Msi rtx 2070 gaming x review
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July 9, 2019 Featured Tech Reviews, Graphics, Reviews Show It's been a frenetic few days in the PC hardware industry. Nvidia took us all by surprise with the timing of its SUPER graphics card launch on July 2, while AMD followed that up with both Navi and Ryzen 3000 launching on July 7. Today things continue with the launch of custom RTX SUPER cards from Nvidia's partners. The card we are looking at is the RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming X Trio from MSI – could this be the 2070 SUPER to beat? MSI's Gaming X series is well known for producing high-quality cards that are often factory overclocked to the limits. While this is a very beefy card, with a triple-fan cooler and 7 heatpipes, it is slightly disappointing to see the GPU has only been factory overclocked by 30MHz – from the reference speed of 1770MHz, up to 1800MHz. How much of a difference that will make in games, we'll have to see. As for pricing, ahead of launch MSI hasn't been able to tell us an exact figure, but we were told £550 ‘plus or minus' £20, so between £530-570. Bearing in mind the fact that the Founders Edition retails for £475, you will be paying at least £55 extra for this MSI model, potentially rising to a £95 price premium. Is it worth the extra money? GPU RTX 2080 (FE) RTX 2070 SUPER RTX 2070 (FE) RTX 2060 SUPER RTX 2060 (FE) SMs 46 40 36 34 30 CUDA Cores 2944 2560 2304 2176 1920 Tensor Cores 368 320 288 272 240 Tensor FLOPS 85 72 63 57.4 51.6 RT Cores 46 40 36 34 30 Texture Units 184 160 144 136 120 ROPs 64 64 64 64 48 Rays Cast 8 Giga Rays 7 Giga Rays 6 Giga Rays 6 Giga Rays 5 Giga Rays GPU Boost Clock 1800 MHz 1770 MHz 1710 MHz 1650 MHz 1680 MHz Memory Data Rate 14 Gbps 14 Gbps 14 Gbps 14 Gbps 14 Gbps Total Video Memory 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR6 Memory Interface 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 192-bit Memory Bandwidth 448 GB/sec 448 GB/sec 448 GB/sec 448 GB/sec 336.1 GB/sec TDP 225W 215W 185W 175W 160W As a RTX 2070 SUPER, this card is built on a cut-down TU104 GPU, the same GPU that forms the basis of the RTX 2080. RTX 2080 has 46 SMs and 2944 CUDA cores, but 2070 SUPER reduces this to 40 SMs and 2560 CUDA cores, which is still 256 more than the vanilla RTX 2070. Alongside this, the card is equipped with 8GB of GDDR6 memory, running at 14Gbps over a 256-bit bus. As we will see on the next page, the memory chips themselves are from Micron. Clock speed is rated at 1800MHz as we mentioned, though interestingly this has not affected the rated power consumption, as MSI claims it's still 215W just like the slower-clocked Founders Edition. It's been a frenetic few days in the PC hardware industry. Nvidia took us all by surprise with the timing of its SUPER graphics card launch on July 2, while AMD followed that up with both Navi and Ryzen 3000 launching on July 7. Today things continue with the launch of custom RTX SUPER cards from Nvidia's partners. The card we are looking at is the RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming X Trio from MSI – could this be the 2070 SUPER to beat? MSI's Gaming X series is well known for producing high-quality cards that are often factory overclocked to the limits. While this is a very beefy card, with a triple-fan cooler and 7 heatpipes, it is slightly disappointing to see the GPU has only been factory overclocked by 30MHz – from the reference speed of 1770MHz, up to 1800MHz. How much of a difference that will make in games, we'll have to see. As for pricing, ahead of launch MSI hasn't been able to tell us an exact figure, but we were told £550 ‘plus or minus' £20, so between £530-570. Bearing in mind the fact that the Founders Edition retails for £475, you will be paying at least £55 extra for this MSI model, potentially rising to a £95 price premium. Is it worth the extra money? GPU RTX 2080 (FE) RTX 2070 SUPER RTX 2070 (FE) RTX 2060 SUPER RTX 2060 (FE) SMs 46 40 36 34 30 CUDA Cores 2944 2560 2304 2176 1920 Tensor Cores 368 320 288 272 240 Tensor FLOPS 85 72 63 57.4 51.6 RT Cores 46 40 36 34 30 Texture Units 184 160 144 136 120 ROPs 64 64 64 64 48 Rays Cast 8 Giga Rays 7 Giga Rays 6 Giga Rays 6 Giga Rays 5 Giga Rays GPU Boost Clock 1800 MHz 1770 MHz 1710 MHz 1650 MHz 1680 MHz Memory Data Rate 14 Gbps 14 Gbps 14 Gbps 14 Gbps 14 Gbps Total Video Memory 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 6GB GDDR6 Memory Interface 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 192-bit Memory Bandwidth 448 GB/sec 448 GB/sec 448 GB/sec 448 GB/sec 336.1 GB/sec TDP 225W 215W 185W 175W 160W As a RTX 2070 SUPER, this card is built on a cut-down TU104 GPU, the same GPU that forms the basis of the RTX 2080. RTX 2080 has 46 SMs and 2944 CUDA cores, but 2070 SUPER reduces this to 40 SMs and 2560 CUDA cores, which is still 256 more than the vanilla RTX 2070. Alongside this, the card is equipped with 8GB of GDDR6 memory, running at 14Gbps over a 256-bit bus. As we will see on the next page, the memory chips