Tag: Reviews

Introduction

Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Pulse is the company’s value custom design offering based on the swanky new performance segment GPU by AMD. Sapphire is one of the oldest AMD board partners, and its Pulse line of graphics cards has had a long legacy of giving gamers a solid board design at MSRP or close to it, covering all bases such as low cooler noise and decent overclocking potential. There’s none of the glamour from Sapphire’s premium NITRO series, but the Pulse has enough design heft to not look cheap when installed in your rig. The cooling solutions of Pulse series graphics cards tend to be highly capable, with a focus on low noise. The Radeon RX 9070 XT is this generation’s flagship GPU from AMD, and given that the company has withdrawn from the enthusiast segment, it could focus its efforts on making its performance segment offering best in segment, at an attractive starting price of $600.

The Radeon RX 9070 XT is mainly designed to max out games at 1440p with ray tracing and 4K Ultra HD gameplay at fairly high settings, with ray tracing enabled. With the new RDNA 4 graphics architecture powering the Radeon RX 9070 series, AMD made a concerted effort at vastly improving the ray tracing performance, reducing its performance cost, given that ray tracing is no longer a novelty, but something almost every AAA game is expected to implement it. AMD also worked to significantly improve and specialize the AI acceleration capabilities of its GPUs, and is introducing the new FSR 4 performance enhancement suite. The new FSR 4 technology implements an AI ML-based upscaling algorithm that’s more accurate and greatly improves image quality at every performance setting. For now, AMD has made FSR 4 exclusive to the Radeon RX 9000 series.

The RDNA 4 graphics architecture is designed to maximize performance per die-area, so AMD could design a lean and potent silicon purpose-built for the segment. To do this, the company claims to have achieved a significant gain in performance per CU (compute unit) over the previous RDNA 3 architecture. It also claims to have nearly doubled the ray tracing performance of its new RT accelerators over the previous generation, with the introduction of additional ray intersection hardware, and many other updates to the RT pipeline.

The Radeon RX 9070 series is based on the 4 nm Navi 48 silicon. Unlike the Navi 31 and Navi 32 chips powering the RX 7800 XT and RX 7900 series, the Navi 48 is a traditional monolithic silicon built entirely on the TSMC N4P node. In comparison, its predecessors were chiplet-based GPUs in which the GCDs were built on the 5 nm TSMC N5 node, while the memory controllers and Infinity Cache were spun off to MCDs built on the 6 nm TSMC N6 node. The Navi 48 features 64 compute units, all of which are enabled on the RX 9070 XT. These work out to 4,096 stream processors, 128 AI accelerators, 64 RT accelerators, and 256 TMUs. AMD has given the Navi 48 a healthy 128 ROPs.

The memory size given to both RX 9070 series SKUs is 16 GB, across a 256-bit wide memory bus, however these use slower 20 Gbps GDDR6, while NVIDIA has moved on to faster GDDR7. This move is probably driven by cost, and to maximize AMD’s ability to wage price-wars against NVIDIA in the segment. The company claims to have made strides with its new out-of-order memory management and texture compression, which should help it overcome the lack of generational growth in memory bandwidth.

The Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT comes with a fairly hefty triple-slot cooling solution (considering its MSRP positioning). The cooler uses a trio of the company’s latest AeroCurve axial airflow fans. It also features two aluminium fin-stacks that are skewered by five 6 mm-thick heat pipes that pull heat from the GPU over a copper baseplate. The cooler features a structural reinforcement that counteracts bending of the graphics card over time. The cooler shroud is designed to make it easy to remove the fans for cleaning, or for replacement. Complementing the cooler shroud is a solid metal backplate. The card comes with 2400 MHz Game Clock, and hence sticks to the AMD reference specs. Sapphire is pricing the RX 9070 XT Pulse at AMD MSRP of $600, but it’s currently sold out everywhere, and scalped to around $900.

Introduction

With few small form factor PC owners concerned about overclocking, B-series chipsets for both Intel and AMD have been the preferred options when it comes to Mini-ITX motherboard choices, especially as the extra engineering required to fit everything onto undoubtedly drool-worthy more premium models unfortunately sees price tags that are simply out of reach for many. The ASRock Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi aims to offer a comfortable home for an Intel Core Ultra Arrow Lake processor, and with a price of just over $220, it’s fairly reasonable too.

