MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC video card review: the cold emperor of 4K gaming

So we’ve waited for the moment when not just a flagship video card, but a real monolith of gaming came to the editorial review — MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC. What sets it apart from NVIDIA’s reference video adapters is its truly titanic cooling system, which forms an interesting tandem with unrivaled gaming and work performance

Specifications of MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC

Technical characteristics
Interface	PCI-E Gen 5 x16
Technical process	5 nm
Graphics processor	GB202
VRAM speed	28 Gbps
VRAM capacity	32GB GDDR7, Samsung
Memory bus	512-bit
Streaming processors	21760
Exits	3 x DisplayPort v2.1b
	1 x HDMI v2.1b
Power connector	16 Pin
Energy consumption	600 W
Recommended power supply	1000 W
Additionally	Switch between Silent and Game modes
Dimensions	359x150x76 mm
Weight	2840 grams
Takes up space	4 slots
VRM	22 phases, controlled by the Monolithic Power Systems MP29816 controller
DrMOS	Monolithic MPS MP87993, 90A

Test bench

As is our good tradition, we will test the top-end graphics card — MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC on components for true computer enthusiasts:

• Motherboard MSI MEG Z890 ACE;
• Processor Intel Core Ultra 9 285K;
• Cooling MSI MAG CORELIQUID I360;
• Drive Samsung SSD 980 1TB;
• RAM G.Skill Trident Z5 CK 2x24Gb Royal;
• Power supply MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 1000W;
• Body MSI MPG GUNGNIR 300R AIRFLOW.

Package, appearance and cooling of MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC

The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC graphics card arrived for review in an elegant light box. Along with shiny design inserts in NVIDIA branded colors, it contains a brief description of the main features and technologies that the manufacturer wants to boast about in the first place. The box opens effortlessly, and the only thing that separates us from the video card is a protective panel made of soft material and an antistatic package.

In separate small sections, there is a power adapter (4 x 8 pin to 16 pin), a proprietary «leg» for supporting a video card, and documentation. Given the titanic weight of — 2840 grams, it will definitely not be superfluous for case owners without a strong additional fixing bar.

The appearance of the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC is the same as the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G SUPRIM SOC, which was already at editorial review. The design includes familiar elements: silver metal with an unusual linear texture, gray polygonal design inserts, and a monumental — HYPER FROZR cooling system that includes three STORMFORCE fans with double ball bearings, seven CORE PIPES heat pipes, thermal pads, and a massive evaporation chamber. Thanks to this, you don’t have to worry about the temperature of the GPU, GDDR7 memory, and VRM area.

MSI has managed to combine restraint and gaming accents in the design of the card. For me personally, this is the golden mean, because the design in the style of «Disco 80s» has already become boring in recent years. As for the backlighting, we only have the SUPRIM inscription on a translucent glossy panel, side stripes between the fans, and an improvised crystal, the faces of which in certain combinations remind me of diode symbols on an electrical circuit.

Before installing this card in your PC, I recommend that you carefully measure your free space, because the dimensions are truly titanic. The length of the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC is 36 cm. In addition, you will need almost four expansion slots to fit it into your case.

Performance and architecture

MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC is a flagship product, so the requirements for it from users are also ultimatum.Such things are bought either by principled computer enthusiasts or specialists. Among them are graphic designers, experimenters in local neural network deployment, and many other users who need maximum speed in specialized computing or graphics acceleration in their work tools.

Owners of previous RTX 4090 flagships and potential buyers of the new generation should first look at the following tables.

The video card is based on the — GB202 GPU. It contains 21,760 CUDA cores, which is twice as many as the RTX 5080. There are also 680 tensor cores and 170 RT cores. The GPU features a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 interface and a new GDDR7 memory standard on a 512-bit bus, which doubles the exchange rate compared to GDDR6 and is 30% faster than the previous generation GDDR6X. First of all, this bandwidth will be needed in neural rendering, which is worth talking about in more detail.

Neural rendering has become a promising technology in modern graphics, just like programmable shaders were in their time. It changes the very approach to visualizing 3D graphics, which has undergone a significant evolution in recent years. Blackwell’s architecture allows not just using neural effects but integrating their methods directly into workflows, potentially replacing parts of the traditional graphics pipeline. This is also due to Microsoft, which introduced the new Cooperative Vectors API for DirectX. It allows access to Tensor cores in the graphics API, and manufacturers, in turn, were able to integrate it into their drivers.

How does this benefit the end user? For example, RTX Neural Materials reduces the amount of memory required in 3D scenes, as the compression ratio can be up to seven to one, and gives materials realism through glare, surface variations, and increased detail.

Using the Amuse 2.3.2 Beta image generator, the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC generated 10 images in 40 seconds. This result is similar to the RTX 5080, but it is worth considering that the video card itself was not loaded to its fullest capacity. Therefore, all questions can be redirected only to the application developers and its optimization.

The power consumption of the new graphics cards has increased by about 30% compared to the previous RTX 4090 flagships. As you can see, the main focus of Blackwell’s architecture is on a significant increase in tensor and RT cores, so it is not difficult to understand what technologies major gaming players will be betting on in the future.

