Conclusion
Our review focused on the newest release in the NVIDIA RTX 4000 series, the RTX 4070. We received an MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO 12G and put it through our testing suite. This video card was tested at 1440p resolution in plain rasterized and Ray Tracing performance at the highest settings. We also utilized DLSS 2/FSR and enabled DLSS 3 in two of our games that support it. We also overclocked the video card. The comparison video cards chosen were the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.
Performance
We have seen in our other reviews of the RTX 4000 series that the AMD video cards can still put up some stiff results in plain rasterized gaming. This review was no different however the margin is very small. Overall the RX 6800 XT was an average of 8% faster than the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO in this setting. The big outlier was Watch Dogs Legion where the MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO took a beating. DLSS showed a very slight advantage to the RX 6800 XT. As always though enabling DLSS/FSR gives a big boost to performance. It is the difference in many of our games.
The inclusion of the RTX 3070 Ti demonstrates what has been accomplished generation over generation. The MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO is on average 29% faster that the older card priced the same at release.
In Ray Tracing we see pretty much the opposite results. The margin over the RX 6800 XT is roughly 21% either with or without upscaling. The big difference here is that the MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO is playable in every game whereas the other two cards may not be despite upscaling.
Looking at the RTX 3070 Ti specifically, the MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO is on average 35% faster in RayTracing, which is quite a good move forward.
Before we leave the Performance discussion, we added new testing to the mix in the way of DLSS 3. DLSS 3-Frame Generation is available as a selection in F1 and Cyberpunk 2077. It is slowly being adopted into newer games and improves the frame rate substantially. We gained over 90% in Cyberpunk 2077 and F1 at 1440p, Ray Tracing, and maximum settings, using performance DLSS + DLSS 3. That’s 134FPS and 195FPS respectfully. This technology can really put some octane in your $649 graphics card!!!
Overclocking
Overclocking the MSI RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO was very straightforward using MSI Afterburner. We were able to increase the GPU clock +175MHz and the memory clock +900MHz. This gave us a Boost clock of 3000MHz. At times the clocks reached 3030, but two of the games were unstable. Even as we were able to push the clocks 15% above the factory overclock, this at best amounted to a 5% real-time increase in the games.
The cooling system is excellent. The fans are essentially silent. Nothing more than automatic is needed. There is just enough RGB, but you need to install MSI Center which is a lot to just enable Mystic Lighting software.
Final Points
The MSI GeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO is the newest model in the RTX 4000 series of graphics cards from NVIDIA. MSI provided us with a very nice graphics card. Compared to the competition of the same price point it is a much better performer. Yes, the AMD RX 6800 XT of the last generation can give it a run in rasterized gaming. But the RTX 4070 is 35% better performance than the RTX 3070 Ti and simply is untouchable in Ray Tracing at 1440p. This card is simply amazing when DLSS 3 is enabled. There is no telling what this card is capable of as more and more games adopt DLSS 3. For $649 we think it is well worth the money when other video cards cost over twice as much.