MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X review

The king of midrange returns, but not as we know it

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X

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The GTX 1070 is an astronomical card, especially for the pricing at the low end. Although a little pricier than the GTX 970 of last generation, this beauty is capable of plowing through almost all AAA titles at 1440p without a sweat.

We liked

The performance for price is fantastic, especially on the AIB partners. At 1440p, it absolutely dominates, and the inclusion of DisplayPort 1.4 is a god send for future proofing. 4K monitors at 120Hz, anyone?

We disliked

We’re still stuck behind that Founder's Edition price point. All that for the sake of early access, and for what you get in comparison to the aftermarket competition, it's just not enough in my eyes to stick a flashy cooler on it, bump up the price, limit accessibility and call it a day. Otherwise, this is a powerful GPU on a fantastic card.

Final verdict

Couple that with its insane overclocking potential and thoroughly well-developed cooler design from partnering manufacturers, and you're onto a winner. The only thing that could potentially make this card better were if the price would drop – if even a fraction. And, with AMD's Polaris RX 480 right around the corner, that might be something we're likely to see soon, as team Red starts snapping up the middle ground once more.

Zak Storey
Freelance contributor

Zak is one of TechRadar's multi-faceted freelance tech journalists. He's written for an absolute plethora of tech publications over the years and has worked for Techradar on and off since 2015. Most famously, Zak led Maximum PC as its Editor-in-Chief from 2020 through to the end of 2021, having worked his way up from Staff Writer. Zak currently writes for Maximum PC, TechRadar, PCGamesN, and Trusted Reviews. He also had a stint working as Corsair's Public Relations Specialist in the UK, which has given him a particularly good insight into the inner workings of larger companies in the industry. He left in 2023, coming back to journalism once more. When he's not building PCs, reviewing hardware, or gaming, you can often find Zak working at his local coffee shop as First Barista, or out in the Wye Valley shooting American Flat Bows.