The Blender test has always been indicative of performance. MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC confidently scores a total of 14986 points. If we take the previous generation’s score, namely the RTX 4090, as 100%, the new flagship outperforms it by 22.8%. If we compare the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC with the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G SUPRIM SOC, the difference between them in Blender is as much as 49.2%. Therefore, you should take this indicator into account if you are looking for a video card specifically for workflows.

Realistic Interior Lightning is always willing to use all the computing power of your hardware. Rendering a standard scene at 6000 x 3900 px took 121 seconds, which is 40% faster than the RTX 5080

Gaming performance of MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC

If you have carefully read the section on graphics card architecture, you might have noticed that in the Blackwell generation, NVIDIA has emphasized the development of neural technologies. The main trump card in comparison with all competitive solutions and previous generations can rightfully be considered Multi Frame Generationthat raises the performance bar to gaming heaven.

MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC was tested in popular gaming projects at 4K, Quad HD, and 1080p resolutions. It is unlikely that potential buyers of the card will be interested in its performance in FullHD gaming, except in eSports disciplines that require Flash speeds.

This time, in addition to standard measurements, there will be a small comparison with the previous flagship — RTX 4090 and lower models — MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G SUPRIM SOC, which was on the editorial review last time

And let’s start our standard measurements with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, which was recently received patch 1.2.1 with a solid list of fixes This game is far from being a benchmark for graphical optimization, so if you are a true connoisseur of the Exclusion Zone aesthetic and want to see it that way, «as it is», then you’ll have to set the resolution to 4K, turn off the frame generator, and then zoom in.

This mode is the most resource-intensive in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. along with neural anti-aliasing — DLAA. Not many graphics cards in the world can afford this luxury. The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC — is the only one that can deliver 85 frames per second in such a merciless mode. The same RTX 4090 in this case can only show the standard 60 FPS.

But if you don’t mind enabling all the NVIDIA technologies available to us: DLSS in Quality mode and the frame generator, you’ll be able to dodge a snorkel or an unwanted encounter with «bandos» at 161 fps in 4K and Ultra Quality. Although, as for me, if you are a graphic perfectionist and also the owner of MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC, then you’d better forget about DLSS-Quality altogether. In this case, the scene is rendered at 66% of the original resolution

The best option for owners of flagship graphics cards is to enable DLAA anti-aliasing and frame generator. In this case, the frame rate will be sufficient to appreciate all the benefits of smooth gameplay on a 144Hz monitor with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels

If you simply disable DLSS and leave Frame generator, we can see an anomaly, not a stalker anomaly, but a graphical one. The next video shows how shadows flicker in such a situation, so don’t forget about DLAA.

In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in 4K on the «Ultra» preset with DLSS Quality and frame generator enabled, but without path tracing, the frame rate will be 185 frames per second. This is 28% faster than the RTX 5080. With Path Tracing enabled, the famous adventurer’s cases will unfold at 121 fps, which is 51% better than the RTX 5080 and 39% faster than the previous flagship RTX 4090.

As you can see, when you enable NVIDIA’s proprietary technologies, the performance gap between the generations begins to increase. Even with DLSS+Framegenerator turned off and the extremely resource-intensive Path Tracing enabled in Medium mode, we still get good frame times — 75 frames per second.

Cyberpunk 2077 was the first game to receive DLSS 4 support with the Transformer scaling model. The gap with the previous generation of graphics cards is incredible. If you look at the overlay from the screenshots, you will see how the frame counter in 4K+Ultra exceeds 200 fps in the gameplay. Moreover, this result is achieved with full trace quality. If you disable Frame generator, the FPS will drop almost four times and the entire gameplay will be based on DLSS. With it turned off, we will see only 27 frames per second — This is the high price of high-quality tracing.

Unreal Engine has become a real cradle of poorly optimized games, and Silent Hill 2 is no exception. However, fans are willing to pay a high price for the mysterious atmosphere of the foggy city. With the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC, you can disable DLSS and the frame generator altogether and enable Ray Tracing. Even so, the frame counter shows about 70 FPS. But the previous flagship — RTX 4090 was already choking on a lack of frames, not even reaching 60 fps.

If you do not mind the intervention of neurotechnology in the mysterious atmosphere, then you will find performance exceeding 150 fps.

Despite decades of history and various versions, the Counter-Strike games continue to win the hearts of players. When you choose FullHD eSports with low settings, you’ll be able to dodge bullets like Neo in the Matrix. At the same time, the frame counter will show an unprecedented 710 fps. If during the next round you want to admire how the wind blows the dust on Dust 2 at Ultra 4K, then the framerate will reach 340 FPS.

With MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC, fans of medieval aesthetics will discover beautiful and familiar landscapes, an interesting storyline, and fierce battles. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 at 4K and ultra quality will allow you to immerse yourself in this world at over 100 fps even with DLSS turned off. If you enable this option, the FPS will increase to 135 fps. In this case, overlay demonstrates that the video card is not 100% utilized. The game has only recently been released, so hopefully the developers will soon fix this optimization flaw.

