MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition Review

The RTX 5070 Ti just launched and it’s the 3rd GPU launch since the announcement of the RTX 50 series. We’ve only checked out updated variants and designs from different brands but MSI sent us their newly debuted graphics card to check out the MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition to check out. Announced last CES 2025, the new MSI Vanguard is a new addition to MSI’s Graphics Card Line Up – SUPRIM, Gaming Trio, Inspire, and Ventus. The Vanguard line sits at par or slightly just below MSI’s SUPRIM series.

Nvidia Blackwell Architecture

The Blackwell Architecture is probably one of the most hyped graphics architectures from NVIDIA since the announcement of the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip for data centers, especially for AI. Its performance advancement in the server and AI field led enthusiasts to believe in a similar uplift on the consumer side. NVIDIA highlights Neural Rendering as the next era of computer graphics and that is what Blackwell is built upon. Blackwell Architecture uses the latest NVIDIA DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, NVIDIA Reflex 2 features with NVIDIA RTX Neural Shaders alongside other advancements such as the use of GDDR7 memory.

DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation

One of the key highlights of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series is DLSS 4 which takes advantage of the RTX Neural Shaders. In a nutshell, DLSS 4 is a steroid version of DLSS 3.5 where it’s able to generate up to three frames based on one rendered frame. unlike DLSS 3.5’s one generated frame per one rendered frame.

To put it into perspective, in a DLSS Frame Generation 4X setup at 120 FPS, only 30 frames are rasterized aka “traditionally rendered,” while the 90 frames are AI-generated with 15 out of 16 pixels in are generated by AI. There are three frames inserted in between the traditional rendered frames.

Neural Shaders, Shader Execution Reordering & Flip Metering

Is DLSS 4 available on previous RTX GPUs? Yes and No

While DLSS 4 features an upgrade in every aspect of its feature set, the main DLSS Multi Frame Generation feature is exclusive to the RTX 50 series GPUs. DLSS 3 Frame Generation’s AI model relied on game data and the RTX 40 series’ optical flow accelerator based on motion vectors, and depth to generate one frame. DLSS 4 Multi-FrameGen takes advantage of the RTX 50 series’ Neural Shaders, more efficient SER, and AI management processor to render additional frames.

Multiframe generation is taxing on older RTX GPUs due to the hardware or architectural limitations making them a “decelerator” as these renders happen within a few milliseconds. Nvidia 5th Gen Tensor Cores addresses this by having up to 2.5x more AI processing performance compared to last gen. That said, there are complexities in generating three frames in between traditional ones. For this reason, Blackwell uses hardware Flip Metering which transfers the frame pacing logic to the GPU instead of the CPU for better display timings.

These combinations of hardware and software implementations improve, or at the very least, minimize the negative impact on image quality, smoothness, and latency especially when compared to the previous DLSS technology.

DLSS Transformer Model

The previous DLSS technologies used Convolutional Neural Networks(CNNs) to generate new pixels by analyzing localized context and tracking changes in those areas over successive frames. Nvidia claimed to have peaked in maximizing DLSS CNN architecture six years after the introduction of DLSS on the RTX 20 series. This prompted them to move to the new Transformer Model for Image Quality improvements.

The new DLSS Transformer Model uses a vision transformer, enabling self-attention operations to evaluate the importance of each pixel in a frame and the next frame/s. This new model doubles the parameters of the CNN model allowing it to generate pixels with better stability, reduced ghosting, higher details, and smoother edges depending on the scene.

Nvidia Reflex 2

Nvidia implements Frame Warp, a technology commonly used in VR games. Based on the latest mouse or controller input, the CPU calculates the camera position of the next frame as the frame is being rendered by the GPU. Frame warp uses the new camera position and “warps” the frame just rendered by the GPU to the extrapolated frame. The warping is done at the last possible moment, before the rendered frame is sent to the display, ensuring the latest input is reflected on the display.

The “warped frame” has small holes or blank pixels as the supposed pixels are moved to reflect the recent movement. Nvidia’s predictive rendering algorithm uses camera, color, and depth data from prior frames to in-paint these holes. This results in users seeing the rendered frame with an updated camera perspective, without the holes. This effectively reduces the latency for any camera-moving actions in the game for better aiming or tracking.

