Meet the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Armor
The MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Armor has great cooling and overclocking headroom to spare.
The Armor's Port Backplane
The connectors comprise three DisplayPort 1.4a video-outs, a single HDMI 2.0b video-out, and one VirtualLink (USB Type-C) for next-generation virtual-reality headsets. The latter have yet to come to market.
The Edge-On View
The MSI logo on the side of the card is backlit with RGB LEDs. MSI's Mystic Light software allows you to change the colors and patterns, or simply turn it off. This is the only lighting zone on this card.
Power Connectors
Up here are the six-pin and eight-pin power connectors. Nvidia specifies the RTX 2070 reference card with one eight-pin connector. The supplementary six-pin connector on this card is there to provide extra power for overclocking.
The SLI Scheme (or Lack Thereof)
Absent on every RTX 2070 is an NVLink connector for SLI support. Only the GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti offer SLI support within the RTX 20 series, and just two-card SLI at that.
The Backplate
The brushed-metal backplate on the flip side of the card is a passive heatsink.
A Big Twin-Fan Design
The MSI RTX 2070 Armor is bigger than a traditional two-slot graphics card in every dimension, measuring 12.1 inches long, 6.1 inches tall, and 2 inches thick.
Full PCB Coverage
Thermal pads on the underside of the backplate transfer heat from the GDDR6 memory modules.
In Sum, Super for 1440p
The value proposition for the RTX 2070 depends on what card you're coming from. The RTX 2070 is a sensible purchase if you're upgrading from an outdated platform, as it wouldn't make sense to buy the older but similar-performing GeForce GTX 1080 at the same $499 price. That reasoning also applies if you're buying a serious graphics card for the first time.