MSI GeForce RTX 2070 GAMING Z Performance Review @ [H]

[FrgMstr]

MSI GeForce RTX 2070 GAMING Z Performance Review

We have an exclusive first look at performance of the new MSI GeForce RTX 2070 GAMING Z video cards sporting the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU. We will be comparing performance to a MSI GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X and ASUS ROG STRIX Vega 64 OC video cards in eight games at 1440p and 4K.

If you like our content, please support HardOCP on Patreon.

Update: MSI has contacted us today asking HardOCP to remove this RTX 2070 review, even though MSI had nothing to do with sourcing this review. NVIDIA's green feathers are apparently flying over this RTX 2070 review being published before its embargo date and time that is has with reviewers that signed its NDA. This is how things turn out when NVIDIA tries to force 5 year blanket NDAs down journalists throats. We chose not to sign NVIDIA's NDA. Our review is 100% legitimate and we are not going to remove it because NVIDIA is throwing a fit over it being published. The fact of the matter is that NVIDIA changed its entire NDA/Product Embargo structure after we reported on GPP this year. It did this to muzzle stories about NVIDIA in the future, and it is on NVIDIA for tying that to its product reviews. It is sad that MSI is having to deal with the brunt of NVIDIA's fury over this, and to that, we are sorry that is happening. This review could have easily been over any other AIB's card, it just so happens that an MSI card was the first one that we could source.

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

So because you didn't sign the NDA, you thought it was okay to undercut all the other reviewers who did? Because why? You want to spite Nvidia or something?
I'd like to mention that Steve (GamersNexus) didn't sign recent AMD NDA's, but still managed to source early Ryzen chips and chose not to publish until the NDA date out of respect for other reviewers.

This is a scummy move.

 

[defaultluser]

It's not a scummy move. Kyle was delayed on his 2080 Ti review compared to other sites several ays, due to waiting for an official a to ship.

An once these benchmarks have leaked, the probability is high that NVIDIA will open e floodgates early

Excellent review, this was definitely the price-performance model we were waiting for.

 

[FrgMstr]

So because you didn't sign the NDA, you thought it was okay to undercut all the other reviewers who did? Because why? You want to spite Nvidia or something?
I'd like to mention that Steve (GamersNexus) didn't sign recent AMD NDA's, but still managed to source early Ryzen chips and chose not to publish until the NDA date out of respect for other reviewers.

This is a scummy move.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I have no agreement with NVIDIA on this, nor with any other hardware sites. We are in the business of getting solid information about computer hardware to our readers. That said, this is a thread to discuss our review, not our business practices. Please feel free to start your own thread on that topic. Thanks.

​

 

[cybereality]

Great review as always. Looks like a decent card for people that haven't upgraded in a while.

 

[Rizen]

Interesting card.

I haven't been excited by the RTX releases yet, but the 2070 seems to be more of the same - a performance bump over the previous higher tier, but at the same-ish release costs. The 2070 does deliver a performance bump over the 1080. It will depend on where the AIB boards end up in terms of price, I think. The FE cards are going to be $599. I just picked up a 1080Ti for $679 so I wonder how the 2070 stacks up against that. Only about an $80 difference, which at that price isn't a big jump up.

 

[FrgMstr]

Interesting card.

I haven't been excited by the RTX releases yet, but the 2070 seems to be more of the same - a performance bump over the previous higher tier, but at the same-ish release costs. The 2070 does deliver a performance bump over the 1080. It will depend on where the AIB boards end up in terms of price, I think. The FE cards are going to be $599. I just picked up a 1080Ti for $679 so I wonder how the 2070 stacks up against that. Only about an $80 difference, which at that price isn't a big jump up.

So just talking to Brent about this. The 1080 Ti should be faster than the 2070. On the whole, the 1080 Ti is 30% faster than the 1080. So that would put the 2070 in between those two.

 

[96redformula]

Its too expensive still, 2nd hand 1080 is a better value at under $400.

