ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 Ti STRIX Gaming review - Introduction

ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 Ti STRIX Gaming
ASUS is back with a H00t ...

We review the ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 Ti STRIX Gaming edition. With that familiar triple fan look, we review and test the Republic Of Gamers card from ASUS which comes all custom cooled and a revamped custom PCB design.

A multitude of Pascal based processors has been released, among them the GeForce GTX 1060, 1070, 1080 and 1080 Ti. All models honestly are equally impressive within their product positioning and segment. With QHD gaming (a screen resolution of 2560x1440 pixels) I've always felt the GeForce GTX 1070 always has been the more attractive product due to its price level, while the 1080 cards are really what everybody wants (but perhaps cannot or will not afford). The good news though is that Nvidia has designed a product series that will fit smack down in the middle of these two, at what we hope will turn out to be an attractive enough price. Nvidia has enabled this new 1070 Ti GPU with 2,432 Shader processor cores (also referred to as Cuda and Stream processor cores). That number quite honestly means it's very close to the GeForce GTX 1080. However, Nvidia has "limited" the product series two ways. First off, the 1070 Ti will use "regular" GDDR5 memory and not the all newer and snazzy GDDR5X type of graphics memory. Secondly, to prevent the 1070 Ti series to cannibalize the 1080 products, the cards all get a fixed clock frequency, and that means an equal clock frequency for all board partners. Now that doesn't mean you cannot tweak these cards yourself, contrary they tweak really well into the familiar 2 GHz domain on the dynamic boost clock to bring in that bit of extra gaming value. However, AIB partner cards, no matter what model you purchase, will get the same clock frequencies at a 1,607 MHz base clock with a 1,683 MHz dynamic boost clock.

A fixed base-clock doesn't mean it's a little beast though, contrary, as for Nvidia to enforce this measure means there's plenty of pixel horsepower under the hood. In fact, so much they had to temper it. However it remains to be a product series sitting in an already saturated product series from Nvidia, and that will pose some issues as little is new for its performance bracket and features. So how different is the GeForce 1070 Ti compared to it's bigger brother the GeForce GTX 1080? Well, the GTX 1080 GPU (GP104-400) has 20 Shader clusters. The GTX 1070 Ti (GP104-300) has 19 Shader clusters enabled, that's a total of 2,432 Shader processors and only 128 shader processors lower than that of the GeForce GTX 1080. The clock speeds of the GTX 1070 Ti are higher than the GTX 1070 but fairly similar to the GeForce GTX 1080 at 1,607 MHz and a 1,683 MHz GPU Boost with 8.00 GHz (GDDR5 data-rate effective) memory clock. The TDP is 180W, also similar to the GTX 1080 and all these facts combined means we have a product in the 8 TFLOPS perf range here, and that is substantial.

The STRIX series has a triple-slot design with a triple-fan cooling solution. Embedded as well as a funky LED lighting system, everything about this product states 'premium' really. Up-to 60 Degrees C the card will even stay in passive mode, e.g. the fans will not spin. The GTX 1070 Ti STRIX comes with just one 8-pin power connector. At the backside, you'll spot a nice matte black solid backplate with RIG themed logo. The ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 Ti STRIX 8G is capable of clock frequencies of 1,607 MHz base clock with a 1,683 MHz dynamic boost clock with 8,192 MB GDDR5 / 8000 MHz effective data-rate on the memory. By using their proprietary tweak software you can, however, have a default OC, but that requires the software to be active at all times. We'll test the default way, the way the card is clocked straight out of the box. We have enough to talk about and to show, let's dive into the review, shall we?