MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8G review: 1440p gaming done right

MSI's take on the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti boasts a beefy triple-fan cooler to keep it chilly.

By HardwareZone Team - 11 Dec 2021

Note: This review was first published on 6 December 2021.

Brushed metal good looks

The MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8G is the company's flagship GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. It shares a lot in common with the Suprim designs on other cards, featuring a faceted brushed metal cooling shroud with a silvery finish. It's clearly meant to evoke a sense of premium performance, and it does so quite successfully.

The Tri Frozr 2S cooler is outfitted with three double ball bearing Torx 4.0 fans, which can stop spinning entirely when the GPU load is low to reduce noise. Each is made up of pairs of fan blades linked together in a unique ring design to focus air flow and air pressure into the heatsink. Crucial components on the PCB get dedicated cooling as well. For instance, the memory modules come in direct contact with their own dedicated heat pipe to better transfer heat to the heatsink, while additional thermal pads channel heat away from board components.

This extends to the backplate as well, where thermal pads beneath the sturdy backplate provide additional cooling. To further protect the PCB, it is strengthened with a rigid metal anti-bending strap to guard against flexing. A bundled support stand props it up for still more reinforcement, which should also help protect your PCIe slot.

The GPU itself comes into contact with a solid nickel-plated copper base plate that links to an array of heat pipes. These heat pipes are precision-machined for maximum contact with the GPU, and extend across the full length of the heat sink for more even heat distribution and efficient cooling.

The heat sink itself has been tweaked for improved performance as well. Deflectors provide additional surface area and guide air to where it’s needed for maximum cooling, while wave-curved 2.0 fin edges disrupt unwanted airflow harmonics resulting in reduced noise.

The PCB has been upgraded with a custom design too, with additional fuses built into it to provide further safeguards against electrical damage. A thickened copper layer inside the PCB also increases conductivity, which improves heat dissipation and reliability. Finally, there's a Dual BIOS switch that gives you the choice to switch between full performance in Gaming mode and low noise in Silent mode without entering the software.

You can tweak the card's performance in MSI's Afterburner software, which also provides performance monitoring features. The built-in OC Scanner also leverages NVIDIA's algorithm to safely determine the maximum clock speeds and apply it to your graphics card.

Round the back, you get three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors and one HDMI port.

Test setup

Here are the specifications of our test rig:

We'll be comparing the MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8G against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition to see how it stacks up against the base model.

The following synthetic benchmarks and games were run, with the games chosen from a wide range of genres to give a better indication of performance across different segments:

3DMark
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Total War: Three Kingdoms (Battle)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Metro: Exodus
Watch Dogs: Legion
Wolfenstein: Youngblood

3DMark

3DMark is a synthetic benchmark that tests graphics and computational performance at different resolutions, starting at 1080p and going all the way up to 4K. A series of two graphics test, one physics test, and then a combined test stresses your hardware in turn to assess its performance.

The MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti has a boost clock of up to 1,860MHz in Gaming mode, which puts it slightly above the 1,770MHz of the Founders Edition model. This gives it a slight lead in 3DMark, although the difference is so small as to be negligible.

1080p Benchmarks (Max Settings)

The MSI card's lead was slightly more pronounced in games at 1080p, with up to a 9% differential in some games.

1440p Benchmarks (Max Settings)

The MSI card continued to have a slight edge over the Founders Edition model at 1440p, and it was up to 13% quicker in select titles.

4K Benchmarks (Max Settings)

The differences level off slightly at 4K, and there's barely any difference between the two cards.

Ray Tracing Benchmarks (4K, Max Settings)

With ray tracing turned on at 4K, performance drops quite a bit, pushing both cards to their limit.

Temperature and power

The Tri Frozr 2S does a good job of keeping the card cool. Unfortunately, these numbers will have to stand on their own at the moment as we currently don't have any numbers from the Founders Edition model to compare it with.

	MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X
Temperature (Peak)	77.6°C
Board power draw (Peak)	315W

Conclusion

At S$1,688, the MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8G comes with a hefty price tag to go along with its performance. This is a card made for 1440p gaming, and it breezes through everything you can think to throw at it. With sleek good looks, fully customisable RGB lighting, and decent cooling, you can't really go wrong with this card if you're in the market for a custom GeForce RTX 3070 Ti.

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