MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X Review

1. Introduction
2. Everything You Need to Know About Ampere
3. RTX 3070 Ti Tech Specs
4. Detailed Look
5. Test System Specs
6. Benchmarks - Synthetic
7. Benchmarks - 1080p
8. Benchmarks - 1440p
9. Benchmarks - 4K
10. Overclocking
11. Power Consumption & Temps
12. What's Hot, What's Not
13. Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 93%

The Bottom Line

MSI offers the best of what can be squeezed out of the GA104 GPU + 8GB of super-fast GDDR6X memory with its new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card.

Introduction

MSI was the first to send their custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card over in my wave of RTX 3070 Ti reviews, with it being the new lowest sibling in MSI's growing SUPRIM X family of graphics cards.

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The new MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is everything you expect it to be -- a custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti with MSI's own turn on things with its SUPRIM X style and thermal solution. It culminates in one of the most over-the-top and fastest custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics cards that you can buy.

MSI continues its thick journey with a 3-slot custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X, using its TRI FROZR 2S cooling technology with a metal alloy shroud, dense aluminum fin-stack heat sink, 3 x TorX fans, and more all going on inside of the card.

There's 8GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit memory bus that provides up to 608GB/sec of memory bandwidth on the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. The card it directly competes against: AMD's new RDNA 2-powered Radoen RX 6800 -- has double the VRAM with 16GB, but only GDDR6 non-X memory.

• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X Review
• Read more: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X Review

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A nice little family photo of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series Founders Edition graphics cards, and my reviews on each of the separate cards.

• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition Review

For the entire time testing the MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card, I was using the new ASUS ROG Strix XG43UQ monitor... a huge 43-inch 4K 144Hz monitor with HDMI 2.1 connectivity. I used HDMI 2.1 directly into every GeForce RTX 3070 Ti that I've tested here today and will continue from this day onward.

Everything You Need to Know About Ampere

• Ampere GPU architecture: NVIDIA has so much going on under the Ampere GPU hood, with the GA104 GPU packing 17.4 billion transistors (that's 17.400,000,000) on the Samsung 8nm node. We have 6144 CUDA cores on GA104, over double the 2560 CUDA cores on the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER.
• RTX improvements: NVIDIA has effectively doubled everything when it comes to RTX, where it will rips and tears your games and delivers them to your eyeballs faster than ever before with Ampere. If you want to run any RTX-powered games, you'll want a new GeForce RTX 3080.
• GDDR6X memory: The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti has 8GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit memory bus, with 608GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

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• PCIe 4.0 connectivity: NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards are now PCIe 4.0 compatible, so if you're building a new AMD Ryzen 3000 series system with an X570 motherboard -- you will be ready to rock and roll with PCIe 4.0 connectivity.
• HDMI 2.1: 4K 120Hz + 8K 60Hz = single cable: If you are buying a new TV in the coming months or years, HDMI 2.1 is going to be something you want. It opens up the bandwidth floodgates to 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz over the single HDMI 2.1 cable.
• RTX IO: NVIDIA's introduction of RTX IO with Ampere is very similar to the ultra-fast game load times on the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles. You can read all about RTX IO right here, which is something we'll see build more foundation in 2021 and beyond.

RTX 3070 Ti Tech Specs

NVIDIA has made some rather big improvements with Ampere over the previous-gen Turing GPU architecture, with the new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti rocking 6144 CUDA cores against the 2560 CUDA cores found inside of the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER.

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We have the new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti packing 48 SMs, 192 Tensor Cores (3rd Gen) and 48 RT Cores (2nd Gen) against the 40 SMs, 320 Tensor Cores (2nd Gen), and 40 RT Cores (1st Gen) inside of the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER.

GPU boost clocks are close to the same between the two GPUs, with the new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition with a base GPU clock of 1575MHz and boost GPU clock of 1770MHz -- the base clock on the RTX 2070 SUPER is slightly higher.

But the major improvement here with the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the use of GDDR6X memory, with NVIDIA using the same 8GB framebuffer... the new GDDR6X clocked at 19Gbps (up from 14Gbps on GDDR6) on the same 256-bit memory bus results in 608GB/sec of memory bandwidth (up from 448GB/sec on the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER).

Detailed Look

MSI's new ultra-premium SUPRIM X line gets its lowest-end member in the new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X variant, but it has all of the MSI goodies that makes the SUPRIM X one of the best GeForce RTX series graphics cards money can buy and the retail packaging reflects that.

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Onto the front and back of the card, MSI's new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card has the same style as the GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3080 Ti, and RTX 3090 variants of MSI's new SUPRIM X family of cards. MSI has done nice tweak to the metal backplate, where there's some holes on the end in a pattern that when lit right in your PC with RGB lighting, looks fantastic.

MSI has moved the SUPRIM logo as well, to above the GPU (the card is upside down here, FYI) and the MSI dragon is closer to the GPU compared to the RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X.

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The MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is still a chunky card, with a 3-slot beast here.

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You will only need dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, compared to the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3070 Ti which requires triple 8-pin PCIe power connectors. MSI equals NVIDIA's own in-house GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition which might require a single 12-pin power connector, but that splits off into dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors -- the same as MSI's custom RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X.

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We have the same display connectivity as the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X and RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition cards, with 3 x DP 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.1 connector for the usual 4K 120/144Hz gaming goodness.

