MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC video card review: designed to give more

Upgraded versions of GeForce RTX 40 SUPER graphics cards have become one of the most interesting application announcements at CES 2024. The updated models from NVIDIA have received certain improvements that have really improved their performance. Today we are reviewing a representative of the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER series – MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC. The base version of the GeForce RTX 4070 looked like a fairly balanced offer, but there is no limit to perfection. Let’s see if the new SUPER modification brings it closer.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER

The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER video card uses the AD104 GPU, namely the AD104-350 modification with 7168 active CUDA cores. In this configuration, the GPU also includes 224 texture units and 80 rasterizers, in addition, the chip has 224 tensor cores and 56 RT modules. The base model of GeForce RTX 4070 is equipped with AD104-250 with 5888 CUDA cores and the corresponding number of related function blocks.

In fact, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER uses the same GPU, but with a much larger number of processing units. The number of active CUDA cores has been increased by almost 22%. As for the GPU operating frequencies, only the base value has been changed – from 1920 MHz to 1980 MHz, while the average acceleration is declared at the same level – 2475 MHz. The theoretical computing power of the GPU has increased from 29.2 TFLOPS to 35.5 TFLOPS.

The AD104 GPU is also used for GeForce RTX 4070 Ti series graphics cards. However, in this case, the AD104-400 with all active available units includes 7680 CUDA cores and a proportionally larger number of other structural modules. This is 7% more than with the RTX 4070 SUPER, but the “Ti” GPU operates at higher frequencies (2310/2610 MHz) and theoretically offers 40.1 TFLOPS (FP32).

So, in terms of equipment, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER occupies an intermediate position between the base RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti models, and it is more inclined to the latter.

To conclude the GPU section, let’s note one more interesting point. In the case of the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, the GPU has access to the entire capacity of the available L2 cache buffer – 48 MB. This is exactly how much the older RTX 4070 Ti model can use, but the GeForce RTX 4070 is limited to 36 MB. So despite the 22% increase in CUDA units, the L2 capacity has not increased proportionally, but has increased by as much as 33%. This is a good technical option for GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, which will allow the video card to access memory less often, and thus partially reduce its dependence on bandwidth.

As for the overall configuration of the memory subsystem, it remains unchanged. GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR6X, which operates at an effective 21,000 MHz. The bus has a bit depth of 192 bits, and the resulting memory bandwidth is 504 GB/s. In terms of this indicator, all the “seventies” are the same.

The increase in the number of active GPU functional units has slightly affected the overall power consumption of the video card. For the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, the declared TBP (Total Board Power) level is 220 W, instead of 200 W for the base GeForce RTX 4070 model. This means that power consumption has increased by 10%. However, if we compare this figure with that of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (285 W), the ” power appetite” of the SUPER version looks quite moderate.

The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB has a recommended price tag identical to that of the GeForce RTX 4070 12GB when it was announced in the spring of 2023 – $599. A GPU with more active compute units will certainly provide an increase in video card performance. So in fact, NVIDIA is offering more fps for the same money almost a year later. As for the basic version of the GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB, unlike older models, which will be retired with the advent of SUPER-modifications, the starting RTX 4070 remains in the current range of the developer, but with a recommended price tag of $549. For the American market, of course.

NVIDIA has offered a reference GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition with a distinctive cooling system configuration. However, most of the models on the market from partners will have an original design. Today we will take a closer look at one of the available options.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC

After the announcement of the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, MSI offered more than ten models of the new line. We got an almost basic version of the adapter from the manufacturer – MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC.

The video card comes in a compact cardboard box, and the package includes an adapter from two 8-pin connectors to one 12VHPWR for connecting additional power.

The presence of the OC index in the model name is a sure sign that the video card has a standard factory overclock. In the case of the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC, the GPU received a frequency formula of 1980/2505 MHz instead of the recommended 1980/2475 MHz. So the GPU acceleration is relatively small.

The new MSI graphics card looks quite compact. The total length of the adapter is only 242 mm, so it can be used in small cases without any problems. The dual-slot design is also an argument when choosing a small but powerful video card. After the 1.5-2 kilogram “monsters” that we have recently reviewed, MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC subjectively feels almost like a miniature solution weighing ~670 g.

