MSI Gaming Z RTX 2070 Graphics Card Review

Peter Donnell / 6 years ago

Final Thoughts

How Much Does it Cost?

The launch prices of the RTX range are already started to break up a little bit, which each retailer trying to squeeze a deal out. Right now, it’s anywhere from £589.99 to £633.35 on Amazon. Obviously, I’m happier at the sub £600 price range, as for £680 you’re into 1080 Ti territory.

Overview

The MSI Gaming Z RTX 2070 is a fantastic gaming graphics card at a pretty competitive price. It performs just ever so slightly behind the 1080 Ti, but also costs up to £90 less than the 1080 Ti. However, despite the delays from Microsoft with their DirectX RT update, RTX does have a big edge. This is a newer card and has as yet untapped features such as RayTracing and DLSS. Once these taps are opened up and people get their hands on them, we’re confident the appeal factor of the RTX series will improve for many.

Armor or Gaming Z?

As you may have seen in this review, the MSI Armor RTX 2070 performed fairly close to the Gaming Z. It’s a bit cheaper and a decent entry level for the RTX 2070 series too. You can check out our review of that here. However, for a little more money, the Gaming Z is clocked higher, has a much more advanced power delivery and cooling system, and overclocks higher in our testing too. If you want more bang for your buck, the Gaming Z is by far one of the best RTX 2070 cards on the market. Of course, my point being you just have to pay more to get more; what a shocker!

Should I Buy One?

For gaming on high refresh rate displays at either 1080p or 1440p, the RTX 2070 will more than get the job done. It’s a strong card with a solid feature set. Of course, it still has more features to come, so if you’re eager to future proof for the DirectX RT update in the coming weeks, come join the fun! For 4K gaming, it’ll hit that 60 FPS target in most games, with a mixture of medium to high settings too, giving you plenty of options.