Gigabyte gtx 1070 xtreme gaming review (full review)

We continue with our daily analysis and today we present you the fabulous Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming, no less than the second most powerful graphics card based on the Pascal architecture of Nvidia and with the best components from Gigabyte with a custom-made PCB and a huge heatsink for overclocking lovers.

We appreciate the trust in Gigabyte Spain for the transfer of the product for its analysis. Here we go!

Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming technical features

Design and unboxing

Gigabyte makes a presentation to match this fantastic graphics card. The Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming comes to us in a box in the company's usual colors. First we see an image of the card on the cover.

Then in the rear area all the most important technical characteristics and the main novelties of this magnificent graphics card.

Once we open the graphics card we find a classic bundle:

• Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming. Brochures and quick guide. Wristband.

The Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming it uses the Pascal GP104-200 chip slightly cut in features. This core It is manufactured in 16 nm FinFET and has a reduced size of only 314 mm2 that demonstrates the great concentrated power that the Nvidia Pascal architecture is capable of offering. It is a chip with 7.2 billion transistors, which we can deduce that it is an engineering masterpiece, with a total of 1, 920 CUDA cores along with 120 TMUs and 64 ROPs. The kernel works with three possible profiles, which we detail below:

• OC Mode: Boost: 1898 MHz / Base: 1695 MHz Gaming Mode: Boost: 1873 MHz / Base: 1670 MHz

The GPU is accompanied by 8 GB of GDDR5 memory at a maximum frequency in its 8.316 MHz overclocked mode and with a 256-bit interface to offer a maximum bandwidth of 266 GB / s. A few more than enough figures for a graphics card that will be able to handle most of the games on the market at 4K resolution and with very remarkable levels of detail.

Rear view of the graphics card backplate.

The Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming incorporates the new Xtreme Cooling heatsink equipped with three double ball 10 cm fans in its structure. Unlike other models, incorporating 30 cm of cooling allows the air flow to be more direct and less spread to the aluminum grill. This heatsink occupies a total of three expansion slots in our system so we must make sure we can install it before buying it.

Following the latest trend, the heatsink incorporates the “ Fan Stop ” technology, or in other words 0DB, which is responsible for keeping the fans off in idle or under-load situations for completely silent operation.

It has also highlighted its PCB with "Aerospace Coating" technology that is capable of holding liquid in full operation. One pass, especially if you have liquid cooling and a possible leak.

The heatsink also incorporates an RGB lighting system on its front and upper area, which is personalized with 16.8 million colors and various effects (see software section).

Detail of the SLI connectors for the new SLI HB bridge.

For a good power supply it incorporates two power connections, one of them with 8 pins and the other with 6 pins.

Finally we detail the rear connections composed of:

• 1 DVI connection. 3 Displayport connections. 1 HDMI connections.

PCB and internal components

To remove the heatsink we must remove four screws located on the chip and three other screws located in the power supply phases. This is the view of the heatsink, as we see incorporates 5 copper heatpipes, quality thermal pad and a copper surface to cool both the chip and the memories.

The Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming features a custom PCB with 10 + 2 power phases and Ultra Durable components. It also has Xtreme Protection technology that is responsible for offering greater tolerance to dust, insects, at a higher temperature, to a leak of water in our liquid cooling and to corrosion.

Finally we leave you some photos of the PCB in more detail, we hope it is to your liking.

Test bench and performance tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	i7-6700k @ 4200 Mhz..
Base plate:	Asus Maximus VIII Formula.
Memory:	32GB Kingston Fury DDR4 @ 3000 Mhz
Heatsink	Cryorig H7 heatsink
HDD	Samsung 850 EVO SSD.
Graphic card	Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming
Power supply	Corsair AX860i

For benchmarks we will use the following titles:

• 3DMark Fire Strike normal.3DMark Fire Strike version 4K.Heaven 4.0.Doom 4.Overwatch.Tomb Raider.Battlefield 4.

All tests have been passed with the filters to the maximum unless we indicate otherwise. In order to have adequate performance, we have carried out three types of tests: the first is the most common at Full HD 1920 x 1080, the second resolution is making the leap to 2K or 1440P (2560 x 1440P) gamers and the most enthusiastic with 4K (3840 x 2160). The operating system we have used has been Windows 10 Pro 64 bit and the latest drivers available from the Nvidia website.

