Gtx 1070 Armor 8g Oc Review
Recently we looked at the GTX 1080 from GIGABYTE. Information technology's a truly stellar card, but is also rather costly, every bit is e'er the instance with high-end GPUs. This time, we're working with a cheaper culling in the class of the MSI GTX 1070 ARMOR 8G OC edition. At just under R10,000, value isn't the discussion that comes to mind when you lot consider that you tin buy a gaming-capable notebook for that amount of coin. You lot should consider, however, that the GTX 1070 (and in detail this model) is faster than the outgoing GTX 980 Ti (in reference course). Information technology consumes far less power, runs cooler and is significantly ameliorate suited to DirectX 12 and future titles than the Maxwell-based GPU. The GTX 10XX serial volition go along to gain performance while the Maxwell GPUs march steadily to their twilight.
Equally we've seen before, the GTX 1070 is a cutting-down GTX 1080 using the same GP104 GPU (GP104-200 to exist verbal). It's "nerfed" in several ways via the complete disabling of one GPC out of the total four within the GP104 ASIC. Not only that, but unlike its more strong stablemate, it features traditional GDDR5 memory instead of the more exotic GDDR5X. This translates to lower performance against the GTX 1080 of form, simply better performance than the GTX 980 and the GTX 980 Ti can deliver in games and DX12 benchmarks. With 1,920 cores (15SMs) and 256GB/south of raw memory bandwidth, it's remarkable that it'due south able to keep pace with the GTX 980 Ti in so many titles. And when it's overclocked, as is the instance with this model, it consistently delivers better functioning.
We previously covered several key technologies of the GeForce Pascal GPU, so there'southward no need to reiterate on any of them. What's important here is that we have an offering from MSI that drastically outpaces its Founders Edition guise, delivering performance that'south well and truly above what was expected. The MSI ARMOR features a base clock of 1,556MHz and a boost clock of at least one,746MHz. What y'all'll find is that the card usually boosts much higher than this, and our particular sample had a boost clock of 1,949MHz more than often than not. It's pretty much at the limit of what the Pascal GPUs are capable of achieving via air cooling. With such a high clock speed, there isn't that much to proceeds from overclocking hither. In fact, the most I could excerpt was another 126MHz. Information technology's nothing to exist aback of, but when you consider the super-high clocks of the Pascal GPUs, it isn't much at all and the low performance gains prove this.
That shouldn't discourage you from buying what is an otherwise incredible menu, 1 which has the well-nigh impressive retentivity overclocking capabilities we've always recorded. It'due south not unusual for MSI to take the highest retention overclocks of the GPUs we test, only this model is well and truly across the norm, managing a rock-solid ii,400MHz (SDR) or an effective 9.6GHz, upward from the reference 8GHz.
When you combine this high memory frequency and 2,075MHz GPU clock, the ARMOR OC manages to outpace fifty-fifty the fastest GTX 980 Ti always made, which still retails for over R13,000 if you lot can discover information technology at all. The simply fourth dimension it couldn't maintain this pb was in a unmarried game at 4K, only then again this isn't a GPU designed for that resolution. In fact, other than for specific games, at that place generally aren't whatever 4K-capable GPUs on the market (disallowment the TITAN Ten Pascal).
Where this GPU is nearly comfortable is at 2560×1440 or 3440×1400 for those lucky enough to own an ultra-wide display. The ARMOR card will handle all nowadays titles at maximum detail without much of a fuss. This is true even if you don't overclock the menu every bit at that place's more than plenty power within this GPU.
What makes this all possible is the brilliance of the GP104 silicon in terms of power per watt and of form per mm. It simply outshines the current offerings from AMD by some margin. For the sake of comparison, consider that this card under a total gaming load consumes virtually as much ability equally the RX480 in a similar environment, while offer significantly more performance.
So what does MSI bring to this GPU other than a improve toll than the Founders Edition menu? Well, information technology offers several features which are of the utmost importance when buying a GPU also operation. MSI has the mandatory mill overclock, just what makes this feasible is the understated ARMOR 2X thermal design. It's the same heatsink fan complex you're familiar with, but the difference is that it makes use of dispersion fan blades, which reduce racket drastically while offering high airflow rates. Just for comparing'south sake, this heatsink complex at 100% fan speed is quieter than all other cards with their fan speed set up at 55%. It's practically inaudible while doing an incredible chore at keeping the temperature in check.
The MSI PCB blueprint is too worthy of praise, if simply for the unproblematic component cooling design. The main heatsink fan circuitous is simply responsible for cooling the GPU core. The other components, including the PWM and DRAM fries, are cooled past a separate plate which makes it perfect for those who would use a standalone GPU block or other aftermarket heatsinks. Of form, this also works in favour of the farthermost users, who may use this card for competitive overclocking with dry ice or liquid nitrogen. This pattern negates the need for the small heatsinks that would unremarkably be required on the PWM.
Overall, this is a solid graphics card that isn't over the top but serves its function, and allows the GTX 1070 GPU to achieve its functioning potential without hindrance. The only issue with the ARMOR carte is that it performs so well, it quite literally makes it difficult to justify the cost of the GAMING Ten models which, to their credit, are electronically superior. That said, their superiority doesn't necessarily let high clock speeds or better performance at all. MSI may have inadvertently made a graphics card that'due south turned out better than they'd hoped.
Yes, it has no back plate, no LED lighting and doesn't "experience" as high-end every bit the GAMING Ten/Z variants. But in the areas where it matters most information technology more than delivers and at the going price, it'due south hard to find mistake with it. The ARMOR OC is undoubtedly deserving of both our Value and Hardware awards.
Plus:
- Hardly audible, just still cools finer
- Amazing retention overclocking headroom
- DisplayPort 1.iii/1.iv and HDMI two.0a outputs
Minus:
- Inexpensive plastics on the heatsinks/fan complex
- Limited core overclocking headroom due to Heave three.0
10The MSI GTX 1070 ARMOR 8G OC is probably the all-time value-for-money GTX 1070 coin tin buy. It boasts fantastic operation and ample retention overclocking headroom. It's also whisper repose while nevertheless remaining incredibly cool.
Source: https://www.nag.co.za/2016/08/05/hardware-review-msi-geforce-gtx-1070-armor-8g-oc/
0 Response to "Gtx 1070 Armor 8g Oc Review"
Post a Comment