GPU Review: MSI RTX 3060Ti Aero ITX OC LHR

 
Note: The conclusion of this video card has been updated due to increased availability as of 7-27-2022.
 
The MSI RTX 3060Ti Aero ITX 8G OC LHR (Aero 3060Ti for short) is a one-of-a-kind video card. It’s currently the only single fan RTX 3060Ti on the market, and the only 3060ti designed to fit ultra-compact ITX cases. The card’s length is a mere 172mm. The next smallest 3060Ti is the EVGA RTX 3060 TI XC Gaming, and is nearly 3cm longer at 201.8mm long. Three centimeters may not sound like much, but in the small form factor world it’s the difference between a card that fits and buying a new case.
For those that need a card this small and want a 3060Ti, this is their only option. If you fit into that category, the question isn’t so much of “Are you going to buy it?”, but rather “What you can expect when you get it?”.
 
The Card
The Aero 3060Ti is very compact but sports a heft to it. The plastic...

Continue reading...

 

[Revenant]

And here is a little bonus for forum members. This is a behind the scenes shot of how I took the white background photos. The secret? Big sheets of my sons construction paper.

 

[Neathdrawls]

Great review. 1440p should be good for it!

A teardown would be nice, as far as I can tell the 3060Ti as 4 heatpipes, whereas the non Ti Aero ITX has only 2, and doesn't have a fan stop mode.

Would be great to see how undervolting would impact thermals and temperatures!

 

[Revenant]

Great review. 1440p should be good for it!

A teardown would be nice, as far as I can tell the 3060Ti as 4 heatpipes, whereas the non Ti Aero ITX has only 2, and doesn't have a fan stop mode.

Would be great to see how undervolting would impact thermals and temperatures!

Thanks!

Correct. It does have 4 heat pipes.

I do plan on doing some undervolting later, but I wanted to get the main article up now.

The fan stop mode does trigger but rarely. Regardless, idle sound wasn’t above my ambient.

 

[rfarmer]

Great review, too bad you didn't also have one of the 2070 Aero itx to test. You are right about noise levels on the 1070 Aero itx, I was always really impressed with how quite that card was. I would definitely try an undervolt, I have been really impressed with the performance and thermals I was able to get with my 2080 Super with an undervolt.

 

[tinyitx]

This card basically exhausts longitudinally along its length. The rear has no problem but the front might have as the front panel of the CCD MI6 is not perforated. And since there does not appear to have a top case fan for extraction, the card's front exhaust might experience some thermal traffic congestion in the vincinity. As rear and front exhausts perhaps account for 50-50 of the thermal load, I wonder if this issue is improved somehow, temp might go down a bit. This leads to lower fan speed and thus lower fan noise?

 

[Revenant]

This card basically exhausts longitudinally along its length. The rear has no problem but the front might have as the front panel of the CCD MI6 is not perforated. And since there does not appear to have a top case fan for extraction, the card's front exhaust might experience some thermal traffic congestion in the vincinity. As rear and front exhausts perhaps account for 50-50 of the thermal load, I wonder if this issue is improved somehow, temp might go down a bit. This leads to lower fan speed and thus lower fan noise?

I originally was doing case on and case off testing. The temp difference was 1 to 3 degrees C with no noticeable fan noise difference.

 

[Revenant]

The good news is that at idle, both cards can turn off their fans. As such, idle noise is excellent because there is none. Even when they turn on, it’s still barely audible up close.

After further testing it was discovered that the fan off at idle was an errant behavior for the Aero 3060Ti . It does not turn its fan off at idle. Idle sound though was still low enough that it did not rise over my ambient.

The original article has been updated to reflect this.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

dear lord .... street price of $1099 ... I remember a not too distant ERA where xx70 MSRP was around $400 ... sad days :|

 

[Revenant]

dear lord .... street price of $1099 ... I remember a not too distant ERA where xx70 MSRP was around $400 ... sad days :|

I paid $450 for my MSI Aero ITX 1070 and thought it was terrible back then. The 1070 went for as little as $250 new for a while. $1099 is just insane. If this keeps up you're going to see a lot more people go back to console gaming. The Xbox Series X has an 8 Core Zen 2 CPU and GPU roughly equal to a 2080 or 3060ti for rasterization. PS5 is almost as powerful. These are $400 to $500 for a complete gaming machine. I played Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart and it has to be one of the best looking games I've ever played.