Mini-ITX has additional demands over its larger counterparts, though, and there are plenty of potential areas of potential failure, from AIO liquid cooler support, layout, VRM cooling or M.2 cooling. Any of these being implemented poorly could mean the board becomes difficult to deal with in the tight confines of a small form factor PC. Thankfully ASRock is an old hand at creating Mini-ITX motherboards now so it will be interesting to see its take on an ITX Intel B860 motherboard.

ASRock has three LGA1851 Mini-ITX options, which is more than any other manufacturer, with the Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi sitting in the middle at around $220, a cheaper model with various cut backs at $160, and full fat Phantom Gaming Z890I Nova Wi-Fi for $290. The Phantom Gaming B860I Lightning Wi-Fi seems to be more similar to the Z890 model both in terms of features and aesthetics. However, both ASUS and Gigabyte alternatives are the same price, and Gigabyte’s B860I AORUS PRO ICE sports a dashing white color scheme too.

Specifications

10

on Mar 24th, 2025,

Packaging & Contents »

Introduction

A big thank you to be quiet! for supplying the review sample.

Be quiet! stands out as a leading brand in the DIY PC sector, celebrated for its comprehensive range of low-noise products. Their inventory includes everything from computer cases and cooling solutions to fans and power supplies. The brand’s esteemed reputation is anchored in its motto: “no compromise on silence and performance.” While some competitors may hastily embrace emerging trends or fancy features, be quiet! sticks to their core principles, adopting new advancements only when they are sure it will meet their standards. This approach guarantees that users benefit from thoughtfully designed products that deliver exceptional quality and consistent performance.

The CPU cooler being reviewed today is the be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black. This dual-fan dual-tower air cooler features six heat pipes and an offset design for better memory compatibility. Add in its black coating, simple yet elegant looks and a lack of ARGB lighting, and you have the potential for a stealthy yet powerful air cooler for those more understated builds. Add in an attractive price and three-year warranty and on paper it looks like a good all around offering. That said, let’s take a closer look and see what it is capable of!

Specifications
MANUFACTURER:	be quiet!
MODEL:	Pure Rock Pro 3 Black
SOCKET SUPPORT:	Intel: LGA1851, LGA1700, LGA1200, LGA115X AMD: AM4, AM5
HEATSINK:	Material: Aluminium (Fins) Copper (Heat pipes) Dimensions: 139 x 124 x 155 mm (w/fans) Heat pipes: Ø6 mm – 6pcs Weight: 1077 g
FAN:	Model: Pure Wings 3 PWM Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 25 mm Fan Speed: 2000 RPM (maximum) Fan Airflow: 59.6 CFM (maximum) Fan Noise: 34.8 dBA
FEATURES:	High performance Pure Wings 3 fans Easy installation with wide platform compatibility Aesthetically pleasing black coating improves visual appeal Nickel-plated base is compatible with liquid metal thermal grease Offset design for reduced interference
WARRANTY:	Three years
MSRP:	$54.90

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• Mar 21st, 2025 Assassin’s Creed Shadows Performance Benchmark Review – 30 GPUs Compared
• Mar 21st, 2025 ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator Wi-Fi Review
• Mar 18th, 2025 ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi OC Review – Excellent Cooling
• Mar 5th, 2025 Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ Review – Beating NVIDIA
• Mar 24th, 2025 be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black Review
• Mar 19th, 2025 ASUS GeForce RTX 5070 TUF OC Review
• Mar 11th, 2025 AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Review – Great for Gaming and Productivity
• Mar 20th, 2025 Quick Look: Jelly Key Mystic Snake Artisan Keycaps
• Nov 6th, 2024 AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Review – The Best Gaming Processor
• Mar 5th, 2025 ASUS Radeon RX 9070 TUF OC Review

Introduction

The ASUS ProArt Creator range has been around for a few chipset generations now, beginning on Socket AM4. The ProArt X870E-Creator Wi-Fi is currently the only model available with a new 800-series chipset. It’s possible we might also see a B850 version at some point as there were both B550 and B650 versions. Today we’re focusing on the flagship X870E chipset and what it’s version of the ProArt Creator brings to the table compared to competing motherboards, given it won’t leave you with much change from $500.

Rather than going all out with RGB lighting and aggressive heatsinks, the whole idea behind the ProArt Creator range is a more elegant design aimed at non-gamers, featuring premium I/O and networking features along with high-end components and strong overclocking potential. With the ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator Wi-Fi, you get a very attractive motherboard, styled somewhat similar to previous generations, but as well as the expected USB4, Wi-Fi 7 and PCIe SSD and GPU support, there’s the addition of 10 Gigabit Ethernet and a design that sets it apart from similarly-priced models, including a see-through I/O shroud.