Remnant 2 was created for those who had not suffered enough in Remnant: From the Ashes. In addition, the game is also poorly optimized, which is not surprising, because it is based on Unreal Engine 5. Nevertheless, this will not be a problem for future owners of MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC. At ultra-quality with 4k and DLSS, you will have no problem with good timing in boss battles. At 207 frames per second, it’s a pleasure to play. The difference with the RTX 5080 in this game is up to 80% — a great result.

Let’s try to move back to the Middle Ages once again, but this time in an adventure stealth action game — в A Plague Tale: Requiem. We set the ultra settings, turn on DLSS and the frame generator at 3840 x 2160, and enjoy a framerate that varies from 195 to 215 fps. If we disable Frame generator, the number of frames stays at 105 FPS, about the same as with the resource-intensive DLAA.

No test will be accepted if The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC will not answer the most important gaming question of all time: «Will Crysis pull it off?». Crysis 3 Remastered is still capable of bringing any graphics card to its knees, especially after «has been refreshed by» and received support for modern technologies. This time in the tests, our video card simply tore up all the» templates, hitting the magic number (or engine bug) of 120 fps, both with and without DLSS at ultra quality settings. The difference with the younger RTX 5080 here reached 60%. Therefore, your PC with MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC not just «will pull Crysis», but even «will carry it» as if on wings.

Power consumption, noise and heat MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC

The load measurements were carried out in «Game mode», without switching to the second BIOS with «Silent mode» settings. Even in the hottest gaming battles, the coolers did not reach more than 1650 rpm, so they did not stand out against the background of the general noise of the test system, as they did not exceed 37 decibels. The video card heated up to a maximum of 65 degrees Celsius.

Even a Furmark bagel couldn’t heat it up to more than 58 degrees. The temperature of the backplane and the 16-pin connector did not exceed 37 ℃. Therefore, pay less attention to the information noise about melted cables and more attention to the fact that your system has a high-quality power supply and cheap adapters of dubious quality.

The — HYPER FROZR cooling system has proven to be very efficient for this level of power consumption, so there is no need to worry about overheating not an inexpensive device.

When idle, the video card consumes about 25 watts, when watching a video – 41 watts, and the maximum recorded power consumption reached 597 watts. During gameplay, the power consumption of the entire computer did not exceed 750 watts, but the noise of the throttles from the power supply made it clear that it was not easy. In the previous test MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G SUPRIM SOC did not have this effect. 

This time, I decided to calculate the productivity index per watt of electricity and compare it to MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G SUPRIM SOC. To do this, I calculated the average number of frames in six popular gaming projects: first in «net performance» without DLSS and FG, and then with all possible technologies

For MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC I counted 1.82 FPS per watt of power consumption. For the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G SUPRIM SOC RTX 4090, this figure is 2.86 FPS. That is, in terms of gaming performance, the RTX 5080 is 40% more efficient in terms of power consumption, but, of course, not as productive as the flagship.

Experience of use

In most cases, I use the video card not so much for gaming as for accelerating video editing, video encoding, and working with local neural networks to generate images. And then with the 5000 series, there was a certain embarrassment with Python and its PyTorch framework. Neither Fooocus, nor Invoke, nor Stable Diffusion wanted to work correctly because of this. The only one that turned out to be faultless was Amuse. That’s why I was not able to test «heavy» models such as Flux. I have not had such problems with the 4000 series. I hope that the developers will soon fix the software part and everything will work without any nuances

And of course I tried to put «on top of» MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC in PC VR scenarios. The meditative and philosophical The Talos Principle powered by Serious Engine 4 can be a real nightmare for any video adapter. In the VR format, the rendering resolution is of great importance, including excessive resolution.

With a rendering resolution of 6521 x 7979, the video card was loaded at 80% and delivered 80 frames per second.

But when rendering a picture in 9224 x 9872, the flagship gave up and showed us «only» 38 fps. Therefore, it is in virtual reality The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC can show all its performance and looks like a promising choice for true enthusiasts who are not going to compromise on the gaming experience.

Prices and competitors

MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC is not yet available in Ukraine. Despite MSI’s recommended price On foreign sites, it can be found in pre-order status at a price of $2,699. Of course, it’s expensive, but even previous RTX 4090 flagships in Ukraine now cost more than 150,000 hryvnias It is still difficult to compare with competitors in the price range, as they are also not on official sale. For a long time, you can’t even expect prices for new flagships to start moving towards the recommended ones. Several potential flagship solutions are expected to hit the Ukrainian market in the near future.Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5090 WINDFORCE OC 32G is simpler in terms of components and not as efficient in cooling. Its estimated price is expected to be UAH 179,999.MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G GAMING TRIO OC has emphasized an overtly gamer look, which contrasts with the laconic and restrained design of the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G SUPRIM SOC. It will cost 199,999 UAH.Asus GeForce RTX 5090 ROG Astral OC 32GB GDDR7 also tries to cool the graphics card as efficiently as possible. This is not surprising, since the frequency of the graphics chip here is 2610 MHz. It has four fans, one of which draws air from the rear backplate grille, and three on the front side. Its price is expected to be 229,999 UAH