MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO Review

MSI's best custom GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER goes under the microscope: the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: MSI
10 minutes & 48 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 93%
TweakTown award

The Bottom Line

One of the best GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics cards on the market. It has ridiculously fast GDDR6 memory (15.5Gbps), stylish looks, and a bad ass triple-fan cooler. You won't regret this purchase, at all.

Introduction, Pricing & Detailed Look

MSI has a long laundry list of custom GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics cards, with the best being what we have here today in the GPU labs of TweakTown. MSI's flagship GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO is the best of the best in what MSI offers with a custom RTX 2070 SUPER.

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It comes bursting out of the gate with the highest Turing GPU boost clocks on an RTX 2070 SUPER, as well as super-clocked 15.5Gbps memory speeds from its tuned GDDR6. We're looking at up to 1815MHz boost GPU out of the dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors and 215W TDP. It's the best you'll get before you jump up to the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER.

NVIDIA allows for SLI / NVLink for some 2-way GPU multi-card goodness, and while it isn't the best these days with more issues than not in games with multi-GPU support, the option is still there. If you were to have 2 x MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO graphics cards in SLI / NVLink and had a multi-GPU friendly game, you have some pretty insane performance in your system short of going to 2 x RTX 2080 SUPER or 2 x RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards.

The Difference Between GAMING X and GAMING Z

This is where things get a little confusing, because for the most part the cards are virtually identical but there are some notable changes that I'll make clear below. Other than that, the cards are identical -- right down to the components that MSI have used, and the custom PCB itself.

RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO:

  • GPU boost: 1815MHz
  • GDDR6 speed: 15.5Gbps

RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X TRIO:

  • GPU boost: 1800MHz
  • GDDR6 speed: 14Gbps

Detailed Look

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We are no stranger to the TWIN FROZR 7 cooler from MSI, but the triple-fan version on the RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO just looks glorious in person. Even better when it's in your PC and the RGB lighting is enabled.

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See what I mean?

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MSI uses its awesome-as-always metal backplate on the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO.

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It's a chunky card, but it's one of the best-performing GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics cards you can buy, too.

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From the bottom, the huge heat sink array that cools the GPU, VRMs, and GDDR6 memory.

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You will need dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors to power MSI's custom RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X TRIO.

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MSI provides its usual 3 x DisplayPort and 1 x HDMI output on the card.

Buy at Amazon

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB Gaming X

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$967.19$289.00$679.00
* Prices last scanned on 3/28/2024 at 8:09 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Test System Specs & Synthetic Benchmarks

GPU Test Rig Specs

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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Anthony's Test System Specifications

Additional Images

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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.

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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.

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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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1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

You're getting some stellar performance at 1080p with the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO, with a huge 153FPS average at 1080p in Shadow of War -- beating out the regular GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition and just 4FPS away from the RTX 2080 SUPER.

Metro Exodus performs well under the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO with 81FPS average, 5FPS more than the reference card. Far Cry New Dawn is hitting its ceiling here at 1080p with 115FPS average, while you can enjoy a huge 138FPS average in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p 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 Z TRIO Review 31
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO 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 Z TRIO Review 36
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO 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.

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MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO 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.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO Review 41

1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

2560 x 1440 is one of the perfect sweet spot resolutions for a GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics card, with MSI's custom RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO pumping out 113FPS average at 1440p in Shadow of War. That's a great result -- close to 1440p 120FPS.

Metro Exodus performs great on the RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO, breaching that magical 60FPS barrier with 62FPS average at 1440p. Far Cry New Dawn exceeds 100FPS average at 1440p, while Shadow of the Tomb Raider pushes a huge 115FPS average on the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO.

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 Z TRIO Review 30
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO 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 Z TRIO Review 35
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO 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 Z TRIO Review 45
MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO 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.

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO Review 40

4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

You can get some seriously great performance out of the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO at 4K, with Shadow of War performing great at 72FPS average -- up 6FPS from the RTX 2070 SUPER Founders Edition.

Metro Exodus is punishing as all hell at 4K, with the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO spitting out 38FPS -- the same as the Radeon VII, and 2FPS faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER Founders Edition. You will still get 60FPS+ in Far Cry New Dawn, as well as Shadow of the Tomb Raider -- 4K 60FPS is pretty damn good on a big screen on the RTX 2070 SUPER.