There’s clearly an element of lavishness going on here, but there’s definitely a market for expensive, head-turning motherboards. Being creator-focused, though, you’d expect it to also be lavishly endowed with storage options and minimal or non-existent lane sharing to maximize expansion possibilities. After all, many other boards with creator in the name have been high-end desktop models with oodles of PCIe lanes and features. We’ll be digging a little deeper to see what’s under the heatsinks, how the ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator Wi-Fi compares to other X870E motherboards, and whether it truly is a creator-focused piece of hardware, or just a prettier example of a standard motherboard at an inflated price.

Specifications

Introduction

If you are new to the world of artisan keycaps, I recommend reading my first article on them, which also goes over the what and why of these very custom and niche products. We’ve since covered a lot of different artisan keycaps, predominantly from Jelly Key, in various different themes. These include the Dragons of Eden theme, which was fitting given 2024 was the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese and Vietnamese Zodiac. It is now 2025, so to no surprise there was another timely update.

Today we are looking at the Mystic Snake series of Jelly Key artisan keycaps. The brand operates primarily via the group buy method, wherein orders for a certain theme are taken for a week—or less if pre-orders hit the target as usual—and those keycaps are then never made or sold again, outside second-hand sellers. This group buy has actually already ended as of the date I write this article since I was traveling away from home when these samples arrived. But Jelly Key mentioned they would be happy to take on special orders for TechPowerUp readers if they are still interested in getting these, all you would have to do is contact them. I would still do it as soon as possible though given they can only accommodate so many extra orders once production starts. As the name suggests, these keycaps are to help usher in the Year of the Snake, and thanks to Jelly Key for providing some final engineering samples to TechPowerUp for a closer examination.

Packaging

Jelly Key spent more time on the actual packaging design than some companies spend on entire keyboards, and I had already seen all three sizes of the solid paper boxes used by the company, which are in turn made of fully recycled materials. Based on my previous experiences, the two boxes here are for a 1u sized keycap as well as a 1.5u to 2.75u sized keycap. They have the Jelly Key logo on the front and a list of contents on the side, along with a seal featuring contact information. Opening the packaging reveals the actual product boxes held in place by a shaped compartment in the solid paper packaging. Retail units will also get a metal dog tag souvenir and the box will have the unit’s serial number on it.

The keycaps are placed inside appropriately sized small wooden boxes with a rounded, smooth finish. These come with a hand-applied seal, which is a nice touch with Jelly Key products, and a marketing tagline etched into the back. Given this isn’t a retail unit, please be aware that the keycap may not fully represent the quality of finished products from the group buy. The box opens up to reveal the keycap, presented like a gift. There is foam lining in the lid, with the actual keycap inside a thicker foam piece with a cutout to snugly hold and protect the product.

Closer Examination

I mentioned before how I was sent two different keycaps in two different sizes and colorways to help showcase the different options available with this theme. The larger of the two is a 2.25u (Enter or L.Shift) keycap in the “Blue Petal” design, with the smaller 1u keycap using the “Jade Serpent” design. You will notice both of these keycaps are naked in profile, which is a recent feature Jelly Key has been offering. Typical artisan keycaps use a resin pour over the various intricate elements, which in turn is sculpted to one of several keycap profiles (Cherry, OEM, SA, Droplet etc.), allowing them to be in line with the rest of your keycaps on the keyboard. The resin also adds protection and effectively allows you to use these keycaps daily without worry. However, the market for these artisan keycaps has been changing recently to where people are purchasing new ones simply because they look cool. I have seen a lot of keyboard enthusiasts have separate display stands, or even a dedicated display keyboard, purely for these artisan keycaps. They have no intention to type on them, and would prefer to just see them better. This is where the naked profile comes in, effectively revealing the finished, yet still raw, aesthetic of these keycaps.

As usual, the various individual elements are all resin-cast with up to 32 different colors, and Jelly Key says this alone can take as much as 16 hours per keycap. This is a multi-layer process, with each layer taking as much as eight hours to cure before the next one can be set on top. The snake and the flowers are also handcrafted, and this is especially visible with the details on the snake scales and eyes. The base layer is translucent, with clear resin infused with shiny metal dust, allowing for LEDs to shine though as seen above. Obviously the naked nature of these keycaps makes it less practical, but thankfully these also come in the SA profile with a resin pour for those who prefer it.

