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MSI's RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio ships in a large box, with an image of the graphics card visible on the front.
On the back, MSI highlights some key features, including the Tri Frozr 2 cooler, Torx 4.0 fans and Dragon Center software.
Inside we find a thank you note, quick user guide and a ‘how to upgrade your PC' cartoon. There's also a large metal bracket designed to support the graphics card once it is installed in your system, to reduce any GPU sag.
Taking a look at the card itself… yep, it's the same design as the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio. That means we have a black and grey plastic shroud, with a pretty edgy and aggressive ‘gamer-y' appearance. Personally I quite like it, but that is of course going to be subjective. At the very least, it is completely colour neutral so you won't have any issues installing this in a colour coordinated system.
The three fans also use MSI's new Torx 4.0 design. Each measures approximately 90mm across, and the fan blades now come in pairs, with an outer section that directly attaches the two blades together. MSI says this ‘focuses airflow into the updated TRI FROZR 2 cooling system’, delivering 20% increased pressure compared to Torx 3.0.
In terms of the overall size of the card, it measures 323 x 140 x 56mm. These dimensions are identical to the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio, and means the graphics card is about 80mm longer than the Founders Edition.
For the backplate, we see the return of the ‘graphene composite' backplate that was also used for the RTX 3080 model. Credit to W1zzard from TechPowerUp who noted this appears to be ‘plastic with coated graphite', rather than a fully graphite backplate. I would definitely prefer a full-length metal backplate here – the above design certainly looks good, but the thermal properties wouldn't match up to a proper metal plate as demonstrated by MSI's own RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio…
We can also note 2x 8-pin power connectors, and then for display outputs there are 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x HDMI 2.1.
Once we get into the PCB, there's a few things to note. First of all, we have a 9-phase VRM for the GPU, using ONSemi NCP302045 stages which are rated for 45A average current and peaks of up to 75A. Those stages are driven by an ONSemi NCP81610, which is a maximum 8-phase PWM controller, so it looks like MSI is using power stage teaming as we cannot identify any PWM phase doublers onboard.
The memory is driven by a UPI uS5650Q controller with high and low-side dual N-Channel MOSFETs used. The GDDR6 memory modules are from Samsung, and these are specified to run at 14Gbps, while we can also note the GA104 GPU, which looks pretty small with a die size of 392 mm².
As for the cooler, here things deviate from the RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio's cooler. Instead of 6x 6mm heatpipes and one 8mm heatpipe, the RTX 3070 loses the 8mm pipe and so uses 6x 6mm pipes. Instead of two larger finstacks, there’s now 3 slightly smaller ones. Those nickel-plated copper heatipes still make direct contact with the GPU die, but there’s no extra plate to contact with the memory, which previously sat on top of the central GPU mounting area.
