GamingPCElectronics

What are the best GTX 1070 cards?

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Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition vs Asus GeForce GTX 1070 ROG Strix OC vs Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme

 vs MSI GeForce GTX 1070 GAMING Z 8G vs ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 ROG STRIX vs EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 vs Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming vs GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 Windforce OC vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition vs Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini vs MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X vs EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 vs Inno3D GeForce GTX 1070 iChiLL X3 vs MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Sea Hawk X vs Gainward GeForce GTX 1070 Phoenix GLH vs PNY GeForce GTX 1070 8GB vs Gaufrette

Specs

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

16575

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

70

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

29.6

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

32.4

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

44

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

29min; 46avg

FPS 1440p (Doom)

95min, 113avg

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

65min, 106avg

Release Date

Jun 10th, 2016

Memory Clock

2125 MHz

Memory Size

8 GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

256 bit

DirectX version

12.0

Architecture

Pascal

GPU Clock

1670 MHz

TDP

150 W

Power connectors

1x 8-pin

Shading Units

1920

TFlops

6.413

Boost Clock

1873 MHz

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

15623

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

82

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

29.6

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

33.8

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

43

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

28min, 43avg

FPS 1440p (Doom)

91min, 108avg

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

62min, 102avg

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

16475

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

58

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

37.4

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

39.1

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

36

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

39.88avg

FPS 1440p (Doom)

hff

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

76min, 99avg

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

99min, 137avg

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

Jun 10th, 2016

Memory Clock

2002 MHz

Memory Size

8 GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

256 bit

DirectX version

12.0

Architecture

Pascal

GPU Clock

1531 MHz

TDP

150W

Power connectors

1x 8-pin

Shading Units

1920

TFlops

5.783

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

15839

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

75

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

29.6

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

33.4

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

47

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

29min, 45avg

FPS 1440p (Doom)

106avg

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

66min, 108avg

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

16529

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

67

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

33

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

42

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

37

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

39avg

FPS 1440p (Doom)

102avg

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

89avg

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

Jun 28th, 2016

Memory Clock

2002 MHz

Memory Size

8 GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

256 bit

DirectX version

12.0

Architecture

Pascal

GPU Clock

1556 MHz

TDP

150W

Power connectors

1x 8-pin

Shading Units

1920

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

15649

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

71

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

29.6

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

33.4

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

47

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

28min, 44avg

FPS 1440p (Doom)

91min, 109avg

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

62min, 103av

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

Jun 10th, 2016

Memory Clock

2002 MHz

Memory Size

8 GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

256 bit

DirectX version

12.0

Architecture

Pascal

GPU Clock

1594 MHz

TDP

150W

Power connectors

1x 8-pin

Shading Units

1920

TFlops

6.121

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

15870

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

70

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

29.6

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

33

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

46

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

30min, 47avg

FPS 1440p (Doom)

108avg

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

63min, 104avg

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

16155

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

71

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

30

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

34

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

40

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

41.2

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

99.4avg

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

99.7

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

3DMark Score (Firestrike)

-

LOAD Temp (degrees C)

-

IDLE Noise Level (dbA)

-

LOAD Noise Level (dbA)

-

IDLE Temp (degrees C)

-

FPS 4K (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

-

FPS 1440p (Doom)

-

FPS 1080p (Hitman)

-

Release Date

-

Memory Clock

-

Memory Size

-

Memory Type

-

Memory Bus

-

DirectX version

-

Architecture

-

GPU Clock

-

TDP

-

Power connectors

-

Shading Units

-

TFlops

-

Boost Clock

-

FPS 1440p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

FPS 1080p (Shadow of Mordor)

-

Pros + Cons

Pro
 Great performance

Palit GeForce GTX Premium Edition is one of the best GTX 1070 cards performance-wise. It scored a 3DMark Firestrike Score of 16575, which is one of the highest scores as far as GTX 1070 cards go. But this should come as no surprise since the Premium Edition of GameRock has slightly higher clock speeds than what may be found in other GTX 1070 cards (especially the Founders Edition).
Comment

Pro
 Relatively low noise levels for the massive fans it has

The GTX 1070 GameRock's cooler not only handles heat well, but noise production is very low, especially compared to other high-end cards. With a decibel rating of 29.6 in idle, the card remains essentially silent - this is because the fans don't spin up until a temperature of 50° C has been reached. During full load, the fans can barely be heard with a noise production of 32.4 decibels. With these results, the Palit GeForce GTX 1070 GameRock is among the best in terms of sound production. For comparison: the Founders Edition produces 30.4 and 35.3 decibels in idle and under full load, respectively.
Comment

