Conclusion

Final words and verdict

The Gaming X edition from MSI comes with familiar looks. The base PCB design is the same as the TRIO version, the performance close to the same as well. Seen over reference the card does not seem to be clocked much higher, but as we mentioned in previous articles already, the answer to perf increases is not just a clock but also the range of limiters applied to the card. In this case MSI likely is bringing a bit more on the power limiter/allowance. And that explains a slightly higher energy consumption. The TwionFrozr 7 cooler is strong as well, if a card is better cooled, limiters kick in less often, keeping that boost frequency a notch higher. That these days is the complexity that all has a direct relation towards game rendering performance. The GeForce RTX 2070 Super, on its end, offers a nice increase in perf over the non-Super model thanks to the added 256 shader processors resulting in 2560 of them for which NVIDIA needed the TU104. Here, however, the memory stays at 8GB and thus the ROP count remains the same as well as many other variables. However, the new clock frequencies do give it an advantage over, say, even a GTX 1080 Ti and closer to the RTX 2080, which is an interesting performance level. 

Aesthetics

Some of you might have missed it or noticed it, but the recent Gaming X models have had an aesthetic overhaul. There's no more red in there, and RGB elements have been embedded. Next to that the card these days has an overall dark look, and that hits the spot alright as it'll look great in any PC. With a dark design, the TwinFrzr 7 cooler once powered on just looks great. The RGB lighting effects are funky to see (default to rainbow mode). That LED inclusion that has been done subtly and can be configured in any manner you prefer with Mystic Light software, the choice is yours. While I always will remain skeptical about backplates (they potentially can trap heat and thus warm up the PCB) MSI does have vents there. Backplates look better and can protect your PCB and components from damage and, well, they can look nice as they can have a certain aesthetic appeal. I have to admit, this is looking very nice but looks are always personal, of course. So in the end, on looks, you certainly get that premium feel of detailed aesthetics and quality.

Cooling & Noise Levels

The card tops out at roughly 70 Degrees C while gaming. So that's not bad at all, the acoustics I'd rate as silent, we doubt you'll ever hear the card once mounted into a chassis. We've heard no noticeable coil whine. But I do want to note that any graphics card at a high-enough FPS can make some coil-whine. 

Overclocking

Anything and everything is regulated by NVIDIA these days. Speaking, in general, you can expect another 5 to 10% of extra perf out of both cards when you bump up the graphics memory and GPU a bit. That it is, however, paired with an increased board power limiter and, as such, that will cost a bit more energy. Both traditional overclocking, as well as the OC Scanner functions, bring us close to that value. In retrospect though, you have to remember, that the 'older' RTX models could also be tweaked to 15~16 Gbps on that GDDR6 memory. Our +100 MHz on the base clock resulted in the product Boosting in the 2000~2050 MHz range.

Concluding

The Gaming X edition is a classic. Its cooling performance is perfectly aligned with the noise levels, in fact, acoustically speaking this card is incredibly silent even under the highest workloads. The recent aesthetic overhaul is a successful one a well, a more dark look with subtle RGB implementation are the keywords here. Taste and preference on looks, however, is such a subjective thing, but if you allow me to be a bit subjective in this regard, I think MSI hit the right spot here. MSI should be able to offer a competitive price compared to other AIB products. The RTX 2070S is positioned at 499 USD, and really should not be much higher in retail even with pimped up AIB cards. At the time of writing we had no pricing just yet, but expect it to be on that 529,- USD / € 549,-EUR marker. MSI designed this product well. The PCB layout and component usage are good, the cooler I would qualify as excellent even. The factory tweak seems a bit shy. Then again we do think that MSI increased the power limiter a bit and sure, on the opposing side that leaves plenty of headroom for a nice manual tweak with afterburner of course. But overall the card was only 3% faster than reference/founders. Tweaking wise the card did not disappoint though with a 10% advantage over reference. The 2070 Super is plenty fast for any gaming up-to Ultra HD based on shading performance. With Raytracing enabled you'll be in the 1080p or 1440p range. The card is TU104 based, and that means it is fitted with an NVlink slot, yep you could pair up two of these and go for SLI. However, given its track history, multi-GPU is dying. The factory tweak is shy, manual tweaking gets you up to 10% perf extra. Combined with very silent cooling and that really nice factory tweak we'll hand out a recommended award, as the product they MSI has released here really deserves that. 

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