Overclocking the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Supreme X
Prior to overclocking, we determine the baseline GPU clock speed. Both NVIDIA and AMD have dynamic baseline speeds. The GPU clock frequency in games is referred to as the Game Clock on AMD video cards and Boost Clock on NVIDIA cards. Generally, either brand’s card will exceed this baseline frequency dynamically. To determine the “baseline” we record the GPU frequency in our Cyberpunk 2077 manual run-through. This is a lengthy manual run at Ultra settings. Data is captured for frequency, temperature, voltage, and power using the GPU-Z sensor to log the data.
The MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPRIM X overclocked very well. The striking piece about these two frequencies is the absolute straight line. Once the benchmark run-through is started the clocks maintain the same frequency throughout over 5 minutes of manual gaming. The default out-of-the-box Boost clock is 2805MHz, while the listed reference Boost clock frequency is 2610MHz. This equates to a 7.5% increase right from the jump. That said, the MSI factory overclock is 2775MHz, so in reality we are seeing a 30MHz jump in the default settings which is about 1%.
When we apply our overclock to the MSI RTX 4070 Ti SUPRIM X, we were able to reach a steady 3005MHz, this additional boost is 200MHz which is 7.5% up from the default Boost Clock and 15% up from the reference Boost Clock. That is not bad right there.
To overclock our video card we utilized the tried and true MSI Afterburner. In use was version 4.6.5. Afterburner allowed us to adjust everything, clock frequencies, memory frequencies, GPU voltage, and of course power limit and temperature limit. In the first few trials, we noticed that the GPU Hot Spot was near 84C with the fans set to automatic. It seemed appropriate to increase the fan speed, which was then set to 60%. This was the sweet spot. The video card ran cool and the fans were nearly silent.
The final settings are listed in the right-hand screen capture below. GPU MHz was +189, memory +500, voltage +40% (equating to a .01 volt increase) power offset to 128%!!! and temperature offset to 88C. I was able to go even higher in Callisto Protocol. The card ran +205MHz equating to a Boost Clock of 3075MHz. This was also stable in Cyberpunk 2077 and Dying Light 2. Unfortunately, the card was unstable in Forspoken, Returnal, and Chernobylite.
All in all the MSI RTX 4070 Ti SUPRIM overclocked well, stayed comfortably cool, and was very quiet. If we had really pushed the voltage, there was probably more performance to be had. This card is certainly designed for it.