MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG Review: Red-Themed Graphics Card is Back!

Finally, I got my hands on one of NVIDIA’s latest GPUs, the GeForce RTX 4070 Super. Today, we are checking out the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG edition graphics card. Typically, RTX 40 series cards are either small with lower-end GPUs or large three-slot models. The MSI RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim is different; it’s a two-slot card with MSI’s traditional red color scheme and Dragon Princess design. Find out how the RTX 4070 Super GPU performs and if MSI’s Gaming X Slim MLG is worth getting.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super Review, Featuring MSI’s Gaming X Slim MLG Graphics Card

Early this year, NVIDIA released three new RTX 40 SUPER series GPUs. Each of these Super cards has a unique advantage compared to their predecessors. For example, the RTX 4080 Super is just a hairline faster than the RTX 4080 vanilla, but it’s $200 cheaper (starting price). Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 Ti Super offers a dual NVENC encoder and a slightly faster performance at the same starting price. It also replaces the RTX 4070 Ti, which has not been discontinued.

Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 Super has the most significant performance increase from its predecessor among the three RTX 40 Super GPUs. Price-wise, it starts at the same price as the RTX 4070 when first released, $599. However, it doesn’t replace the RTX 4070 vanilla. Instead, NVIDIA will continue to sell the RTX 4070 at a lower starting price.

Similar to the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti, the RTX 4070 Super is based on the AD104 GPU but has a CUDA core count closer to the RTX 4070 Ti. It features 7,168 CUDA cores, with 224 4th gen Tensor Cores and 56 3rd gen RT Cores.

NVIDIA didn’t increase its memory; it still has 12GB of GDDR6X, similar to the other RTX 4070 series GPUs. It also features 36MB of L2 cache and includes Ada innovations like Shader Execution Reordering, new RT core engines, and support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction.

Below are additional RTX 4070 Super GPU features and its full specifications. After that, let’s look closer at MSI’s RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG.

NVIDIA Ada Lovelace Architecture’s Technological Innovations

• New Streaming Multiprocessors (SM) – The new SM delivers up to 2x performance and power efficiency.
• 4th Generation Tensor Cores and Optical Flow – Enable and accelerate transformative AI technologies, including the new frame rate multiplying NVIDIA DLSS 3.
• 3rd Generation RT Cores – Up to 2x ray tracing performance, delivering incredibly detailed virtual worlds like never before.
• Innovative Ada Memory Subsystem – Ada delivers a significant increase to the L2 cache, delivering better performance, reduced memory bus traffic, and increased power efficiency.
• Shader Execution Reordering (SER) – SER improves ray tracing operations by up to 2x.
• DLSS 3.5 – A revolutionary breakthrough in AI-powered graphics that massively boosts performance and elevates ray tracing quality with neural rendering.
• NVIDIA Studio – Unmatched performance in 3D rendering, video editing, and live streaming.
• AV1 Encoder – The 8th generation NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC) with AV1 is 40% more efficient than H.264, enabling new possibilities for streamers, broadcasters, and video callers.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super Specifications

Check the latest pricing and availability: (#ad)
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG is available on Amazon here.
Check other GeForce RTX 4070 Super graphics cards on Amazon here.

Packaging and Closer Look

The MSI RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG’s packaging is similar to that of other Gaming X graphics cards, except this one features an anime character on the front. On the back, you can see a photo of the graphics card with a red accent on its front cooler shroud. The MLG edition is essentially similar to MSI’s all-black Gaming X Slim graphics card, except for the red color theme and anime character.

Included in the box are a graphics card support bracket, a 16-pin 12VHPWR to two 8-pin PCIe power adapter, and they also included stickers.

Quick FAQs

MSI’s RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG Graphics Card

When did we last see a black and red-themed graphics card from MSI? If I remember correctly, it was back in the generation of MSI’s GTX 10 series. Since the release of the RTX 20 and 30 series, MSI’s Gaming X series was mostly black with gray or silver accent. The MLG edition is a special once, since the default color theme for MSI’s RTX 40 series Gaming X Slim cards is black.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG uses MSI’s Tri Frozr 3 thermal design. It has three Torx Fan 5.0 fans, has a copper baseplate, and uses core pipes to distribute heat from the GPU to the aluminum heatsink with Wave Curved 2.0 design.

If there’s one thing that I like about MSI’s Gaming X Trio, Gaming X Slim, or even the Suprim X variant, it’s the cooling solution. Even with a monster GPU, like the RTX 4090 Suprim X, the graphics card runs silently, and the GPU and other components’ temperature are kept at bay. It results in a quieter operation, and the GPU can boost higher or longer.

