NVIDIA announced the GTX 1070 the same time as the GTX 1080, and it was fortunate to come with the speedy NVIDIA Pascal GPU, built to handle the graphics-intensive games of today at up to 2560X1440 resolutions. The Pascal technology is a remarkable turn from the earlier 20nm chips but has earlier been used by Intel before NVIDIA and AMD’s adoption. Pascal’s GP104 GPU, which is a shrunk TSMC 16nm FinFET chip, has lower voltage consumption, a reduced transistor gate leakage, and permits the addition of more transistors.lt will excite gamers to know that the GTX 1070 graphics card is VR ready, which to a large extent guarantees a flawlessly immersive experience on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets.
| GTX 980 | GTX 1070 | |
|---|---|---|
| GPU Engine Specs: | ||
| NVIDIA CUDA Cores | 2048 | 1920 |
| Base Clock (Mhz) | 1126 | 1506 |
| Boost Closk (Mhz) | 1216 | 1683 |
| Memory Specs: | ||
| Memory Speed | 7 Gbps | 8 Gbps |
| Standard Memory Config | 4 GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface Width | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) | 224 | 256 |
| Technology Support: | ||
| Simultaneous Multi-Projection | No | Yes |
| VR Ready | Yes (Minimum card for Vive and Rift) | Yes |
| NVIDIA Ansel | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA SLI® Ready | Yes (4-way) | Yes - SLI HB Bridge Supported |
| NVIDIA G-SYNC -Ready | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA GameStream -Ready | Yes | Yes |
| NVIDIA GPU Boost | 2.0 | 3.0 |
| Microsoft DirectX | 12 API with Feature Level 12_1 | 12 API with feature level 12_1 |
| Vulkan API | Yes | Yes |
| OpenGL | 4.4 | 4.5 |
| Bus Support | PCI Express 3.0 | PCIe 3.0 |
| OS Certification | Windows 7-10, Linux, FreeBSDx86 | Windows 7-10, Linux, FreeBSDx86 |
| Thermal and Power Specs: | ||
| Max GPU Tempurature (in C) | 98 C | 94 C |
| Graphics Card Power (W) | 165 W | 150 W |
LOOK AND DESIGN
The GTX 1070 has so much in common with the GTX 1080 in build and features even as both cards come with the same GPU and a 256-bit wide path. However, the GTX 1070 is technically designed to be a little less powerful than the GTX 1080; a major reason why it is cheaper.ln terms of performance, the GTX 1070 VR ready graphics card runs at a single-precision floating point of 6.45 TFLOP/s, which is two-third of the GTX 1080’s potential.
IMPRESSIVE FEATURES OF THE GTX 1070 CARD POWER DRAW
The GTX 1070 graphics card has a TDP of 150W, which is 30W lesser in power consumption than the GTX 1080, and its idle power draw is between 5 and 10 Watts.lf you are planning on a memory, CPU, or GTX 1070 overclock, you should consider getting a power supply that has enough power reserve in your set up. It is best to choose a PSU whose wattage is twice the load voltage as PSUs are most efficient when the workload is around 50%. A 600Watt power supply is okay for your setup, but for a 2-way SLI, a PSU of 900Watt is recommended.
OVERCLOCKING
There are several tricks gamers use to boost the overall performance of their graphics card, and one of such is raising the frequency of the card and GPU, but this can be a bit technical. If you know how to manipulate the linear V/F curve, a manual GTX 1070 overclock should give you up to 2.1GHz clock speed or beyond. However, it is worth noting that a GTX 1070 overclock does not guarantee a fixed frequency due to the boost clock’s dynamic nature.Basically, the GeForce VR ready card has a base clock of 1506MHz and without a manual GTX 1070 overclock, you can have a boost clock of up to 1683MHz. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 comes with a Pascal GPU and with the auto-boost feature, this graphics card is able to adjust its clock speed according to the temperature headroom and the available power.
TEMPERATURE
NVIDIA’s temperature target for the GTX 1070 is around 80 degrees Celsius after which the fan is started-up to cool it down. Since most games will only raise the temperature to 75 degrees, the 80 degrees target makes a perfect balance between power consumption and performance relative to temperature.
THE GEFORCE GTX 1070 PERFORMANCE WITH FEW GAMES
The GTX 1070 VR ready graphics card may not be able to totally knock out the GTX 980 from its kingship in terms of performance as the two are seen to trade blows in some game test with no absolute winner. However, if you are considering a top performance budget graphics card a little below the pricy GTX 1080, the GTX 1070 can fit in as a good option.There are very few games that seriously challenged the GTX1070 which includes Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine and Nvidia’s VR Funhouse. However, these games are unlikely to make gamers consider an upgrade just to play them as they are only fun in a short burst. A way around these games just for a better presentation, however, is to drop down to “low” on your GTX 1070.
NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 WITH OCULUS RIFT AND HTC VIVE
NVIDIA is keen at tempting Oculus Rift and HTC Vive owners with the heavily-featured GTX 1070, a high-end graphics card that is just too good for true gamers to ignore, talking from a VR standpoint.The Pascal powered GTX 1070 is specially designed to place gamers on the sweet-spot of an immersive VR experience. The GTX 1070 VR ready graphics card is compatible with PCI-express 3.0, and with its support for simultaneous multi-projection, the best of a VR immersion is guaranteed on your Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets.lf you really want to get immersive in your VR experience and enjoy 360-degree games or videos without hiccups, the GeForce GTX 1070 will make a perfect upgrade from your limb GPUs and monitors.
NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 AMAZON DEALS
Conclusion
For as many VR gamers and regular PC users that want the GTX 1080 but are restricted due to budget, the GTX 1070 is the second best option.lf you also need an upgrade from the Maxwell-based GTX 980 to a faster Pascal architecture GPU, the GeForce GTX 1070 VR ready card is worth considering too.