Nvidia and AMD are shooting themselves in the foot with these runaway prices. Short term it's profitable. Long term it's detrimental.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

I paid $450 for my MSI Aero ITX 1070 and thought it was terrible back then. The 1070 went for as little as $250 new for a while. $1099 is just insane. If this keeps up you're going to see a lot more people go back to console gaming. The Xbox Series X has an 8 Core Zen 2 CPU and GPU roughly equal to a 2080 or 3060ti for rasterization. PS5 is almost as powerful. These are $400 to $500 for a complete gaming machine. I played Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart and it has to be one of the best looking games I've ever played.

Nvidia and AMD are shooting themselves in the foot with these runaway prices. Short term it's profitable. Long term it's detrimental.

especially when you add costs of motherboard, RAM, CPU, heatsink ...... Even building a APU system end up pretty expensive. Last GPU I bought was an EVGA GTX770 for 320€ brand new and I think that's what mid-high tier should cost to be competitive against consoles.

 

[nightshift]

Thank you for this review. Because of the current pricing a lot of people are holding off, yet still those smaller inventories that do make it to the stores are getting bought. Where I live the Gigabyte 3060 Ti Gaming Pro rev.3 (2 slot, 3 fan gpu) was around 1000$ last month - way too high price, still it was all gone. Now they're back at the equivalent of 1333$. For a 3060 Ti. Just ridiculous.
I think the life expectancy will be quite high considering that the current situation will presumably hold back gaming development as well in terms of hardware requirements. New gen consoles are not that OP hardware-wise and still after a year of their release, there's barely any dedicated PS5 games for the matter. Not many PS5 even out there either.

People back in 2018, PRECISELY 3 years ago from today who bought the 2080 on release, made the business of their lives. Having a gpu that completely aces everything even today and will continuously do that for who knows how long as they are still on the level of a 3060 Ti while the gpu shortage and pricing further extends their life expectancy.

 

[prayogahs]

The Newegg US price of US$1099 is definitely not normal. These cards are currently being sold in many Australian retailers for AU$1099 or around US$800. I have just recently bought from there and using a forwarder to ship it to HK. Looking forward to receiving it.

 

[Revenant]

Good lord. I need to stop writing when I’m tired. Im going to clean this articles spelling and grammar up…

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Good lord. I need to stop writing when I’m tired. Im going to clean this articles spelling and grammar up…

/SIGTYPO received, your spell checker will cease to function

 

[Valantar]

I need to check the news section here more often. Thanks for a great review! Definitely interesting to see the development across a couple of generations. Missing some thermals though - hope those are coming later. A tear-down would definitely be desirable, as would a (Noctua slim 92/120mm) fan swap test (if it can be done non-destructively and without extreme effort. Anyway, thanks for the review!

 

[Revenant]

I need to check the news section here more often. Thanks for a great review! Definitely interesting to see the development across a couple of generations. Missing some thermals though - hope those are coming later. A tear-down would definitely be desirable, as would a (Noctua slim 92/120mm) fan swap test (if it can be done non-destructively and without extreme effort. Anyway, thanks for the review!

Yes you do! We are updating it almost everyday now in some form or another.

The thermals are very simple: 80C. That's where it levels off while gaming or benchmarking. I mentioned it in the Overclocking section but should have made it more clear. In the Metro portion of the gameplay demos you can see it.

After I post the resizable bar article/benchmarks today, I will be doing overclocking benchmarks, and undervolting benchmarks.

 

[sffpcMotive]

I need to check the news section here more often. Thanks for a great review! Definitely interesting to see the development across a couple of generations. Missing some thermals though - hope those are coming later. A tear-down would definitely be desirable, as would a (Noctua slim 92/120mm) fan swap test (if it can be done non-destructively and without extreme effort. Anyway, thanks for the review!

Recently received mine and thought I'll share the teardown I did for it.

 

[REVOCCASES]

Recently received mine and thought I'll share the teardown I did for it.

Thanks for sharing. Just curious, did you see any improvements in terms of noise / temps after the repasting with NT-H1?

 

[Neathdrawls]

Recently received mine and thought I'll share the teardown I did for it.

if you managed to test it prior the removal, did removing the backplate help or impact temperatures of the card?

I wrote to MSI previously and they claim that the backplate 'helps' with the thermals of the card.