themselves are from Micron. Clock speed is rated at 1800MHz as we mentioned, though interestingly this has not affected the rated power consumption, as MSI claims it's still 215W just like the slower-clocked Founders Edition. The MSI RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming X Trio ships in a fairly colourful box, though I am not too sure about the yellow-ish section on the right hand side – it looks quite unappealing… The back is more subdued, though, with MSI using it to highlight some key features of the card. As for the included bundle, MSI is as generous as ever. We find a quick start guide, Lucky the Dragon cartoon, two disposable coasters and a MSI product portfolio leaflet. More practical is the included GPU support bracket. This is designed to be screwed into the two PCIe slots underneath the card itself, and prevent any unwanted ‘GPU sag'. A short installation guide is also included. Moving onto the card itself, the overall design language is certainly familiar. I've not reviewed the RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio, but I am almost certain this is the same cooler – it makes sense for MSI to re-use an existing design, considering both RTX 2080 and 2070 SUPER use the same physical GPU. This means we have a black and gunmetal grey shroud, and while it is made from plastic it feels reasonably sturdy. Most of the front of the card is given over to those three fans, however, and it's interesting that two of these fans measure 100mm while the fan nearest the I/O bracket measures 90mm. All three are MSI's Torx 3.0 designs, however, designed to maximise airflow down onto the heatsink below. As you may have guessed given a support bracket comes in the box, the Gaming X Trio is a big card. It measures 328 x 140 x 56.5mm, so it is effectively a triple-slot card coming in over 30cm long. It also weighs more than 1.5KG, so definitely not one for the faint of heart. The front of the card is home to the MSI and GeForce RTX logos, while a LED strip also runs above this section of the shroud, and that is configurable using MSI's Mystic Light software. It's the backplate I like most, though, as it is a lovely brushed metal design. The metal is brushed in two different directions too, and this creates a beautiful two-tone effect depending on how the light hits the card. It's a very stylish design. Other things to note include MSI's decision to increase the power connectors – the card requires 2x 8-pins instead of 1x 8-pin and 1x 6-pin. Lastly, display outputs consist of 3x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI, but curiously there is no USB-C connector as per the Founders Edition. Disassembling the card gives us access to the PCB, but you will notice there is a separate metal plate sitting around the GPU. We've seen these before, and it is designed to act as a heatsink for the VRAM chips while also increasing overall rigidity of the card. This is screwed into the backplate and the I/O bracket. Once that is removed, we get a look at MSI's custom PCB for the Gaming X Trio. Again, I can't be certain but this is more than likely to be the same PCB as the 2080 Gaming X Trio, but with a slight adjustment to the power delivery – with MSI opting for an 8+2 phase configuration rather than 10+2 from the 2080 version of this card. The memory chips – 8x1GB – are from Micron, labelled ‘9EA77D9WCW'. Lastly, while this is a TU104 GPU, the ‘TU104-410' labelling is something new – given that chips are no longer binned into ‘A' and ‘non-A' stacks, the 410 signifier denote this is a new, standard GPU that came after Nvidia stopped splitting its chips. As for the heatsink, this is a very hefty unit split into two separate fin stacks. These are connected by 7 nickel-plated heatpipes, with one of which measures 8mm while the others are 6mm. The GPU die contacts with one coldplate, while there is another coldplate for the VRM as well. Our newest GPU test procedure has been built with the intention of benchmarking high-end graphics cards. We test at 1920×1080 (1080p), 2560×1440 (1440p), and 3840×2160 (4K UHD) resolutions. We try to test using the DX12 API if titles offer support. This gives us an interpretation into the graphics card performance hierarchy in the present time and the near future, when DX12 becomes more prevalent. After all, graphics cards of this expense may stay in a gamer’s system for a number of product generations/years before being upgraded. We tested the RX Vega64 and Vega56 using the ‘Turbo‘ power mode in AMD’s WattMan software. This prioritises all-out performance over power efficiency, noise output, and lower thermals. Driver Notes
Test System We test using the Overclockers UK Germanium pre-built system, though it has been re-housed into an open-air test bench. You can read more about it over HERE. CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Overclocked to 4.8GHz Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming Memory Team Group Dark Hawk RGB 16GB (2x8GB) @ 3200MHz 16-18-18-38 Graphics Card Varies System Drive Samsung 960 EVO 500GB Games Drive Crucial M4 512GB Chassis Streacom ST-BC1 Bench CPU Cooler OCUK TechLabs 240mm AIO Power Supply Corsair AX1500i 80+ Titanium PSU Operating System Windows 10 1903 Comparison Graphics Cards List