I used the Anne Pro 2 keyboard to demonstrate the keycaps installed, with its white base allowing for good contrast and the spotlight given to the keycaps themselves. There is a reason this series of artisan keycaps is not offered in OEM or Cherry profiles, as evident by the naked profile versions already being taller than the OEM keycaps surrounding them. This is because the snake and flower elements are fairly prominent, and the various layers add up to making a relatively tall keycap. The SA profile version would not be much taller than this, for what it is worth. This is also why it’s best to match these keycaps with your keyboard, especially if this is going on a key you will be using often. Using a keyboard with backlighting, especially per-key RGB lighting, will also allow you to get the base layer to shine through as preferred. This keycap series has only two profiles, but makes up for it with 9 different designs. There are three sizes available, including the large spacebar key which looks absolutely stunning from the photos on the website, as well as larger art toys if you simply want to admire the art on a bigger scale as opposed to using them on a keyboard. Pricing ranges from $55-102 depending on the keycap size, and you can find more details on the group buy page.

Bonus: 8-bit series – Enigma Path artisan keycaps

While this article was mostly talking about the Mystic Snake series, I did grab some more artisan keycaps over the holidays for personal use and figured I might as well show them off here. These are two keycaps, again in the naked profile, from the 8-bit series – Enigma Path group buy. We’ve seen other entries in the 8-bit series from Jelly Key before, and this theme is my personal favorite as I can easily see where each keycap theme gets inspiration from. I have here a 2u (backspace) keycap in the “Shadow Prison” design and a 2.75u (R.Shift) in the “Dark Chamber” design. I got these in the naked profile before of the 8-bit style assembly of the layers, allowing for a 3D effect when viewed from a normal typing angle. These are also flat and have enough contact surface at the top to where you can actually type on them, although I would not recommend intense gaming! The base layer also illuminates nicely with keyboard LEDs, and the windows of the various buildings almost appear to have glass-stained designs when lit up. I highly recommend the 8-bit series if you see a new group buy in the future and were interested in getting an artisan keycap yourself.

Introduction

The ASUS GeForce RTX 5070 TUF OC is a premium, factory-overclocked variant of NVIDIA’s latest performance-segment GPU. Engineered for high-performance gaming, it features a powerful cooling solution, dual BIOS with a quiet mode, and customizable RGB lighting. The TUF series is known for its high-quality components, excellent thermal efficiency, and sleek design, making it a top choice for enthusiasts who want to go beyond the basic designs at MSRP.

The RTX 5070 is a key release in NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture, offering high-refresh-rate 1080p gameplay and fully ray-traced 1440p experiences. It introduces Neural Rendering, a technology that integrates AI-generated objects into traditional 3D graphics, enhancing realism. The AI Management Processor (AMP) enables seamless coordination between AI workloads and conventional rendering, improving overall efficiency.

Built on the GB205 GPU, the RTX 5070 features 48 out of 50 active streaming multiprocessors, delivering 6,144 CUDA cores, 192 Tensor cores, 48 RT cores, and 192 texture units. It also includes 80 ROPs, an upgrade from the RTX 4070’s 64. The GPU benefits from 48 MB of L2 cache, up from 36 MB in the previous generation. While it retains 12 GB of VRAM, the switch to 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory increases bandwidth by 33%, enhancing performance.

ASUS has equipped the TUF OC with an advanced cooling system, including a large heatsink, a triple-fan design, and a nickel-plated copper baseplate for efficient heat dissipation. The dual BIOS allows users to toggle between performance and quiet modes, providing flexibility based on cooling and noise preferences. The factory overclock ensures higher clock speeds out of the box, maximizing performance.

With its premium design, high-end cooling, and customizable RGB lighting, the ASUS GeForce RTX 5070 TUF OC is an excellent choice for gamers seeking top-tier performance and aesthetics. It ticks at a rated boost clock of 2610 MHz and is priced at $740, which is a $190(!) increase over the NVIDIA MSRP.

Introduction

ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi is the company’s top-of-the-line custom design rendition of the exciting new performance segment GPU from AMD that’s breathing life back into the gaming graphics market. The Taichi line of graphics cards represents the very best in product design, cooling performance, and overclocker-friendly features from ASRock. These cards are designed to visually match with ASRock’s latest Taichi, Taichi Lite, and Taichi OCF series motherboards based on the Intel Z890 and AMD X870E chipsets, although they should be the star attraction in any PC build. The Radeon RX 9070 XT is designed for 4K Ultra HD gaming at high settings, and 1440p gaming at maxed out settings; both with ray tracing enabled. AMD claims to have made leaps in ray tracing performance, as well as performance per CU, allowing the RX 9070 XT to be a lean GPU focused on PC gaming.

