MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING Graphics Card Review

TweakTown Rating: 98%

Our Verdict

An overclockable GTX 1070 Ti that provides better-than-GTX 1080 performance, outshining AMD's new Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, too. It does it all by staying nice, cool, and quiet. Yet another impressive card that MSI can add to its growing stack of awesome custom GTX 10 series cards.

Introduction

NVIDIA has launched its most exciting graphics cards in a while, with the new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti simply dominating everything that AMD has in its high-end arsenal with Radeon RX Vega, but also steps on the toes of its own GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 graphics cards.

MSI has launched two new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics cards so far, with both samples sitting in my lab right now. We've started with the flagship MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING graphics card, but I'll be working on the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti TITANIUM graphics card, with the review going live next week.

MSI's new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is more of the same from MSI and their GTX 10 series, so I won't spend much time going over the card itself... because if you've read a review on an MSI GTX 10 series card, you've nearly read them all really. MSI doesn't need to change much as their cards are nearly perfected as it is, but the GTX 1070 Ti GAMING continues to impress. SLI results will also be on their way with some huge numbers to tease.

Detailed Specs

MSI hasn't strayed too far away from NVIDIA's reference GTX 1070 Ti specs, with GPU base and boost clocks of 1607MHz and 1683MHz, respectively. The 8GB of GDDR5 on the card is clocked at its stock 8Gbps frequency, but we were able to crank this up to 9Gbps.

As you can see, we have a light 180W TDP from its 6+8-pin PCIe power configuration, and plenty of DP1.4 ports, alongside HDMI and DVI connectivity. SLI is still here, with 2-way SLI working beautifully in our testing, with results coming soon.

Cooling Tech: Twin Frozr VI

Twin Frozr VI Cooling

MSI puts some quality work into the custom PCB and cooling system on the GTX 1070 Ti GAMING.

RGB has to be included these days, right?!

We have a card that runs at under 65C during all tests, better than the 83C on the GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition.

Detailed Look

If you've seen one of MSI's GeForce GTX 10 series boxes, you've seen them all.

From the front, it looks identical to its siblings in the GTX 10 series from MSI. It's one style of card I never get bored of.

Even the back looks good, as I really love the backplate design that MSI uses. It just looks great.

From the bottom.

From the top, we have 6+8-pin PCIe power connectors.

Once more, from the end of the card with some additional heat sinks.

Test System

I've recently edited my GPU test bed, which was powered by the Intel Core i7-5960X processor, and shifted into the arms of Kaby Lake and Intel's new Core i7-7700K. GIGABYTE hooked us up with their awesome new AORUS Z270X-Gaming 9 motherboard, which is the heart and soul of my new GPU test platform.

Detailed Tech Specs

• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K
• Cooler: Nocua U12S
• MB: AORUS Z270X-Gaming 9
• RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) G.SKILL Trident Z 4000MHz DDR4
• SSD: 1TB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
• PSU: Corsair AX1500i
• Chassis: In Win X-Frame

Detailed Look

A larger article on our 7700K system is available right here.

Here are some shots I've taken of the new system in action:

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike - 1080p

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.

3DMark Fire Strike - 1440p

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.

3DMark Fire Strike - 4K

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.

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.

Heaven - 1440p

Heaven - 4K

Heaven - 3440x1440

Benchmarks - 1080p

1080p Benchmarks

Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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.

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p Benchmarks

Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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.

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

Benchmarks - 4K

4K Benchmarks

Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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.

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

Benchmarks - 3440x1440

3440x1440 Benchmarks

Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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.

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

Power & Temps

Power Consumption

With our entire system under 100% load, the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING was using up to 300W. With the overclock applied, we were looking at 300-330W depending on the game.

This is just a little higher than the GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition but much lower than the Radeon RX Vega 64 cards.

Temps

While the stock NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition gets to 80C or higher, the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING was only touching 62C when overclocked to 2025MHz on the GPU and 9Gbps on the GDDR5 memory.

I didn't touch the fan profiles, and let it spin at its automatic settings... so it could run much cooler (sub 60C) if you wanted.

Overclocking = GTX 1080 Performance, Or MORE

Overclocking Champ + Nice & Quiet

I spent a good chunk of time overclocking all of my GTX 1070 Ti samples, with the MSI GTX 1070 Ti GAMING reaching a stable 2025MHz on the GPU under 100% load. I could have the VRAM clocked at 4513MHz (9Gbps) offering up a huge 291GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

This is up from the 256GB/sec of stock memory bandwidth that both the GTX 1070 and GTX 1070 Ti are capable of, and much closer to the 320GB/sec on the GTX 1080. The performance benefit is definitely noticeable, with a large 10-15% jump in performance the stock GTX 1070 Ti speeds.

The overclock has a major improvement in memory bandwidth intensive games like Middle-earth: Shadow of War, with the overclocked MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING does some serious damage to the GTX 1080 FE. For just over $450, you're getting some stellar performance.

MSI's new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING is also much, much cooler and quieter than the GTX 1070 Ti FE. It definitely has some more headroom for overclocking over the Founders Edition card, while running much cooler at the 60C mark, versus 80C or higher on the FE.

Overclocking Performance

3DMark Fire Strike - 1080p

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.

3DMark Fire Strike - 1440p

3DMark Fire Strike - 4K

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.

Heaven - 1440p

Heaven - 4K

Metro Last Light - 1080p

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

Metro Last Light - 1440p

Metro Last Light - 4K

Performance Analysis

If you're in the market for something to play every game out there at 60FPS or more at 1080p and 1440p, the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING is definitely the card you should be looking at. This point is reinforced if you have a G-SYNC capable monitor or were looking at picking one up.

This card is built nearly perfectly for UltraWide gaming monitors, with 3440x1440 (and 2560x1080) resolutions running beautifully on the GTX 1070 Ti GAMING. With a few detail adjustments, you can enjoy super-smooth gaming at 60-100FPS, perfect for the 60/100Hz UltraWide gaming monitors.

Trust me, once you see Battlegrounds in UltraWide, you will never go back. Enjoy the free chicken dinners.

Final Thoughts

In my review of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition I gushed over its performance, as it isn't a contender for the Radeon RX Vega 56, but a Hulk Buster suit to it. In its stock form, the card provides enough performance to beat the GTX 1070 but lose to the GTX 1080, all the while beating the RX Vega 56 in more games than it loses to it in.

MSI provides all of this performance with its stock settings, but increasing the VRAM speeds by 500MHz sees the GTX 1070 Ti GAMING beating the GTX 1080 FE in most games. It's an impressive thing to see, alongside the 200MHz or so overclock on the GPU which we could get to around 2025MHz stable.

The entire MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING experience is polished from start to finish, from the packaging to the small details on the backplate of the card. MSI is all-class, and it shows with another amazing entry in their custom GTX 10 series cards.