Software and Games List
We run each benchmark/game three times, and present averages in our graphs.3DMark Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our [FutureMark’s] most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Things are pretty much what we'd expect from the initial 3DMark scores. The MSI Gaming X Trio comes in faster than the Founders Edition across all three benchmarks, while it is also consistently ahead of the Radeon RX 5700 XT. 3DMark Port Royal is the world’s first dedicated real-time ray tracing benchmark for gamers. You can use Port Royal to test and compare the real-time ray tracing performance of any graphics card that supports Microsoft DirectX Raytracing. As well as benchmarking performance, 3DMark Port Royal provides a realistic and practical example of what to expect from ray tracing in upcoming games. The same can be said for Port Royal, 3DMark's ray tracing-specific benchmark. The MSI outperforms the Founders Edition by around 150 points. Battlefield V is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. Battlefield V is the sixteenth instalment in the Battlefield series. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 20, 2018. (Wikipedia). We test using the Ultra preset with the DX12 API. AMD's RX 5700 XT is faster at 1080p and 1440p in Battlefield V, but we see the MSI outperforming the 2070 SUPER Founders by 4% at those same resolutions. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set in the year 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution and the “Aug Incident”—an event in which mechanically augmented humans became uncontrollable and lethally violent. Unbeknownst to the public, the affected augmented received implanted technology designed to control them by the shadowy Illuminati, which is abused by a rogue member of the group to discredit augmentations completely. (Wikipedia). We test using the Very High preset, with MSAA disabled. We test using the DX12 API. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided again favours AMD hardware, with the RX 5700 XT faster than the MSI card at 1080p and 1440p. The Gaming X Trio is consistently 3% faster than its Founders Edition cousin. Far Cry 5 is an action-adventure first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the eleventh entry and the fifth main title in the Far Cry series, and was released on March 27, 2018. The game takes place in the fictional Hope County, Montana, where charismatic preacher Joseph Seed and his cult Project at Eden’s Gate holds a dictatorial rule over the area. The story follows an unnamed junior deputy sheriff, who becomes trapped in Hope County and works alongside factions of a resistance to liberate the county from Eden’s Gate. (Wikipedia). We test using the Ultra preset, with AA and motion blur disabled. Far Cry 5 sees the MSI 2070 SUPER easily outpacing the 5700 XT, coming in a couple of frames faster than the reference-clocked Founders card. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is a tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on March 7, 2017, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as the tenth instalment in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon franchise and is the first game in the Ghost Recon series to feature an open world environment. (Wikipedia). We test using the Very High preset. The Gaming X Trio comes within touching distance of the RTX 2080 in Ghost Recon Wildlands, though again that only puts it a couple of frames faster than the 2070 SUPER FE. Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver in 2019. It is the third instalment in the Metro video game series based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels, following the events of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. (Wikipedia) We test using the Ultra preset, but with Hairworks and Advanced PhysX turned off. We test using the DX12 API. Much the same can be said for Metro Exodus. The Gaming X Trio is not showing any big gains over the Founders Edition, with just 2.2FPS between them at 1080p. Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an action role-playing video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the sequel to 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. (Wikipedia). We test using the Very High preset. It's the same thing in Shadow of War, too – the MSI is not much faster than the Founders Edition at all, though the RX 5700 XT is significantly slower in this title. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2013 game Tomb Raider and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series. The game released worldwide on 14 September 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. (Wikipedia). We test using the Highest preset, with AA disabled. We test using the DX12 API. Shadow of the Tomb Raider serves as another example of how close the two 2070 SUPER cards are in terms of performance. The Gaming X Trio is also 8FPS faster than the 5700 XT at 1440p. Battlefield V is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. Battlefield V is the sixteenth installment in the Battlefield series. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 20, 2018. (Wikipedia). We test using the Ultra preset with the DX12 API. Battlefield V was the first game released with Nvidia RTX ray tracing features (called DXR in game) and we present average frame rates for the game with DXR Off, and then again with DXR set to Ultra. Battlefield V with DXR enabled does present one surprise, as the Gaming X Trio actually outperformed the RTX 2080 at 1080p resolution with the ray traced reflections set to ultra quality. At 1440p and 4K it still comes close, but that RTX 2080 does re-gain the performance lead. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2013 game Tomb Raider and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series. The game released worldwide on 14 September 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. (Wikipedia). We test using the Highest preset, with AA disabled. We test using the DX12 API. For these ray tracing benchmarks, we present average frame rates for the game with ray traces shadows (DXR) off, and then again with ray traced shadows set to Ultra. Things are as expected when enabling ray traced shadows in this title. Performance with RTX on is decent here, with the Gaming X Trio averaging over 50FPS, even at 1440p. That's still a 40FPS hit compared to RTX off, mind you. Here we present the average clock speed for each graphics card while running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. We use GPU-Z to record the GPU core frequency during the Fire Strike Ultra runs. We calculate the average core frequency during the entire 20-run test to present here. While its rated boost clock is just 30MHz higher, we saw a real-world clock speed difference of 74MHz between the Gaming X Trio and the 2070 SUPER Founders Edition. It's still not a lot, but it goes to show why the MSI card was marginally outperforming the Founders across today's benchmarks. For our temperature testing, we measure the peak GPU core temperature under load, as well as the GPU temperature with the card idling on the desktop. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. An idle reading comes after leaving the system on the Windows desktop for 30 minutes. Here we see one of the main benefits to buying the MSI card – it runs very cool, with a peak GPU temperature of just 65C. This is 8C less than the Founders Edition, and makes it the coolest-running RTX card on our chart. Our thermal gun only backs this up, with no hotspots of any concern on the card itself. The backplate does a good job at spreading the heat from the PCB, with a hot spot of 66C towards the top of the card. We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the noise floor to be 32 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. An idle reading comes after leaving the system on the Windows desktop for 30 minutes. This card's biggest selling point is clearly its low level of noise output – it is a very quiet graphics card, and it has to be up there with the quietest I've ever tested. To put it into perspective, I usually sit about three feet away from our open-air GPU test bench. At this distance, I simply could not hear the fans spinning on the card – it wasn't until I moved my head within a few inches that the noise actually became audible. This is, by far, the Gaming X Trio's best feature. We measure system-wide power draw from the wall while the card is sat idling at the Windows 10 desktop for 30 minutes. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. Power consumption levels are as expected, with the MSI drawing just 6W more than the Founders Edition 2070 SUPER due to its slightly increased clock speed. I used MSI Afterburner to overclock the Gaming X Trio, with +115MHz to the GPU core and +925MHz to the memory proving my best overclock. Average clock speed under load This saw average clock speed shoot up to 2063MHz, so a very impressive result indeed. In fact, in Ghost Recon: Wildlands, I actually observed the clock pushing 2100MHz, though it didn't stay there for too long. 3DMark and games This saw some very decent gains, with the Gaming X Trio now beating the RTX 2080 in all of our games at 1440p resolution. The Fire Strike score also rose by around 1600 points. Here, we take a further look at the impact of our overclock, looking at the increased temperatures, acoustics and power draw. Temperatures Acoustics Power consumption Overview The card dealt with the overclock very well. Noise levels and temperatures hardly changed, with the 30W increase in power draw marking the most significant change in behaviour versus the card when stock. Even then, it's well worth it for the extra performance we saw in game. With Nvidia's RTX 2070 SUPER launching one week ago, today we have assessed the first of the custom