Pro
 Can have a second BIOS for higher speeds

The GameRock Premium Edition has a two-position slider which can be used to activate a second BIOS in case you want to try a custom BIOS for increased speeds.
Comment

Con
 Only available in Europe

Palit graphic cards are only sold in Europe. In the USA, some of these graphics cards are sold by PNY but unfortunately, the GTX 1070 Gamerock Premium Edition is not one of those.
Comment

Con
 Takes up a lot of space

Because of the big fans and large backplate on this card, the Palit Geforce GTX 1070 GameRock Premium Edition takes up two and a half slots. (Or in other words, effectively needs 3 available slots.)
Comment

Con
 The aesthetics are not very pleasing

The blue and white color scheme that the Gamerock Premium Edition has is not that visually pleasing. The retro-looking logo plastered in the back is not that pretty, either.
Comment

Pro
 Great cooling solution

One of the main reasons that the GameRock Premium Edition is able to clock way past the reference card, is the cooler. Measuring at 285mm long, 133mm wide and 46mm high it's simply massive (even bigger than the backplate). It has two 10cm fans which stop at around 55°C. The two fans sit on top of two heatsinks (most GTX 1070 cards have just one) joined by thick heatpipes.
Comment

Pro
 Great energy to performance ratio

The increased performance pushes this card from the standard 150W for GTX 1070's to 170W for this version. However, that is still more energy efficient than EVGA's most powerful GTX1070 (215W), which doesn't produce as much base & memory clock speeds.
Comment

Pro
 Very high clock speed increases

The Premium Edition of the Palit Geforce 1070 GameRock has a 1,671 MHz clock speed with a guaranteed boost speed of 1,873 MHz. That is a clear difference to the 1,506 MHz / 1,683 MHz of the Founders Edition. Palit also increased effective memory speeds from 8k MHz to 8.5k MHz (2x 4,250 MHz) . This manufacturer's main selling point is the performance they get out of NVIDIA cards and in this case as well they pushed the GTX 1070 to the limits of its design.
Comment

Pro
 Good build quality

The GTX 1070 Asus ROG Strix, like its powerful sibling (GTX 1080 ROG Strix) has a full-size metallic backplate which provides extra rigidity. Around the backplate Asus has included Aura RGB lighting with a wide array of different effects available, making the ROG Strix a good choice for building a rig into a windowed chassis. The effects and color can be customized by installing an additional free utility which is also pretty lightweight.
Comment

Pro
 Above-average cooling

The triple-fan cooling system and the optional fans you can add push ROG Strix' cooling performance to above-average levels for a GTX 1070 card. Without any additional fans and under heavy load it will rarely surpass the 61 degree C limit with only the Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme having better cooling.
Comment

Pro
 Additional fans can be attached for even better cooling

There are two four-pin headers at the end of the PCB used to attach additional fans. These headers can be used to improve even more the excellent cooling that the ROG Strix provides.
Comment

Pro
 Has a second HDMI port for added Virtual Reality compatibility

Instead of having three DisplayPorts like most GTX 1070 cards, Asus have opted to exchange one of them in favor of an additional HDMI port. According to them, this change has been implemented to make it possible to attach both a VR device and a display at the same time. This increases VR compatibility since there have been problems with DisplayPort as a conduit for VR headsets.
Comment

Con
 Very expensive

Comment

Con
 The Aura (RGB lights) software can be better

The software that controls the backlights can be better and has some missing features which feel like it would have been pretty easy to bake them in, especially for this price and for the fact that Asus went through the hassle of adding them in the first place. Things like being able to set the temperature for which the lights change or making the lights a certain color when playing a certain game would certainly have been a nice addition.
Comment

Con
 Large

As is the case with many high-end cards, the size of this card means it takes up two backplate slots but covers roughly 3 slots (including the one it's fitted to). This might limit your options for some motherboards, especially configurations smaller than ATX.
Comment

Con
 price

Comment

Pro
 Excellent cooling

The massive size of this GTX 1070 card is justified by the excellent cooling capabilities is offers. On idle the temperature gets as low as 36 degrees C and around 39 degrees C on light load. And this is without the three 90mm fans turning on. On full load it rarely ever surpasses the 65 degree C threshold and it's usually somewhere around 58 degrees C most of the time. With these temperatures, the Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme provides the coolest experience out of all GTX 1070 cards on the market.
Comment

Con
 Odd design

The yellow on the backplate does not suit most builds.
Comment

Pro
 Good build quality

The Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme is wrapped around in Carbon ExoArmor for protection which gives it a robust and "premuim" feeling. As usual with Zotac, the GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme has a great minimalistic design. With 7 different colors to choose from and 4 different lighting effects.
Comment

