MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO 12G Video Card Review

The FPS Review may receive a commission if you purchase something after clicking a link in this article.

Gameplay Performance at 1440p

We have a selected suite of games to test the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO 12G at 1440p (2560 x 1440). We chose this resolution because NVIDIA has targeted this as the best-performance slot for the RTX 4070 video cards. All our selections were set at the maximum in-game graphic settings or custom combinations. We will run the video card with and without Ray Tracing enabled in-game.  DLSS and/or FSR are utilized in games that support the technology. Our video card will be compared to the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition. These two cards were chosen on the basis of the price point at release being closest to the MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO 12G. As well, there is currently nothing in this generation from AMD for comparison at the price point. So here we go.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II

Call of Duty Modern Warfare II was released on October 27, 2022, on the PC and uses the IW 9.0 gaming engine. The game supports all upscaling methods, including NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Image Scaling, AMD FSR 1.0 and 2.1, AMD Fidelity FX CAS, and Intel XeSS. We use the highest quality option of each. We customize every graphics setting to the maximum value for the best image quality and enable everything. We use the built-in benchmark.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GMING X Trio 12G : COD performance

It is no secret that AMD video cards are very good at plain raster performance. We see the RX 6800 XT best the MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO by 8%. Even with DLSS/FSR applied the gap is 3%. The generational win however over the RTX 3070 Ti is 35% and 33% with DLSS enabled. Overclock gains 6%. At this resolution, all the cards play the game smoothly.

F1 2022

F1 2022 was released on June 28th, 2022 on the PC and uses Codemasters Ego engine.  The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, AMD FidelityFX, and FSR.  We ran the game with the highest quality settings of “Ultra High” and TAA+FidelityFX.  DLSS and FSR were enabled as needed at the Quality setting for both.  The built-in benchmark was used at the Imola track, in dry conditions with a far-chasing cam.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GMING X Trio 12G : F1 performance

Again, we see some really fast results. This time the MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO comes out on top of the RX 6800 XT by 3% but loses by the same margin with upscaling, so pretty much a push. The overclocked MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO is slower, but this seems to be a consistent finding in the particular game. The RTX 3070 Ti gets wallopped by 36% and 30%.

Dying Light 2

Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC.  It uses Techland’s C-Engine and supports Ray Tracing for various environmental effects including Ray Traced Soft Shadows, Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion, Ray Traced Global Illumination, and Ray Traced Reflections.  It also supports both DLSS and FSR 2.1 upscaling technologies.  We are using the built-in benchmark.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GMING X Trio 12G : Dying light 2 performance

This is a very graphically demanding game. It is easily handled by all our cards, especially with upscaling! Again the RX 6800 XT leads by 4%, with basically a draw at upscaling. The RTX 3070 Ti is 20% slower.

Far Cry 6

Far Cry 6 was released in October of 2021 and uses the Dunia Engine. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We have the HD Texture pack installed and turned on. We utilize the “Ultra” graphics preset which sets all options to the highest game settings. We also use the game’s support of AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 to improve performance on both GPUs.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GMING X Trio 12G : Far Cry 6 performance

The MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO gets a win here by 7%. That is cut in half when FSR is enabled. Another 36% loss to the RTX 3070 Ti. Once again we see that each one of these graphics cards is more than capable in this game at 1440p.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.61 for our testing and we are using the game’s built-in benchmark. We test using the Preset options for Ultra quality. This game also supports DLSS and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution FSR 2.1.  We test DLSS Quality on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR 2.1 Ultra Quality on AMD GPUs. Testing on our AMD video card shows no frame rate advantage FSR 1.0 versus FSR 2.1.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GMING X Trio 12G : Cyberpunk 2077 performance

Surprisingly, in this game, at this resolution, all the cards are quite capable. The RX 6800 XT is the fastest by 6%. 11% when upscaling is utilized. We were able to gain 2.5% with the overclock. The MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO bested the RTX 3070 Ti by 14% and 9%.

Watch Dogs Legion

Watch Dogs Legion was released on the PC in October of 2020 and uses the Disrupt game engine. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We have the HD Texture pack installed and enabled for testing. We use the built-in graphics preset of “Ultra” for testing. Only DLSS is available in this game as an upscaling option.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GMING X Trio 12G : Watch Dogs Legionperformance

The old video cards let the dogs out! MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO has a 30% loss here. The shame is it can’t even get close to DLSS, although things do tighten up a little bit between the NVIDIA cards. Whoa……Regardless of the result, the frame rates are very good in this challenging game.

Join the discussion in our forums...

REVIEW OVERVIEW

Gaming Performance
8
Overclocking
8
Build Quality and Cooling
10
Price and Value
9

SUMMARY

This review is the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X Trio video card. This $649 graphics card is very well built with excellent, quiet cooling and power efficiency. The gaming performance at 1440p is excellent with Ray Tracing enabled. The performance is only average in rasterized gaming. The advent of DLSS3 technology does present great promise for this video card. With this in mind, the price point is very well placed and a good value.
Rick Patterson
Rick is an avid gamer that enjoys the latest and greatest video cards in his rigs. For the past few years, he's shared that expertise with The FPS Review's audience as a GPU reviewer.

Recent News

This review is the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X Trio video card. This $649 graphics card is very well built with excellent, quiet cooling and power efficiency. The gaming performance at 1440p is excellent with Ray Tracing enabled. The performance is only average in rasterized gaming. The advent of DLSS3 technology does present great promise for this video card. With this in mind, the price point is very well placed and a good value.MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO 12G Video Card Review