MSI Ventus 2X GeForce RTX 4060 Review: Solid Entry-Level Performer
Following the advent of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4060 and its lack of a Founders Edition (FE), the brand is effectively leaving the cooling solutions of the card to its AIB partners, with MSI being one of them. In this review, I’ll be testing the brand’s dual-fan Ventus 2X model, and how it holds up in gaming.
Specifications
The Looks Of It
It’s a known fact in the graphics card market among DIY PC enthusiasts and gamers, when it comes to entry-level GPUs, the quality of cooling that ships out with them is, more often than not, less premium or simpler in design than their mid-range and high-end counterparts. In the case of MSI’s own iteration of the RTX 4060, the Ventus 2X keeps with the simplicity theme, sporting an all-black cooler shroud and backplate.
For that matter, there is also no RGB built into the Ventus 2X, which isn’t a major loss to one such as myself – I buy my components for their performance benefits, not because they are able to replicate all the colours of the rainbow. Of course, the dual fans utilises MSI’s TORX 4.0 technology, and that includes a zero RPM technology that keeps them powered down until the GPU core reaches a certain temperature.
Like the Palit RTX 4060 that I reviewed prior and in what is clearly the trend with the GPU, the Ventus 2X only requires a single 8-pin PCIe power connector to run, given that the card itself has a TGP of 112W. Ports-wise, it comes with three DisplayPort 1.4a ports and one HDMI 2.1 port.
The Testbench
I’m going to keep things simple with the review of the Ventus 2X RTX 4060. Like the Palit Dual RTX 4060, the testbed being used remains unchanged, and that includes the Ryzen 9 7950X CPU as our defacto testbench CPU. The comparison metrics include the RTX 4060 Ti and RX 4070, but also the Palit card that I reviewed prior.
Benchmarks, Power Draw, And Temperature
Surprisingly, the Ventus 2X RTX 4060 proves that it is the superior model, compared to the Palit. Well, at least in a “here and there” scenario.
In the synthetic benchmarks, the Ventus 2X RTX 4060 is practically neck-to-neck to the Palit Dual, with the former only pulling ahead very slightly in tests conducted at Full HD resolution. For that matter, it is also the first card in the GPU series that I can visibly see pushing itself to drive more pixels, as evidenced by the slightly more furious spinning of its fans.
It’s the same story with gaming, where the Ventus 2X RTX 4060 pulls ahead of the Palit Dual at Full HD resolution, but there are titles where the card actually performs better at 1440p, even it is just by a handful of frames. Watch Dogs Legion is one such title where the card actually pulls way, way ahead of Palit’s offering at said resolution, and that was with the same RTX and DLSS settings too.
In Cyberpunk 2077, the Ventus 2X RTX 4060 was more deft in its delivery than the Palit at Full HD, running a good 22 fps on average higher, but is only a few frames faster when used in 1440p.
As far as operating temperatures go, the Ventus 2X clearly run hotter than the Palit Dual and the RTX 4060 Ti and 4070, for that matter. On a full load, we’re talking 12°C hotter on average when compared to the other three GPUs, and that is with the ambient temperature set at 20°C. In terms of power consumption, it is basically the same as the Palit Dual’s own draw, so nothing to report there.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Compared to the Palit Dual, the MSI Ventus 2X GeForce RTX 4060 is proving to be a better prospect an alternative to the latter RTX 4060. At RM1539, though, that is RM20 more than the Palit. But to be fair, given its performance in both 1440p and Full HD, I don’t think that it is unreasonable, nor is the price gap that huge, to begin with.
Would I say that the Ventus 2X is the best variation of the RTX 4060 on the market, though? Probably not, and that is basically because I have yet to test other cards. On that note, I should be releasing a review of other iterations of the entry-level Ada Lovelace graphics card in the coming months, so keep an eye out for that.
Photography by John Law.
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