There are currently no games that support Reflex 2 at launch but Nvidia confirmed that Reflex 2 will be coming to Valorant and The Finals.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Specifications

RTX 50 SERIES SPECS	RTX 5090	RTX 5080	RTX 5070 Ti	RTX 4090	RTX 4080 SUPER	RTX 4080	RTX 4070 Ti SUPER	RTX 4070 Ti	RTX 4070 SUPER
Cores	21760	10752	8960	16384	10240	9728	8448	7680	7168
Tensor Cores	680	336	280	512	320	304	264	240	224
RT Cores	170	84	70	128	80	76	66	60	56
Boost Clock (GHz)	2.41	2.62	2,45	2.52	2.55	2.51	2.61	2.61	2.48
Base Clock (GHz)	2.01	2.3	2.3	2.21	2.21	2.21	2.34	2.31	1.92
Memory Config	32GB GDDR7	16GB GDDR7	16GB GDDR7	24GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X	16GB GDDR6X	12GB GDDR6X	12GB GDDR6X
Memory Interface	512-bit	256-bit	256-bit	384-bit	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	192-bit	192-bit
Total Graphics Power	575W	360W	300W	450W	320W	320W	285W	285W	220W
Min Required PSU	1000W	850W	750W	850W	750W	750W	700W	700W	650W
Price	Php 145,800	Php 72,860	Php 54,630	Php 112,300	Php 69,300	Php 84,200	Php 55,420	Php 63,200	Php 41,550

LUCKY Blind Box

To celebrate the launch of the new Vanguard line, the first wave of Vanguard GPUs will come with a limited-edition Lucky Around the World Blind Box. There are a total of 10 variants with one of them being a rare, limited edition variant.

MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition – A Closer Look

The MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition has probably the largest GPU box we’ve seen to date. It has a special “gift box” unboxing experience as it requires you to rip off the top part of the box. The black-on-black design paired with the iridescent finish on the Vanguard Launch Edition invokes a premium feel. The back shows more details about the Vanguard line’s features as well as the mechanics for the Lucky Blind Box.

Apart from the Lucky Blind Box, you have the following accessories included in the box:

• Anti Sag Bracket
• 3x 8pin PCIE to 12VHPWR connector

The MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard’s cooler design is what I would say is a mix between the Gaming Trio and Suprim series. It’s less edgy and aggressive than the Gaming Trio and looks like a more refined version but still has gamer elements, unlike the Suprim which looks more professional. It sports an aerodynamic design for optimal air intake inspired by aircraft combined with carbon fiber accents and RGB lighting for that professional meets premium gaming aesthetic.

Both the SUPRIM and Vanguard series now use MSI’s Hyper Frozr thermal design coming from last generation’s Tri-Frozr. Marketing jargon aside, the new cooler uses a combination an of Advanced Vapor Chamber for the GPU and VRAM, core pipes for optimized heat distribution, and a resigned heatsink for better airflow control. You also have the new Stormforce fan which features seven claw-textured blessed for better air pressure.

Like most GPUs, you have a sturdy backplate that also acts as reinforcement to support its size. You also have the same carbon fiber accents scattered throughout as well as the MSI and dragon logo. There’s a small cutout on the right where the PCB ends for airflow to pass through.

Moving to the side you have a fairly exposed heatsink for airflow coupled with carbon fiber accents and an MSI dragon logo with RGB lighting.

A closer look shows a dual-BIOS switch next to the 16-pin power connector. We will be testing the MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC with its out-of-the-box BIOS which is set to Gaming.

The RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC sports the standard three Display Port 2.1b ports and one HDMI 2.1b port.

The elephant in the room is probably its size. It’s a chonky GPU measuring 3.25 slots and weighing almost 2 kilos. Here’s a visual comparison compared to the MSI RTX 5070 Ti Ventus 3X and our RTX 5080 Founders Edition.

Benchmark Setup and Test Methodology

Gadget Pilipinas’ testing philosophy is to provide detail-oriented results as accurately as possible so that our readers can replicate our tests given that these conditions are met. Different benchmarking apps and sequences are used depending on the tested component or device.

CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
COOLER	ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360mm V2 – Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste
MOTHERBOARD	Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master | BIOS F4i
MEMORY	GSkill Trident Z Neo 32GB(2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL28
GPUs	Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition | Nvidia RTX 5080 Founders Edition | Inno3D RTX 5080 X3 | Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition
STORAGE	Kingston Renegade 2TB NVME SSD
POWER SUPPLY	FSP VITA GM1000W Gold ATX 3.1
OPERATING SYSTEM	Windows 11 Pro Build 24H2, VBS off
CASE	Open Benchtable V2

We use CapFrameX 1.7.5 BETA as our primary FPS capture and analysis tool for all our gaming benchmarks. The latest build version of Windows 11 Pro and WHQL-certified drivers are used for our benchmarks. Readings such as temperatures and power draws are recorded using HWINFO64, and other relevant software for cross-checking.

For more info, read our Review and Benchmark methodology article.

MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition Synthetic and Productivity Benchmarks

CINEBENCH 2024

Maxon’s Cinebench benchmark is one of the most iconic benchmark applications used by reviewers and enthusiasts. The latest Cinebench 2024 uses the latest rendering architectures, including Intel’s Embree ray tracing technology and other advanced features from AMD and Intel that allow users to render the same scene on the same hard. 

ADOBE PREMIERE PRO VIDEO EDITING BENCHMARK

Procyon benchmark suite is developed by UL, the same team behind 3DMark and PCMark benchmarks. The UL Procycon video editing benchmark uses Adobe Premiere in a typical video editing workflow. The benchmark starts by importing two video project files with various edits, adjustments, and effects – the second project uses several GPU-accelerated effects. Each project is exported in 1080p with H.264 encoding and again in 4K with HEVC H.265. The reported score is based on the time taken to export all four videos. GPU acceleration is turned on for GPU benchmarks.

PCMark10

From the same developers of the popular game benchmarking tool 3DMark, PCMark 10 is a benchmarking app for measuring a whole PC’s performance. It covers a wide variety of tests to reflect common tasks performed in a modern workplace. We selected PCMark 10’s extended benchmark and reported both the overall score and the Digital Content Creation Score. 

V-RAY 6

V-Ray Benchmark is a stand-alone version of V-Ray developed by Chaos Group. It is designed to test the CPU and GPU by rendering sample scenes at a fixed amount of time. V-Ray is a plug-in mostly utilized by 3D computer graphics software applications mainly for industrial design, product design, architecture, film, and video game production. V-Ray is not limited to 64-threads as it supports multi and mega-threading.

GeekBench 6.3

BLENDER 4.3.0

Blender is a widely used, free, open-source 3D creation suite. It supports the whole 3D pipeline process from modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, and even motion tracking. Blender has become a standard for CPU benchmarks with the BMW27 and Classroom Scene most used. This prompted the company to release Blender Open Data Benchmark in 2018, a benchmark-specific version allowing users to run a preset benchmark and share the results online like 3DMark.

HANDBRAKE 1.8.2

Handbrake is a top-rated open-source video conversion software that is used by professionals, enthusiasts, and even reviewers as a reference point mainly because of its wide variety of media codecs. The rise of streaming and blogging makes video content, both encoding and transcoding important for these people, regardless of whether they’re seasoned professionals or just starting out. Handbrake also takes advantage of AVX-512 and OpenCL to accelerate certain types of media codecs. Our Handbrake benchmark converts a 3:16 4K60 clip shot from an S24 Ultra to 1080p60 H264 mp4 for CPU or 1080p NVENC H265 for GPU.

3DMark Benchmark Suite

3DMark is the go-to benchmark for gamers because of the ability to share and compare results online. We test GPUs both in DX11 Firestike and DX12 Timespy for the “classic” benchmarks. We also used 3DMark’s latest Steel Nomad and SpeedWay benchmarks as we slowly shift to these “more accurate” synthetic game benchmarks.

MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition – AI Benchmarks

Geekbench AI

Computer Vision – Procyon

Image Generation – Procyon

Text Generation – Procyon

MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition – Gaming Benchmarks

RETURNAL

Returnal is one of the most technologically advanced games since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Released last April 2021 on PS5 and February 2023 on PC, it uses Unreal Engine 4 and supports multiple technologies such as Ray Tracing, DLSS, VSR, and FSR.

