I recently took a look at the RTX 3070 Ti and was impressed with its performance. But that was just with the Founders Edition card, what can the 3070 Ti do with a monster cooler and an overclocked? Well MSI sent over their RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X which is their flagship card design and the X indicates that it is also overclocked. So today I’m excited to see what Nvidia’s newest GPU is capable of when paired with MSI’s biggest and best card design. I was impressed with the SUPRIM 3080, will the 3070 Ti be the same?

Product Name: MSI RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X

Review Sample Provided by: MSI

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

Before diving into everything I do always take a look with GPUz to double-check that the listed specifications match up with what I am getting in my testing. In this case, the specifications have the SUPRIM X at 1860 MHz for both the gaming and silent modes which are on the switch then 1875 MHz if you use their software. GPUz confirms the 1860 MHz clock speed which our card came in the silent mode so that is where most of our testing will be in. The 1860 MHz clock speed is a big jump up over the 1770 MHz of the 3070 Ti Founders Edition. Beyond that GPUz documents the card's firmware when tested and the driver I used which is the 466.61 beta driver Nvidia provided for the launch (all of this tested was done pre-launch, I’m just behind in getting the coverage out).

Packaging

So the SUPRIM X 3070 Ti came in the same style box as the original SUPRIM X 3080 that we took a look at. That means it has a bright white background with a large photo of the card all lit up with its RGB on the front. The SUPRIM X branding is on the front with a reflective finish and then under that, you have the Nvidia wrap around with its standard green and black, this is where you will find the model number itself. MSI kept their branding on the front to a minimum with just their MSI Gaming dragon logo in the top left corner. Around on the back of the box, it has another picture of the card from a different angle. Then above that MSI highlights a few key features with short explanations. Down at the bottom, the Nvidia wrap-around continues with a feature list of Nvidia’s features. Then at the end, they have a very short specification listing. The only thing missing here are a few important specifications like the card's dimensions, display connections listed, power requirements, and the clock speed so someone in a retail store can see what the Suprim X gets for an overclock compared to other models. So you will have to look those things up online and MSI does have them all listed on their website at least.

So most video card boxes have an outside thin printed box that slides off with a box inside. For the SUPRIM X MSI prints right onto the main box. This also means they can open the box up by lifting the side to give you a premium feel. When you first open it up you will get a foam top with an MSI branded envelope with the documentation inside. There is also a SUPRIM mousepad, this is a small addition but most video cards don’t come with anything, so I do love that with the flagship SUPRIM card you get more. As for documentation you get a comic that shows how to install your GPU and a user guide. There is a normal installation guide as well as a warranty registration card. Then they also have a small MSI ad that shows off some of the other products that MSI makes.

Once you take the foam off the top the card itself comes wrapped up in a static protective bag then it is sitting in a cut foam tray. This is a little less in your face than the experience of opening up a Founders Edition card because Nvidia doesn’t keep that card in a bag so when you open things up it is right in your face. But the SUPRIM X does come well protected. Below the card, there is another included bonus but I will touch on that in a minute.

So MSI includes a support bracket. In the past, they have sometimes gone with brackets that attach to the PCI bracket but this one is a little more universal. It is a pole with a base and an adjustable height arm. This will hold up the end of the large SUPRIM card to prevent sagging and any potential damage to the PCI slot as well. The base has the MSI gaming dragon logo on it and then rubber feet on the bottom. Then the adjustable arm has a thumbscrew to hold it in place, rubber on top, and the SUPRIM branding on the side.

Card Layout and Photos

With the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X, MSI didn’t change much up between it and the RTX 3080 SUPRIM X I took a look at when they launched their Suprim lineup and I’m glad. I was impressed previously at just how far MSI went to make this their premium line and even though this is still from the MSI Gaming lineup it doesn’t feel like your normal “gaming” themed card. The 3070 Ti SUPRIM X uses brushed aluminum in the center section to give a premium look and I like it a lot more than the plastic shroud designs that every other card have (except the founders edition cards of course). The design does stick with the angular look that most cards have these days, but with the brushed finish it doesn’t break things up. They also have RGB accents in between the triple fans as well which give just a little lighting and are truly accents, where most other cards only use RGB for branding.

