MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review

MSI's new GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X uses a dual-fan cooler, same rockin' performance.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: MSI
9 minutes & 55 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 91%
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The Bottom Line

Virtually identical to the triple-fan RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X TRIO from MSI, the new RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X drops to a dual-fan cooler with all the bells and whistles in its higher-end sibling. Another kick ass GAMING X card from MSI.

Introduction & Pricing

MSI has now launched another custom GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics card with its new RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X -- coming in just under the larger RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X TRIO.

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The big difference MSI has here with the new RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X is that it drops the word 'TRIO' from its name, which indicated a triple-fan cooler, instead replacing it with a smaller dual-fan cooler. We still have the same TU104 GPU and 8GB GDDR6 memory, but MSI is only charging $10 more than NVIDIA does for its RTX 2070 SUPER Founders Edition.

MSI is selling the new GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X for $510, which is a damn good deal considering you get all of the performance the RTX 2070 SUPER has to offer but with far improved thermals over the FE version of the card.

What makes the RTX 2070 SUPER so special is that instead of using the TU106, NVIDIA uses the TU104 which is the same GPU used in the higher-end RTX 2080. This means MSI (and other AIBs) can use existing RTX 2080 board designs, do some adjustments, and pump out the RTX 2070 SUPER quick.

Better yet, the RTX 2080 uses higher-end cooling which means the TU104-based RTX 2070 SUPER retains this higher-end cooling. Awesome.

Buy at Amazon

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$249.00$249.00$299.99
* Prices last scanned on 3/28/2024 at 9:24 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Specs: Turing GPU & No GDDR6 Upgrade

TU104 - The Same GPU as RTX 2080

Just like the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER has the same TU106 as the RTX 2060 had, the new RTX 2070 SUPER uses the TU104 GPU which is the same as the RTX 2080 -- up from the TU106 used on the normal RTX 2070. And again, like its RTX 2060 SUPER sibling the new RTX 2070 SUPER has an upgraded GPU with more SMs and CUDA cores, as well as higher GPU clocks.

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NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER and its TU104 GPU has 2560 CUDA cores over the 2304 CUDA cores in TU106 that powers the RTX 2060, while there's now 40 SMs over the 36 SMs in the RTX 2060. The GPU clocks increase a fair amount as well with the new RTX 2070 SUPER with a base GPU clock of 1605MHz versus the 1410MHz on the RTX 2070 while the boost GPU clocks go up to 1770MHz versus the 1620MHz on the normal RTX 2070.

We have 9.1 TFLOPs of FP32 compute performance on the RTX 2070 SUPER against the 7.5 TFLOPs on the RTX 2070, with 72 TFLOPs of Tensor FLOPs on the RTX 2070 SUPER versus the 60 TFLOPs on the regular RTX 2070.

No GDDR6 Upgrades Here

Unlike the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, the new RTX 2070 SUPER has no upgrades to its 8GB of GDDR6. We have 448GB/sec of memory bandwidth on the RTX 2070 SUPER and even when writing this review, the 448GB/sec on the RTX 2060 SUPER feels so ridiculously high that I genuinely double checked it as I was writing this part of the review. Crazy stuff. But sorry, no upgrades in the RTX 2070 SUPER and its 8GB of GDDR6.

TWIN FROZR 7 Cooling

TWIN FROZR 7 Keeps Things Cool

The big difference here with MSI's new GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X is that it has the dual-fan TWIN FROZR 7 cooler, versus the triple-fan cooler on the GAMING X TRIO variant.

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MSI's kick ass 7th-gen TWIN FROZR thermal design is a culmination of all of its work over the years, with Torx Fan 3.0, ZERO FROZR, a power cooling plate, and much more under the hood.

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The latest version of MSI's iconic TORX fan is the fan of choice for the TWIN FROZR 7 cooler and new RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X.

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These two fans won't spin up until the card reaches 60C or more, as part of MSI's ZERO FROZR technology.

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A super-chunky heat sink is used, with MSI mastering the art of aerodynamics (their words) with the Wave-Curved 2 fins allowing more airflow to pass over the heat sink smoother... resulting in less noise. A good thing for your late night, and hopefully quiet gaming sessions.

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MSI tightly bolts its heat sink to the PCB, something that helps with both heat dissipation and strengthens the card.

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MSI isn't messing around when it comes to copper heat pipes flowing all through the TWIN FROZR 7 cooler.

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A large GPU baseplate it used, keeping the card as cool as possible.

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MSI uses a "premium thermal compound" on its TWIN FROZR 7-cooled RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X graphics card.

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There's also some thermal pads on the card on its GDDR6 memory and PWMs for improved cooling.

Detailed Look

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Just a tease of the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X before we get started on the nitty gritty.

