MSI GeForce RTX 4070

I never liked very large cards for the simple reason that they take up too many slots and are too long for “normal” cases. Actually, when the very first dual-GPU cards by ATI (Radeon HD 295x2/6990/7990) and NVIDIA (GeForce GTX 590/690/TITAN Z) made their debut last decade i had no problem with the extra size but only because it brought along with it 50-80% better performance compared to the single GPU models. Today however that’s not the case so the GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming Slim 12GB model by MSI was a somewhat pleasant surprise for me.

Die erste Karte im heutigen kleinen Roundup ist die MSI RTX 4070 Ventus 12 GB. Zum heutigen Launchtag der MSRP-Karten können wir natürlich nur die Karten zeigen, die auch NVIDIAs Vorgaben entsprechen und zur UVP von 659 Euro angeboten werden. Da die Performance in Spielen und Anwendungen bei all diesen 200-Watt-Karten gleich ist, kann man diesen Part natürlich erst einmal übergehen. Die eigentlichen Unterschiede liegen in den technischen Details der Umsetzung, vor allem bei Platine und Kühler.

I think the RTX 4070 is an excellent graphics card for 1440p and 1080p gaming. It’s $200 cheaper than the RTX 4070 Ti variant. So, I guess it offers a (slightly) better value than its big brother GPUs. Aside from the RTX 3080-like performance at a lower cost and better power efficiency, the RTX 4070 features DLSS 3, which should give you more legroom, especially for graphics-intensive titles. It also features 8th generation NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC) with AV1 support, if that feature matters to you. Overall, I’m not overly excited about the RTX 4070; it could perform slightly better or at least cost $50 cheaper. Nevertheless, it is a good solid GPU for 1440p gaming.

The first card in today’s small roundup is the MSI RTX 4070 Ventus 12 GB. For today’s launch day of the MSRP cards, we can of course only show the cards that also meet NVIDIA’s specifications and are offered at the MSRP of 659 Euros. Since the performance in games and applications is the same for all these 200 watt cards, you can of course skip this part for now. The real differences are in the technical details of the implementation, especially the circuit board and cooler.

With the MSI RTX 4070 Ventus 3X being a stocked clocked card it not only matches the RTX 4070 Founders Edition in clock speed but also in its price. Its design however takes a completely different direction. Where the Founders Edition is more compact and has its all-metal housing the MSI RTX 4070 Ventus 3X is a long card with three fans and has a plastic fan shroud and plastic backplate as well. I don’t mind the plastic fan shroud because it opens up different styling options but I’m still not a big fan of the plastic backplate. It is better than having nothing as it does protect the back of the card some, but it doesn’t help prevent card sag and it doesn’t transfer heat out away from the PCB. The black design does look good and goes well with the silver and black design of the rest of the card.

Although the performance and power efficiency are pretty much the same as the RTX 4070 Founders Edition, the RTX 4070 Ventus 3X does has its own advantage over the FE. The most notable would be the use of PICe 8-pin instead of the new 12VHPWR for power, which makes upgrading from an older GPU to the RTX 4070 very easy as you don’t need to upgrade to a new power supply or have to deal with cable management issue after using the included 2 x 8-pin PCIe to 1 x 12VHPWR adapter.

The MSI Ventus 3X graphics card offers a solid baseline level of performance, comparable to the founder edition card. It is an option for users who require Wide Quad HD performance at an affordable price point. The card boasts impressive capabilities for WQHD performance, silent operation, and an efficient cooling system. However, it's worth noting that the topside of the card may run hot under game render stress. You can enhance the card's performance by taking advantage of the games that support DLSS(3). It has to be stated, though, the founder edition card is the better one. It offers roughly the same performance but remains the more silent product. And if looks matter, you'll probably agree with me on that. The RTX 4070 graphics card offers impressive performance and visual quality and improved power efficiency and thermals, making it an eco-friendly option. It effortlessly handles high-resolution gaming and complex creative workflows with HDMI 2.1 support and increased VRAM capacity (12GB). When choosing between the RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 6800 (XT), it's important to consider factors such as raytracing performance and DLSS3, which the RTX 4070 excels at. A bit newer, the Radeon RX 7900 XT offers faster rasterizer engine performance with an additional L3 cache, making it a strong(er) contender for the RTX 4070. The RTX 4070 is priced $200 lower, so perhaps it offers more value for money or is better in reach for you. Performance-wise, you can compare the card with RTX 3080 performance levels depending on where you measure. Overall, the RTX 4070 series edition is an attractive option for those looking for a visually appealing graphics card for their white-themed build. This graphics card has plenty of oomph up to even Ultra HD gaming (especially with DLSS3 / Frame generation enabled) with the option for a mild overclock. Overall, the Ventus 3X edition GeForce RTX 4070 is interesting. However, it competes with a very proper founder edition card that is a notch faster and has an extended power limiter, likely making it a more attractive product to get.

