Because chip manufacturing is not perfect, wafers produced by foundries contain dies that cannot be used for their intended purpose; in the case of Nvidia's massive AD102 GPU, usually used for the RTX 4090 graphics card, MSI purchased a defective unit and used it in at least one of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super model and uses it in at least one of its 4070 Ti Super models.

The model in question is the upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X Black OC (can't they make this name anymore, MSI?) and was noticed by X user wxnod (via BenchLife). If you're wondering why I'm using a cut-down RTX 4090 chip, there are two clues.

First, the TGP (Total Graphics Power) figure is 295W, 10W higher than the standard RTX 4070 Ti Super. one might think MSI did this to improve the 4070 Ti Super's ability to sustain overclocking, but other overclocked models have not done this, nor have other vendors, so it is not the case.

The standard card uses a cut-down version of the AD103 chip normally found on RTX 4080 cards, while the original RTX 4070 Ti uses the AD104. both the AD103 and AD104 are much smaller chips than the massive AD102, Even though Nvidia has disabled close to 10,000 shaders, just under 100 ROPs, half of the L2 cache, and four memory controllers, there is still a great deal of silicon out there.

The higher TGP may be because the larger die can absorb and dissipate more heat than the smaller die, or it may be because the rest of the AD102's circuitry is still using power, even though it will never be used in any game.

Another clue is the weight and size of the Ventus 3X Black OC card listed in the datasheet (pdf warning) for this model. With dimensions of 322 x 136 x 62 mm (12.7 x 5.4 x 2.4 inches) and a weight of 1.464 kg (3.22 lbs), it is significantly larger than most RTX 4070 Ti Super cards. For example, MSI's Gaming X Slim version of the GPU measures 307 x 125 x 51 mm and weighs 1.1 kg.

The GeForce RTX 4090 card is huge, not only the heatsink and fan shroud, but also the printed circuit board (PCB) that houses the graphics chip; it is unlikely that MSI made a custom PCB just for this particular RTX 4070 Ti Super model. extremely unlikely, perhaps reusing one of the RTX 4090 designs.

The last clue... Yes, not a clue: BenchLife states that "AIC informed me by letter that it was the AD102-175," and AIC is MSI (AIC stands for add-in card). Yeah, I know I should have written that in the first place, but where's the fun in that?

Now, before you buy an MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X Black OC, perform a BIOS hack, and start enjoying the idea of being the proud owner of an RTX 4090 for half the price, you should know that none of the disabled sections of the AD102 chip are re They cannot be activated; Nvidia no longer uses software to turn off parts, it is all done physically while the die is being processed for packaging.

MSI's GeFor...... Oh, I don't want to rewrite this again and again: ..... .don't expect a Black OC card to offer more performance than a standard RTX 4070 Ti Super, even with higher power limitations...as anyone with an RTX 40 series graphics card will tell you, Nvidia's Ada Lovelace chip, not run that much faster with increased power.

Graphics card vendors have for years, certainly as long as I can remember, used top-end GPUs that were cut down significantly in the lower models. Chip manufacturing always produces a die that cannot be used for its intended purpose but still has enough working parts left over to be used for other applications, as in AMD's Radeon RX 7900 series, which is how most variants in the SKU segment are made, and these are all Navi 31 chips.

Over time, these bad dies accumulate in the inventory of AMD, Intel, and Nvidia, and when a certain limit is reached, AIB partners can sell just enough to use in their own models. This is because chipmakers prefer to switch to a huge pile of bad dies rather than continue to mass produce full-spec processors.

Of course, consumers will never really benefit from this process, but it is kind of nice to have an RTX 4090 GPU in an RTX 4070 Ti Super. This is like saying "a Ferrari engine in a Ford Focus," with most of the cylinders filled with lead. Ford performance, of course, but there's still a bouncing horse in there somewhere.