SUPER cards to come through our labs – the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming X Trio. As is likely to be very common among board partners, it looks like MSI has re-used its cooler and PCB design from the RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio for this 2070 SUPER card, which makes sense considering both are built on the TU104 GPU. As our results show, however, that is a very good thing as this card runs very cool, with a peak temperature of 65C when under load. Noise levels are even better, however, and I really do have to stress this point – this is a very quiet card and it proved impossible to hear when sat just three feet away. For anyone who just does not want to hear their graphics card whirring away while gaming, this Gaming X Trio is a top choice. As for how the card performs in games, this is where things get a little disappointing. MSI has not been very adventurous with its factory overclock at all, adding just 30MHz to the GPU core when compared with reference speeds. That means the Gaming X Trio is consistently faster than the 2070 SUPER Founders Edition that we reviewed last week, but only by 2% on average. I do find this to be a shame, particularly as MSI's Gaming series is known for producing high quality cards that run fast out of the box. That just isn't the case here, with very marginal gains to be had over the reference-clocked Founders Edition. AMD's new RX 5700 XT is also a strong contender for your money. To be clear, its reference design cannot hold a candle to this Gaming X Trio in terms of noise levels or temperatures, so if those two factors are big priorities for you then this won't necessarily apply. But there is no denying the 5700 XT offers superior value in terms of pure gaming performance, as it's on average 7% slower yet costs 20% less than the RTX 2070 SUPER's MSRP of £475. Speaking of pricing, things aren't looking good for MSI here. At the time of writing we are waiting on final pricing, but were told it will be £550 ‘plus or minus' £20, so between £530-570. For me, that is just too expensive for what you are getting. This card is a clear improvement over the Founders Edition (though, like we said, not by much in terms of gaming performance) but there is a limit to how much you'd be willing to pay for those improvements. If the pricing does come in at the upper end of that range, it could be £95 more than the Founders Edition, while even a £55 price premium is a 12% increase over MSRP. Things once again come down to Nvidia building such a good reference card with its Founders Editions, that its partners suffer when trying to compete with their custom boards. Like we said, the Gaming X Trio is still a very proficient card, but would you be prepared to pay up to £95 more for it? If it were my own money, I have to say I'd just pocket the extra cash and go for the Founders Edition, as it is still an excellent card. So, as things stand, if you do want to go for a new Nvidia card – perhaps you have a G-Sync monitor or value ray tracing – the RTX 2070 SUPER Founders Edition does look like the way to go. If you're simply looking for best value, though, there is a lot to be said for AMD's RX 5700 XT. We have written this review ahead of the official retail launch so do not yet have a buy-link for the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming X Trio. We will update this review when we have one. Update (14:01): Overclockers UK has the Gaming X Trio listed for £569.99 HERE. We have also found it on Ebuyer for £549.99 HERE. Pros
Cons
KitGuru says: With the right pricing, the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER Gaming X Trio would be an easy recommendation over the Founders Edition, despite its lacklustre factory overclock. As it is, pricing is simply not in its favour and the Founders Edition makes a lot more sense. Is MSI GeForce RTX 2070 good?If you're using a higher-end 1080p or 1440p gaming monitor with 120-165Hz refresh rate, and can't quite afford the RTX 2080 or RTX 2080 Ti but didn't like the performance of the RTX 2060, MSI's new GeForce RTX 2070 GAMING Z is the perfect card for you. Is the MSI gaming X good for gaming?The MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G delivers consistently better 1% low performance over the GeForce RTX 3060 and even the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in many cases. Compared to the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming X 8G is roughly 17.5% slower for 1080p gaming. Is RTX 2070 outdated?An updated gpu will be released every now and then. Rtx 2070 would still be able to run most of the upcoming games without any issues. Yes for sure RTX 2070 super is completely Future proof. You won't have to change the card for at least 5 years. Is RTX 2070 good for gaming in 2023?Is the RTX 2070 still good in 2023? If you prefer higher resolution at 4K, in some games with DLSS it can still perform very well, getting about 30-50 fps with DLSS balanced in most games, or higher up to low-high 60 with DLSS performance. |