In general, the model has a rather restrained exterior design. The silver protective cover contrasts with the black internal inserts and fans. Practicality and symmetry.

The video card uses a cooler with a relatively massive radiator platform that forms a cassette with aluminum plates. In this case, a single unit is used, and the plates are positioned along the adapter. The design uses three heat pipes that accelerate heat transfer to remote areas of the cooler.

A nickel-plated copper plate is used as a heat sink, with which the GPU crystal and memory chips are in direct contact (through heat-conducting stickers). The heat pipes are also nickel-plated to protect them from oxidation. Among the features is the specific molding of the heat pipes in the area of contact with the heat sink. Here they have a rectangular profile to increase the contact area.

For active cooling, a configuration with two axial fans with a diameter of 100 mm is provided. In this case, models with Torx Fan 4.0 technology are used, which provides for a specific impeller design.

The design uses ten blades, with separate pairs interconnected. The developers claim that this shape allows for better airflow direction and increased pressure.

The cooling system supports hybrid mode operation, stopping the fans when the video card is under load.

To connect additional power, a 12VHPWR connector is provided on the top of the adapter. Interestingly, the base RTX 4070 of the VENTUS series uses a single 8-pin connector. For the SUPER-modification, the developers offer a more powerful solution. This is quite logical, considering that one 8-pin connector provides up to 150 W of power, and the video card receives another 75 W through the PCI-E x16 slot. Formally, this configuration would be enough for GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, but this is already working at the limit, so it is logical to have a certain margin.

For systems with GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER video cards, NVIDIA recommends using power supplies with a capacity of 650 watts or more. MSI’s additional overclocking did not affect these recommendations.

The back of the video card is covered with an additional plastic plate. In this case, it is an element of the overall decor and protection against possible mechanical damage. Despite the generally small overall dimensions of the video card and the dual-fan design, MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC has an option with partial through ventilation. There are corresponding ventilation holes in the plate.

Additional features include a metal bracket in the GPU area to evenly distribute the pressure when mounting the cooler.

The interface panel has a classic set of ports for the series of adapters – three DisplayPort 1.4a and one full-format HDMI 2.1a. All ports are placed in one tier. A significant part of the plug has perforations for partial exhaust of heated air to the outside of the case. Usually this element is nominal, but in this case, taking into account the positioning of the radiator plates, the available holes are of more practical use.

Once again, let’s emphasize the dual-slot design of the video card. The elements of the cooling system shroud do not claim the adjacent PCI-E connectors, which can be important for systems in compact cases.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC does not offer additional RGB backlighting. Opponents of illumination can breathe a sigh of relief, while supporters will have to focus on the backlighting capabilities of other components of the platform.

In the work

In idle mode, the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC activates Zero Frozr mode, stopping the fans.

At minimum load, the GPU temperature was kept at 36-37C. At the same time, the video card memory chips heated up to 38C.

It was particularly interesting to see how a compact cooling system would cope with a solution of this level. Under gaming load, the GPU temperature peaked at 72C, while GDDR6X chips warmed up to 80C. At the same time, the fan speed increased to almost 1900 rpm. The efficiency of the cooler is enough to ensure normal temperature conditions of the video card, while the actual noise level is lower than it might seem from a superficial assessment of absolute values.

As you can see in the screenshot, the GPU automatically accelerated to 2790 MHz during the gaming session. The average GPU frequencies are somewhat lower (-50-100 MHz) and depend on the specific game project.

Test bench configuration

GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB video cards can potentially be a good option for balanced gaming configurations. A kind of bridge between optimal and advanced systems. Therefore, we decided to test the capabilities of the new graphics adapter in such a technical environment.

The test configuration used was a PC from Artline based on a Core i5-14400F processor (6/12+4; 2.5/4.7 GHz + 1.8/3.5 GHz) with a JONSBO CR-3000 ARGB cooler, MSI PRO B760M-A WIFI motherboard, and a dual-channel DDR5-6000 RAM kit with a total capacity of 32 GB. A Crucial P3 1TB SSD was used for data storage, and an 800W QUBE QBF-HPL-800W-14B was responsible for power supply. The system was assembled in a compact MSI MAG FORGE M100R case.

