In the introduction you provide an overview of the three tiers: "The SUPRIM is at the top, Gaming Trio next, and Ventus at the bottom. The SUPRIM and Gaming Trio have an X and non-X version, X denoting overclock. The Ventus is simply OC or not. In the RTX 4070 Ti, MSI also offers a white version of the Gaming Trio X and non-X."
Maybe I'm an exception, but I would actually rather buy a video card that isn't factory overclocked.
I'm curious whether anyone knows what sort of binning goes on and how that might affect chip quality not only among the tiers but also the "X" or "OC" variants. A card that draws less power and is cooler at stock speeds is desirable too, but if that is a goal then buying a factory-overclocked card seems a little bit counterintuitive. I wonder whether (for example) the non-X variant of the SUPRIM card would be of equal quality to its X counterpart, but without the factory overclock.
Just a curiosity of mine...
I don't anticipate buying any of the 4000-series cards.
Back then, I got a great deal on my GTX1070 for $350 and then a GTX1070Ti for $375. Just before the mining craze
Those are very good prices. The MSRP of the GTX 1070 was $379 at launch. I bought an MSI GeForce GTX 1070 GAMING X for $400 toward the end 2016. (It included a $20 mail-in rebate that I managed to screw up by waiting too long. My perfect rebate record was ruined. ?)