll find the EXPERT series right under the SUPRIM series and above the GAMING series, telling us where it sits in the hierarchy. The SUPRIM and LIGHTNING series are the highest-end GPUs, and the GAMING are more mainstream, but still all have unique designs and a factory overclock. The EXPERT series just under SUPRIM also shows it as a premium graphics card. In the EXPERT series, MSI does offer two cards, the RTX 4080 SUPER (912-v511-243) we are reviewing today, but there is also now a new RTX 4070 Ti SUPER EXPERT also being offered.
Note that these video cards do carry a price premium over a reference card, prices will vary by retailer. Currently, we can find the MSI RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT available for just $59 and $69 more than the $999 MSRP, which is not bad, but prices do vary over time so make sure to check our pricing widget for the latest online prices.
The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16G EXPERT is a factory-overclocked video card. MSI ships the video card with a Boost Clock of 2610MHz out of the box, which is a 2.3% increase over the reference 2550MHz boost clock for the RTX 4080 SUPER. There is an optional one-button overclock click in MSI Center that will boost the card to 2625MHz boost, and of course, you can manually overclock it with MSI Afterburner.
What makes the MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT unique is the design. The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT is using MSI’s new Flow Frozr Thermal Design and die-casted precision-crafted aluminum alloy frame and a Mesh Metal Cover that is produced from a precision metal cold-forging process. The frame helps with thermal conductivity as well as providing rigidity and durability.
As we have mentioned previously, the MSI Flow Frozr Thermal Design is a Push/Pull Airflow design with one fan pushing air into the heatsink while the other fan pulls hot air away through the heatsink that air passes through. The fans are 120mm circular fans with dual ball bearings and 9 optimized curved blades. The fans also support Zero Frozr so that they will turn off when the temperature is low enough.
The heatsink itself is a Vapor Chamber design that captures heat from both the GPU and the VRAM and transfers it to the Core Pipe. The core Pipe is precision-crafted pipes that make full contact with the vapor chamber and GPU. The fin stack itself is V-Shaped with cutouts to influence airflow inclination angles with wave notches to direct air toward the center for quicker expulsion of warm air.
Beyond the cooling design, the PCB uses premium MSI components including DrMos power stage solutions and additional fuses built into the PCB. The PCB is made with automated manufacturing processes.
The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT has 3x DisplayPort v1.4a and 1x HDMI 2.1a ports. It requires a 16-pin power connector, but there is an adapter to 3x 8-pin PCIe power connectors in the box. MSI states the Power Consumption is 320W and it recommends an 850W PSU.
The measurements of the MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT are 312mm (12.2″) long, 141mm (5.5″) wide, and 61mm (2.4″) in height. Compared to the NVIDIA Founders Edition sizing the Founders Edition is 310mm long, 140mm in width, and 61mm in height.
Therefore, the MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT has the same sizing footprint as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Founders Edition, they are nearly identical in size. The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT is a heavy video card, weighing 1909g or 4.2 lbs. Thankfully MSI does include a video card holder in the box, a really nice one actually, to keep your video card from sagging.