So like I mentioned, the 3070 Ti SUPRIM X has a triple fan layout and due to the size of the card, MSI doesn’t have to do any weird combinations of fan sizes. In fact, the nearly 100mm fans look tiny compared to the size of the card. Each fan has the MSI Gaming dragon logo in the center with a metal finish. Then they are all matching axial fans with 10 curved blades. The blades are joined together, well they are paired up, they don’t have a ring that goes all the way around like some fans. Through the fans, we can see the thick aluminum heatsink which has a vertical orientation and each fin has small bumps on the fan side with the rows offset. This is what MSI called wave curved 2.0 fin edges to disrupt airflow harmonics and I bet it also helps catch air blowing side to side and pull it down through the heatsink. When looking closer at the fans we can also see the V-shaped RGB accents with the white translucent diffusers.

Just like the 3080 SUPRIM X, the 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is a huge card. It is 335 mm long and for reference, the 3070 Ti Founders Edition is 267 mm long and that isn’t a small card, just a normal-sized high-end card. The 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is 140 mm tall which has the top of the shroud up over the top of the PCI bracket by 35 mm. Then it is 61 mm thick which is a full 3 slot card, even though the PCI bracket is only a 2 slot. This is the same card size (and cooler design) as the RTX 3080 SUPRIM X and it is one of only a few cards that is very heavy, even without a heavy metal shroud design like the Founders Edition cards.

With the 3070 Ti SUPRIM X being so thick, it gives us a great look around all of the edges. Up on the top edge for example we can see that they have done a great job shaping the heatsink around each of the components. It even gets thicker doesn’t at the end past the end of the PCB. Then down on the end, you can see the heatpipes sticking out which run all the way down and pull heat from a copper baseplate over top of the GPU and surrounding area. With this card's size, MSI also built in a proper support bracket down here for anyone who might need the two screw holes at the end, just like Nvidia includes on all of their Founders Edition cards. Then the bottom of the card lets us get a better look at how the heatsink is split up with a small section that allows the heatpipes to move up closer to the top edge of the heatsink and for some to turn around and go back over the top of the GPU on the left half of the card. The heatpipes are round here, but when they get over the top of the GPU they are machined square so they can get as many as possible into one area and they get the best possible contact on the copper baseplate.

Also up on the top edge, they do have some branding and lighting. The GeForce RTX portion isn’t backlit and is just on the black plastic fan shroud. But right above that, they have the SUPRIM branding on a mirrored finish which has an accent bar all along the top edge. That bar looks a little silver in these pictures but it is semi-translucent and I like this a LOT more than just backlighting the branding. The only thing missing here would be something that says that this is an RTX 3070 Ti so people can see what you have when looking in. The top edge also has the power hookups which sit at the end of the PCB about 2/3 of the way down the card. The 3070 Ti SUPRIM X with its overclock has two 8-pin traditional PCIe power connections and they do have them recessed slightly down into the card to help not add even more height. The last big feature up on the top edge is the dual BIOS switch which is near the PCI bracket end facing out through a cutout in the backplate. They have the dip switch labeled with gaming and silent modes which is nice, some cards don’t let you know which mode is on which BIOS. Ours came set in the silent mode and that is what I will test in, but I will also test both against each other as well.

The thick aluminum backplate on the 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is the best looking part of the card. They have given it a brushed finish but to spice things up it is brushed in two different directions which gives it more of that same angular look that is on the front fan shroud. The backplate has GeForce RTX branding as well as the SUPRIM branding printed on it so you can read them when the card is installed in a normal card. Then down at the end, they have a large MSI Gaming dragon logo which is backlit with RGB making it the only spot that does that, the rest of the card sticks with RGB for accents which I like. The backplate has openings for the dual BIOS which I already mentioned as well as the power connections to help you get at the clips. Then behind the GPU, they have the back support bracket exposed with a nice polished finish on it. Then past the PCB, they did open up the backplate for at least a little blow-through airflow.

I wouldn’t have guessed that a picture of the PCI bracket end of the card would show its size as much as it does but the 3070 Ti SUPRIM X looks like I do after the holidays with the fan shroud sticking way out of the top and the entire card sticking up over the top of the PCI bracket. The bracket has a normal tinted chrome finish which like I have mentioned before I like a nice black paint job here would look great. It has some airflow with small round holes, but the card isn’t designed to push air in this direction at all so it won’t get used much. Below that they have a standard display connection layout with three full-sized DisplayPorts on the left and one HDMI on the right. The HDMI is even labeled with HDMI stamped into the backplate over top of it.

