MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X
A solid upgrade with a superior spec, but MSI’s Ventus has an asterisk.
The RTX 4070 Ti Super is the second of Nvidia’s RTX 40-series Super refresh cards. While all three deliver healthy spec and performance upgrades, interestingly, the RTX 4070 Ti Super is the only one of the three that makes use of a higher tier GPU.
The 4070 Ti Super includes the AD103 GPU, that’s the same as that found in the current RTX 4080 and soon the RTX 4080 Super. Though it doesn’t receive an increase in shader count as large as the RTX 4070 Super did, the use of the AD103 GPU means it gets a welcome memory subsystem upgrade. Thankfully, its TDP remains unchanged at 285W, while it’s priced at $1,499, the original price of its non-Super sibling. That means you get more performance, more memory, and essentially more graphics card for the same money.
The original RTX 4070 Ti was a generally capable card, particularly when the benefits of DLSS 3 and Frame Generation were added into the mix. But while capable, we felt it didn’t quite do enough at its price point to earn an unequivocal recommendation. Its 192-bit bus and 12GB of VRAM just didn’t feel like it belonged on a $1,499 card. The Super refresh addresses that weakness. The RTX 4070 Ti Super’s 256-bit bus with 16GB of VRAM is the
“Throw in the benefits of excellent performance per watt, 16GB of VRAM, Nvidia’s AI and creative tools, plus the ability to game with lots of eye candy with DLSS 3 and Frame Generation at 4K and suddenly $1,499 looks fair.”
memory spec we wish the original RTX 4070 Ti had.
We have MSI’s RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X on hand. It’s an attractive card priced at the base $1,499 RRP with a boost clock of 2,610MHz, matching the Nvidia reference specification. We must note that MSI’s Ventus had an issue with its launch BIOS that cost it a reported 5% of performance. We retested with a newer BIOS, but if you’re not comfortable upgrading it yourself, you’d best look at other entry level options.
That aside, it’s a solidly built card with three fans, a full length backplate and a subtle mostly silver plastic shroud free of RGB. The Ventus 3X is not a tall card at 120mm, making it a little more case friendly. It’s still long at 308mm though.
High refresh rate 1080p and 1440p gaming is a breeze with the RTX 4070 Ti Super. Throw in the benefits of excellent performance per watt, 16GB of VRAM, Nvidia’s AI and creative tools, plus the ability to game with lots of eye candy with DLSS 3 and Frame Generation at 4K and suddenly $1,499 looks fair. It must be noted that it costs about half of the formerly mighty RTX 3090, while handily beating it.
The RTX 4070 Ti Super could have been even better had Nvidia decided to increase its shader count and L2 cache amount by a little more. That would have put it closer in performance to the RTX 4080. Are we nitpicking? Perhaps, but the RTX 4070 Ti’s 8,448 CUDA core count seems a little too far away from the 9,728 of the RTX 4080.
All things considered, the RTX 4070 Ti comes recommended. It stands up well to its competition and the RTX 4070 Ti was already one of the better RTX 40-series entries. You’re getting a card that’s better, for the same money. What’s not to like about that?
VERDICT
MSI’s BIOS glitch aside, the RTX 4070 Ti Super delivers a welcome upgrade over the RTX 4070 Ti for the same money.
Chris Szewczyk