COUNTERSTRIKE 2

CounterStrike 2 or CS2 is the successor to the now-retired CSGO and now uses the Source 2 Engine – the same engine used on DOTA 2. CS2 is a great FPS game to test out CPU performance. Our benchmark process uses the replay function of the game.

DOTA 2

Dota 2 is a good reputation among F2P titles especially MOBAs and RTS as it lands on the demanding side of the spectrum. Its gameplay and quality of life updates are far more frequent than most F2P titles thanks to its vast popularity. Our benchmark sequence is based on a replay of Liquid vs. Gaimin Gladiators in the The International Grand Finals Game 3 from the team fight that happened from 16:24 to 17:24. 

SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony is one of the most popular PC port titles last 2022. It’s one of the few modern game titles that support upscaling technologies FSR, DLSS, and XeSS making it a great title to use for benchmarks.

F1 23

F1 23 is the official video game of the 2023 Formula One and Formula 2 championships developed by Codemasters. F1 2023 is the sixteenth installment in the franchise and uses the Ego Engine 4.0. F1 233 is a good representation of racing games thanks to its realistic graphics and fairly demanding spec requirements as well as support for Ray Tracing and the latest upscaling technologies such as DLSS, XeSS, and FSR.

ASSASSIN’S CREED: MIRAGE

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the latest Assassin’s Creed game from Ubisoft making it the thirteenth major installment in the franchise. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 game engine and is the very first AC game to support the latest upscaling technology such as XeSS, FSR, and DLSS.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably the most hyped game of 2020. Developed by CD Projekt Red, the dystopian open-world, action-adventure RPG sports is one of the most demanding titles to date. Cyberpunk 2077 also supports three Ray Tracing settings as well as DLSS which makes the game a great tool to measure Ray tracing performance for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST

Horizon Forbidden West is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The Horizon Zero Dawn game sequel launched on PC last March 2024 built on the Decima Game Engine, the same one used on Death Stranding. Horizon Forbidden West features Ray Tracing and Upscaling technologies not present in the prequel game.

BLACK MYTH WUKONG

Black Myth: Wukong is one of the most popular game titles launched in 2024 with its stunning graphics thanks to the Unreal Engine 5. Developed by Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong is one of the most demanding titles recently released titles with complete Ray Tracing and Upscaling technology features making it a great benchmark for new hardware.

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

Ghost of Tsushima is an action-adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was initially released for the PlayStation 4 in July 2020 and later for PlayStation 5 and Windows. Ghost of Tsushima runs on a modified and optimized version of Sucker Punch’s in-house engine, originally built for the PlayStation platforms.

HOGWARTS LEGACY

Hogwarts Legacy is a popular game catering to the hearts of Harry Potter fans and gamers with its rich world and engaging gameplay. Developed by Avalanche Software and built on the Unreal Engine 4, Hogwarts Legacy delivers detailed environments and character models with support for the latest rendering and upscaling technologies.

FAR CRY 6

FarCry 6 is an FPS game published by Ubisoft and uses the Dunia engine. It heavily relies on and takes advantage of DirectX 12 to render a realistic environment that makes it taxing to both the CPU and GPU. It’s also the first game of the franchise to support Ray Tracing.

MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition – Temps and Power Draw

The MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC is one of the best-performing GPUs when it comes to cooling performance thanks as it only peaks at 68.4°C with a decent 33.3°C ambient temp.

CONCLUSION – V for Value

The release of new graphics cards is the perfect opportunity for brands to introduce something new to their lineup or at the very least, update their current offerings. MSI took advantage of the RTX 50 series release and launched the Vanguard line. Frankly, our time with the card made us think that it’s closer to the SUPRIM series rather than the Gaming Trio or being perfectly in the middle. The deciding factor of the SUPRIM and VANGUARD boils down to aesthetics and price rather than minuscule performance differences between the two.

That said, MSI doesn’t offer SUPRIM variant for the RTX 5070 Ti so this is a special case. With the MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition, you’re already getting the best variant that MSI has to offer in its lineup. Not to mention you’re also getting a bonus in the form of the Lucky Item BlindBox if that adds value to your purchase.

The MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Launch Edition is priced at Php 63,800 making it the cheapest non-MSRP card in our RTX 5070 Ti stack. For that competitive price, you’re getting flagship-level performance with premium design, build quality, and impressive thermals.