Pro
 5 year warranty

Comment

Pro
 Nice looks

Despite the yellow on the back this GPU with the carbon look is very nicely designed.
Comment

Con
 Quite large

The Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme is a rather large card. It effectively occupies the space equivalent of a 2.5 slot.
Comment

Con
 May need a support bracket to prevent from sagging

Since the GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme is quite heavy, there's a risk of it sagging while mounted on the motherboard. This is why it may need a support bracket to prevent it from doing so. Unfortunately, Zotac has not included a support bracket so you will need to find it on your own.
Comment

Con
 No true RGB

It only has 7 colors to choose from.
Comment

Pro
 Very fast

You can play virtually anything on it, there won't be any glitches.
Comment

Pro
 Great for superclocking

This graphics card comes with Twin Frozr. This means it is more than capable of superclocking without the temperature going above 60C.
Comment

Pro
 Great cooling

Comment

Pro
 Ideal for 1440p

Comment

Con
 Only comes in red

This is a limitation in colour that clashes with RGB lighting.
Comment

Pro
 Best cooling system of any GTX 1070

The Strix cooler Asus uses performs extremely well. Under light loads, the maximum temperature measured was 37 degrees Celsius. This is actually a bit on the higher side, but the cooler's fans don't turn on until the temperature reaches 60° C. This temperature threshold can be adjusted in the software if you wish. The cooler really shows its worth when looking at results under full load. The GTX 1070 ROG Strix achieves a maximum temperature of only 65 degrees Celsius, a very impressive feat. For comparison: a GTX 1070 Founders Edition heats up to 76 degrees Celsius, and the next coolest GTX 1070 is the Palit Premium edition which measures in at 70 degrees Celsius. Better temperatures not only result in increased lifespan of the graphics card, but it also ensures throttling doesn't occur. Throttling is the process where the graphics card clocks itself down in order to remain cool, effectively sacrificing performance. The GTX 1070 is generally pretty good when it comes to avoiding throttling, but great cooling systems reduce the changes of throttling even more.
Comment

Pro
 Ability to add two extra PWM fans

On the back of the STRIX card, there are two available PWM-connectors. If you attach additional fans to the back of the graphics card, they will regulate speed via PWM in addition to the STRIX cooler itself. This is a unique feature among GTX 1070 cards, which can help cool down the graphics card to prevent overheating or throttling (which could - in theory at least - allow for more overclocking).
Comment

Pro
 Easy to overclock

This GPU is easily overclockable to over 2GHz through Asus software.
Comment

Pro
 Features adjustable RGB lightning

The exterior of the ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 ROG STRIX features some RGB lights and you can adjust the color of these lights via the included software package. This allows you to customize the look of the graphics card, which can be useful if your setup is built with a specific color scheme in mind.
Comment

Pro
 Very quiet operation

When they don't need to, the fans on the Asus GTX 1070 ROG STRIX won't spin at all and are thus completely inaudible: the card remains passive below 60 degrees Celsius. Under full load, a maximum sound production of 39 decibels (A) was measured. A reference GTX 1070 Founders Edition card also performs very well in this aspect however with 40 dBA, which means the difference isn't quite as extensive as with other GPU's.
Comment

Con
 Factory overclock isn't noticeable in practice

Although ASUS has increased the base clock speed of the GPU by 1.66% from 1506 to 1531 MHz, this higher clock speed only results in a negligible performance increases in gaming situations. Other GTX 1070 chips have higher clocks, which allow for better performance.
Comment

Con
 Only 2 DisplayPorts

To be more VR-friendly, Asus removed one of the DisplayPorts in favor of an additional HDMI port (both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive require 2 HDMI ports).
Comment

Pro
 Good build quality

The plastic body is lined with metal accents which add an overall rigidity to the card. The aesthetics are nice as well and the GTX 1070 FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 manages to appear sleek and robust without appearing ostentatious.
Comment

Pro
 Compact size

With a length of 267mm and height of 128mm, the GTX 1070 FTW is one of the most compact 1070 cards available.
Comment

Con
 The cooler could be better

EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 does not do a good job at keeping cool temperatures. It's usually around 47 degrees C when idle, which is 8 degrees higher than what the reference card manages to achieve at low usage and 75 degrees C under load. This admittedly is lower than that of the reference card but still higher than any other custom GTX 1070 card.
Comment

Pro
 Lots of headroom to overclock and tweak

The FTW ACX 3.0 leaves a lot of room for tweaking. You can overclock for up to +147MHz Core and +176MHz Memory without adding any additional voltage.
Comment