Before getting into testing I did also want to take a look at the 3070 Ti SUPRIM X with the lighting turned on. It comes by default in a rainbow mode with all of its addressable LEDs. The V accents on the front between the fans are subtle, maybe even too subtle. I think an eyebrow like bar that matches when they did on the top might look better or just have the fans backlit. But overall I still love that they went with RGB accents and a lot less RGB for backlit branding. The top bar looks great and uses the mirror finish below it to light up the SUPRIM branding. Then on the back, the MSI Gaming logo is lit up, and looks like the metal shield layout is almost floating there on the card. There is some lighting that makes it to the vent holes on the left and it looks like they have some lighting around the GPU bracket as well.

Test Rig and Procedures

Test Rig

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3900X

Motherboard: Asus Crosshair VIII HERO WiFi

Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Royal 3600MHz 16-16-16-36

Storage: Corsair MP600 2TB

Cooling – Corsair H100i RGB Pro XT

Power Supply - Corsair AX1200w

Case - Primochill Wetbench

OS - Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Synthetic Benchmarks

As always I like to start my testing with a few synthetic benchmarks. 3DMark especially is one of my favorites because it is very optimized in both Nvidia and AMD drivers. It's nice to not have to worry about it being favored too much either way and the repeatability of the results makes it a nice chance to compare from card to card, especially when comparing with the same GPU. In this case, I wanted to see how the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X compares with the 3070 Ti Founders Edition. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X has a clock speed of 1860 MHz where the Founders Edition is slower at 1770 MHz.

The first round of tests were done in the older Fire Strike benchmark which is a DX11 test. There are three detail levels, performance, extreme, and ultra. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X moved up to the top of the tightly bunched group of the RX 6700 XT’s along with the Founders Edition 3070 Ti. That lead grows bigger in the extreme detail and then in the ultra detail both 3070 Ti’s take the lead with the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X having 272 points up over the Founders Edition.

The next two were both based on the Time Spy benchmark. One is the standard test and then there is the extreme detail level. Time Spy is DX12 based and the last few generations of Nvidia cards have been doing very well in both Time Spy tests. You can see how the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X has now jumped up higher in the chart compared to the Fire Strike benchmarks and once again the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X has a nice lead on the Founders Edition in both detail levels. This doesn’t get it close to the RTX 3080 but pulls even more away from the 2080 Ti.

The last test was using the Unigine based Superposition benchmark and I tested at 1080p with medium detail and again at 1080p with the extreme detail setting. In the extreme detail setting the RTX 3070, Ti SUPRIM X has a 2.8% increase up over the 3070 Ti Founders Edition. That is far from enough to catch up to the 6800XT but it does help.

VR Benchmarks

As for Virtual Reality, I love it but it is more demanding than traditional gaming. This is partially because of the resolutions needed to render for two eyes and because they render more than what is immediately visible. But also because of post effects to get the proper “fisheye” effect for it to look proper in your eyes with the HMD. You also have to have much higher expectations for frame rates in VR, skipping frames or lower FPS can cause motion sickness in VR. Because of that, I ran a few tests.

My first test was again in Superposition. This time I tested the VR Maximum and VR Future tests using the Vive resolution. Here the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X gained just under 3 FPS over the 2080 Ti and the 3070 Ti Founders Editions.

My second round of VR testing was in VRMark which has two tests that are similar to the VR tests in Superposition. One is future-looking and extremely demanding and the other (cyan room) is more like modern VR games. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X performed similarly to in Superposition here in VRMark with the high detail blue room performance gaming 2 and a half FPS but being far from the 120 FPS of the RTX 3080. It was however enough o pass the RTX 2080 Ti.

In-Game Benchmarks

Now we finally get into the in game performance and that is the main reason people pick up a new video card. To test things out I ran through our new benchmark suite that tests 9 games at three different resolutions (1080p, 1440p, and 4k). Most of the games tested have been run at the highest detail setting and a mid-range detail setting to get a look at how turning things up hurts performance and to give an idea of if turning detail down from max will be beneficial for frame rates. In total, each video card is tested 48 times and that makes for a huge mess of results when you put them all together. To help with that I like to start with these overall playability graphs that take all of the results and give an easier to read result. I have one for each of the three resolutions and each is broken up into four FPS ranges. Under 30 FPS is considered unplayable, over 30 is playable but not ideal, over 60 is the sweet spot, and then over 120 FPS is for high refresh rate monitors.

So how did the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X do? Well at 1080p all of the tests came in at over 60 FPS and with 11 out of the 16 being up over 120 FPS. This matched the 3070 Ti Founders Edition which isn’t a big shock given that at 1080p things are more CPU limited. At 1440p everything was once again over 60 FPS with 9 out of the 16 this time being over 120 FPS. This means the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X can handle a majority of 1440p games at a high refresh rate. Then at 4k performance dropped down noticeably with 11 out of the 16 over 60 FPS and none were over 120 FPS. There were 5 of the results in that playable but not ideal range of 30-59 FPS as well.

