NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition Preview @ [H]

"this is a "Preview" article from us today. It does not contain everything we would wish to compare to in a full review based on price. Why? Well, we literally had 4 testing days with this video card before the embargo lifted today. NVIDIA claims there was "an issue with an errant forklift" we kid you not, ouch."

 
Looking forward to a more in depth OCing review. I've never used EVGA's offering for OCing, but it looks like the power level was just increased to 112%, allowing you to move the core clock up? If I am reading that right, no changes in voltage? Any difference in temps between the OC and no-OC? Maybe I missed that part of the article.

Essentially what I did in MSI Afterburner with my GTX 970 (followed your review for the MSI 4G Gaming for that). If so, essentially very easy to get a good 10-13% in performance. Wondering how different AIB versions will do when factoring memory OCing to. Thanks to the review [H].
 
Looks like 2 of these with the buddy boy cooler in SLI will be the ultimate price/perf sweet spot. My GTX 660 SLI still holding up for 1080p. Peeps crying about SLI issues and games not supporting it must drink some poison Kool-Aid because I think I've seen 2 games in 3+ years that didn't work and they were broken anyways.

Nice Review As Always!
 
Review OK, Card decent, price is nVidia specific.
But i have to say that "H" should make corrections to the Title of the review and it should look like the FuryX's:
"GTX 1070 PAPER LAUNCH" :), just to be fair and square :)
 
Not WOW performance.. but power draw and price..
This IS 10000X better than the "meh" 1080...
the 1080 wasn't impressive.. I didn't wait 3 years for more overpriced crap.
1070 is priced right with the right performance.
 
I know you guys said the 1070 and the 970 aren't comparable because of price, but I think it's fair to say that for many 970 owners, the 1070 is the next option. I'm curious about 1070 vs970 deltas because of the upgrade value, not relative performance to other current gen cards.

That said this thing is a beast. And an incredible value out of the gate.
I agree!

the direct 970 vs 1070 was the only thing missing. if they are claiming 70% id like to see that comparison. I looked back at 970 witcher 3 numbers and there will be a massive gap but id like to see the numbers.
 
Pretty awesome. So do we have CONFIRMATION from Nvidia this is a full 8GB/256-bit /64 ROP graphics card this time around? Should dominate the graphics world if so!
 
Pretty awesome. So do we have CONFIRMATION from Nvidia this is a full 8GB/256-bit /64 ROP graphics card this time around? Should dominate the graphics world if so!

"The memory subsystem of the GeForce GTX 1070 is extremely robust. The GeForce GTX 1070 features
a fully enabled 256bit
memory interface, and ships with 8 Gbps GDDR5 memory — this is the highest
memory speed of any GDDR5 GPU in the world, providing up to 256 GB/sec of peak memory
bandwidth. In order to deliver the best performance at the highest screen resolutions, we’ve outfitted
the GeForce GTX 1070 with 8GB of GDDR5 memory.

It does say "fully enabled"

It's the same on the 1080, same memory subsystem minus GDDR5X memory chips.
 
The PCper and HWC reviews mention that Nvidia is disabling a full GPC and not individual SMs (possibly across multiple GPCs). I'm wondering if you can also confirm this that all GTX 1070s will be configured this way?

I'm also wondering would that is just based on the block diagram supplied or actually confirmed/specifically stated by Nvidia? As the former may be just for illustrative purposes.
 
It does say "fully enabled"

It's the same on the 1080, same memory subsystem minus GDDR5X memory chips.

Yeah, the GGDDR5X is barely necessary to feed the 1080 at stock, so GDDR5 is plenty for the 1070 even overclocked.

The GDDR5X is mostly only there to give overclocking headroom for the 1080. Much like the HD 4870 which BARELY needed the GDDR5, because the memory subsystem was so impressively revamped on RV770.

Of course it also left room for the 4890 refresh :D
 
Last edited:
I'm waiting to see on 10th June, what the AIB cards will be capable of. If they show a lot of improvement over FE, I'm giving my 980 ti to my friend and getting AIO cooled 1070. Looks like it is a sweet card for 1440p
 
Nice card and performance seems to be good. Still undecided though if I should pick it for my 1440p monitor or pay extra for 1080 for "future-proofing" in upcoming games. 20-25% seems to be quite significant, though it's paying 58% more of 1070 price for that increase.
 
AMD has to compete with this card. If they cant it will be a real shame. Either way this card is a monster for the price. Seriously reconsidering my 1080 purchase plans at this point. Waiting on AIB 1070.
 
The PCper and HWC reviews mention that Nvidia is disabling a full GPC and not individual SMs (possibly across multiple GPCs). I'm wondering if you can also confirm this that all GTX 1070s will be configured this way?
If they are configured differently, it looks like we will have a performance lottery on our hands. Having the disabled SMs spread out over all four GPCs will likely be significantly faster in some geometry-heavy game workloads (depending on what you consider significant).

I hope we can get some clarification on this.
 
i'm most impressed by the ~250W total system power draw. well, here's me waiting for the EKWB full cover blocks so i can pick one up :D
 
i'm most impressed by the ~250W total system power draw. well, here's me waiting for the EKWB full cover blocks so i can pick one up :D
It will work great in my sfx with its limited power. I don't care when it's atx but i care allot when it's sfx
 
Another vote for a 1070 vs 970 (and 390...non X) comparo at 1080 and 1440 resolutions.
 
