MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X Trio 12G, 12GB GDDR6X, HDMI, 3x DP

Die MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X Trio ist eine hochinteressante Mittelklasse-Grafikkarte, die auch alle Schwachstellen der sogenannten MSRP-Karten vergessen lässt. Es ist also eine Art Sahneschnittchen, solange man den Preis einmal ausblendet. Gut, 50 Euro mehr sind jetzt nichts, was einen umbringt und ich würde mir, schon wegen meiner Ohren und im Hinblick auf Kühlung und Haltbarkeit die besser ausgestattete Karte kaufen. Um einigermaßen performant zu spielen, reichen die 215 Watt locker aus, denn man erreicht oder schlägt sogar eine GeForce RTX 3080 10GB, natürlich je nach Spiel und Auflösung.

In der gestaffelten Veröffentlichung der Testergebnisse zur GeForce RTX 4070 folgt auf den gestrigen Test der Founders Edition sowie eines UVP-Modells heute der Test ein erstes teureren Custom-Designs. Die MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X Trio muss zeigen, was sie für den aufgerufenen Aufpreis zu bieten hat. Ob über die Leistung, die Kühlung oder sonstige Funktionen – der Aufpreis muss sich in irgendeiner Form zeigen. Wir gehen dem nun auf den Grund.

MSI's Gaming X Trio is clearly a more premium design than the MSRP cards that we've tested yesterday. The noise levels are fantastic—only 26 dBA under full load, whisper-quiet, even with the factory overclock—very impressive. Temperatures are good, too, with only 62°C, the card runs cool at all times. While the ASUS TUF is still a little bit quieter with 23 dBA, the differences are small and subjectively impossible to tell apart, especially when you have other noise sources in the room. MSI does not include a dual BIOS on their card, and I don't think it's needed anyway. Rather they picked great fan settings by default. Our apples-to-apples cooler test confirms that the MSI Gaming X Trio has a very powerful cooler that's better than all the other RTX 4070s that we've tested, except for the ASUS TUF, which is another 2.5°C cooler at the same noise levels and heat load.

Ultimately, all cards across different brands are only a few percentage points apart, so the importance of that factor depends on your personal preferences. The package features an adapter that transforms two 8-pin PCIe power connectors into one 12-plus-four-pin 12VHPWR connector. For video output, there are three DisplayPort and one HDMI options. The backplate sports a contemporary design. MSI's offer is great in every significant aspect; the factory-tweaked performance could even be improved by a good margin. You can also enhance the card's performance by taking advantage of the games that support DLSS(3). It has to be stated, though, the founder edition card is the better one. It offers roughly the same performance but remains the more silent product. And if looks matter, you'll probably agree with me on that. When choosing between the RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 6800 (XT), it's important to consider factors such as raytracing performance and DLSS3, which the RTX 4070 excels at. A bit newer, the Radeon RX 7900 XT offers faster rasterizer engine performance with an additional L3 cache, making it a strong(er) contender for the RTX 4070. The RTX 4070 is priced $200 lower, so perhaps offers more value for money. In that respect, the 6800 series is a fairer to compare series. Performance-wise, depending on where you measure, you can compare the card with RTX 3080 / 3080 Ti performance levels. This graphics card has plenty of oomph up to even Ultra HD gaming (especially with DLSS3 / Frame generation enabled) with the option for a mild overclock.The market for graphics cards is in dire need of high-performing products that cost less than $500. At $599 you however can now find a proper WQHD graphics card with Raytracing options and DLSS3.With the ability to overclock mildly, this graphics card has all the features of a powerful enthusiast graphics card. The Gaming X TRIO impresses with its excellent cooling and superb acoustics, making it a fantastic design graphics card. While the default added performance is only 3~4%, this is still a card that we recommend, particularly if you value silent operation and an aesthetically pleasing appearance in your chassis. It has to be stated though at $599 the founder edition card perhaps remains the better choice as this Trio is bound to carry a price premium of at least $100.