Following the older video card of the new, according to NVIDIA, graphics generation ─ GeForce GTX 1080, the company also introduced the GeForce GTX 1070 video card. According to their characteristics, GTX-70 graphics accelerators belong to the class of high-performance video cards, but their lower cost positions them between the middle and high class. Traditionally, the price/performance ratio of such models is better compared to top-end accelerators, but more on that later.
Even if you have decided on the manufacturer – NVIDIA and the model – in the specific case of the GTX 1070, the market has prepared several more obstacles: whether to buy a reference or non-reference video card? If non-reference, then which manufacturer??
Today I will talk about ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1070 O8G, the fastest modification of the Republic of Gamers series of gaming devices.
ASUS has released two versions of the ROG STRIX GTX 1070. The video cards are identical, except that the O8G version runs at higher frequencies out of the factory. The main characteristics are shown in the table. As you can see, you will have to pay quite a bit extra for factory overclocking.
The card turned out to be big – as much as 30 centimeters.
Features three cooling fans with patented impeller technology to increase airflow and pressure.
However, despite such an impressive length, the video card occupies two standard expansion slots on the motherboard. Not all competitors managed to fit their brainchild into two slots. The ROG logo on the end is illuminated. There is also an 8-pin connector, just like the reference one.
The reverse side is https://bookmakersnotongamstop.co.uk/review/slottio/ covered with a beautiful metal backplate on which there is the ROG series logo, which is also illuminated.
Speaking of backlighting, there is RGB (16.8 million. colors), adjustable in ASUS software. To understand how the backlight works, it is best to watch the video.
Unlike the reference GTX 1070, the non-reference one has less DisplayPort, but more HDMI ports. The rest of the space on the I/O panel is occupied by a small grid. Two HDMI are required to be able to connect both a monitor and a virtual reality headset at the same time.
The accelerator has massive cooling. Two sections of the radiator, which includes as many as five copper heat pipes of different lengths and diameters. However, only two and a half of them are in direct contact with the GPU. Many people are dissatisfied that the radiator is supposedly ineffective, since some of the heat pipes are not used, I suggest looking at the visual results, not arguments. Any modification must be cooler than the reference video card.
The printed circuit board of the video card has acquired a number of features. A curiosity was the presence of two 4-pin connectors for connecting case fans. Their rotation speed can now depend on the temperature of the GPU.
The power subsystem has been improved. The reference video card has five phases (for GPU, memory and PLL), the ROG Strix GTX 1070 has seven of them. ASUS notes that fully automatic production is used when assembling the ROG Strix GTX 1070. That is, the human error factor is minimized.
A special frame is designed to cool the memory, although it is clear that it does not come into contact with all chips.
Under load, the GPU warms up to only 66 degrees. Interestingly, the fans start to spin up only after the GPU heats up to 60 degrees. At this point they spin up to about 1700 rpm, which is 48% of the possible maximum. Meanwhile, the reference video card chip warms up to 78 degrees. DirectCU III is 12 degrees more efficient.
The back of the card is cold. The backplate does not warm up above 50 degrees. Power subsystem on the terminal side – above 72 degrees.
Bottom line: the video card is very cold.
In terms of performance, the difference in performance between the reference version and the ROG Strix GTX 1070 is determined by the GPU and memory frequencies. For example, in GTA V, the custom ASUS video card was 5.1% ahead of the reference one in WQHD resolution.
The GPU frequency at this moment was in the range of 2012-2050 MHz. The reference video card does not work as clearly, but even despite this, the difference between them is insignificant.
ROG Strix GTX 1070 overclocked almost to the limit. 2000 MHz is the pinnacle for video cards based on Pascal architecture. Such overclocking added 5 FPS or 6.7% in WQHD resolution to The Witcher 3. The reference video card overclocks somewhat worse in this regard.
As a conclusion, we can say that the ROG Strix series was a success. The design of the video card corresponds to modern fashion, but the most important thing is that the cooling system effectively copes with its task. This is exactly what is expected from any non-reference video card.
ASUS engineers tried and squeezed out the maximum parameters from this video card; it does not require improvement, since without third-party tools it works stably at a frequency of 2000+ MHz on the chip, and the graphics processor does not warm up in stress tests even to 70 degrees. Simply put, this is one of the best non-reference GeForce GTX 1070 to date.