MSI Gaming Z RTX 2070 Graphics Card Review

How We Test

Testing Procedure

Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Therefore, your experience may vary.

Testing Your Own System

Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using our benchmarks and settings where possible. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware we tested to give you a ballpark figure of how much an upgrade this will provide you with.

Graphics Card Test System

• Motherboard – Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 7 Z370
• Processor – Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5.0 GHz
• RAM – Crucial Ballistix Gaming 32GB (4 x 8GB) 3000 MHz
• CPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D15S
• Power Supply – Be Quiet Power Zone 1000W
• Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB
• Chassis – Lian Li T80 Open Air Test Bench
• Operating System – Windows 10 64-bit

Additional Hardware

• Killawatt style electricity usage meter wall plug
• Precision Gold N05CC Decibel meter

Gaming

Any technology which favours either AMD or NVIDIA is disabled where possible. More specifically, this refers to PhysX, Hairworks and similar technologies. Additionally, we also disable all forms of AA, including FXAA, to gauge performance levels which aren’t impacted by sophisticated AA wherever possible. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, as is FreeSync and G-Sync technologies or similar. Graphics card power usage set to optimised or balance, and the system power mode set to High Performance within Windows and the available GPU driver software. Identical settings are used for all resolutions unless otherwise stated.

Games and Settings Used

• Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam)
  • DX12 Medium Preset
  • Pure Hair Off
• Deus Ex (Steam)
  • DX12 Medium Preset
• Ghost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay)
  • Medium Preset
  • Turf Effects Off
• Far Cry Primal (Uplay)
  • Normal Preset

Software Used

• 3DMark Fire Strike (download)
  • FireStrike (1080p) Benchmark
• Unigine Superposition (download)
  • 1080p Extreme Benchmark
• HWMonitor (download)

Noise

Everyone has a reasonable noise level preference when it comes to comes to components on a computer. Some can handle all fans at 100% load to keep temperatures down; some want an entirely silent computer. To accurately gauge the noise output of a graphics card, we position a Precision Gold N05CC one meter above our open-air test bench and take an average reading at idle and load. Noise levels in your own system or an enclosed system will likely be lower than this.

Power Consumption

We take power readings during idle state with no background applications running. Then again at 50% completion of the Unigine Superposition benchmark, using the average as the final published result.

Temperatures

We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered from Unigine Superposition after a 4K optimised run, confirming the numbers are accurate with HWMonitor. Furthermore, the ambient temperature is always kept +/- 1c from 21c.