For today’s review I have MSI’s RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio (opens in new tab)This is the card that brings Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture down to a low price point, but the three words “low price” are very relative.Still, it’s a card that essentially matches the RTX 3090 (opens in new tab) Improve performance while keeping costs down.In that sense, the RTX 4070 Ti (opens in new tab) Not a bad proposition.
Check out our Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti review if you haven’t read it yet. (opens in new tab)Formerly called the RTX 4080 12GB, this card is basically a very good graphics card, but the price still hurts.
It seems like every GPU article in the last few years consists of talking about pricing. Given the mid-range specs of the RTX 4070 Ti, it feels like Nvidia has a lot of room to cut prices. We are still in the early stages of the life cycle of the Ada generation of cards, so you can imagine that the entire GPU product stack from both AMD and Nvidia are due to undergo price fixes. No one knows when that will happen.
But before we draw too many conclusions (with an introduction) let me introduce you to the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio. It is the latest version of MSI’s popular model that sits above the Ventus series and below the Suprim series. The Gaming X Trio has the distinct style of its predecessor, with a stylized and slightly angular aesthetic with plenty of RGB lighting, custom PCBs, and factory overclocks.
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio Overview and Specs
Gaming X Trio specs
GPUs: AD104-400-A1
Shader unit: 7,680
Boost clock speed: 2,680MHz
Storage capacity: 12GB GDDR6X
Memory speed: 21Gbps
output: 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x HDMI 2.1
Power connector: 16-pin x 1
price: $879 (opens in new tab)| | £889 (opens in new tab) | | ¥1,599 (opens in new tab)
MSI, like all RTX 4070 Ti cards released to date, is built around the AD104, the third Ada Lovelace GPU to be released. This follows AD102 onboard the GeForce RTX 4090 and AD103 at the heart of the GeForce RTX 4080. AD104 is a fully featured 4nm GPU with 7,680 Cores, 60 RT Cores and 240 Tensor Cores enabled. MSI has clocked the Gaming X Trio at a boost clock of 2745MHz. That’s 135MHz above Nvidia’s reference speed.
The card comes with 12 GB of 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory attached to a 192-bit bus. The resulting 504.2GB/s memory bandwidth isn’t bad, but it’s actually less than the 256-bit RTX 3070 Ti’s 608.3GB/s. I just can’t get used to the idea that a card that costs this much has a memory bus like the one that was on midrange cards ten years ago.
The MSI board has a TDP of 285W and is powered by a single 16-pin 12HPWR power connector. The display outputs are 3 standard DP 1.4 ports and 1 HDMI 2.1 port. Unlike AMD’s latest GPUs, DP 2.0 is absent from his Ada generation.
The Gaming X Trio is a big triple-slot card at 34cm long, which is honestly overkill for a card in its class. That’s not a bad thing! The shroud is mostly black with gray highlights. It has the RGB MSI logo on the side and additional elements on either side of the central fan. The back of the card has a full-length metal backplate.
MSI’s Gaming X Trio cards have a longstanding reputation for offering an excellent balance of low noise levels and cooling power. As a cooler built to deal with higher TDPs, it has no problem keeping the 285W AD104 GPU running cool and quiet.
A main heatsink cools the GPU, memory, and VRMs. There are 6 heatpipes used to dissipate heat into what look like acres of fins. There is also a small frame separate from the main heatsink for cooling some additional components. It also adds some stiffness to the card.
The PCB is custom. It contains two separate 10-phase designs for memory.Compared to some extreme VRMs seen in some RTX 4090 or AMD RX 7900 XTX (opens in new tab) Compared to cards in its class, the MSI 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio PCB is very mundane. AD104 GPU doesn’t need high-end his VRM design.
The Gaming X trio comes with dual BIOS. The default settings add a silent option to run a less aggressive fan curve. However, the card makes very little noise anyway, so I don’t see why it would have a silent setting.
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio Performance Benchmarks
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The RTX 4070 Ti is priced in line with the RX 7900 XT (opens in new tab)How do they stack on top of each other?
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Looking at the cooling results, you might be surprised to find that the MSI Gaming X Trio runs hotter than the other cards.
test equipment
CPU: Intel Core i9 12900K
Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Apex
sheep: 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident-Z DDR5-6000 C36
Storage: 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530
cooling: Cooler Master PL360 Flux 360mm AIO
Power supply unit: Corsair AX1000
This was a deliberate choice by MSI and I largely agree. At this temperature, the RTX 4070 Ti’s boost clock can reach max, but the cooler is mostly silent. There is no point in increasing the fan speed any further. No performance benefit, just more noise.
When looking at pure power consumption numbers, the RTX 4070 Ti stands out. It beats the RX 7900 XT, but just as importantly, it completely beats the RTX 3080 Ti (and therefore the RTX 3080 to the RTX 3090 Ti). The RTX 4070 Ti isn’t a perfect card, but in terms of power consumption, it’s great.
Synthetic game performance
1440p gaming performance
4K gaming performance
Analysis of MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio
Let’s ignore pricing for a moment and focus on relative performance. The RTX 4070 Ti is a very good 1440p card, reaching base 60fps in Cyberpunk 2077 without DLSS Voodoo enabled. Benchmarks with ray tracing enabled beat both the RTX 3080 Ti and RX 7900 XT.
The tables are turned when it comes to traditional rendering where the RX 7900 XT draws a healthy lead. It all comes back to the perennial question: Do you value ray tracing and DLSS? Both cards have advantages and disadvantages.
At 4K, the RTX 4070 Ti’s performance seems to drop a bit. This is probably the result of a memory bandwidth bottleneck. 4K gaming is still possible, but the likes of the RTX 3080 and Ti are still strong contenders.
Interestingly, the MSI card was always running up to 2,850MHz. Nvidia (and MSI) deserve credit for extracting clock speeds like this without losing the power consumption plot.
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio Verdict
It feels like Nvidia is making a ton of money every time the RTX 4070 Ti goes on sale.
So, while the RTX 4070 Ti is a powerful 1440p card and plenty capable of ever-impressive DLSS-enabled 4K gaming, it doesn’t exist in isolation, so the price is back in the equation. It’s not bad compared to the RX 7900 XT, but it has a much more complex design. It feels like Nvidia is making a ton of money every time the RTX 4070 Ti goes on sale. What we can do is hopefully bring some relief to gamers who have been largely unable to cheer in recent years to cope with the pandemic, supply chain issues and mining demands.
Coming back to the MSI Gaming X Trio, I’m happy to say that MSI has done a great job once again. The cooler is well-tuned so the GPU can reach its best boost state without compromising noise levels.
Good-looking, high-quality PCBs, dual BIOS, and Afterburner software are always mentioned favorably, but their future isn’t entirely certain. (opens in new tab).
Whether the RTX 4070 Ti is the right card for you really depends on what you currently have in your rig. without having to reap the benefits of greatly improved ray tracing performance and DLSS. However, if you’re using the RTX 30 or RX 6000 series cards, the benefits aren’t as dramatic, especially given the costs involved.
If you’re looking to buy the RTX 4070 Ti, the MSI flavor is the way to go. Blends performance cooling capacity and build quality into a well-balanced package. It’s not that expensive compared to the high-end Asus Strix and MSI Suprim. This is especially important if you consider these cards to be really overkill as they are mid-range GPUs by nature.
Drop Nvidia’s price by 100 and the RTX 4070 Ti is something else, incredibly powerful.