Amazing card for sure, definitely the one I'll recommend for people who need a new GPU right now (and don't have a 980ti/Titan X). Not really relevant for me when sitting on a 980ti though, of course. But the TDP alone makes it attractive (since I do care about noise and heat a great deal).
 
I can't believe people read this preview and then come in here and make excuses for the TITAN X and 980 Ti like "well, it has more OC headroom" - who cares? Can't you just admit the 1070 just made the TITAN X and 980 Ti used market drop about another $100 or so in price? The performance for the money for 1070 (even at $400 or $450) absolutely kills what the TITAN X and 980 Ti brought to the table. This is the huge news here and it is great for everyone (well, except for my pending sale of my TITAN X cards, heh).

OC headroom will come in the form of beefed up 1070s in the future. Perhaps not 980 Ti and TITAN X levels but those are top, top end cards. No 980 Ti or TITAN X owner is going to go out and buy a 1070. They are going to buy a 1080 or wait for the Ti or new TITAN.
 
I can't believe people read this preview and then come in here and make excuses for the TITAN X and 980 Ti like "well, it has more OC headroom" - who cares? Can't you just admit the 1070 just made the TITAN X and 980 Ti used market drop about another $100 or so in price? The performance for the money for 1070 (even at $400 or $450) absolutely kills what the TITAN X and 980 Ti brought to the table. This is the huge news here and it is great for everyone (well, except for my pending sale of my TITAN X cards, heh).

OC headroom will come in the form of beefed up 1070s in the future. Perhaps not 980 Ti and TITAN X levels but those are top, top end cards. No 980 Ti or TITAN X owner is going to go out and buy a 1070. They are going to buy a 1080 or wait for the Ti or new TITAN.

980ti owner will definitely skip 1080, at least majority of them. 1070 really looks tasty. It's like an optimized 980ti for significantly reduced price and more memory. Aftermarket version should certainly provide the factory OC with another 10-15% performance increase. It looks like 1440p 60+ experience will become affordable for masses. All in all, one part of me wants best performance available and grab 1080, the other says to get 1070 and stick to it till 1080ti will be released or just go for anothr x70 card when volta arrives in a few years. 1070 -> 1080ti might be a better upgrade pathway for those concerned about price/performance and undecided about 1080, while in a nedd for a new card (like me :D)
 
Good review. I'm quite impressed!
I wonder what 980Ti prices are going to fall to. I'll be looking to add another to my setup :)
 
This looks to be a huge upgrade from my 780. My son's 560ti took a dump a few weeks ago and he couldn't wait a few days to order a new card so I picked up an EVGA 960 at Best Buy so I will use the step up to the 1070. I game at 1440 and he is on 1080, so guess who gets the 1070?
 
Excellent article. I'm really impressed with the low power draw. I wonder if the 1060 will be able to be passively cooled?
 
Looks like this solidly replaces the 970 as the card to recommend to people who want a powerful gaming card at a reasonable price.
 

Funny that he said don't bother buying it for 1080p gaming, get something less powerful \ expensive. Does that mean wait for a 1060? I dont think so! Maybe i am going to be at 1080p for a long time, but I'll have a card that can run with all the eye candy maxed out.
 
Great review overall, now I need to decide if 1080 is worth the extra 250.

I'm in the same boat as you. I doubt I will ever go beyond 1440p in the next 5 years, unless high quality/highly recommended 4k monitors hit the sub-400 dollar mark. I currently game at 1080p. Trying to balance future proofing and a price I'm willing to pay for performance is a hard call to make. I want to step up to 1440p, this much i know. But i also don't want to drop 600 dollars on a 1080 and find out the Ti refresh makes it look like a paperweight with HDMI inputs.
 
Last edited:
Funny that he said don't bother buying it for 1080p gaming, get something less powerful \ expensive. Does that mean wait for a 1060? I dont think so! Maybe i am going to be at 1080p for a long time, but I'll have a card that can run with all the eye candy maxed out.
that's how id look at it too! so what if its a little over powered for 1080p?! now everything can be maxed and not worry about low min fps.
 
As an AMD self processed fan i am pleasantly surprised by the 1070.

The Perf/Price and Perf/Watt actually seem really nice.

EDIT: What i don't like of Nvidia is JHH and the anti consumer tactics, but the product is looking actually really darned impressive this time around.
 
HardOCP is my default tech web site. Appreciate the reviews, etc.

But, do the majority of users here have 1440p displays? I always have to go elsewhere to get the 1080p scores just so I have a better figure of what I can expect with any given video card performance.

Wonder if there is a way HardOCP can see the resolutions people are using while browsing just to get the majority of what's being used.

I've had a few 4k displays but sold them for profit after clients saw them. I've not gone back to 4k until video cards have the power to make 4k gaming silky smooth.

I'll be on 1080p for awhile I fear.
 
As an AMD self processed fan i am pleasantly surprised by the 1070.
The Perf/Price and Perf/Watt actually seem really nice.
EDIT: What i don't like of Nvidia is JHH and the anti consumer tactics, but the product is looking actually really darned impressive this time around.

It does look as if Nvidia got the jump here with the AMD camp still waiting on getting Polaris out of the door (?) for one month and Nvidia not able to sell volume it prolly means that people willing to upgrade will not wait ...
 
Back
Top