MSI Gaming GTX 1070 Ti Graphics Card Review

A Closer Look

Those who followed MSI graphics cards over the last few years will see fairly familiar sight here, as the card is a steady evolution of their existing designs. It uses a dual fan design, which can deliver massive airflow at lower RPM. The byproduct of this is that the card is quite wide, but that also helps it maintain a strict two-slot design, which is beneficial to SLI configurations. As you can see, a sticker is in place, letting you know the fans have Zero Frozr. This card can run passively at low load and temperatures, making it completely silent for day-to-day use.

The card uses a mostly black and red design, with a large red Shroud around the rearmost fan, and red LED lit fins surrounding the other.

This is obviously going to appeal to those who already have a lot of black and red gaming hardware. Although, given how common that colour scheme is, that should make it pretty popular.

Two Slot Design

The card measures a fraction under 11 inches long, but most importantly it maintains a strict two slot design. Of course, that’s going to make it much better suited to those running it in SLI configurations. The tradeoff for this slimmer design is that the card is quite wide, although I can’t see that posing any issues the most system builds.

Of course, the added width of the card also helps provide space for those larger fans as well as a much wider heatsink design. The card is capable of running completely passive so long as it’s under 60c, meaning you’d be able to do most of your work and even some moderate gaming in complete silence.

This is an overclocking graphics card, which means the demands a fair amount of power.  Towards the rear of the card, you will find an 8 pin and the 6 pin power connector. Along the side of the card,  you will the intricate layout of those heavy-duty heat pipes. Of course, they are very functional, what also aesthetically pleasing.

Connectivity

Connectivity on the card is standard but competent, offering up a DVI connector, 3 DisplayPort connectors, and a single HDMI. I love that everything has matching red covers too.

With built-in RGB LED lighting on the MSI logo on the side of the card, you can enjoy some customisation as limited as it is. there is also some LED lighting on the red fin highlights on the bottom of the card. You can set various lighting effects to these or turn the lights off entirely with the included software.

Backplate

The rear of the card is very nicely designed, with a full-size aluminum backplate providing added strength and passive cooling. It’s aesthetically pleasing, thanks to the MSI dragon detailing, and some cool ventilation that is cut into the back of the card.