• Processor: Intel Core i5-14400F (6/12+4; 2,5/4,7 GHz + 1,8/3,5 GHz)
• Cooler: JONSBO CR-3000 ARGB
• Motherboard: MSI PRO B760M-A WIFI (Intel B760, DDR5, mATX)
• Memory: G Skill DDR5-6000 32 GB (F5-6000J4040F16G)
• Storage device: Crucial P3 1TB PCIe M.2 2280 SSD (CT1000P3SSD8)
• PSU: QUBE QBF-HPL-800W-14B (800 W; 80+ Bronze)
• Case: MSI MAG FORGE M100R (mATX)

Performance

You don’t need to be a famous oracle to predict that the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB will be more productive than the GeForce RTX 4070 12GB. However, the actual difference is curious, especially considering that the base version also remains in the NVIDIA range.

To add to the interest of the “duel”, we also included an 8GB GeForce RTX 4060 Ti in our testing. This model is often on the list of potential purchases when building mid-range gaming systems, so we have the opportunity to clearly evaluate the possible benefits of using more efficient graphics cards in this category of PCs.

Traditionally, we start evaluating and comparing the capabilities of video cards with “synthetics”, which allows us to get a first impression and set a certain tone for further experiments.

The 3DMark benchmarks are almost unanimous in their assessments, with the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC outperforming the GeForce RTX 4070 12GB by 11-12% and having a 50-60% advantage over the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB.

The Cinebench 2024 graphics benchmark also shows a 12 percent advantage of the SUPER version over the base 70. At the same time, Blender and V-Ray show an even greater difference in capabilities – 18% compared to RTX 4070 and 61-65% between RTX 4060 Ti.

Increasing the number of GPU functional units in this case has a significant impact on performance in compute-intensive tasks.

Performance in games

Now let’s take a look at the situation in real games. Full HD mode with maximum quality settings without using ray tracing and picture scaling. According to the results of the tests, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB gained an average advantage over the GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB by 5-10%.

Here we should pay special attention to the obvious processor dependency of certain projects, where the Core i5-14400F is already becoming a limiting factor for GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER graphics cards. Let’s highlight Far Cry 6 and Horizon Zero Dawn, where the difference even with GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is not so fundamental. This is another indicator that the capabilities of the GeForce RTX 4070 12GB and SUPER versions are somewhat redundant for Full HD. Of course, when it comes to modes with activated ray tracing.

Connecting RT with maximum quality can radically change the way you think about the capabilities of current video cards. Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive has a special ability to declaim graphics adapters. Only an average of 39 frames per second for the RTX 4070 SUPER. But it should be noted that such frankly unimpressive performance is significantly changed by the DLSS connection.

Smart scaling in balanced mode doubles the number of frames per second, making even the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti suitable for comfortable gaming in such conditions. Less demanding projects also get a noticeable boost with DLSS activation.

With the switch to 1440p mode, the advantage of the new SUPER version over the base RTX 4070 model increases slightly, approaching 10% on average in our configuration.

It’s no coincidence that NVIDIA has positioned the GeForce RTX 4070/SUPER/Ti series as solutions for 1440p gaming. In these conditions, these video cards reveal their capabilities better. Of course, there will be projects where even the RTX 4070 SUPER won’t look super fast at maximum settings. From our gaming list, Starfield is one of them, where the new model barely managed to provide 60 frames per second. Even using the basic version of RTX 4070, you will have to tinker with the settings, and for a comfortable game on RTX 4060 Ti, you will need to carefully “play” with the picture quality options. However, no one has canceled scaling technologies, which are almost mandatory for the latest projects.

And for modes with high-quality ray tracing, DLSS technology is already almost mandatory for use in many resource-intensive projects.

Graphics mode 4K formally requires even more productive video cards. At least when it comes to maximum quality settings. For the most part, you will have to make some compromises. Evaluating the performance of the test models, we note that MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC continued to increase its advantage over the base RTX 4070. Even though the SUPER modifications received an identical memory subsystem configuration and its total capacity remained at 12 GB, the increased GPU computing power brings tangible changes in 4K results. This is additional evidence that the balance of characteristics is important for video cards, and assessing the overall capabilities only according to certain criteria is not correct.

Here we can also mention the possible positive impact of an increased internal L2 cache buffer, which can partially offset the need for increased memory bandwidth.