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MSI continues to use the same box styling for its graphics cards, with the new RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X no different -- and that is totally OK with me.

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On the back we find out about the TWIN FROZR 7 thermal design, the use of Torx Fans 3.0, and more.

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The front of the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X, with its dual-fan cooler keeping things nice and cool during all sorts of loads (be it stress tests, or all-night gaming sessions).

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I still absolutely love the backplate MSI uses on its GAMING X graphics cards, it looks SO good in a gaming system.

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No change here with display output configuration: 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI.

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From the top of the card.

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8+6-pin PCIe power connectors are required.

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Chunky AF heat sink keeping that Turing TU104 GPU and 8GB of GDDR6 memory nice and cool.

Test System Specs

Our New GPU Test Rig

Welcome to the latest revision of our GPU test bed, with our system being upgraded from the Intel Core i7-7700K to the Core i7-8700K. The CPU is cooled by the Corsair H115i PRO cooler, with the 8700K overclocked to 5GHz. We've stayed with GIGABYTE for our motherboard with their awesome Z370 AORUS Gaming 7.

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We approached our friends at HyperX for a kit of their kick ass HyperX Predator DDR4-2933MHz RAM (HX429C15PB3AK4/32), with 2 x 8GB sticks for a total of 16GB DDR4-2933. The RAM stands out through every minute of our testing as it has beautiful RGB lights giving the system a slick look while benchmarking our lives away, while the Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 motherboard joins in with its own array of RGB lighting.

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Detailed Tech Specs

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5GHz
  • Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO
  • MB: Z370 AORUS Gaming 7
  • RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Predator DDR4-2933
  • SSD: 1TB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
  • SSD: 512GB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
  • PSU: InWin 1065W PSU
  • Chassis: In Win X-Frame
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro x64

Additional Images

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Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike - 1080p

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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.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 01

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.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 02

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.

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3DMark TimeSpy

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3DMark TimeSpy Extreme

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Heaven - 1080p

Heaven benchmark

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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Heaven - 1440p

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Heaven - 4K

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Benchmarks - 1080p

1080p Benchmarks

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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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Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

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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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Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p Benchmarks

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 4006

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.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 51
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 4013

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.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 53
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 4015

Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 54
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 4002

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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Benchmarks - 4K

4K Benchmarks

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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.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 21
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 4013

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.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 23
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 4015

Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 24
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X Review 4002

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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Thermals & Power

Thermals

MSI never fails to impress with thermal results when it comes to its custom graphics cards, with the RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X no different. We're looking under 70C at load, and no idle fan noise at all thanks to ZERO FROZR tech.

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Power

For our full Core i7-8700K gaming PC the entire power consumption comes in at under 300W, lining up with most of the cards in our benchmarking power consumption testing.

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Final Thoughts

MSI has yet another winner with its new custom GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X, with kick ass performance and thermals to slick looks and a dual-fan design.

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I'm not going to go too much into the performance of the card because it is going to be very similar to all RTX 2070 SUPER cards on the market, so where does MSI do things differently? Well, you'er going to buy this because you're an MSI fan -- or a fan of the look of the card.

Underneath, it's not going to make much difference - but MSI provides an excellent all-round package with its RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X that is hard to ignore.

There's some OC wiggle room as well, with the 8GB of GDDR6 easily being overclocked to anywhere between 15-16Gbps, while the GPU can be cranked up (at least on my sample) to anywhere between 1975-2040MHz or so. It's a nice additional chunk of performance that I'm not going to complain about.

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If you're gaming on a high refresh rate 1080p or 1440p gaming monitor then this is the perfect card for you, as you don't need the higher-end RTX 2080 SUPER or flagship RTX 2080 Ti. You could get away with the RTX 2070 SUPER without an issue, on thousands of games all maxed out at 120-144FPS.

I personally did a bunch of real-world gaming on the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X in both Apex Legends and Overwatch at 1440p with medium-high settings and enjoyed 120-150FPS without a problem. Hell, Overwatch can be dropped down a little more and 200FPS+ wasn't an issue on the RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X.

We have close to RTX 2080 levels of performance, and numbers that easily best the Radeon RX 5700 XT and GTX 1080 Ti. You're getting a better-than-FE experience here with near silence, some great thermal performance, and OC headroom that will provide you with the perfect all-round graphics card.

Performance (overclocking, power)

95%

Quality (build, design, cooling)

90%

General Features (display outputs, etc)

90%

Bundle, Packaging & Software

90%

Overall

91%

The Bottom Line

Virtually identical to the triple-fan RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X TRIO from MSI, the new RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X drops to a dual-fan cooler with all the bells and whistles in its higher-end sibling. Another kick ass GAMING X card from MSI.

TweakTown award
91%

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$249.00$249.00$299.99
* Prices last scanned on 3/28/2024 at 9:24 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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