MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 12GB GDRR6X Extreme Clock: 2520 MHz 192-Bit HDMI/DP Nvlink TORX Fan 4.0 Ada Lovelace Architecture Graphics Card (RTX 4070 Ventus 3X 12G OC)

Why did I settle on the 4070? Because at the price point and feature set when I purchased it (Early September '23) it was the best current and future gaming card for my budget for a 1080P gamer looking to eventually move up to 1440 or higher without breaking the bank. The AMD equivalent for the current gen came out right around when I purchased it, but DLSS and RT cores will give it a significantly longer lifespan, so I have no regrets. Should I have waited a month? Probably, but I needed a GPU at the time.Why MSI? It has been over 15 years since I built my last PC, and there have been a few solid and consistent brands. MSI has always been there on price and performance, and since I was already going with an MSI motherboard, I figured I'd match them. I wanted a 3 fan GPU as well for noise as well as possible overclocking reasons. I also liked this card's lack of RGB.The results? This card has been impressive, and made me rethink what I wanted to do with the card. Stock, it performs well, near an average 4070 (Well within margin of error), perhaps slightly better due to it's very modest overclock. But what impressed me more was the temperatures, being able to run torture tests and struggle to get the card over 60C. The 4070 is an incredibly efficient GPU, and there's still room on the table. I was able to mostly stably OC it at +225 MHZ and around +1500 HMZ on the ram, but I found I got nearly identical performance at +150 and +1000 respectively. Tempuratures nearly identical, with maybe the chip getting up to 62 or 63 on the extreme end of the OC, with them going down to 61ish for the OC I settled on. However, the performance improvement was not particularly large, maybe 3-5%. So, instead, I decided to try undervolting the GPU. I was able to run the GPU very stably undervolted around .05v at around +100ish core speed and +1000 on the memory, while reducing the tempuratures slightly, and almost entirely avoiding the max power draw of the card (which is 200w in this single connector model). I could probably do a more agressively undervolt the card at more stock speeds and cut the draw to about 150W under torture loads if I wanted to. Now, thermals are still around 60C here, but the reduced wattage under load keeps the chip better longer, and puts less wear on other components.Now, with all that OC testing out of the way, this GPU even at stock or underclocked speeds chews though anything I throw at it. It's currently overkill for 1080P, but it tests well even at 1440P. The fact that the fans rarely ramp up over 30% speed also means this is ultra quiet, which fits great in my ultra-quiet case. Given I don't need the extra overlocking speed, I'll save on power draw for now and enjoy a great card.Note, with the good power draw, this card is great in smaller or more restrictive cases as well, as it should still keep cool. Just keep in mind, it's not the gamer 215W version of the card. You might be able to squeeze a bit more performance out of that one, but I still think there's no need. Enjoy the quiet and power efficient performance, it's an amazing card.Edit: FYI, after playing with it a bit more, I can overclock the memory up near 1700+ before I get stability issues going up around 1800, but I've backed off to +1500 on the memory, and I've been able to undervolt the card at .95v (normally capped at 1.1) for less than a 1% performance hit and a 20% power draw reduction (around 160 tdp rather than the usual 195-200), and I've rarely seen the card over 63C temps even when I was overclocking it under heavy load (running it around +225 over this card's stock speed in furmark). I may have won the Silicon Lottery, but the card has been amazing, and I'd recommend one to anyone looking for a cool running card with a lot of possible headroom.

Okay so there's a lot of controversy around this card for it's price point, and that's a valid response to Nvidia's pricing in the current GPU landscape. Dropping this card down $50 at the very least would make sense. However this is the market right now and if you're building a new rig, this card starts to make sense. If you're upgrading from a 3080 or 3080ti it might not(except for Frame Generation). Having said that though, this card definitely delivers, since I've upgraded from a 3060 desktop variant.Pros: The card is fast and if you're into ray tracing(I am), it won't let you down(with DLSS 3 enabled anyway) Also to kick those extra frames with RT enabled, Frame Generation is a great feature as well. For visual enthusiasts this card won't leave you thirsting even with 4k gaming. 12gb of Vram is plenty at least at the moment for any game. I currently play at 1440p high settings, ultra is just frame waste in my personal opinion. The visual fidelity just isn't any better to me. This card runs cool, and it's even under the TDP of a 3060. Yes it only has 192bit memory bandwidth but that doesn't impact how the card performs with all the tech onboard. It's a beast for an entry level, no frills model. If you want RGB then this is too barebones for you. If you want solid FPS, great visuals with a low power draw, this card will do just fine. It's a two slot card, with one 8pin connector for power that gets the job done. You could run this on 650w power supply just fine, even though I already have a 750w in my current system. Fan speed is almost unnoticeable and there's no coil whine, even under intensive gaming, like Cyberpunk 2077.Cons: It's plain, no RGB. If you have a smaller case this card may be too big, go with the ASUS double fan model, if you still like ASUS after the whole mobo fiasco ;)Overall; Get the card, it won't let you down. It just works.