A Closer Look
The Vanguard series is meant to stand out from the crowd, promising a more premium and high-end GPU experience, and I think it’s fair to say that, on first impression, it certainly delivers on that. It’s quite a large graphics card, which certainly has its benefits, but keep in mind that its compatibility with smaller form factor builds will be limited. So, measure twice before you order your new graphics card, as the Vanguard measures in at 357mm long, 151mm tall and 66mm thick, occupying two physical slots in your case, but bordering on a three-slot card.
MSI claim that they drew their inspiration from “the mighty turbines of spacecraft,” and well, who am I to argue with them? I mean, it does sound very marketing-led and sales-like, but with a mixture of matte blacks, aluminium, and carbon fibre accents, all of which appear to be edged with lashings of RGB lighting, it’s ticking all the design boxes for something a bit quirky and somewhat sci-fi.
It’s not all just flashy trim, though—well, OK, it’s actually a lot of flashy trim. However, it has been designed with aerodynamics in mind. Those fins and scoops alongside the front and rear fans are designed to channel airflow in and around the card with greater efficiency, while the third fan in the middle is just adding more airflow and is located on the fattest part of the heatsink.
The card feels extremely sturdy and, if anything, a bit bulky, giving it a weight of quality. At 2,205 grams, it’s definitely on the heavier side, though this bulk does add to the durability that you’d expect. This is a more expensive model, so feeling the weight of all those extra materials is reassuring that you’re literally getting more product for your money.
You also get a small included stand to help prop the card up. While it’s not the best solution we’ve seen for heavy cards, as it does come across quite cheap, it’s more than capable of doing what it’s set out to do. Colour-wise, it is pretty understated so that it should function without being glaringly obvious inside your build, though for the price, I think most consumers would be expecting something a bit better, maybe not made out of plastic.
A lot of the Vanguard’s weight comes from the enlarged heatsink, with three 105mm fans set into its thick shroud design. It comes equipped with their latest STORMFORCE fans, which feature claw-textured blades and a circular arc edge—all designed to minimise noise and deliver higher airflow. As they’re the same fans used on the higher-end SUPRIM models, I’ve got high hopes for this one.
Surrounding the fans is a fairly substantial amount of RGB that makes the card look like it has a large slash on it, along with the light-up MSI RGB logo on the top of the shroud with a few extra spots there too, and the MSI dragon on the very end. While some may not be huge advocates of RGB, I think it’s subtle enough not to take away from the mixed materials of the shroud that give it a premium look, especially when coupled with the carbon fibre accents. This comes across as quite subtle because carbon fibre, if used in the wrong way, can definitely make a product look and feel cheap.
One area that may rub people up the wrong way is the 12V-2×6 power connector, as it does sit slightly recessed into the cooler. MSI do provide an adapter with a yellow connector, making it easy to see if the adapter is inserted correctly, as if you see any yellow, then it’s not in far enough. A pretty novel feature in its simplicity, but it definitely does the trick.
There’s also a BIOS switch to change between Gaming Mode and Silent Mode, both of which feature the same 2,588MHz boost speed, with just a physical change happening to the fan curve. However, if you’re craving more performance, you can increase that boost speed further, to 2,602MHz through MSI Center, or of course, you could manually overclock it, which we’ll be looking at shortly.
The end of the card, with that light-up dragon, is fully enclosed, wrapping around and meeting the backplate. No matter the orientation that you install it, you’ll find the card fitting right in and looking premium while doing so, which I guess is the look that MSI are going for.
On the back of the card, there’s a reinforced metal backplate with some cut-outs for airflow to pass through. While the majority of the backplate is aluminium, there are also some more carbon fibre accents to just break up the design a little bit, along with some branding by way of a black dragon and GeForce RTX logo, and a white MSI logo on top of one of those carbon panels.
Looking at the rear I/O, it’s easy to see just how big this heatsink really is, with the card sitting well above the two-slot mounting plate, and extending out much wider too. It comes with three DisplayPorts, as well as a single HDMI port, so you can easily connect multiple high-performance monitors, easily accommodating multi-display gaming or a comprehensive productivity setup. Interestingly, there’s virtually no heat exhaust here, though that’s not always a necessity, as sometimes enclosing a card to help direct airflow is a better solution anyway.
