Since the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition has been available for a few weeks now, today's review is on the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X 24G, a third-party custom variant of Nvidia's top-tier graphics card. The Suprim Liquid X has integrated AIO liquid cooling, unlike the similarly huge custom 4090 from Gigabyte. In comparison to the outrageously oversized air coolers seen on the majority of other RTX 4090 cards, this provides it a distinct benefit - or disadvantage - when attempting to fit into otherwise confined enclosures.
Design and Features of the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X 24G
The Suprim Liquid X has 16,384 CUDA cores, the same number as the top-tier Founders Edition, but with a faster boost rate of 2.62 MHz as opposed to the FE's 2.52 MHz. The most noticeable difference is the integrated all-in-one liquid cooler, which reduces the size of the main graphics card unit to a slim two-slot design, measuring 11 x 5.5 x 1.69 inches (280 x 140 x 43 mm), as opposed to 11.9 x 5.4 x 2.4 inches (304 x 137 x 61 mm) on the Founders Edition.
Of course, that doesn't take into consideration the attached radiator and two 120mm fans. With more room than the larger 3-slot 4090s, you can fit the card in a wider range of cases (we had to switch cases to fit the Gigabyte card, for example). However, you'll also need a place to mount the radiator, which measures 10.7 x 4.7 x 2.1 inches with fans. Most cases have at least one location where a radiator can be mounted, but if the CPU AIO already occupies that location, there may be a problem.
A single 95mm Torx fan 5.0 is located on the main card in addition to the AIO radiator, which is connected to it via two 17-inch braided PVC tubing. A tiny RGB lighted chevron is placed next to this fan, and the Suprim logo and a geometric pattern on the backplate are both illuminated as well.
Beyond its cooler design, the Suprim Liquid X has the same 16-pin 12VHPWR power connection and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x HDMI 2.1 outputs as the majority of RTX 4090 cards. The PCB also has a BIOS switch that toggles between Gaming and Silent modes, increasing performance or decreasing noise, respectively. We ran all of our testing on the gaming setting.
Performance MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X 24G
When evaluating the Suprim X Liquid, my main concern was how much the liquid cooling system will enhance performance over the air coolers on the Founders Edition and the majority of custom cards. In the end, not much, it seems.
In 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra, the RTX 4090 Suprim X Liquid matches the Founders Edition, but both cards fall short of the Gigabyte Gaming OC card, which has a lead of about a thousand points over the two. We'll start with our synthetic tests.
The Gigabyte card wins again in Unigine Heaven at 1080p and 1440p, but the MSI and Founders Edition cards continue to dominate at 4K, scoring nearly identically at 2,838 and 2,842, respectively.
The three 4090 cards finish close to one another in all three of the ray tracing synthetic tests, though this time the Suprim Liquid X actually prevails, albeit by a narrow margin.
The same general trend can be seen in our gaming benchmarks, which are run at the highest graphics setting and wherever practical, with ray tracing and DLSS enabled. Depending on the game and resolution used for testing, all three 4090 GPUs are within a few frames per second of one another.
Gaming Benchmarks for the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X 24G
Observing a few more games at just 4K resolution, we once more witness the three 4090 cards trading blows. This is largely in line with expectations since the AIB cards only have a slight factory overclock and their cooling system is the primary difference between them.
In light of this, I looked at temperatures during benchmarking, and this was the one area where the MSI had a clear advantage. During benchmarks, the RTX 4090 Founders Edition reached a maximum temperature of 64.7C while the Gigabyte Gaming OC peaked at 62C. While under stress, the MSI Suprim Liquid X kept its temperature at 55C. There is more leeway if you want to overclock the card more and wring out more performance because there is a sizable temperature differential.
Verdict
One of the most distinctive AIB models in the RTX 4090 series is the MSI RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X. Our testing demonstrate that there is basically no performance difference between it and other 4090 cards. How much you value the cooling capabilities and build considerations of having an attached AIO liquid cooler rather than a large air cooler on the card itself will determine whether or not MSI's card is worth your consideration. A $150 price increase over the Founders Edition seems reasonable if those requirements are important to you.