Temp & Power

Temperatures

MSI equips the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO with a triple-fan cooler that keeps the Turing GPU and super-fast GDDR6 nice and cool with my testing seeing it hit just 62C under load. Incredible results, but I expected nothing less from MSI at this level. You can rest assured knowing your card will be running cool for those all-night (and all-day now that we're stuck inside with COVID-19 lockdowns) gaming sessions.

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Power

My entire Intel Core i7-8700K test bed with the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO inside consumes 310W of power, which is not bad at all. You're power limited for the most part, but still -- 310W for this much power? Awesome.

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What's Hot, What's Not & Final Thoughts

What's Hot

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  • Super-fast RTX 2070 SUPER: MSI has one of the fastest GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics cards on the market with its RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO. It might be by just a few frames per second, but it counts -- being the best is hard.
  • SLI / NVLink support: If one isn't fast enough for you, then you can always add another thanks to SLI / NVLink support on the RTX 2070 SUPER. If the games you play support SLI (and have good multi-GPU scaling) then you can potentially have a much faster GPU setup than a single GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
  • GDDR6 on steroids: Seriously, 15.5Gbps frequency on GDDR6 is ridiculous and it still has room to move with overclocking. The regular RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X TRIO has 14Gbps GDDR6 (but can be overclocked). GAMING Z TRIO gives you this out of the box, with more OC wiggle room on top.
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  • Runs cool: One of the coolest-operating GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics cards I've tested. Whisper quiet even during late-night sessions of Half-Life: Alyx, DOOM Eternal, and Apex Legends.
  • Great gaming performance: I used the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO in some of the latest and greatest games like Half-Life: Alyx and DOOM Eternal with zero issues. This is the ideal graphics cards to ensure 120FPS at both 1920 x 1080 (1080p) and 2560 x 1440 (1440p) -- as well as being perfect for 3440 x 1440 if you want some 21:9 ultrawide goodness.
  • Anti-sag brace included: MSI isn't messing around with the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO, so it provides an anti-sag brace in the box. It's a heavy card weighing in at 1522g, compared to other RTX 2070 SUPER cards in MSI's family with the VENTUS OC weighing 856g and the VENTUS at 764g.
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  • RTX ray tracing / DLSS tech: NVIDIA provides a big (and very early) taste of ray tracing in games thanks to its RTX technologies, with Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) also a huge performance gain in games that support it. RTX and DLSS are win-win when you buy the RTX 2070 SUPER as it all comes included in the Turing package.

What's Not

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  • Power limitation: Let's be honest -- there is a ceiling with performance here, and MSI lets you ride the lightning right up to the edge, but NVIDIA reminds you
  • OC ceiling (stop it, NVIDIA): NVIDIA limits its cards in a big way, which sucks -- it means that the better-cooled custom vairants like the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO have a ceiling set by NVIDIA in many ways. I'd love to see what cards like this could do if they were unrestrained and could push up to 300W TDP.

Final Thoughts

MSI has one of the best custom GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics cards on the market with the RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO, a nice step up and above the RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING X and GAMING X TRIO graphics cards. The higher-clocked GDDR6 at 15.5Gbps out of the box is nice, and so is the OC wiggle room.

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If you are in the market for something that will crush 1080p and 1440p gaming then the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO will do that just fine, with the same rules applying for anything with RTX ray tracing enabled.

Silence when gaming is also golden, and that's something MSI does with its higher-end TWIN FROZR 7 cooling technology on the RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO. Right up until you're in a game the card is silent, and even during gaming sessions the card is virtually silent. Tweaking some of the fan curves can get near silence 24/7 from the MSI RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO.

The card also looks great, so it'll fit into your gaming PC and look like an utter beast with its triple-fan cooler and RGB lighting.

MSI crafts another crown jewel in its growing list of kick ass custom GeForce RTX graphics card family with the RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING Z TRIO.

Performance

100%

Quality

90%

Features

90%

Value

90%

Overall

93%

The Bottom Line

One of the best GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics cards on the market. It has ridiculously fast GDDR6 memory (15.5Gbps), stylish looks, and a bad ass triple-fan cooler. You won't regret this purchase, at all.

TweakTown award
93%

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB Gaming X

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$967.19$289.00$679.00
* Prices last scanned on 3/28/2024 at 8:09 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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