Pro
 Best bang for your buck

Priced at $399.99 it's one of the cheapest GTX 1070 cards on the market. Its relative high power (backed by multiple benchmarks, most notably a 3DMark Firestrike score of 16529) coupled with the relative low price make the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming one of the best graphics cards when considering the quality-price ratio.
Comment

Pro
 Can easily fit in any chassis

At roughly 28cm in length, it has a pretty compact body and can fit without any trouble in any decent chassis.
Comment

Con
 Needs proper ventilation inside the chassis to keep relatively cool temperatures

Even though the fans that the GTX 1070 G1 Gaming uses are excellent, the lack of proper ventilation holes in the backplate make it very easy to trap heat inside the card. To compensate for that you need to make sure that there's proper ventilation inside the chassis.
Comment

Con
 Can easily trap heat

The 1070 G1 Gaming has a metal back-plate which covers the back of the card. However, it does not have any ventilation gaps or holes. This can easily create issues with heat being trapped inside the card.
Comment

Pro
 Inexpensive

The Windforce OC version of the GTX 1070 is fairly inexpensive at the available price of $379.99, especially compared to the reference Founders Edition which retails at $450.
Comment

Pro
 Quiet operation with no coil whine

While there isn't any easily accessible data to back it up, many users have been reporting that there is no annoying coil whine, and that the card stays very quiet even when under a full load.
Comment

Con
 Plastic covering feels cheap

The GTX 1070 Windforce OC has some metal components in it, but the casing is plastic which makes it feel fairly cheap.
Comment

Pro
 3 year warranty

Gigabyte offers a 3 year warranty, which means buyers can rest easy if this GTX 1070 ever malfunctions.
Comment

Con
 Factory overclock isn't noticeable in practice

Although GIGABYTE has increased the base clock speed of the GPU by 3% from 1506 to 1556 MHz and a boost clock from 1683 to 1746 MHz (+ 4%), these higher clock speeds only result in a negligible performance increases in gaming situations. Compared to the Founders edition, the GTX 1070 Windforce OC doesn't offer much extra in terms of performance.
Comment

Pro
 RGB lighting allows custom looks for your graphics card

There are RGB lights on this GTX 1070, which helps it look premium and really helps complete your computer build (at least if you have a window on the side of your rig). There are 2 of these LEDs which provide decent accent lighting without being too distracting.
Comment

Pro
 Backplate adds extra

While backplates can trap more heat, they offer a few benefits. They make the card look more complete - like it's actually worth $450. It also helps protect the internal components, and helps keep the graphics card sturdy.
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Pro
 Quiet operation

Measured 75 cm away from a PC, the GTX 1070 has an idle sound production of 34 dBA and 40 dBA under stress. In a silent room, the sound production of the card is definitely audible - but isn't experienced as annoying. As a comparison, 40 dBA is roughly equivalent to the noise a refrigerator produces.
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Con
 Slightly worse performance than other GTX 1070 cards

The Founders Edition is the reference design of the GTX 1070, and as such it is a more 'basic' model for lack of a better word. Other options have better cooling systems which allow for overclocking, which in turn means better performance than what the GTX 1070 Founders Edition can provide.
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Con
 Founders Edition is more expensive

The Founders Edition of the GTX 1070 - which is NVIDIA's reference card and is priced at $450, which is a noticeable difference compared to the $380 of other GTX 1070 graphics cards. The Founders Edition versions have a metal backplate and blower fans for improved cooling in smaller cases, but don't have any performance advantages.
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Pro
 Perfect size for builds with little space

For people who prefer using a small chassis for their builds, the Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini is perfect. At just above 8 inches it's much smaller than other GTX 1070 cards while still maintaining similar performance.
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Pro
 Smaller size compared to most GTX 1070 cards

The MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X has a smaller size than most GTX 1070 cards on the market which usually have a 2.5-3 slot size, while the Gaming X has a 2-slot size. This makes it a good card for smaller builds which don't have as much physical space.
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Con
 For the same price there are other cards with better performance

You can find other cards with a better performance for the same price or even lower. One such card for example is the Palit GeForce 1070 GameRock which scored higher than the Gaming X in the FireStrike benchmark.
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Pro
 Excellent design

The GTX 1070 Gaming X, like its GTX 1080 counterpart is an excellent card as far as looks go. The black and red color scheme can easily fit a lot of builds for those users who are obsessed with their build looking as good as possible. It also has an array of RGB lights in the back which can be controlled by an app supplied by MSI.
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Pro
 Very energy efficient