 

[Nebell]

I don't get it, why compare it to 1080 and not 1070 and 1080Ti?

 

[Mylex]

Nice Review! I will say that while Im ok with the performance bump it provides, Im not ok with the price unless you are a person that wants in on what RTX provides just get a 1080 ti. Im talking new, I have seen them around $679 used around the lower $500 range.

 

[Krenum]

Not worth the extra framerates for the price Ngreedia wants. Pass.

 

[Andross182]

Sitting on GTX980Ti SLI...tempting...

 

[chenw]

I don't get it, why compare it to 1080 and not 1070 and 1080Ti?

Price probably.

 

[mda]

If Pascal stock runs out and one of my cards die before 7nm, I guess I can stomach this price.

 

[Nuby1Canuby]

Excellent review. Nice to see you with the first one out.

 

[andrvad]

The impact of DLSS can be interesting. We might see performance levels from the RTX 2070 being closer to the 1080 Ti, with the same image quality.

 

[Trimlock]

But but Nvidia nerfs their older cards... /s

Excellent review, I agree that the big question is ray tracing performance. A publisher needs to hurry up and get something out.

 

[harmattan]

Nice one, wasn't expecting the 2070 review to drop until much later.

Really interesting to see Turing is in fact faster than Pascal per core at same clocks, albeit meagre for a generational change.

I will disagree on the Gold when considering 2 years+ between the 1080 and 2070 releases and the serious price jump, but when taken in an absolute vacuum I suppose the award is merited.

 

[harmattan]

I don't get it, why compare it to 1080 and not 1070 and 1080Ti?

Because 2070 is the closest equivalent to 1080 from a price and performance perspective? Also, not really a huge leap figure out the deltas btwn 1070 and 1080 ti once you have the results vs. 1080.

 

[Neutrino]

Hahahahahaha...sorry I could not stop laughing when I saw this review and realized it's posted way earlier than anyone else. Guess choosing not be an industry shill does pay off after all.

Awesome job Kyle

About the card: While it is interesting from a technical standpoint, from a bang for the buck point of view (like the rest of this 20*0 gen) it changes nothing. It's a bummer that the days when a new generation of cards would bring better performance for the money are over.

 

[alxlwson]

Thanks for the [H] review! 0130 is quite the time to publish a video card review



There is something odd going on with the clock speed graphs.

 

[Dayaks]

Thanks for the [H] review! 0130 is quite the time to publish a video card review



There is something odd going on with the clock speed graphs.

Do you mean formatting or something? Looked fine to me.

I laughed at the 130 line.

The problem with these cards is they feel like they are $100 too much, except for the 2080ti, which is fine imo. They are priced like RTX is working /widespread and it’s not even close.

I’d personally still buy the 2070 over a 1080.

 

[Modred189]

Great review, as always.
The big question for me will be whether DLSS and/or Ray tracing will nuke 4k ability. I.e., what is the performance cost of these technologies. For DLSS, specifically vs other AA methods.

If the cost knocks the 2070 out of 4k contention, it vs the 1080 becomes an interesting decision.

 

[jbc029]

Surprising that the 2070 does so well when the 2080 was as...lackluster? Pricing is a bit tough to deal with here as well. It's almost exactly midpoint between a decent new 1080 (which is around $480) and and decent new 1080ti (which is around $700). So, overall, it is exactly the same value point as 1080/1080ti. At least it isn't worse, like the rest of the RTX lineup, so far.

 

[happymedium]

That was a good review. How about a little overclocking?

Thanks for the early review.

 

[Chris_B]

I'm guessing someone in Jensen's office just got coffee thrown at them

 

[sirmonkey1985]

I don't get it, why compare it to 1080 and not 1070 and 1080Ti?

it's compared based on MSRP because that's the only constant price you can go by that keeps the review relevant for a longer period of time.

either way price is still way to much for me to stomach but the numbers ended up being much better than i expected.. figured it was going to be within single digit percentages +- of the 1080.