As for the lack of memory capacity, this nuance can be vividly illustrated by the example of Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive after enabling ray tracing. Undoubtedly, this mode without DLSS intervention is beyond the capabilities of even RTX 4070 series adapters, but in these conditions the results of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB are indicative, which barely managed to provide 1 (one) frame/s. The critical lack of memory in combination with its relatively low bandwidth leads to such situations.

Yes, 10-11 frames/sec of RTX 4070/SUPER does not fundamentally solve the situation, but here you can already feel the lack of computing performance, not problems with memory capacity. After all, even the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB scored 13-14 fps in such conditions.

Connecting DLSS makes a big difference, although even so, in certain projects you will have to go through the graphics options to reduce the load. As you can see, the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, even with DLSS, is far from the average 60 fps in Dying Light 2 and Metro Exodus EE. But let’s be honest, this is still more of a Full HD solution, which is how the developers position it.

How does GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB compare to AMD solutions? According to numerous reviews, NVIDIA’s new product has a 5-10% advantage over the Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB. It seems that this was one of NVIDIA’s goals when creating the configuration of the SUPER version. In ray-tracing modes, the difference increases to ~35%, but the Radeon RX 7800 XT still has 16 GB of memory and a significantly lower price.

If we compare GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER with the previous generation solutions, then the new product is on par with the GeForce RTX 3090 24GB, losing 5-10% in 4K mode only.

Power consumption

According to the specifications, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB has a total power consumption of 220 watts. This is 10% more than the base GeForce RTX 4070 12GB (20W). In the case of the adapter from MSI, the actual maximum figure under load in Cyberpunk 2077 was 216 W.

In terms of energy efficiency, the SUPER version doesn’t offer anything new, but it’s not surprising, given that the video card uses an identical GPU only in the edition with more activated compute units.

As for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, the TBP (Total Board Power) of 160 watts is claimed for models in this series. Practical tests have confirmed this level of video card consumption under load. However, given the fps obtained, the performance per watt ratio is generally better for older models, especially in 1440p and 4K modes.

Overclocking

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC has a fairly modest standard GPU overclock, so we were interested in checking the potential of this model for further frequency experiments. It should be noted at once that the video card does not offer the possibility of an additional increase in the energy limit.

However, even this feature did not prevent the video card from being further accelerated. The base GPU frequency was increased by 200 MHz to 2180 MHz, while the average acceleration rate increased to 2705 MHz. Micron’s memory chips operated stably at 1550 MHz (effective 24,800 MHz).

Given that there is no way to extend the energy limit, the actual GPU performance will be dynamically adjusted under load to meet the specified limits. The maximum frequency values went up to 2985 MHz, but even on the screenshot you can clearly see the jumpy nature of the indicators. Therefore, the average value will be significantly lower.

However, it is quite possible to get additional performance. 3DMark tests prove it. For example, at the Time Spy Extreme stage, the graphics performance increased from 9520 to 10105 points (+6%).

GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER: summary

The appearance of GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER series models in the current NVIDIA lineup looks quite organic. There are no technological breakthroughs here, just a fair deal: you pay 10% more and get an additional 10+% performance. Initially evaluating the technical characteristics of GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB, one could assume that compared to the base GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB, the actual acceleration would be even more modest. But in this case, the increase in computing units and L2 cache capacity gave good practical results.

After the announcement of the price tags for RTX 4070 SUPER and their correction for RTX 4070, it will take some time for the retail price of the models to match the declared level. Of course, you shouldn’t expect the values specified for the US market ($599 and $549) in Ukraine, as we are talking about relative values here. At the moment, it seems that commercially available GeForce RTX 4070s have already managed to drop in price somewhat, but the price tags for GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, which are just entering the market, are higher than desired.

Therefore, for now, the choice between GeForce RTX 4070 12GB and GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB depends on how much you are willing to pay for an additional 5-10-15% of performance. In general, both options are quite rational, and it is not surprising that with the advent of the SUPER version, the developers decided to keep the basic models on sale, reducing the price. The graphics adapters cope with heavy projects in 1440p, but for Full HD they look a bit overpowered. In addition, it should be borne in mind that a processor faster than the Core i5-14400F may be required to “unleash” the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER.