MSI Trims Down GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GPU

MSI RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Slim
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

MSI has a diverse offering of custom GeForce RTX 4070 Ti cards, which are among the best graphics cards currently around. The vendor's portfolio consists of nothing less than four different models, eight if you count the overclocked variants too. However, for Computex 2023, MSI prepared a new model to round out the brand's already comprehensive lineup.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Slim 12G is essentially a cut-down version of the  GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio 12G. It features a slightly revamped shroud but sticks to MSI's Tri Frozr 3 cooling system. MSI told Tom's Hardware Deputy Managing Editor Paul Alcorn that an RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 will come later.

As the model name insinuates, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Slim 12G flaunts a more svelte profile than MSI's other GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics cards. That doesn't mean the graphics card is tiny enough to fit inside small form factor (SFF) systems, though. Nonetheless, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Slim 12G comes in a what MSI calls a 2.2-slot design, coming in a smidge over two slots. Still it should help with cable management, especially since you must be careful when bending the 16-pin power cable.

There's a brand new cooler on board, with new fans. The trio Torx 5.0 cooling fans are tilted together at a 22-degree angle to provide high pressure even at slower fan speeds. According to MSI, this unique design improves airflow by up to 23% compared to an average axial cooling fan. However, without a product page to work with, it's uncertain if MSI made any changes under the hood that would affect the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Slim 12G's thermal dissipation performance.

Aesthetically, the claw marks on the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Slim 12G are in the opposite direction compared to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio 12G. There's some RGB, which comes in the shape of the MSI logo on the side of the graphics card. In addition, as with any high-end offering, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Slim has a matching metal backplate to help improve the structural support and cooling performance of the components on the rear of the graphics card.

The graphics card draws power from a single 16-pin power connector. It also provides the same display outputs, which arrive in the shape of three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and one HDMI 2.1a port.

We don't know whether the graphics card will be available at U.S. retailers, nor how it might be priced. The graphics card slots between the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming X Trio 12G and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Ventus 3X 12G OC. In a perfect world, the price tag should be within the range of those two models, which retail for $869 and $814, respectively.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

With contributions from
  • No matter what they do, they cannot make this new gen of cards smaller and compact, not in the high-end segment at least. These will still require a 16-PIN power cable, obviously, and the power draw is going to be the same, or maybe slightly less, if some minor changes to the PCB can be done imo.

    Apart from that, we can't expect much from the new ADA and RDNA3 gen of cards.

    We don't know whether the graphics card will be available at U.S. retailers,

    Then most likely this might be an ASIA/China-exclusive SKU. But that doesn't make much sense though, since they have displayed the GPU at Computex, an international tech event/fair.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    The entire game sector is a joke. One pci and thousands off nvme. My graphics is bigger than yours. If you want a single slot graphics you need to deep down on the workstations wx something old. Because you need spend more and more for the same.
    Reply
  • D_8KEN
    Metal Messiah. said:
    No matter what they do, they cannot make this new gen of cards smaller and compact, not in the high-end segment at least. These will still require a 16-PIN power cable, obviously, and the power draw is going to be the same, or maybe slightly less, if some minor changes to the PCB can be done imo.

    Apart from that, we can't expect much from the new ADA and RDNA3 gen of cards.



    Then most likely this might be an ASIA/China-exclusive SKU. But that doesn't make much sense though, since they have displayed the GPU at Computex, an international tech event/fair.
    I don't see why they can't make it smaller. The 350W 3080ti FE existed within the same small chassis of the 3080 FE. The 4070ti has a max power draw of 285W with real world usage even less. I see no reason why they can't make anything weaker than a 4090 significantly more compact.
    Reply
  • Hortos
    D_8KEN said:
    I don't see why they can't make it smaller. The 350W 3080ti FE existed within the same small chassis of the 3080 FE. The 4070ti has a max power draw of 285W with real world usage even less. I see no reason why they can't make anything weaker than a 4090 significantly more compact.
    They don't care. AMD just does what Nvidia does and Nvidia doesn't care about the gaming market anymore at all. AI just doubled their stock price in a week.
    Reply