Nvidia revealed its current-gen GeForce RTX graphics cards in August. The RTX 2080 debuted in September, the RTX 2080 Ti was pushed to October after several delays, and the RTX 2070 was set for an October 17 release date. Manufacturers quickly announced their RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti cards, but many third-party 2070 cards have stayed under wraps. Now MSI has revealed its initial RTX 2070 lineup: the Gaming Z, Duke 8G OC, Armor 8G OC, and Aero.
All of MSI's cards have similar clock speeds, 8GB of GDDR6 memory, and connectivity options (three DisplayPort, one HDMI, and one USB Type-C). The differences are largely found in their cooling, with the Gaming Z being the only card in the series equipped with the company's TORX Fan 3.0, and the Aero featuring a dedicated cooling system that expels heat out the back and into the system. Unsurprisingly, this card also gets the highest out-of-the-box top clock speed.
MSI equipped the Gaming Z with RGB lighting around the fans, too, for those who want to make sure everything in their system glows. The Duke 8G OC is left to differentiate itself by having three fans instead of two, while the Armor 8G OC seems like a step down from the Gaming Z with older TORX Fan 2.0 cooling and RGB lighting that's limited to the MSI dragon logo. The Aero, meanwhile, seems destined for more compact systems.
Of course, all of the cards boast the new Turing architecture as well as support for real-time ray tracing. (Learn more about Turing in our examination of the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti.) They're also compatible with MSI Afterburner, the company's overclocking tool, and the Gaming Z and Armor 8G OC cards both support the Mystic Light Sync utility that syncs your RGB component lights to the rest of your system.
MSI said its RTX 2070 lineup would start to debut on November 17, though the company noted that "model availability will vary per region." So eager consumers might have to wait for their preferred card to reach their location. The company didn't offer pricing information about the cards. Asus revealed its own lineup of RTX 2070 cards in September, and you can find various RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti cards in our round-up.
If you're interested in the detailed specs of these cards, you can peruse them below.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming Z | MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Duke 8G OC | MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Armor 8G OC | MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Aero |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU (Codename) | TU106 (Turing) | TU106 (Turing) | TU106 (Turing) | TU106 (Turing) |
| Shader Units | 2,304 CUDA Cores | 2,304 CUDA Cores | 2,304 CUDA Cores | 2,304 CUDA Cores |
| Base & Boost Clocks | 1,410MHz / 1,830MHz | 1,410MHz / 1,755MHz | 1,410MHz / 1,740MHz | 1,410MHz / 1,620MHz |
| Memory Size & Type | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Clock | 14 Gb/s | 14 Gb/s | 14 Gb/s | 14 Gb/s |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Fans | 2 x TORX Fan 3.0 | 3 x TORX Fan 2.0 w/ Double Ball Bearings | 2 x TORX Fan 2.0 | 1 |
| Ports | (3) DP, (1) HDMI 2.0b, (1) USB Type-C | (3) DP, (1) HDMI 2.0b, (1) USB Type-C | (3) DP, (1) HDMI 2.0b, (1) USB Type-C | (3) DP, (1) HDMI 2.0b, (1) USB Type-C |
| Power Connectors | 8-pin + 6-pin | 8-pin + 6-pin | 8-pin + 6-pin | 8-pin + 6-pin |
| Dimensions (LxHxD) | 307 x 155 x 50mm | 314 x 116 x 40mm | 309 x 155 x 50mm | 268 x 114 x 41mm |
| Weight | 1,485g | 1,024g | 1,177g | 880g |
| Warranty | Undisclosed | Undisclosed | Undisclosed | Undisclosed |