 

[Malurt]

Price is way too high. But, I guess that's what you pay to play games the way people play them now a days, with high refreshrate, high res monitors. If you don't need that, then a RX580 or GTX 1060 is plentiful for everything.

 

[ManofGod]

Sitting on GTX980Ti SLI...tempting...

How long have you been using the SLI Setup? Might be worth it but then again, you might be better keeping what you have, if the SLI portion has been used a lot. Nice review.

 

[Nolan7689]

Too rich for my blood at the moment, and I’m staying reserved until I see what Vega 2 brings to the table aside from 7nm. Buzzwords are nice, performance is nicer though.

All the same though, I’m mighty interested in this. My 290 just ain’t what it used to be.

 

[Olle P]

"We would not consider a reference clocked GeForce RTX 2070 at all for gaming, we think the 2070 GPU needs the boost of a high factory overclock to make it worth the money..."
You don't think a reference 2070 is powerful enough to handle 1440p?
The value depends on pricing, and until we see a somewhat stable retail pricing on "reference" 2070 it's difficult to say if the extra cost of factory overclocking will be worth it.

 

[THRESHIN]

Nice review, great work as always!

I'm still sitting on my old 24" Samsung 245bw that just won't die. I'm still happy with it so its hard to justify rreplacing it. Until it finally melts into a puddle of plastic, my old gtx 970 keeps on chuggin.

 

[viper1152012]

So reason for a series 10 to upgrade yet.

Sitting on my 1080ti.

I made it a point to not spend over 500$ on a you so I typicallywait for a third party seller on an evga card to sell off their card and snag it up.

Guess I'll wait till 3xxx

 

[bbenz33]

Just curious what the relative power consumption is for the 2070 vs 1080.

 

[bbenz33]

"We would not consider a reference clocked GeForce RTX 2070 at all for gaming, we think the 2070 GPU needs the boost of a high factory overclock to make it worth the money..."
You don't think a reference 2070 is powerful enough to handle 1440p?
The value depends on pricing, and until we see a somewhat stable retail pricing on "reference" 2070 it's difficult to say if the extra cost of factory overclocking will be worth it.

I took it that a non overclocked model wouldn't compete with the 1080 in performance but be more expensive than the 1080.

 

[oldmanbal]

Srill looking at > $500 for entey level 4k gameplay. I wouldnt say this is moving the industry forward. I just do not see a huge consumer base waiting to buy a $500-600 card right now. There have already been too many products on the market for too long that have already served all of those buyers adequately. When you can get a 1080ti for a hair over 600, i just can't fathom this as a recommendation until RTX actually exists in a host of games and we can draw a comprehensive conclusion as to what the 2070 can really deliver.

 

[chithanh]

Thanks for the review, that was very interesting.
Unfortunately it has become common to benchmark overclocked against stock clocked cards, which somehow impairs comparability of results.

So because you didn't sign the NDA, you thought it was okay to undercut all the other reviewers who did?

Reviewers who signed the NDA and thus submitted to NVidia are maybe not deserving of such consideration.

I'd like to mention that Steve (GamersNexus) didn't sign recent AMD NDA's, but still managed to source early Ryzen chips and chose not to publish until the NDA date out of respect for other reviewers.

There is nothing wrong or unethical with AMD's NDA.

 

[lostin3d]

Pretty good bang for the buck with this one. For those on a mid level budget this looks like the card to get if you've got a really old gpu needing upgrade.

 

[DejaWiz]

GTX 970 - $329
GTX 1070 - $379
RTX 2070 - $499

Smokin' crack lately, nVidia?

Thanks for putting in the time and effort for another amazing review, [H]!

[edit]
Changed price of 2070 from FE $599 to non-FE $499.

 

[scojer]

Doesn't seem like a bad card at all. I wonder what AMD has up their sleeve to counter this generation. Something great I hope.