MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Aero ITX OC Review

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Conclusion

Conclusion

When we reviewed the GeForce GTX 1060 Aero ITX from MSI, I was already impressed. The thing is, this 1070 is even more so impressive. Here we have a high-end card that is just 17 cm long. Normally you'd expect to run into heat issues, but no... the cooler on this card differs from the 1060 model and is much better. It has three thick heatpipes running through the GPU block. Then everything that can get warm is cushioned with thermal padding, including the entire VRM area. So from ground up the 1070 Aero ITX OC has been thought through incredibly well. And that shows, under load this card hovers in the 66 Degrees C area yet remains to be very silent. So if you are in the market for a compact build and want something sweet and powerful inside that chassis, hey... look no further as the GeForce GTX 1070 Aero ITX OC from MSI really is performing amazing. 



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Aesthetics

For something this compact MSI did it right and offers a nice dark themed product. Surely it does not have the grandeur that the TwinFrozr series offers, but hey, this is a 17 cm Mini-ITX product. There's only so much you can do, right? I mean, still this is not a bad looking card at all.

Cooling & Noise Levels

The reference design (founder edition) of the GeForce GTX 1070 is set at an offset threshold of just over 80 degrees C. Once the GPU gets warmer the card will clock down / lower its voltage etc. to try and keep the card cooler, that's throttling and it's part of the design. This GeForce GTX 1070 Aero ITX from MSI doesn't have that problem as the temps remain below 70 Degrees C under full load. That means a maximum boost frequency is at your disposal at all times. MSI was able to throw in a cooler that manages roughly 300 Watts of cooling performance. It is a good one alright, so good that up-to a degree or 60 on the GPU, this card remains passive and thus inaudible. Once the fan kicks in, you can expect to hover at the ~66 Degrees C marker, let's call it just under 70 Degrees C. Please do note that you always need proper ventilation inside your chassis to achieve that number. Expect sound pressure values in the 39 dBA range at max under load, under warm circumstances this is silent. Once overclocked it'll be slightly louder, but even then at 40 dBA there's just little to hear and notice. We heard no coil noise either.

Power Consumption

GP104-A1 Pascal GPUs are rated as having a 160 Watt TDP under full stress, our measurements show it to be a pretty spot on at 163 Watts, that still remains to be a relatively low value. Here again keep in mind we measure peak power consumption, the average power consumption is a good notch lower depending on GPU utilization. Also, if you plan to overclock the CPU/memory and/or GPU with added voltage, please do purchase a power supply with enough reserve. 

Gaming Performance

If you plan to upgrade my biggest advice to you is this, you'll need to look at your monitor first and foremost. A GeForce GTX 1070 is perfect for Wide Quad HD Gaming at 2560x1440. It has plenty power and has the graphics memory to deal with games for time to come, even with the best quality settings and some niche AA levels. Price performance wise one should also take SLI into deliberation. We'll test it at one point but two GeForce GTX 1070 cards setup in SLI might be a true sweet-spot for Ultra HD gamers or the ones that like to go a little dirteeh with DSR and of course the latest gaming titles. Performance wise, really there's not one game that won't run seriously good at the very best image quality settings at 2560x1440. And sure, the cool factor remains you get the advantages of an 8 GB framebuffer. As such we feel the card is rather future proof. We mentioned SLI already, but starting with Pascal the primary focus for Nvidia in terms of multi-GPU setups is that they will support 2-way SLI, but really that's it and all. For those of you that want to run 3 and 4-way configuration, it's going to be difficult but remains possible as the game needs to support and you will need to obtain a driver key from the Nvidia website. Do not expect Nvidia to enhance drivers for it, they'll just open up the floodgate and have you deal with the rest. Some of you might be disappointed about this news. Me personally, I am fine with the choice to focus on proper 2-way SLI opposed to all the arbitrary configurations that less then 0.01% of the end-users uses.

Overclocking

With a mini-ITX card you would not expect any overclocking, but the card has reserve left thanks to the cooling solution. Due to the many limiters and hardware protections Nvidia has built in all and any cards will hover roughly against that 2.0 GHz on the Boost marker. Now, the one factor that can actually positively influence the boost speed a little is temperature as the GPU will then will throttle less. We reached roughly 2037~2050 MHz, not the best result but results do vary per batch and sometimes even product. On 3DMark Firestrike with this card tweaked for example it may hover at ~2037 MHz, while in Rise of the Tom Raider (2016) you will be close towards 2.06 GHz. The reality is that Nvidia monitors and adapts to hardware specific loads, e.g. an application that is nearly viral like on the GPU will have the effect of the GPU protecting itself by lowering clocks and voltages. The opposite applies here as well, if a game does not try & fry that GPU, it'll clock a bit faster withing the tweaked thresholds at your disposal. Tweaking is fun, but definitely more complicated anno 2017. The memory (Micron) can reach roughly 9.0 Gbps effectively. So if you can find a high enough stable tweak, definitely go or it if you are seeking that last bit of extra performance.


 

Guru3d-recommended 

Last Words

I have a soft-spot for small form factors, hence when you place a GTX 1070 on a 17 cm card, I will already get a smile on my face as you just know your are solid on game performance. But then other factors come into play, noise and heat levels, heck even tweaking. MSI delivers on all fronts, it is small at 17 cm, it is not at all noisy and the card remains below a 70 Degrees C threshold, that;s golden you guys. Since it is running at such temperatures it isn't throttling either, which the reference cards do. This GeForce GTX 1070 is a lovely choice for the ones that game in the 1920x1080 up-to 2560x1440 resolution domain. MSI has done it right with this super tiny ITX edition, it has low noise levels and performs seriously well. Once you tweak it yourself you will reach a ~2.0 GHz boost clock frequency and for the memory you should be reaching anything from 8.5 to 9 Gbps (effective data-rate) quite easily as well. MSI offers a very nice product with the the GTX 1070 Aero ITX OC. MSI took note of my comments from the 1060 review as well, they are cooling the chokes, memory and well entire VRM, as such the thermal reading and thermal imaging look exceptionally good as well. Performance wise these cards are great and yeah, they are downright cute. If you are in for a compact PC build, you might have found your absolute perfect 17 cm solution. The one thing holding people back would be pricing I guess, at roughly € 435 / USD compared to the new 1080 pricing that is steep. But all other factors are spot on and make this card a perfect 10. 

 - H

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