The graphics card looks big because it’s long (307mm) but is actually slim. You can tell it takes up only 2 slots from the side where the ports are. It’s not very thick (46mm) or wide (125mm), especially compared to larger cards like the ROG Strix RTX 4070 Super.

On its output ports, it has three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1a. By the way, only the MSI logo on its front-side portion has RGB lighting. The three red stripes on the front cooler shroud don’t light up. This graphics card doesn’t also have a dual BIOS option, but it’s not a big deal.

Backplate Options

At the back, it has a black metal backplate, and you can see some red accents, a couple of logos, and a huge cutout for hot air to pass through.

I like what MSI did with the Gaming X Slim MLG edition. If you are an anime fan, perhaps one reason you’ll get the MLG is the Dragon Princess. However, not all PC gamers and enthusiasts are anime fans, and perhaps you just want a black and red-themed graphics card.

So, if you are not an anime fan, you don’t need to attach the plate included with the Dragon Princess on it. By the way, the extra plate is magnetic—no need to screw or use tools to attach or remove the additional plate. At least you can choose whether to use the default look or put a character on your graphics card.

Now, let’s see how MSI’s RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG edition performs.

Test Setup

I’m using an X670E motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 7 7700X to test the MSI RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG graphics card. It is paired with a DDR5-5600MHz CL36 memory kit with the AMD EXPO profile enabled. Resizable BAR was also enabled from the BIOS settings. Below are the rest of the specifications of the system:

Operating System	Windows 11 Pro
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Motherboard	MSI MPG X670E Carbon WiFi
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000MHz CL30 AMD EXPO
Graphics Card	MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG
OS Drive	MSI Spatium M480 Play
Game Drive	SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSD V2 and Extreme Portable SSD V2
Power Supply	MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5
Chassis	OpenBench BC1 V2
Monitor	MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED 4K 240Hz

I used NVIDIA driver 551.86 and the RTX 4070 Super was tested in three resolutions – 1920×1080 FHD, 2560×1440 WQHD, and 3840×2160 4K UHD.

For synthetic benchmarks, I used 3DMark’s benchmark suite. I also used the following games to test the graphics card: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Forza Horizon 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Monster Hunter World, Read Dead Redemption 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, The Division 2, and Watch Dogs Legion. I also tested it with Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 Next-Gen and Watch Dogs: Legion for ray tracing with DLSS.

MSI RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG Benchmarks

Synthetic Benchmark Results

Below are the results that I got with 3D Mark’s benchmark suite. The GeForce RTX 4070 Super’s score is highlighted in green.

In the 3DMark benchmark suite, the RTX 4070 Super offered a noticeable performance increase over the RTX 4070 GPU. However, the RTX 4070 Super is not faster than the RTX 4070 Ti. The good news is that, depending on the test, the RTX 4070 Super’s performance is closer to that of the outgoing and discontinued RTX 4070 Ti.

1080p Game Benchmark Results

While 3DMark’s synthetic benchmark is consistent, it may not give us the complete picture of how a graphics card performs depending on the game. Below are the 1080p benchmark results of the RTX 4070 Super. These are rasterization only, except for Forza Horizon 5, which has its ray tracing set to high.

1920×1080 is a CPU-bound resolution, which means that we are not really seeing the full potential of the GPU. Some faster or higher-end GPUs perform poorly on lower resolutions, like 1080p.

In this case, the RTX 4070 Super isn’t really a “high-end” GPU, and it performed well on 1080p resolution. There are game titles where it performed close to the RTX 4070 Ti or sometimes on par. It is also trading blows with AMD’s RX 7900 GRE, its main competitor in the same price range.

While the RTX 4070 Super does not end up at the top of the chart, it does offer a substantial performance improvement from the RTX 4070. Not to mention, it’s able to provide above 100 FPS on average in all games I have tested in this resolution.

The RTX 4070 Super isn’t really targeted at 1080p gaming, but if you have a high refresh rate monitor or you want to play games with ray tracing, it is more than capable at this resolution.

1440p Game Benchmark Results

Like the RTX 4070, the RTX 4070 Super is designed for 1440p gaming. GPUs have more room to stretch their cores at this resolution since it is less CPU-bound, unlike 1080p. Below are the results I got for MSI’s RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG:

At 1440p, the RTX 4070 Super is very capable of driving games above 100 FPS. Also, at this resolution, the performance difference between the RTX 4070 Super and RTX 4070 Ti widens. While it is still substantially faster than the RTX 4070, the RTX 4070 Super now sits somewhere between the 4070 and 4070 Ti at 1440p resolution.

It also faces a lot of competition from the red team, especially the newly released RX 7900 GRE. The RX 7900 GRE is slightly cheaper than the RTX 4070 Super, and it looks like it is winning in rasterization performance.