Of course, I have all of the actual in game results as well for anyone who wants to sort through the wall of graphs below. I mostly wanted to see how the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X would compare with the stock clocked RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition and to see if the crazy cooling and overclock would be enough to push the 3070 Ti up past any other cards. Right away in Watch Dogs, you can see that the overclock does help, especially in the high detail. In almost all of the tests, the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is up 2-4 FPS over the Founders Edition. But that wasn’t enough to push the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X up over any other cards tested. It stuck right above the 3070 Ti Founders Edition across the board.

Compute Benchmarks

Now some people don’t need a video card for gaming, they need the processing power for rendering or 2D/3D production, or in some cases people who game also do work on the side. So it is also important to check out the compute performance on all of the video cards that come in. That includes doing a few different tests. My first test was a simple GPU Compute benchmark using Passmark’s Performance Test 9 and the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X gained 185 points over the 3070 Ti Founders Edition which was enough to overtake the weird overclocked RTX 3070 result but still a drop in the bucket between the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X and the RTX 3080. 

In Basemark I test with the DirectX12 setting and again with OpenGL. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X gained 340 points over the Founders Edition in the DirectX 12 tests but came in lower in the OpenGL test making it a wash overall.

Blender is always my favorite compute benchmark because the open-source 3D rendering software is very popular and it isn’t a synthetic benchmark. Here I render two scenes and combine the total time it takes. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X improved on the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Editions Blender score by 1 second which wasn’t a huge jump but better than nothing. The same goes for its Optix results which were also one second faster. Optix itself though is a huge improvement over the normal CUDA performance in Blender with it being less than half of the time to render the same tasks.

RTX and DLSS

Being an RTX card I also like checking out the performance of some of Nvidia’s features. Namely the ray tracing performance and the performance improvements you can see by using DLSS combined with the tensor cores. In most of the tests, I’m only comparing a few of the RTX cards as well as a GTX 1080 Ti for comparison. But in the 3DMark Port Royal test, I have been tracking ray tracing performance in all of the RTX cards as well as a few of the GTX cards introduced into the mix as well. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X gained 249 points or 2.8% over the Founders Edition with its overclock, edging closer to the 6800 XT.

Next, I wanted to check out the performance in Metro Exodus which I do our normal testing in as well. The overclocking of the SUPRIM X does give a slightly higher frame rate across all of these tests. It still shows that running just RTX is going to be hard but turning DLSS on along with it jumped the frame rate up from 33 to 50 FPS which is nearly the same as not running either. Turning DLSS does help even without RTX, but the improvement is a lot smaller.

With Wolfenstein: Youngblood I tested at 4K using their Mein Lenen! Detail setting which is the highest detail. I tested with RTX on and just compared running with DLSS on the balanced setting and with it off entirely. Overall this test shows how much of an improvement DLSS can get you in Wolfenstein: Youngblood especially when adding RTX into the mix. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X sees 2 FPS over the Founders Edition with no DLSS and 1 FPS with it turned on. Turning DLSS on was also enough to push the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X performance up into the 120 FPS high refresh rate range.

Next, I tested using a benchmark based on the game Boundary. For this one, I wanted to see how all of the different DLSS settings would perform, including turning it off completely. Here with DLSS off the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X comes in at just 16.1 FPS which is unplayable. Turning DLSS on even with the highest quality nearly doubles that at 29.7 FPS and the balanced setting is 35.5 and 42.6 FPS on the performance setting. That is nearly 3 times the performance.

The last tests were done in a benchmark based on the game Bright Memory. Here I wanted to check out the performance difference between different RTX settings. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X does see a few FPS improvement over the Founders Edition here. Beyond that, this shows that depending on the RTX settings there is a wide range of performance hit that RTX can give you, in this came from 34 FPS up to 56 FPS while still having RTX on.

Cooling Noise and Power

For my last few tests, rather than focusing on in game performance, I like to check out other aspects of performance. These are also the most important ways to differentiate the performance between cards that have the same GPU. To start things off I took a look at power usage. For this, I use our Kill-A-Watt hooked up to the test bench to record the total wattage of the system. I ran two tests with the first using 3DMark Fire Strike to put the system under a load similar to normal in game performance. Here our test system with the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X in it pulled 454 watts during the 3DMark Fire Strike combined test which is right (well two watts lower) with the 3070 Ti Founders Edition. I was even more surprised with the AIDA64 result however, the 3070 Ti Founders Edition pulled 400 watts where the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X pulled 381. Not bad for also having an overclock! The GPUz charts had the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X and the Founders edition closer together with the SUPRIM pulling 3 more watts to the GPU.

