MSI Vortex G65VR 6RE GTX 1070 SLI Gaming PC Review

Gaming Performance

Grand Theft Auto 5

Before discussing the benchmarks, it’s important to clarify that I was in a dilemma whether to retain the standard set of games for testing purposes or specifically find titles with impressive SLI scaling. Please note, the ideal modus operandi is to test each system in an identical manner because altering the process would lead to inaccurate results. After spending some time mulling over the situation, I decided the best course of action would be to opt for the traditional testing procedure and adding a few titles with better SLI support. This allows the end-user to witness the current problems with multi-card setups while examining how nicely it can work in certain circumstances.

As you can see, the system’s performance while opting for a 1920×1080 render isn’t ideal and lingers behind the GTX 1080. That’s not to say it’s a stuttery mess though because the framerate remains quite smooth. Once the resolution is increased to 1440p, the framerate doesn’t drop outside a margin of error and is more impressive. Once again, it’s the case that the graphics power comes into its own when pushing more pixels. Similarly, the 4K performance is excellent and the system benefits greatly from the game’s good scaling.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

In Rise of the Tomb Raider, a similar pattern emerges and pairing the system with a 1080p monitor yields disappointing results. Despite this, the performance on a 4K panel is splendid and emphasises the need for a 4K or high-refresh 1440p display to use the product to its full capabilities.

Hitman

Unfortunately, DirectX 12 is still in its infancy and doesn’t support multi-card configurations for the most part. As a result, the performance is actually worse with two GTX 1070s as reflected by the data below. It’s a real shame because there’s so much potential to exceed 60 frames-per-second on a 4K monitor and I hope this will become a viable option in the near future.

Far Cry Primal

Here we can see the MSI Vortex G65VR 6RE excels during 4K testing and almost reaches the magical 60 frames-per-second mark. Additionally, the 1440p performance is solid and just edges systems utilising the GTX 1080. Given the extra horsepower, I’d expect the lead to be greater.

Shadow of Mordor

Shadow of Mordor scales brilliantly on SLI setups and seemed a suitable choice for the review. Throughout 1920×1080 benchmarking, the average framerate was tantalisingly close to 200 and I didn’t encounter any sudden hitching or micro-stutter. Once the resolution was set to 2560×1440, the system fared pretty well and ensured the gameplay felt extremely fluid. Even when a 4K monitor was deployed, the performance didn’t suffer and the minimum remained above 60.

Thief

During the Thief benchmark, the MSI Vortex G65VR 6RE maintained a solid user experience and the performance didn’t curtail off too much at higher resolutions.