MSI Gaming RTX 5070 12G Shadow 2X OC Graphics Card (12GB GDDR7, 192-bit, Extreme Performance: 2557 MHz, DisplayPort x3 2.1a, HDMI 2.1b, NVIDIA Blackwell Architecture)

I bought the MSI RTX 5070 Shadow for the suggested MSRP at C$829+tx. I had a RTX 2060 before so for me this is a huge upgrade. I paired it with a Ryzen 7 9700x. I play in WQHD on a 165 Hz monitor. MSI had always been my trusted GPU brand and I like their designs. I never had problems with their products thus I went for another MSI card when upgrading. The 5070 has been criticized all over the internet and I think NVidia's marketing was just horrible. Of course the RTX 5070 doesn't have the performance of a RTX4090. The entire RTX 5xxx series is weak. Since Radeon dropped the RX 9070 and 9070XT NVidia's GPUs appear even weaker, especially the 5070 that is consistently outperformed by the RX 9070XT. I still decided to go with the RTX 5070. The RX 9070XT is not available at MSRP in Canada right now. While this model is $829 the 9070XT is at least $950 and most models ranging $1050 to $1200 in Canada. That's a big price difference and wasn't worth it in my opinion. The biggest drawback of the RTX5070 is the 12GB VRAM. That being said, this is not a 4k card! It clearly targets 1440P gaming. I played Resident Evil 4, GTA V Enhanced, RDR2, Oblivion Remastered. None of these games took the 12GB VRAM in highest settings. Resident Evil 4 and Oblivion Remastered hovering at 10,5 GB VRAM use. In Oblivion Remastered High-Ultra mix, Framegen on, DLSS Quality, Ray Tracing High I get consistently over 110 FPS. RE4 I even get 150 FPS maxed out. GTAV RT enabled, Ultra Preset 100 FPS. RDR2 Ultra preset 100-130FPS. Temperatures were around 75 degrees when playing for 2h in the above mentioned titles. The fans are noticeably loud when gaming. Idle the temperature is 42-51 degrees. While I understand the frustration online over the RTX 5070 and yes, 16GB VRAM would have been better, it's a good mid-range GPU for 1440P. It outperforms the RTX 4070 and 4070S. I think DLSS4 and Framegen are really amazing. In some games it works really well in others not so much. It may lead to artifacts when playing but the FPS boost is enormous. The only time Framegen caused some blur effects was in Oblivion Remastered but this game is in a very poor state when it comes to performance. Verdict: If you can get an RX 9070XT for MSRP you should go for it. If you are coming from the RTX 4xxx series an upgrade is simply not worth it. To me it appears this card aims at mid-range 1440P gamers that were still on old RTX 2/3 series rather than people who look for an annual update. The MSRP $829 is a good investment and from the RTX 2060 I more than doubled my frames.

I bought this card after upgrading from a 4060 Ti. Card works flawlessly. I was initially worried about the noise, but it ended up being very quiet. I have an AIO liquid cooler and my rig runs completely silent while on my desk. Installation is easy and it comes with a PCIE adapter. I didn't need a sag bracket on mine, but for peace of mine it might be helpful. If you can find this at MSRP It is a great option.