My next round of tests were looking at noise levels. These are especially important to me because I can’t stand to listen to my PC whirling. Especially when I’m not in game and other applications are using the GPU. For my testing, though I first tested with the fan cranked up to 100% to get an idea of how loud it can get, then again at 50% to get an idea of its range. The RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X fell right in the middle of the pack when it came to 100% fan speed which isn’t too bad considering the triple fan layout. But when we look at the RPM at 100% fan speed chart the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X is down in the lower 1/3 so it is a little loud considering the fan speeds, but that is most likely from having an extra fan compared to most other cards. The 50% noise levels were good but it is the under load test that is most important and the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X does well there. It’s down in the lower 1/3 with 36.1 decibels.

To finish up my testing I of course had to check out the cooling performance. To do this I ran two different tests. I used AIDA64’s Stress Test run for a half-hour each to warm things up. Then I documented what temperature the GPU leveled out at with the stock fan profile and then again with the fans cranked up to 100%. With the stock profile, the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X stayed cool at 64 degrees. For comparison, the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition was running at 73c in the same test. Cranking the fan up to 100% to see how good the cooling could be the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X cooled down to 48c. The Founders Edition was 55c there. The delta between the stock profile and the 100% fan speed numbers was 16c which is a good gap meaning there is still a lot of headroom if needed in the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X’s large cooler.

While running the stock fan profile testing I also took the time to get a few thermal images so we could see what is going on. But given how cool the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X was running there weren’t any major hotspots. On the fan side, you can see that the bottom portion of the card runs a little warmer than the top. Then on the back, the exposed back of the GPU is of course the hottest area as well as the section just below the GPU and the coolest is the blow-through portion down at the end. The top view shows some of the heat coming up out of the top but I was surprised that up under the card at the motherboard isn’t getting the normal hotspot that a vertical axial heatsink layout normally gets.

That would normally be all of my cooling testing. But given that the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X does have two different BIOS modes with the top mounted switch that flips between a gaming mode and silent. I wanted to check out what the difference was. Both have the same overall clock speed and with that performance. But As you can see below, the two different modes do affect the overall load temperatures by 3 degrees. The noise difference between the two was minimal at just 1/10^th of a decibel and the wattage was the same.

Overall and Final Verdict

MSI introduced their new SUPRIM lineup a little after the 3000 series launch and both times I have had the chance to check out one of the SUPRIM cards I’ve been impressed with what MSI is doing. The packaging is a little more premium over what MSI normally does and each card comes with a SUPRIM branded mouse pad and an adjustable support to prevent any card sag long term. The card itself looks amazing, I think only the Founders Edition cards are better looking but these aren’t far off. The SUPRIM X has a thick metal backplate, nothing is held back when it comes to the cooling, and they aren’t going for a crazy “gamer” styling. This is an elegant-looking card that is also the big dog flagship model. I especially like that not all of the lighting is used just to backlight branding. Most of the lighting is nice It outperforms the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition across the board while also pulling a little less power and being in a completely different level when it comes to cooling and noise. That also means, just like with the 3070 Ti FE, this card is amazing with 1440p games giving you the ability to game at 1440p at high refresh rates.

Like with the previous SUPRIM card that I took a look at. This is a huge card. It is well beyond a normal card size in every dimension, so you do need to keep that in mind when making sure it's going to fit in your build. This is also why MSI includes the extra support bracket as well, a big card with the monster heatsink on this thing has a lot of weight to it. So you will want to be sure you aren’t putting the PCIe slot under any extra strain and for long term making sure the card doesn’t sag as well. A small detail, but I wish MSI went with a nice black PCI bracket on the back of the card to match up with the rest of the card.

As far as pricing, it’s a little hard to even pinpoint the MSRP on the RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM X. GPU pricing as a whole is still crazy and availability is still very limited. So the only cards available right now for the 3070 Ti SUPRIM X are in the $1300 range which we known isn’t anywhere near the base MSRP of the 3070 Ti. While that is way above what I would recommend paying. I would say that the SUPRIM X should be at the top of your list when shopping for an RTX 3070 Ti. You really can’t beat its overclock, gaming performance, and cooling performance. Not to mention the overall build quality and styling as well.

Live Pricing: HERE

Author Bio

Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org

Editor-in-chief

You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.