There were a lot of rumours and mystery surrounding the 1070 Ti before it was released the most controversial of which was if the 1070 Ti features a locked clock. As it turned out the 1070Ti was very overclockable but Nvidia’s partners were asked not to have the 1070 Ti overclocked out of the box. As a solution to this, partners like MSI and EVGA promised overclocking profiles in their software that would automatically test and apply the best overclock for your card. In this review we put that notion to the test to see just how easy it is and how much performance there is to gain.
Technical Specifications
- MSRP: $499.99
- 2432 Pixel Pipelines
- 1607+ Mhz Base Clock
- 1683+ Mhz Boost Clock
- 244.3GT/s Texture Fill Rate
- 8192 MB, 256 bit GDDR5 @ 8008Mhz for 256.3 GB/S Memory Bandwidth
- EVGA iCX Cooling Technology
- RGB LED’s
- 3x Display Ports, 1x HDMI, 1x DVI-D
- Max Monitors: 4
- 240Hz Max Refresh Rate
- Max Digital Resolution: 7680x4320
- Dimensions:5.064”x10.5”, Dual Slot
)
Taking a look at the specifications you’ll find that they are literally the same (minus RGB and iCX) across any 1070 Ti you may run across. Having already reviewed the Founder’s Edition here, I thought I would struggle to write another review for an identical card, but after booting up EVGA’s Precision XOC software and overclocking in one click my doubts went out the window.
Overclocking
I’m not going to get into a guide on how to manually go about overclocking a GPU, increasing voltages, etc. Most people don’t bother overclocking their cards and just use them out of the box. But I will be looking at the solution EVGA has come up with to use software to automatically overclock your card so it’s not the same as a Founder’s Edition out of the box.
EVGA starts with a step ahead of the rest with their patented iCX cooling technology. iCX, as EVGA describes it, is not just a cooler but a combination of new PCB, thermal modules, LED, Precision XOC and asynchronous fan control. Asynchronous fan control means that one fan’s rotation speed is controlled by the GPU temperature while the other is controlled by the memory and power temperatures. It also includes optimized fin designs and purposefully-directed airflow chambers that allow incredibly efficient and effective cooling of the video card - something extremely important when reaching a stable, maximal overclock on your card.
)
With all the technical details out of the way, it’s time to look at how the basic consumer can easily overlock using EVGA’s Precision XOC software. Opening the software initially it will detect that you have an EVGA 1070 Ti card installed and ask you if you want to find it’s overclock. Simply click yes and software will ask if you want to do a quick run through using known good overclock profiles, or a full analysis of your card to find and apply its maximum overclocking potential. I personally went for the big one and wanted to see how much a software-found overclock would outperform the Founder’s Edition out of the box. The testing took about 30 minutes and while my system would appear to freeze multiple times as the software crashed the GPU finding stable voltages and clock offsets, I left it alone and let it do it’s work. With each step it would use its integrated OC Scanner to check for artifacts to ensure overclock stability. At the end of the program it looked like I was going to be rocking a +175Mhz offset, and impressive offset in my opinion (though I could probably push better manually) and had me running at a boost clock over 2000 Mhz most of the time.
With the overclock done it was time to start testing our favorite games so they could be compared to our results from the Founder’s Edition review. I resolved this time to keep an eye on temperatures as in my previous review I was so excited to be testing another graphics card that I forgot (sorry Chris!). Before I show the charts of our results I want to point out, again, that Destiny 2 does not allow our frame rate capturing software to work so the given value is simply an observation using it’s in game FPS counter. Additionally, Rise of the Tomb Raider again started with artificially low frame rates that I left in for transparency but should be ignored as they don’t appear to occur at any time during normal gameplay. So, without further ado, the charts!
)
)
If you’re not one to chew through all this data I’m throwing at you I’ll sum it up for you: Yes, the EVGA 1070 Ti FTW2 with easy one click overclocking definitely out performs the Founder’s Edition. This isn’t much of a surprise because obviously an overclocked card is going to do better than an identical non-overclocked version. What makes the EVGA special is how easily it was to overclock. Usually, as some of us many know, it typically involves manually increasing clocks by 10-15Mhz at a time, then stressing the card to check for stability. When it becomes unstable you have to start increasing voltages to get everything working again. Rinse and repeat over and over again until you reach a point where the volts can’t stabilize the clock or your temperatures are in the danger zone. A proper overclock can take all day to lock down and that’s just not something a lot of people have the time or patience to do. So the EVGA gave us a impressive clock offset with minimal work on our part and, even more surprisingly, did a wonderful job of keeping our temperatures low - take a look.
)
If you’ve ever paid attention to GPU temps in the middle of gaming session you know that a lot of the time you’re looking at 80+ celsius in most modern games. It looks like the iCX cooling system we discussed early has kept it’s promise on giving us very respectable temperatures on our overclocked card. Destiny 2, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Black Desert Online gave us the highest temperatures while Guild Wars 2, FFXIV, and Tomb Raider (2013) gave us our lowest. All in all these are impressive temperatures for air cooling on any card, let alone an overclocked one.
)
Final Thoughts
Overall the EVGA 1070 Ti FTW2 is an impressive addition to EVGA’s lineup for Nvidia based graphics cards. The asynchronous fans are a great addition to cooling and the easy overclocking firmly places it over a Founder’s Edition out of the box. Figuring out if it’s worth the purchase is another write up all together, but for the average user looking for something in the Vega 56 price range this is hands down a no brainer. Better cooling, easy overclocking, and some RGB flair to personalize things and EVGA’s famously good customer support is definitely something I would be willing to pay the $50 premium for over the Founder’s Edition price tag.
Pros
- iCX cooling for lower temperatures
- Easy Overclocking
- RGB is a nice added touch
Cons
- Precision XOC software can feel buggy at times
- Price tag put the card in the same playing field as GTX 1080
The product discussed in this article was provided by the manufacturer for the purposes of review.