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And once again, this time up against the tiny little NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition for comparison.

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

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ASUS provided a rather large upgrade to my GPU testing lab -- or rather, I kept the ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ gaming monitor after my review on it. The 43-inch 4K 144Hz panel is just glorious to look at -- it's huge, the DPI for Windows 10 when set perfect for your viewing distance is kiss-fingers-emoji good. It's just amazing -- for work, and gaming.

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Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

I'll be making some changes over the coming months to the GPU test bed here for TweakTown, to both the Ryzen 9 5900X and then Intel's new Core i9-11900K to do some proper PCIe 4.0 testing between the chipsets for GPUs + super-fast load times into games on these new super-fast Sabrent SSDs.

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Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.

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Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)
• Monitor: ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

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3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark TimeSpy

Heaven - 1080p

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Benchmarks - 1080p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

1080p gaming is definitely something NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti dominates in, with 60FPS+ easily on AAA games with maxed out graphics for the most part. You should also be able to crank ray tracing in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and nail 60FPS average thanks to DLSS technology.

If you're playing esports games then you'll want 120-144FPS which is something the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti can easily do. Games like Overwatch, League of Legends, CS:GO, Rainbow Six: Siege and many others will enjoy those huge triple-digit frame rates.

MSI's custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X keeps up with and can beat NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition -- but you wouldn't tell the difference between the two cards when there's only single-digit FPS differences between the two -- at 1080p, and 1440p.

Benchmarks - 1440p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

The super-fast GDDR6X memory and next-gen Ampere GPU architecture allow NVIDIA to continue kicking ass at 2560 x 1440 -- and MSI only does a better job with its tweaked RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X at 1440p.

Benchmarks - 4K

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I wouldn't recommend the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti for 4K gaming, but MSI's custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is more than powerful enough to handle some 4K gaming at 60FPS.

Overclocking

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I had my sample of MSI's custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card hitting a GPU boost of up to 2115MHz on the dot, as usual with the Ampere GPU -- 2100MHz GPU boost wall. The GPU would tip over into 2115-2130MHz but it wouldn't last long.

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Here's the settings that I used, stable for hours and hours of overclocking.

Power Consumption & Temps

With the MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card overclocked as far as I could push it, somewhere between 2070-2130MHz GPU boost or so -- the GPU itself was running at around 52-54C, the GPU hotspot at 62-64C, and the GDDR6X at 64C -- all with the fans cranked to 100%.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

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• One of the fastest RTX 3070 Ti cards: You will not have to worry about performance when it comes to the MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X, which will offer everything the Founders Edition card will -- but with a chunkier, better cooler.
• SUPRIM X style: MSI has a very unique style with its SUPRIM X brand, with the front and the back of the card looking fantastic in a gaming PC. With RGB lighting reflecting off of the front and its metallic elements, it just has a unique look to it that nothing can match so far.
• Only dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors: NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition uses a 12-pin to dual 8-pin connectors, with MSI's custom RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X requiring just dual 8-pin PCIe connectors compared to others that require triple 8-pin connectors.

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• Thermal performance: Great thermal performance here with MSI, with the fantastic cooler on the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X keeping the GA104 GPU and 8GB of GDDR6X memory as cool as possible. Awesome thermal performance here from MSI once again.
• Bonus mouse pad: You'll even get a free SUPRIM X gaming mouse pad in the box with your graphics card, nice work there MSI. Everyone loves free swag.
• Even more gorgeous backplate: MSI had a great backplate on the other SUPRIM X cards, even the just-released RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X -- but I really dig the slightly tweaked backplate on the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X.

What's Not

There's nothing wrong with MSI's custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X -- but rather with NVIDIA and its positioning of the RTX 3070 Ti. That's something I went into greater detail in my review of NVIDIA's in-house GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition.

Fantastic performance, thermals, overclocking headroom... and a free mouse pad? Awesome.

Final Thoughts

MSI has a fantastic custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti on its hands with the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X -- equalling the performance of the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition but with superior thermal performance and its banging SUPRIM X style.

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The triple-fan cooler is huge and the 3-slot design just adds to that, but you knew that when you wanted to look at buying any MSI SUPRIM X graphics card. I do think that a triple-slot RTX 3070 Ti is kind of ridiculous but it's not like MSI is the only AIB in town making triple-slot Ampere cards.

NVIDIA just announced that a bunch more games will be getting RTX ray tracing and DLSS upgrades soon, where during its virtual Computex 2021 keynote the company announced that huge games like DOOM Eternal, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Rainbow Six: Siege would be getting RTX and DLSS technologies (some both, some just DLSS).

• Read more: DOOM Eternal receives ray tracing + NVIDIA DLSS update in June
• Read more: Red Dead Redemption 2 to get NVIDIA DLSS tech update soon
• Read more: Rainbow Six: Siege joins the NVIDIA DLSS train, update coming soon

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In that photo above, we have the MSI SUPRIM X family photo -- from left to right: RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X, RTX 3080 SUPRIM X, RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X, and finally the flagship beast RTX 3090 SUPRIM X.

If you're wanting to game at 1080p or 1440p at 120-144Hz and above, or even 4K 60FPS with ray tracing + DLSS enabled in AAA games then MSI's new custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is your new champion GPU... if you can find it, and don't mind paying whatever insane price you find it for.