What are we looking for in the tests?

First, the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS the more fluid the game will go. To differentiate the quality a bit, we leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS, but we will also have the minimum Fps in the tests that were thus possible:

FRAMES BY SECONDS
Frames for Seconds. (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 - 40 FPS	Playable
40 - 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Fairly Good or Excellent

Synthetic benchmarks

As always we have passed the three most important tests in synthetic benchmarks: normal 3DMARK, its 4K version and the Heaven 4 version. The results are far superior to the rest of the GTX 1080 that we have analyzed, since it comes standardized at stable 2 GHz.

Game Testing

We have decided to make the leap to checking various games manually. The reason? Very simple, we want to give a much more realistic vision and cover tests with current games. Since we make an effort, it is consistent with the level of the website and that of our readers.

Gameplay Battelfield 1 4K

Testing in Full HD games

Testing in 2K games

Testing in 4K games

XTREME GAMING ENGINE software

As we already showed you with the Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 Gaming, they have incorporated new software for power management, fan control, lighting system and graphics card overclocking . In the first option it allows us to create different profiles and in them adjust the frequency of our graphics card. With the XTREME GAMING ENGINE we have carried out all our overclocking tests .

We also have an advanced overclocking option, which allows us to choose between three configurations created by the Gigabyte team : OC Mode, Gaming Mode and ECO Mode. In each of them we have different values ​​that make the card slightly more powerful or energetically efficient.

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Another of the most interesting options are the profiles for the speed of the fans to adjust them as best as possible to our needs.

To finish with the software, the lighting system takes on great importance in this graphics card. From this application it will allow us to adjust effects, colors, brightness and even options on the SLI HB bridge. We loved it!!!

Overclock and first impressions

Note: Remember that overclocking or manipulation carries a risk, we and any manufacturer are not responsible for improper use, use the head and always do so at your own risk.

Many of you will be seeing that the kernel has not been overclocked and the reality is that it has, but it has had a bad GPU-Z reading. In any case, we were only able to increase +20 points because when the TDP and Power Limit were raised, the graph reached a stock of up to 2100 MHz.

We have also noticed that in our tests, raising the nucleus hardly always represents a 1 to 3% improvement , while if we upload the memories (as in this case they are Samsung) we can gain up to 10% more power.

Temperature and consumption

The consumption lives up to the expectations set with 75 W at rest and 269 ​​W at full capacity. All this playing with an Intel Core i7-6700k processor and air dissipation. It's great!

Important: The consumption is of the complete equipment.

The temperatures of the Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming are really good, we have obtained 48ºC since the fans are in passive mode until some game is activated and the temperature rises to 50ºC they are not activated. While playing we do not exceed 56 ºC in any case. As the overclocking has been so mild, temperatures barely rise to 58º C.

Final words and conclusion about Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming

The Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming is one of the best graphics cards on the market , as it has everything you could ask for: power, cooling, aesthetically beautiful and with very high clocks as standard.

In our tests we have verified that it is capable of moving any game in 2K to Ultra and in 4K it defends itself as a champion. The results in overclock have been really good, since as we mentioned just by enabling a greater range of TDP and PowerLimit, the graphics has only reached 2100 MHz. In addition, when wearing Samsung memories, it goes up a lot and you notice 10% extra power.

Regarding the heatsink, it is a masterpiece since it keeps the entire card cool, it is beautiful and offers RGB lighting that gives an incredible touch to our system.

Currently we can find it in online stores listed under reservation at a price of 549 euros. Without a doubt, one of the best alternatives if not the best in the Nvidia Pascal GTX 1070 series.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ PCB DESIGN AND CARD CONSTRUCTION.	- PRICE SOMETHING HIGHER THAN THE GTX 1070 G1 GAMING.
+ TRIPLE FAN HEATSINK.
+ REACH 2.1 GHZ EASILY.
+4 YEARS OF GUARANTEE.
+ PERFORMANCE IN 2K AND 4K.

And after carefully evaluating both the evidence and the product, Professional Review awards him the platinum medal:

Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming

COMPONENT QUALITY

DISSIPATION

GAMING EXPERIENCE

SONORITY

PRICE

9.5 / 10

POSSIBLY THE BEST GTX 1070