If you want the biggest, the best, the beefiest GPU on the market and money is no object, then you’re likely eyeing up an RTX 5090, but which one you go for, is likely dictated by which one you can buy due to availability issues, but if that’s not an issue, and you want the rundown of one the best model 5090’s you can buy “right now”, then we have that just for you with the MSI Suprim SOC RTX 5090. The top air-cooled model from MSI, which we’ll be putting through its paces here today.
Ok, so before we jump in, let me expand on the whole pricing and availability thing. This is a premium version of the RTX 5090, so should come in around the $2300 to $2400 mark or so but as we know, with how GPUs are at the moment, that doesn’t really account for much, though that does put it around $300 to $400 more than MSRP and the Founders Edition from NVIDIA, which comes in at $1999 and that’s likely all I’ll mention on the whole pricing situation right now until the end of the review.
Features
- Powered by the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture and DLSS 4
- Core Clocks:
Gaming Mode: Extreme Performance: 2580 MHz (MSI Center), Boost: 2565 MHz
Silent Mode: Extreme Performance: 2527 MHz (MSI Center), Boost: 2512 MHz - HYPER FROZR THERMAL DESIGN: An apex evolution of advanced thermal design that delivers unparalleled cooling and quiet operation.
- STORMFORCE Fan: Seven fan blades, claw texturing, and a circular arc are designed for optimal airflow with minimal noise.
- Advanced Vapor Chamber: Built-in Vapor Chamber swiftly transfers heat from the GPU and VRAM to the core pipe for optimal dissipation.
- Core Pipes: Square-shaped Core Pipes maximize heat dissipation with the Vapor Chamber for superior cooling.
- Filled Fins: Shaped fins cover the core pipes to reduce turbulence and enhance cooling performance.
- Wave Curved 4.0: Precision-engineered wave edges with a high-low fin design enhance airflow and reduce turbulence.
- Air Antegrade Fin 2.0: The fins feature a V-shaped cutout and a high-low design at the airflow passthrough to optimize flow efficiency.
- Metal Backplate: A reinforcing metal backplate with airflow vents and thermal pads enhances cooling.
- Dual BIOS: Dual BIOS gives you the choice to prioritize for full performance in GAMING mode or low noise in SILENT mode.
- MSI Center: The exclusive MSI Center software lets you monitor, tweak and optimize MSI products in real-time.
- Afterburner: Take full control with the most recognized and widely used graphics card overclocking software in the world.
So pricing, availability and all that stuff to one side, I’m a big fan of the SUPRIM lineup of GPUs. Yes, they command a higher price premium, but you typically get a lot for that money, and there is definitely some extra added worth when buying one.
It’s a pre-factory overclocked card with an extremely large premium cooling solution and generally has a lot of headroom when it comes to overclocking too, making it perfect for those wanting to push the very highest clocks for a sustained level of time
In terms of clock speeds, it comes in with a boost clock of 2512MHz when in silent mode and 2565MHz in gaming mode, putting it 158MHz higher than the reference spec FE model from NVIDIA, which comes in at 2407MHz, though what’s interesting with MSI is that through MSI Center, you can improve on this slightly by boosting up to 2580MHz, though I’m sure some consumers will be torn with having to install some software just to get another 15MHz more, which will likely make little to no difference and instead if you’re the type of user wanting more performance, you’ll just manually overclock to that speed and beyond using Afterburner or similar. In terms of other speeds, the memory clock remains unchanged and comes in identically to all other RTX 5090-based cards.
