Nvidia Turing: full review of a MSI RTX 2070 Gaming Z leaked

MSI RTX 2070 Gaming Z
(Bild: MSI)

The guys from HardOCP got an RTX 2070 from MSI early. Since they are not subject to any Nvidia NDA, they have published a review in advance.

RTX 2070: Review published in advance

The review industry has evolved constantly in over the past few years. While in the past the first reviews were only available after a market launch, today there is a precise timetable and many marketing strategies to promote new products properly. So-called Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are also common. Those who sign these often get access to information even before a launch. Nvidia also works with NDAs and sends out test samples of graphics cards even before the launch, allowing well-known publishers and reviewers to test properly in advance. These extensive tests usually appear just before or at the launch of a product.

However, if you don’t sign a NDA, you won’t receive any information or test samples, neither from Nvidia nor from the AIBs. HardOCP did not sign the Nvidia NDA and consequently did not receive any test samples of the new RTX series graphics cards. Due to good relations, the tech site was able to obtain a MSI RTX 2070 Gaming Z in advance via the retail market. The advantage of an unsigned NDA is also that you don’t have to stick to deadlines. Accordingly HardOCP published yesterday already a detailed report to the MSI RTX 2070 Gaming Z, while the NDA falls on October 16th 2018 at 3 pm UTC+2.

Biggest competitor: the GTX 1080

The quite detailed review of the graphics card shows that the main competitor is probably the GTX 1080 of the previous Pascal generation. This continues the picture that the jump from Pascal to Turing is by far not as big as from Maxwell to Pascal. At that time the GTX 1070 beated even the GTX 980 Ti. For testing HardOCP used the games Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Far Cry 5, Kingdom Come Deliverance, Wolfenstein 2 The New Colossus, Mass Effect Andromeda, Gears of War 4, Desus Ex Mankind Divided and Battlefield 1. A Gigabyte Aorus Z270X Gaming 7 with Intel Core i7-7700K overclocked to 5 GHz and Windows 10 Pro with the latest 416.16 WHQL driver was used as the system base. The competitors for the MSI RTX 2070 Gaming Z were the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X and the Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX Vega 64 Gaming OC. The tests were run in the resolutions WQHD (2.560×1.440) and UHD (3.840×2.160).

The test shows that the RTX 2070 always performs better compared to the other graphics cards. It is 12.28 percent ahead of the GTX 1080 on WQHD on average, and 13.02 percent ahead at UHD. The RX Vega 64 is even 16.82 percent ahead at WQHD and 15.90 percent ahead at UHD. The RTX 2070 achieves the greatest increase in performance compared to the GTX 1080 in Deus Ex Mankind Divided at UHD, where it is 19.2 percent faster. It can also outperform the RX Vega 64 in this game at UHD resolution by 25.65 percent.

Slightly disappointing overall

In general, the performance of the RTX 2070 is a bit disappointing. The tested version is an MSI Gaming Z, which passes as an absolute high-end graphics card. It is also equipped with the A1 chip, which has a higher clock rate. The graphics card should be available for a price of 599 US dollars. The Founders Edition of the RTX 2070 also costs 599 US dollars, while the low-cost models with a poorly clockable chip should start at 499 US dollars. Considering the current prices of the GTX 1080, the performance is a bit higher for the same price, but the jump is rather small. HardOCP did not mention the ray tracing capabilities due to the lack of benchmarks, and DLSS currently lacks corresponding applications as well. Especially DLSS could be an interesting application for the RTX 2070.

About Florian Maislinger 1222 Articles
Florian Maislinger is author and founder of PC Builder's Club. As a skilled IT engineer, he is very familiar with computers and hardware and has been a technology lover since childhood. He is mainly responsible for the news and our social media channels.

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