The Radeon RX 9070 XT is powered by AMD’s latest RDNA 4 graphics architecture that is claimed to have made substantial gains in performance per compute unit (CU), as well as ray tracing and AI acceleration; which together make the RX 9070 series contemporary. The ray tracing performance gains lower the cost of having it enabled in games, given that RT is no longer a novelty. AI acceleration performance gains allow AMD to bring AI ML closer to gaming. A case in point is FSR 4, a major update to AMD’s performance enhancement suite, which uses an ML-based upscaler that offers significant image quality upgrades at every performance tier over previous versions of FSR.

The Radeon RX 9070 XT is based on the 4 nm Navi 48 silicon, which it maxes out. Unlike NVIDIA, which stuck to the exact same process node for the Blackwell generation as the Ada generation, AMD gave the Navi 48 two key process-level upgrades. Firstly, the company switched to the 4 nm TSMC N4P node, which offers clock speed and efficiency upgrades over the previous TSMC N5 node, and secondly, Navi 48 is a monolithic silicon unlike Navi 31, which is a chiplet-based GPU with a 5 nm GCD and 6 nm MCDs. The entire Navi 48 chip is made on 4 nm, including the memory controllers and Infinity Cache, and then there are power management and IPC improvements from the RDNA 4 architecture.

The Navi 48 silicon features 64 compute units (CU), all of which are enabled on the RX 9070 XT. This works out to 4,096 stream processors, 128 AI accelerators, 64 RT accelerators, 256 TMUs. The chip also has an impressive 128 ROPs, which is an increase over the 96 that the Navi 32 comes with. The card has 16 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. AMD stuck to the older GDDR6 standard and is using 20 Gbps memory speeds, which results in 640 GB/s of memory bandwidth. AMD is counting on new architecture-level features, such as out-of-order memory management, and the faster 64 MB Infinity Cache to keep the RX 9070 series competitive with the GeForce RTX 5070 series.

The ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi comes with the latest generation of the company’s Taichi 3X cooling solution that uses a massive aluminium fin-stack heatsink with six heat pipes, and a solid copper baseplate to pull heat from the GPU and memory. It also implements the new 12V-2×6 power connector standard, although you do get an adapter that converts from three standard 8-pin connectors. It’s the only other AMD board partner apart from Sapphire to implement this. ASRock has given the RX 9070 XT Taichi a factory overclock of 2570 MHz Game clock, compared to 2400 MHz reference. There are also other overclocker-friendly features such as dual-BIOS. ASRock is pricing the RX 9070 XT Taichi at $730, a $130 premium over the $600 baseline price by AMD.

Introduction

Not all gaming machines must be large ATX towers. While there’s no arguing with physics and the hundreds of watts of heat generated by the most powerful GPUs and CPUs, very potent gaming machines can still be fitted within a smaller power envelope and form factor. This brings us to the Corsair SF750 (2024) – an SFX form factor power supply meant for powerful yet compact machines. The standard 150 x 86 x 140 mm dimensions of an ATX power supply means that its total volume is just over 1.8 liters. In sub-10-liter cases that’s quite a lot of space to spend just on delivering power to the PC’s components. In such situations smaller farm factors like SFX comes in handy with just under 0.8 liters of volume and 125 x 63.5x 100 mm dimensions. And while less than half of available volume means less space for components and potentially higher heat buildup, current high efficiency standards make high output small PSUs a very feasible option.

In a sense, the SF750 reminds me of the situation with the small flagship smartphones, where the choices continue to be very limited. As an SFF enthusiast myself, I’m also eager to see what PSUs are on the market not only when it comes to mini PCs, but also to more high-end systems. With 750 W output, 80 Plus Platinum efficiency rating and ATX 3.1 support, the SF750 definitely fits the “small flagship” territory, capable of powering very demanding single GPU rigs.

Those of you who have been reading PSU reviews here for a while might remember that the Corsair SF750 was already tested back in 2019. While Corsair does not indicate a different naming, this is the actual successor to the original SF750, released in late 2024, boasting ATX 3.1 support. And while 750 watts might seem like a lot of power to pack in such a small factor, Corsair also has the more powerful SF850 and SF1000 in their lineup. But today the SF750 is representing the series and here’s a glimpse at its spec sheet.

