MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X
A 3060 that strikes a good balance between quality and affordability.
Sitting in between the ultra-premium Asus and the budget Gigabyte is the MSI RTX 3060 Gaming X. It’s still a premium offering but it eschews some of the characteristics of the top end cards. It’s aimed at buyers who scoff at the premium pricing of top tier cards but still want a quality design that’s more tailored to the characteristics of the GA106 GPU.
The MSI Gaming X features a dual fan design. It sits above the mid-range Ventus and below the Gaming X Trio. It features an atypical compact PCB with a six-phase VRM, which is one phase less than the Gaming X Trio. In contrast to the high requirements of the likes of a GTX 3080 and to a lesser extent the 3060 Ti, there’s simply no need for an uber overclocking capable PCB. Having said that, the Gaming X is equipped with six and eight pin power connectors, which added to the 75W available from the PCIe slot, means the Gaming X is supplied with 300W of power supply capability. You’ll never need that much. The card features a factory overclock with a rated boost clock of 1,837MHz, though as is often the case with recent Nvidia GPUs, the card will boost a lot higher than this when power and temperature conditions allow it.
Other key specs include the standard 12GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 15Gbps effective. Display outputs consist of a single HDMI 2.1 port along with three DisplayPort v1.4a ports. MSI has toned down the Gaming X’s RGB implementation. There are just a couple of discrete and attractive sections on the front of the card plus the MSI logo on the side.
The MSI Gaming X is equipped with the company’s latest Twin Frozr 8 dual fan cooler. It’s perfectly suited to the base 170W TDP of the RTX 3060. The larger triple fan coolers are overkill. Add to that their premium pricing, and you’re into 3060Ti territory. The Gaming X proves that you don’t need a 3080-class cooler. We saw a load temp of just 63°C after 10 minutes at full load. This low temperature running meant the boost clock was consistently above 1,900MHz, all the while remaining effectively silent.
The MSI performs essentially the same as other 3060s. Though the Asus with its higher boost clock holds an edge, the real-world differences are insignificant. Despite its improved second generation RTX feature set including RT and in particular DLSS support, the 3060 doesn’t raise the hairs on the back of our neck like it did when we tested the first Ampere cards. But, if you’re coming from an older generation card, you’ll love the upgraded performance and feature set.
The MSI RTX 3060 Gaming X is a perfect example of what a mid-range card should embody. It’s a step above the budget cards while keeping well below crazy 3060 ti price levels. The Twin Frozr 8 cooling is perfect for the GA106 GPU, keeping it cool and quiet at all times which allows the card to perform above its rated boost clock. The MSI Gaming X gets it just right. It doesn’t pretend to be a 3080 in disguise, and its pricing and characteristics are perfect for a midrange card.