Averaged over the 25 games in our test suite, at 1440p resolution, the MSI RTX 4070 Ventus 3X ends up a tiny 1% slower than the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Founders Edition. This is the case for all cards tested today, they are all running slightly lower clocks than the FE, despite all having the same base and boost clock rating, with the same power limit. Binning does play a role in the clocks the NVIDIA Boost algorithm selects, so maybe NVIDIA is putting the best GPUs on the FE, while other AICs reserve those for their factory-overclocked models. Either way, these differences are negligible in daily use, there's no way you'll be able to notice such a tiny difference.

Das KFA2-Modell hat einen niedrigeren Stromverbrauch im Vergleich zum MSI-Pendant und ist lediglich zwei bis vier Prozent langsamer, was in der Praxis nicht auffällt. Sie zählt mit derzeit 630 Euro zu den günstigeren Custom-Modellen und wird unterhalb der Nvidia-UVP verkauft. Ein Kaufargument können zudem die RGB-Lüfter sein.

Die MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X Trio ist eine hochinteressante Mittelklasse-Grafikkarte, die auch alle Schwachstellen der sogenannten MSRP-Karten vergessen lässt. Es ist also eine Art Sahneschnittchen, solange man den Preis einmal ausblendet. Gut, 50 Euro mehr sind jetzt nichts, was einen umbringt und ich würde mir, schon wegen meiner Ohren und im Hinblick auf Kühlung und Haltbarkeit die besser ausgestattete Karte kaufen. Um einigermaßen performant zu spielen, reichen die 215 Watt locker aus, denn man erreicht oder schlägt sogar eine GeForce RTX 3080 10GB, natürlich je nach Spiel und Auflösung.

In der gestaffelten Veröffentlichung der Testergebnisse zur GeForce RTX 4070 folgt auf den gestrigen Test der Founders Edition sowie eines UVP-Modells heute der Test ein erstes teureren Custom-Designs. Die MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X Trio muss zeigen, was sie für den aufgerufenen Aufpreis zu bieten hat. Ob über die Leistung, die Kühlung oder sonstige Funktionen – der Aufpreis muss sich in irgendeiner Form zeigen. Wir gehen dem nun auf den Grund.

MSI's Gaming X Trio is clearly a more premium design than the MSRP cards that we've tested yesterday. The noise levels are fantastic—only 26 dBA under full load, whisper-quiet, even with the factory overclock—very impressive. Temperatures are good, too, with only 62°C, the card runs cool at all times. While the ASUS TUF is still a little bit quieter with 23 dBA, the differences are small and subjectively impossible to tell apart, especially when you have other noise sources in the room. MSI does not include a dual BIOS on their card, and I don't think it's needed anyway. Rather they picked great fan settings by default. Our apples-to-apples cooler test confirms that the MSI Gaming X Trio has a very powerful cooler that's better than all the other RTX 4070s that we've tested, except for the ASUS TUF, which is another 2.5°C cooler at the same noise levels and heat load.

Ultimately, all cards across different brands are only a few percentage points apart, so the importance of that factor depends on your personal preferences. The package features an adapter that transforms two 8-pin PCIe power connectors into one 12-plus-four-pin 12VHPWR connector. For video output, there are three DisplayPort and one HDMI options. The backplate sports a contemporary design. MSI's offer is great in every significant aspect; the factory-tweaked performance could even be improved by a good margin. You can also enhance the card's performance by taking advantage of the games that support DLSS(3). It has to be stated, though, the founder edition card is the better one. It offers roughly the same performance but remains the more silent product. And if looks matter, you'll probably agree with me on that. When choosing between the RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 6800 (XT), it's important to consider factors such as raytracing performance and DLSS3, which the RTX 4070 excels at. A bit newer, the Radeon RX 7900 XT offers faster rasterizer engine performance with an additional L3 cache, making it a strong(er) contender for the RTX 4070. The RTX 4070 is priced $200 lower, so perhaps offers more value for money. In that respect, the 6800 series is a fairer to compare series. Performance-wise, depending on where you measure, you can compare the card with RTX 3080 / 3080 Ti performance levels. This graphics card has plenty of oomph up to even Ultra HD gaming (especially with DLSS3 / Frame generation enabled) with the option for a mild overclock.The market for graphics cards is in dire need of high-performing products that cost less than $500. At $599 you however can now find a proper WQHD graphics card with Raytracing options and DLSS3.With the ability to overclock mildly, this graphics card has all the features of a powerful enthusiast graphics card. The Gaming X TRIO impresses with its excellent cooling and superb acoustics, making it a fantastic design graphics card. While the default added performance is only 3~4%, this is still a card that we recommend, particularly if you value silent operation and an aesthetically pleasing appearance in your chassis. It has to be stated though at $599 the founder edition card perhaps remains the better choice as this Trio is bound to carry a price premium of at least $100.

On the performance front, we saw this ~215W card beat Nvidia’s RTX 3080 in most tests and competes with AMD’s 6800 XT. It’s still slower than AMD’s 7900XT cards, but it’s not intended to compete with them in the first place, as 4070s are 2/3 the price or even less when talking Founder’s Edition cards. The RTX 4070 is cheaper per frame than the RTX 3080, but still a $100+ increase over the previous generation RTX 3070’s release price.