MSI has launched its GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Z Trio featuring "mighty fast memory". It claims that thanks to upgraded memory chips, running at 16Gbps, this card is faster than its GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio out of the box by over five per cent.
Already we have referenced the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio when talking about the 'Z' model. That is because other than the memory spec uplift there is no other known difference between the cards (but of course the price will be different too). They are such similar beasts that MSI embeds the X Trio promo video in the Z Trio's product pages.
In brief these Gaming X/Z Trio designs from MSI leverage a trio of fans as part of the Tri-Frozr Thermal Design. This leverages a series of MSI cooling features such as Torx Fan 3.0 fans with double ball bearings, a Zero Frozr heatsink, aerodynamic design with concentrated heatpipes and a soupcon of Thermal Compound X.
In addition to the premium MSI flavoured cooling structure there is a brushed metal vented backplate with appropriate use of thermal pads and MSI Mystic Light powered RGB LEDs over several card zones.
Key specs of the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Z Trio are provided below.
Above you can see that the GDDR6 memory speed of the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Z Trio is 16Gbps out of the box. This compares against the 14Gbps of the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio model (and other rival models previously released). I've set up a direct comparison on the MSI website for both the cards in case you want to look closer. However, the other key metric of the GPU core count and core boost clocks are the same. Other tiny differences (like a few mm/grams difference) might be down to product revisions and refinements since the time the X Trio was released.
MSI says that the new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Z Trio is available immediately. I found it listed for pre-order in the UK for a smidgeon over £1,300. That is approx £100 more than the best priced GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio I found, for a five per cent gain in performance out of the box.
