MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC Review

1. Introduction2. Meet the MSI RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC3. Testing Methodology4. Game Benchmarks5. Clock Speed6. GPU Temperatures7. Acoustics8. Noise-Normalised Temperatures9. Power Draw and Efficiency10. Overclocking11. Closing Thoughts12. View All Pages

MSI's RTX 5070 Ti Vanguard SOC is another impressive graphics card from the Taiwanese manufacturer. Pricing and availability is complicated as we will get to below, but one thing is clear – MSI knows how to build a great graphics card.

We can see that first and foremost when looking at the thermals and noise levels. This GPU runs very cool and very quiet, especially if you use the Silent BIOS. When noise normalised to 40dBa, it was miles ahead of the other two RTX 5070 Ti cards we have tested.

Actual gaming performance didn't improve by much when compared to the Ventus 3X model we used for our launch day review, but that's to be expected from a partner card. Our model did overclock well however, hitting around 3.2GHz when pushed, and that saw performance increase by up to 11% in Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.

I also like what MSI has done with the design of the Vanguard SOC – it's smartly styled but is fairly monochromatic, so it should work in your system regardless if you have a specific colour scheme or not. There's also a healthy amount of RGB lighting on show, though that can always be turned off.

The real trouble is that, right now, I can't seem to find the card listed anywhere in the UK, and that is problematic. MSI told us it was exclusive to Currys, but promptly sold out and isn't even listed on their site anymore. It's a great card, but does it matter if you can't buy one?

In the US, we have at least seen it listed on MSI's official store for $900, though it's currently out of stock. Even if it was available, the price tag works out as a 20% premium over the baseline $750 MSRP, and that would make it a tough sell, especially considering the RX 9070 XT is a very capable competitor in this market segment but with a much lower MSRP of $650, even if it is still retailing above that figure.

MSI did confirm to us that the UK MSRP for the Vanguard SOC is £969.99, and that is staggeringly high. I can still see why someone would choose an RTX 5070 Ti over an RX 9070 XT if both cards are available at MSRP – ray tracing performance is often better, significantly so in path traced games, plus DLSS support is much more widespread than FSR 4. However, flagship partner cards like the MSI Vanguard SOC have bigger price premiums than ever. After all, the RTX 5080's UK MSRP is £979 – so the Vanguard is meant to retail for just £20 less! Surely something needs to change there.

In sum, it's a great card and I'd be very happy to have one in my personal rig – but this pricing situation is getting out of hand.

Pros

• Solid gaming performance on offer.
• Incredibly cool and quiet graphics card
• Our sample hit 3.2GHz when overclocking with relative ease.
• DLSS 4 has improved Ray Reconstruction and Super Resolution scaling.
• Multi Frame Generation enables higher frame rates than would otherwise be possible.

Cons

• Huge price increase over the £729 MSRP puts it right in RTX 5080 territory.
• RX 9070 XT is a very capable competitor for less money (based on MSRP, at least).
• Not listed for sale anywhere in the UK that I can see.

KitGuru says: It's a very cool, very quiet graphics card that looks the part. Trouble is, it's not listed anywhere in the UK that we can see, while it's up for $900 in the US…

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