Under normal load the Gaming X uses just under 150W.
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Pro
 Great noise levels, stays quiet during operation

EVGA has used the ACX 3.0 cooler on a number of their graphics cards and it is widely known for its low noise production. The GTX 1070 SC Gaming is no exception. In idle situations, the fans aren't active and thus the graphics card is silent. The ACX 3.0 cooler user passive cooling (without spinning of the fans) for temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius. When using the card in a more intensive full load situation, maximum sound production measured was 38 decibels (A), which is a great result. The reference cooler of the GTX 1070 is also fairly quiet at 40 dBA - the difference here is less noticeable. There was also no noticeable coil whine (an undesirable high-pitched sound).
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Pro
 Overclocks really well

The EVGA GTX 1070 SC allows for further generous overclocking of the card, even though the card has already been somewhat overclocked in-factory. In this case, an extra increase of 120 MHz was achieved without any major issues, for a total of 1715 MHz compared to the reference 1506 MHz. This resulted in an even higher performance, with 18224 3DMark Firestrike points compared to the non-overclocked SC version with 16680 points, a 9.25% increase.
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Pro
 3 Year Warranty

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Pro
 Slightly higher performance than the Founders Edition

The GTX 1070 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 features a slightly higher clock speed of 1594 MHz, which is a 6% increase compared to the Founders Edition. This results in a slightly better performance, although the difference isn't really noticeable in most situations. In Rise of the Tomb Raider for example, the GTX 1070 SC achieves an average FPS of 111 in 1080p resolution with maximum settings, compared to the FE's 108 frames per second. The results are more impressive in DOOM, where the overclocked EVGA card manages to achieve an average of 156 FPS (1080p), which is a 10% improvement over the Founders Edition's 142 frames per second. Testing Hitman at 1080p shows a subtle difference: 88 FPS for the EVGA GTX 1070 SC while the reference FE card achieves 86 frames per second. When gaming in 1440p or 4K, the difference is slightly higher with 69 vs 65 FPS and 40 vs 37 FPS respectively.
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Pro
 Low operating temperatures prevent throttling

The ACX 3.0 cooler used on the GTX 1070 SC Gaming offers slightly better temperatures compared to the reference cooler used on the Founders Edition. In idle, the GPU heats up to a maximum of 37 degrees Celsius. This is actually an increase of seven degrees compared to the Founders Edition, but the fans of the SC version don't spin up at all under 60 degrees and are thus passive. If preferred, you can adjust this with the included software. Under load, the EVGA SC reaches a maximum of 72 degrees Celsius, which is a minor improvement over the 76 degrees of the reference GTX 1070. Throttling never occurs with the EVGA GTX 1070 SC ACX 3.0. Throttling occurs when temperatures of around 80° C are reached, in which case the graphics card will clock itself down in order to remain cool, effectively sacrificing performance.
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Con
 VRM area is a hotspot on the card

While a backplate will make your graphics card more durable, it can trap heat in some areas. On this EVGA GTX 1070, the backplate traps heat around the VRM area - which can warm up to 96 degrees Celsius when at 100% (as seen here).
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Con
 Expensive

The price tag of the EVGA SC Gaming ACX 3.0 is higher than most other (significantly) overclocked GTX 1070 cards with a custom cooling solution.
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Con
 A little expensive for what it offers

Priced at £419.99, it's a little more expensive than the average GTX 1070 card. For having a slightly higher price than the average you would expect this to have slightly higher benchmark results than the average GTX 1070 card which it does not.
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Pro
 Very quiet

Even with three quite large fans, the Inno3D GeForce GTX 1070 iChiLL X3 is very quiet. Under e certain temperature the fans do not spin and once that threshold has been surpassed, they start spinning but even then the noise is just a barely-audible hum which can only be heard in an extremely quiet room and only if you are focusing hard to hear it.
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Pro
 Dual-BIOS

The Gainward GTX 1070 GLH has a BIOS-switch which lets you switch between two different BIOSes. One of them has regular clock speeds and the other is overclocked. This way, should you need to return to regular clock speeds if something goes wrong with overclocking, you can easily do it by using the BIOS-switch.
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Con
 Weird color scheme

The red, black and gold color scheme is not for everyone. If it had been just red and black it would have been much better and much easier to find a suitable motherboard, case and everything else to fit that color scheme. While not a deal breaker for most people who are only interested in performance, it can be a bit annoying for people who care about how their build looks.
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Con
 The lighting only supports red, green or blue

The logo on the back of the card has lighting which supports red, green or blue. That is, not the full RGB color spectrum, but only those three individual colors.
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