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MSI Rolls Out Less Suprim GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070 GPUs
MSI's Suprim family of graphics cards (pronounced 'supreme'), which was introduced with Ampere, has two new members. The company (via Harukaze5719) recently and silently added the GeForce RTX 3070 Suprim SE 8G and GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim SE 10G to the mix. The 3070 and 3080 are two of the best graphics cards, or would be if everything wasn't perpetually sold out.
In the car world, the "SE" designation is commonly used to denote a Sport Edition or Special Edition trim level. In MSI's case, the acronym has a different meaning though. The Suprim SE models are in fact slower variants of their X and non-X counterparts, giving way to the joke that SE may mean Slow Edition. Other than the obvious difference in clock speeds, the graphics cards are identical to the other Suprim offerings in every way, including aesthetics, cooling, power connectors and display outputs. It's possible that MSI just introduced the SE trim as an excuse to recycle silicon that doesn't meet the requirements for the Suprim (X) models.
Performance-wise, the GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim SE 10G shouldn't be much slower in comparison to its other siblings. It only comes with 5% lower boost and extreme performance clocks when compared to the Suprim X, and manual tuning should be able to make up most of the difference. The GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim SE 10G retains the same 370W TDP as the Suprim (X).
The GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim SE 8G drew the shortest straw. The graphics card shows a 7% downgrade in clock speeds with respect to the Suprim X model, and it also has a 40W lower TDP. Although MSI reduced the power consumption by 14% on the graphics card, it still commands a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Again, manual tuning can likely close the gap.
The GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim X 10G and GeForce RTX 3070 Suprim X 8G officially retail for $900 and $660, respectively. The non-X variants are only marginally less expensive, so we don't expect the SE variants to be forgiving on the pockets either, especially with the conditions that the graphics card market is in right now. None of the cards are in stock right now, sadly.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
These days whenever there's a GPU launch instead of focusing on price, performance, or availability, I just gawk at the pictures and see how good the models are because that's the only part I can enjoy about GPUs these days
Amazon: lists one RX 6700 XT in a mess of a list composed of RX 5700 XT, NVidia old models and scalped ones and then items one can wonder what the hell they have to do with the initial search. Fantasy listing is one of the reasons I closed my Amazon account 1+ year ago.
NewEgg: list all models, all are OUT OF STOCK.
B&H Photo: a few models listed, all Unavailable.
eBay: here they are! From $2,500 to $1,000++. ROFL.
2020 and 2021 GPUs are now a barely funny comedy, even the protests against scalpers are minimal.
CONCLUSION: Save your dollars, kopeks and pesetas, it is NOT a good idea to buy computer hardware for now. Unless you have so much money that you do not care about buying 2X or 5X the MSRP and encouraging scalpers. Look into the mirror and tell yourself you can wait 9+ more months before spending your hard won money. If you have a hardware withdrawal crisis, just watch the unobtainable models on Linus Tech Tips, Gamers Nexus, Jay Two Cents, etc :)
CONCLUSION: Save your dollars, kopeks and pesetas, it is NOT a good idea to buy computer hardware for now. Unless you have such more money you do not care about buying 2X or 5X the MSRP and encouraging scalpers. Look into the mirror and tell yourself you can wait 9+ more months before spending your hard won money. If you have a hardware withdrawal crisis, just watch the unobtainable models on Linus Tech Tips, Gamers Nexus, Jay Two Cents, etc :)
Wait longer? Please, no. No, thank you. Watching youtube videos and game streams does not equal the same experience as actually playing the game...It's depressing.