2160p Game Benchmark Results

The RTX 4070 Super is not really designed for 4K gaming. It only has 12GB of memory, which is not enough, especially for 4K gaming. However, at 4K, these GPUs will be able to show their fullest potential. 4K resolution is no longer CPU-bound; it’s GPU-bound.

Despite not being designed for 4K gaming, we saw on our RTX 4070 Ti review that a 4070 Ti can offer decent frame rates depending on the game. Since the RTX 4070 Super tends to perform closely to the RTX 4070 Ti, let’s find out if we can play games at 4K using an RTX 4070 Super; below are the results:

Except for some really graphics-intensive game titles, the RTX 4070 Super looks like it can offer decent frame rates on average at 4K resolution. Remember that I am testing these games at their highest or ultra graphics settings. Toning down some of the graphics settings means that we can still get higher frame rates with the RTX 4070 Super.

In addition, the RTX 4070 Super has DLSS 2 upscaling and DLSS 3 frame generation technologies. These technologies help you play some games at 4K resolution. But if you want to play games at their highest graphics settings or with ray tracing, I wouldn’t get the RTX 4070 Super for that. Speaking of ray tracing, let’s see how this GPU performs with ray tracing and DLSS next.

RTX 4070 Super Ray Tracing with DLSS Benchmark Results

If you want to play games with ray tracing, the RTX 4070 Super is only good if your monitor’s resolution is 1080p or 1440p. Anything higher will prove challenging for the RTX 4070 Super. Even (super) ultrawide monitor resolutions, like 3440×1440 monitors, especially 5120×1440 dual-QHD monitors, the RTX 4070 Super maybe be having a hard time when ray tracing is involved.

Power Consumption and Temperature

NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series GPUs are usually power efficient. The MSI RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG runs at 204W on average. I got a peak power of 240W, and its minimum was around 157W. It consumes a bit more power than the RTX 4070, but it is still a bit more power-efficient than the RTX 4070 Ti.

As I mentioned earlier, I like MSI’s Tri-Frozr cooling solution. Even with a 2-slot design, the RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG averaged 63°C while I was testing it. Its maximum temperature reached 68°C, and its minimum temperature hovered around 58°C.

Note that it has a fan-stop feature, meaning fans won’t run until it hits a certain temperature (~60°C). So expect the idle temperature to be a bit high, when compared to being actively cooled, since the fans are not spinning during idle or light load situations.

GeForce RTX 4070 Super Pricing and Availability

The MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG is now available, and it currently retails for around $649.99~$669.99. The cheapest RTX 4070 Super card retails for around $590, so there is a bit of a premium for the MLG model. GPU prices tend to change; you can check its latest pricing and availability below.

Where to buy:
MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG is available on Amazon here.
Check other GeForce RTX 4070 Super graphics cards on Amazon here.

MSI RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG Review Conclusion

You have seen the results, and based on my tests, NVIDIA’s newer RTX 4070 Super graphics card is a welcomed addition to its lineup. It replaces the RTX 4070’s spot while offering a substantial performance uplift almost close to the RTX 4070 Ti in many game titles.

Since NVIDIA has not discontinued the RTX 4070 and it is still selling at a lower price, you might think that the RTX 4070 is a better buy since it is cheaper. However, the most affordable RTX 4070 currently sells for around $530, and the cheapest RTX 4070 Super sells for around $590. The price difference between these two GPUs is only around ~11%. However, the RTX 4070 Super is much faster than the RTX 4070, offering nearly 20% more performance than the RTX 4070. It’s obvious that the RTX 4070 Super has a better price to performance and is a better buy than the older RTX 4070.

But what about its competition from the red team? Well, one of its competitors from AMD is the RX 7900 GRE. It is slightly cheaper than the RTX 4070 Super, about ~7%, if we base it on the starting price. However, the RX 7900 GRE is about 2%-4% faster, giving it a slight advantage in price and performance. However, this is only true for rasterization. The RTX 4070 Super is still faster in ray tracing, has better upscaling and frame generation technology, and is a more efficient GPU. So, pick whichever suits your needs.

Is MSI’s GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG Worth It?

Undeniably, MSI’s RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG is not one of the cheaper RTX 4070 Super GPUs. But it is also not the most expensive. You still need to pay a bit of a premium, though, perhaps because it is a special edition. If you like the Dragon Princess or just its black and red theme, I think it’s worth paying the extra. However, I want to see its price lower to better compete with other RTX 4070 Super cards, which sell for around $600.

At the end of the day, the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Super Gaming X Slim MLG is an excellent graphics card overall. It’s not big or heavy, not chunky, not noisy, and it occupies only two slots. It also runs silently and performs well. Plus, it’s been a while since we last saw a black and red graphics card, especially from MSI.