Review

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming Review

NVIDIA, earlier this year unveiled their latest range of graphics cards built on a completely new architecture "Pascal". These new products are based on a TSMC 16 nm process. Rumors are there that the GTX 1070 is made up of the same GP104 GPU as that used in GTX 1080, Nvidia might have stripped down some segments from the core for creating a cut-down version of the GPU. When compared against GTX 1080 which has 2560 shader processors, the GTX 1070 only has 1920 sharder processors in total and more.

We like to thanks GIGABYTE for providing us the GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GTX 1070 8GB graphics card for review. This Gigabyte GTX 1070 has 1920 CUDA cores, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPS with 8GB of GDDR5 clocked at 8Gbps for 256GB/s of memory bandwidth. Gigabytes fitted this beast with the latest variant of WINDFORCE 3X cooler and RGB LED logo. Also Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1070 has a base clock of 1620MHz and a boost clock of 1822MHz Under “OC Mode" and a 1594MHz base clock and 1784MHz Boost Clock in “Game Mode."

Now let's see what this GIGABYTE GTX 1070 has for us.

Features

  • Power by GeForce® GTX 1070
  • Integrated with 8GB GDDR5 256bit memory
  • WINDFORCE 3X with Blade Fan Design
  • Support up to 8K display @60Hz
  • 16.8M Customizable Color RGB Lighting
  • Boost: 1822 MHz/ Base: 1620 MHz in OC Mode
  • Boost: 1784 MHz/ Base: 1594 MHz in Gaming Mode

WINDFORCE 3X cooling system
The WINDFORCE 3X cooling system features 2 pure copper composite heat-pipes, special fin architecture, unique blade fan design, together delivering an effective heat dissipation capacity for higher performance at lower temperatures.

Unique Blade Fan Design
The airflow is spilt by the triangle fan edge, and guided smoothly through the 3D stripe curve on the fan surface, effectively enhancing the air flow by 23% over traditional fans.

3D Active Fan with LED Indicators
The semi-passive fans will remain off when the GPU is under a set loading or temperature for low power gaming. The LED fan indicator on the top of the graphics card provides an instant display of the fan status.

Composite heat-pipes
The composite heat-pipes combines both thermal conductivity and phase transition for efficiently managing the transfer of heat between two solid interfaces which increases 29% of cooling capacity.

Heat Pipe Direct Touch
The pure copper heat pipes are shaped to maximize the direct contact area to the GPU.

16.8M Customizable Color Lighting
With 16.8M customizable color options and numerous lighting effects, you could now choose the right scheme for your gaming rig through XTREME Engine utility.

Stylish Metal Back Plate
The metal back plate offers rigidity and protection to the structure, while adding a sleek, clean look to the product.

One-click Super overclocking
With a simple click on XTREME Engine utility, gamers can easily tune the card to meet their various gaming requirements without any overclocking knowledge, while saving the hassle of manual adjustment.

GPU Gauntletâ„¢ Sorting
Forged with only the top-notch GPU, the Gigabyte G1 GAMING graphics cards guarantee higher overclocking capability in terms of excellent power switching, ensuring the highest performance without compromising system reliability.

Smart Power LED indicators
Be alert when PCI-E voltage is unstable with the smart power LED indicator.

Xtreme Engine
Adjust clock speeds, voltage, fan performance, RGB lighting effect, power target can be monitored and tuned in real-time according to your own preference through this intuitive interface.

Specifications

Package

The GIGABYTE GTX 1070 comes in a black colored box with G1 Gaming Logo highlighted in bright orange on front of the box . Back of box covers details about the product features along with specifications.

Inside the box

Along with the GFX card, box also includes driver installation CD and quick start guide.

Looks

GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GTX 1070 graphics card features a black colour theme with few orange strips over the fan shroud.

Graphics card comes with a full solid back plate.

Top of graphics card have a GIGABYTE logo with full RGB lighting as let user to pick their preferred colour theme. Beside this we also have a FAN STOP indicator LED which actually lights up when fans on the card stops spinning.

On the back I/O plate you get three native DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.0b port, and one Dual-link DVI-I port. 4K/60 Hz gaming is supported via the HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4. The maximum digital resolution is 7680×4320 at 60Hz with dual DisplayPort connectors.

For cooling of this graphics card Gigabyte used their 3D Active fans design with total of three 80mm fans, each facing down blowing over a large heatsink with two large copper heat tubes directly in contact with the main GPU silicon providing a great cooling solution.

On the PCB we have the main GPU chip at the center surrounded by eight SAMSUNG (K4G80325F B-HC25) GDDR5 memory chips, 1GB capacity each running at 8,008 MHz of effective GDDR5 speed at 256-bit bus interface.

At power stage section of the graphics card we have a strong 6+2 power phase design in combination with ultra-durable capacitors and high-quality chokes. Six phases supply is used to power the GPU while the remaining two phases powers the memory. All controlled by a UPI Semiconductor Corp. PWM controller chip (uP9511P).

For all the RGB lighting and FAN controller Gigabyte used a 32-bit ARM microcontroller by Holtek's a HT32F52241

Testing

Test system configuration -

CPUIntel Core i7 6700K
BoardGIGABYTE Z170X Gaming G1 Sponsor : GIGABYTE INDIA
RAM2 X 4GB Corsair DDR4 3000Mhz
SSDKingston 120GB SSD
Cooler / CaseCustom Phase Changer Rig
GFX GIGABYTE GTX 1070
PSUCorsair RM 650x
DisplayAcer S220HQL
OS Windows 10

Bundled Softwares

Overclocking

Benchmarks

Temperatures

Room Temperature: 30C

In idle, the temperature is real good and at full load running 3D Mark Fire Strike temperature was ok and fans were not loud at all.

Power Consumption

Wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.

Pros

  • Easy software interface for selecting different OC Modes
  • Nice Factory Overclocked
  • RGB LED and FAN Stop lighting
  • Nice thermal performance with WINDFORCE 3X
  • Great looks

Cons

  • Need RGB LEDs instead of the Orange strips on the fan cover
  • PCB have all the requisite layout and circuitry to add two more power phase, but Gigabyte left them unpopulated. Two extra phases could help on more stable overclocking.

Conclusion

Our first impression about the GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GTX 1070 8GB graphics card is positive, starting with its triple-fan WINDFORCE 3X cooling design, solid back plate and stunning looks , we personally think the gaming performance of the new GeForce GTX 1070 is on par with GTX 980 Ti.

Gigabyte WINDFORCE 3X cooling solution for this graphics card with large copper heat tubes directly in contact with the main GPU silicon, is a great cooling solution and works perfect in managing the core temperature about 70C at full load . But this design also means that all the heat carried away from the GPU core is dumped into your case adding to the overall heat of your system. So do consider a high air flow case while choosing the GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GTX 1070 8GB graphics card.

At the conclusion GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GTX 1070 8GB graphics card is a fantastic graphics card giving a smooth gaming experience on 1080p resolution at max settings with great factory overclocking and cooling solution, worthy of our PC TeK REVIEWS CHOICE Award.

Manufacturers Info

Site Link

Thanks.

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