Specifications

Introduction

The Kioxia brand was established around 2018/2019, after Toshiba sold its SSD and memory branch “Toshiba Memory.” The company now produces flash memory for its own products, but also WD and SanDisk. Part of the original Toshiba SSD business was formed in 2014, when Toshiba bought the famous OCZ brand. Kioxia later acquired the SSD maker Lite-On. Unfortunately, first party Kioxia SSD products are not available in the United States.

In today’s review we are taking a look at the Kioxia Exceria Plus G4, which, as the name suggests is the fourth generation of the company’s “Exceria Plus” solid-state-drive. What’s new with the G4 is that it is Kioxia’s first consumer SSD that introduces support for the PCI-Express Gen 5 interface. We reviewed the Exceria Plus G3 last year, the new G4 uses a Phison E31T controller instead of the E21 on the G3, and the NAND flash is Kioxia’s 218-layer 3D TLC (vs 112-layer 3D TLC on the G3). This E31T+218L TLC combination is used on other drives, too, like the Corsair MP700 Elite, PNY CS2150 and MSI Spatium M560.

The Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 is available in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB. While Kioxia doesn’t sell these drives in the States, pricing in Europe is €112 for the 1 TB model and €190 for the 2 TB variant, including 20% VAT, which we converted to $100 and $170 respectively. Endurance for these models is set to 600 TBW and 1200 TBW, respectively. Kioxia offers a five-year warranty with the Exceria Plus G4.

Introduction

MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Gaming Trio OC is a premium custom-design rendition of NVIDIA’s new performance-segment GPU that launched earlier this month. The Gaming series of graphics cards played a pivotal role in building the MSI brand since its introduction in the early 2010s. Even though it’s been supplanted at by the SUPRIM and Vanguard lines of enthusiast custom design brands the Gaming Trio still offers a compelling combination of product design, aesthetics, cooler capabilities, and factory OC. The GeForce RTX 5070 is possibly the most important model in the RTX 50-series Blackwell generation yet. It targets the broadest segment of the PC gaming market, offering maxed out gameplay at 1440p, including with ray tracing; or 1080p high refresh-rate gameplay.

The new Blackwell graphics architecture introduces Neural Rendering, a new technology in consumer 3D graphics that combines objects created by a generative AI model with conventional raster 3D scenes much in the same way as RTX brings ray traced objects to it. You need little introduction to the awesome capabilities of generative AI models to create photorealistic images and video, and can imagine its impact on gaming. AI hence plays a bigger role in rendering, and isn’t just relegated to the DLSS upscaler. This is made possible due to a new hardware-based scheduler component called the AI Management Processor (AMP), which lets the GPU accelerate AI models and render graphics in tandem.

The new Blackwell SM sees all 128 CUDA cores being capable of concurrent FP32 and INT32 math; only half the cores in an older Ada generation SM were capable of INT32. The shader execution reordering engine of Blackwell comes with the ability to reorder neural shaders. The 5th Gen Tensor core leverages FP4 data formats to increase throughput in lieu of precision. The 4th Gen RT comes with even more fixed function hardware, this time to enable Mega Geometry—a concept similar to Mega Textures, which allows ray traced objects to have exponentially higher triangle counts by leveraging hierarchies.

The GeForce RTX 5070 debuts the new GB205 silicon, the company’s third gaming GPU based on the architecture. The RTX 5070 nearly maxes it out, enabling 48 out of 50 streaming multiprocessors present on the silicon. This works out to 6,144 CUDA cores, 192 Tensor cores, 48 RT cores, and 192 TMUs. The RTX 5070 gets all 80 ROPs present on the silicon, which is an increase over the 64 that the RTX 4070 came with. It also gets more on-die cache, with 48 MB on tap, compared to the 36 MB of the RTX 4070. While the memory size hasn’t changed—it’s still only 12 GB—the memory bandwidth sees a significant 33% increase thanks to the 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory being used.

The MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Gaming Trio OC features a very similar board design as the RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Trio OC+ we recently reviewed. It is a slightly toned down version of the Tri Frozr 4 cooler MSI debuted with the Vanguard family of graphics cards, in that the cooler doesn’t get a vapor chamber baseplate—it uses a nickel-plated copper plate—and has fewer heat pipes, but has all other innovations by MSI for this generation, including a new aluminium fin arrangement that maximizes turbulence for heat dissipation; and the latest generation of StormForce axial airflow fans. MSI is giving the RTX 5070 factory overclocked speeds of 2610 MHz compared to 2512 MHz reference. The company is pricing the RTX 5070 Gaming Trio OC at $650, a $100 premium over the NVIDIA baseline price for the RTX 5070.