MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming X Slim MLG 12 GB Graphics Card Review – Slim & Anime

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming X SLIM MLG Unboxing & Closeup

The MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming X SLIM graphics card comes inside a standard cardboard box. The front of the package has a large "GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER" brand logo along with the "MSI" logo in the top left corner. A picture of the MLG Mascot is featured in the center.

The packaging has put a large emphasis on the RTX side of things as the first feature enlisted by AIBs will be NVIDIA Ada architecture, Ray Tracing & DLSS support. NVIDIA has bet the future of their gaming GPUs on Ray Tracing support as these are the first cards to offer support for the new feature. The back of the box is very typical, highlighting the main features and specifications of the cards.

There's also a focus towards GeForce.com on each AIB card through which users can download the latest drivers and GeForce Experience application which are a must for gamers to access all feature sets of the new cards.

The sides of the box once again greet us with the large GeForce RTX branding. There's also the mention of 12 GB GDDR6X (RTX 4070 SUPER) memory available on the card.

Outside of the box, the graphics card and the accessory package are held firmly by foam packaging. The graphics card comes with a few accessories and manuals which might not be of much use for hardcore enthusiasts but can be useful for the mainstream gaming audience.

The bundled accessories include the 16-pin to 2x 8-pin power adapter, a support bracket, a few stickers & a second backplate. The card is nicely wrapped within an anti-static cover which is useful to prevent any unwanted static discharges on various surfaces that might harm the graphics card.

The MSI XLR8 cooler is a high-end variant and you can expect a large cooling solution. The card measures 307 x 125 x 46.0 mm. The card features a standard 2-slot height which is great since it offers compatibility with 90% of the ATX cases out there unlike the 2.5 or 3-slot designs that have become a common occurrence in the high-end space.

The cooling shroud extends to the back of the PCB and it requires a casing with good interior space for proper installation.

The back of the card features a solid backplate that looks stunning. The backplate offers a lot more functionality than just looks which I will get back to in a bit.

In terms of design, MSI is using its latest generation of Tri Frozr 3 cooling solution which is already tested by us and delivers exceptional cooling performance coupled with great aesthetics. The GPU design is more or less a return to the renowned red and black theme from MSI which hasn't been featured on a GeForce card for sometime now since the move to the newer Gaming, Ventus & the SUPRIM lineups.

The heatsink comes in two modules, each of which is stacked with numerous amounts of fins made out of aluminum. The card uses a rather large but slimmed-out heatsink structure that directly connects to the GPU and the memory.

MSI is using its latest Torx Fan 5.0 design which comes in a triple-fan solution and each fan has an MSI Dragon sticker placed on top of it.

Each fan is 90mm in size and compared to the traditional 90mm fans, these are said to offer 23% more airflow than traditional axial-tech fans thanks to the improvements made to the ring arcs that have three sets of fan blades. There are a total of 3 sets which include 9 fan blades. The fans also come with Zero Frozr 0db fan technology and the limit of fan operation is set at 60C for fan off and on modes.

I am back at talking about the full-coverage, full metal-based backplate that the card uses. The whole plate is made of solid metal with rounded edges that add to the durability of this card. The brushed metallic finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic. The graphics card also comes with a compact PCB design which means that the shroud, heatsink, and backplate are all extended beyond the PCB. The third fan blows air through the heatsink and blows it out from the cutouts that are situated at the very end of the backplate.

There are cutouts in screw placements to reach the points on the graphics card easily.

Since the screws are made out of metal, they allow users to slot in the backplate cover which comes with the MSI MLG anime theme.

With the outside of the card done, I will now start taking a glance at what's beneath the hood of these monster graphics cards. The fin stack runs from the front and to the back of the PCB and features layers upon layers of aluminum fins. The heatsink makes use of a total of 4 heat pipes that extend throughout the internal assembly and dissipate heat from the various components to the fins.

The base itself is a nickel-plated copper plate, transferring heat to the heat pipes in a very effective manner. The heatsink uses MSI's renowned Core pipes technology which is squared heat pipes & makes direct contact with the GPU baseplate to spread heat along the full length of the heatsink in an effective manner.

To top it all off, I/O on the graphics card sticks with the reference scheme which includes three Display Port 1.4a & a single HDMI 2.1 port.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming X SLIM MLG Teardown:

The MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming X SLIM MLG graphics card comes with an 8+2+1 phase VRM design and features a total of 6 GDDR6X memory dies that are rated to operate at 21.0 Gbps speeds. The card runs at up to 2655 MHz clock speeds out of the box and has a TGP rating of 220W.

MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming X SLIM MLG RGB Lighting Gallery:

The MSI Gaming X SLIM graphics card comes with several RGB accent zones. There's the glowing 'MSI Dragon' logo on the sides and then there are red-colored claws which have a more subtle hint of LED lighting. The fans don't feature any LEDs but overall, the card looks great. Following is what the graphics card looks like when lit up.

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