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Price / Where to Buy
Approx. SRP: US$449.95 – [easyazon_link identifier=”B01GXOX3SW” locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G OC[/easyazon_link]
PH – Approx. Php25,000
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[section label=”Introduction”]
NVIDIA is in under no circumstance pressured to release a new GPU this year. AMD has pretty much served no competition to what is arguably the most fierce competition in the component industry with previous coinciding releases help serve as the foundation of healthy and thriving PC gaming economy. Nowadays, its not the same fierce close releases we saw in the past but NVIDIA is still advancing GPU technology further and with the company advancing VR technology heavily, they needed a GPU for the consumer that could help do the job. Enter the GeForce GTX 1080. With future applications in mind, NVIDIA released the GTX 1080 with the intention of fueling the current trend for VR content. It makes sense as its a potential new revenue stream for their company and this release hits two birds with one stone: a GPU that can handle higher resolution and more demanding applications while also delivering performance required for creating much richer VR experiences.
While NVIDIA are encouraging the sales of the Founders Edition until the end of the product life cycle, AIB partners will still have full control on what they do provided they follow NVIDIA’s guidelines but cooling, tweaks and everything else they can do to squeeze out performance an improve cooling within specs, they’re free to do so. During our trip to Computex 2016, we’ve seen many of the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 custom cards to be released and many of them are focusing on improved cooling and aesthetics.
ABOUT THE NVIDIA GTX 1070
NVIDIA’s new Pascal architecture is a remarkable engineering feat and something which has enabled the company to roll-out numerous technologies for various industries like deep-learning and super-computing but as a GPU company, NVIDIA is still regarded as a gaming company and the release of the much anticipated GTX 1000-series graphics cards is something that drives the industry further as it presents new possibilities for gaming content. That said, NVIDIA announced the new GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 on May 5th, 2016 putting to rest numerous rumors on naming and specifications on their new GPU series. Starting off with the new GPU, the Pascal based GP104 GTX 1080, sports 2560 CUDA cores running 1607Mhz and has a Boost clock of 1733Mhz. The card will come with 8GB of GDDR5X memory clocked in at 2500Mhz. The GTX 1080 boasts the highest clock rates ever seen on a GPU to date in comparison to last-generation’s models which came in around 1000Mhz.
The GTX 1070 on the other hand will be sit below the high-end card and will also have 8GB of video memory but will be using GDDR5 rather than GDDR5X and will have a reference memory clock speed of 8Ghz wired to a 256-bit bus. No more split memory here, this is pure 8GB. On to core clocks, the GTX 1070 will have a reduced number of CUDA cores at 1920 total and will have a core clock clock of 1506MHz with a boost clock of 1683MHz.
The new Pascal GPUs will natively support DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.5. Display options include three DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.0b, and one Dual-Link DVI connector. The reference GTX 1080 is powered off a single PCI-e power connector and is rated for 180W. NVIDIA designs a new SLI connector dubbed SLI HB (high-bandwidth) which uses both SLI fingers for maximum bandwidth utilization.
SRP for the GTX 1080 is $699 for the Founder’s Edition and will have an MSRP from most AIB starting at $599. The GTX 1070 Founder’s Edition will have an MSRP of $449 and AIB custom designs will start at $379.
Simultaneous Multi-Projection
This technology has been around since Maxwell but NVIDIA has refined the technology further to increase performance and offer a more efficient way of handling more complex display scenarios. Traditionally, surround displays are rendered as flat planes and are display onscreen as such which gives us a rather unnatural field of view. The same can be said for curved displays. NVIDIA corrects this via the new Pascal GPUs by allowing a better method of adjusting the output image display via simultaneous multi-projection. Another use of the technology is to save up on processing power wherein developers can opt to render images outside of the visual focus area of the user to increase performance.
Ansel
User-generated content is one of the growing trends in gaming right now but streaming and game footage aside, in-game photography and movies created using gameplay footage have been reserved for professionals and specialists who have access and skills in the tools required in this artform. NVIDIA wants to change that by allowing end-users and gamers to create highly-personalized images and footage from games using Ansel: a tool and API coming soon to games featuring the following key capabilities to help you capture in-game moments like never before:
- Free Camera – Compose your shot anywhere, from any angle.
- Post-Process Filters – Adjust the look and mood of your favorite games.
- EXR Capture – Capture in the highest color spectrum for HDR images.
- Super Resolution – Capture every detail with the highest-resolution images.
- 360 Capture – Snap 360-degree panorama images in mono or stereo.
Ansel’s feature set lets players capture image in-game freely without being limited to the current player view. With Ansel, players can rotate the camera and focus on any detail of the current scene to allow maximum creativity in creating that perfect in-game capture. Filters are also available just to set the mood basically allowing you to create Instagram-ish posts straight from any game at the best quality possible. Ansel allows EXR capture for maximum color spectrum for use in Photoshop or other photo-editing software that support the format.
Basically Ansel gives end-users and content creators a level of control unlike anything we’ve had before. Free control over perspective, resolution and quality to provide you with the image to create stunning in-game photography and motion videos from games that support it.
Ansel enables amazing in-game screenshot captures by providing game developers with new NVIDIA driver APIs using GeForce® GTX GPUs. Game support for Ansel is coming soon, and will include titles such as The Witcher 3, No Man’s Sky, The Witness, and more. Ansel will also be supported by all GTX 600 cards onwards.
[section label=”ABOUT THE MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G”]ABOUT THE MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G
The MSI GAMING series has been given another makeover with the announcement of new lineups sporting some design changes and with the new Twin Frozr VI series serving as the latest incarnation of MSI’s signature model of choice for its GPU, to separate itself from its predecessor MSI is taking a few approaches to differentiate this release besides some visual detail changes. First off, the Twin Frozr VI employs a new slimmer profile but has a deeper and wider PCB design than reference cards. This allows a shorter length PCB reducing the need for more fans and concentrating fins on larger surface area. MSI now also has RGB illumination on its logo display and the lines on the cooler are now illuminated in red.
The MSI GTX 1080 GAMING X is one of the first custom GTX 1080 from MSI and this one is the GAMING X. The GAMING Z model has yet to be released and as we’ve seen in Computex 2016, it will be a completely different card. The MSI GTX 1080 GAMING X runs with the following clock speeds:
- 1797 MHz / 1607 MHz / 8108 MHz (OC Mode)
- 1771 MHz / 1582 MHz / 8010 MHz (Gaming Mode)
- 1683 MHz / 1506 MHz / 8010 MHz (Silent Mode)
Retail samples will ship with Gaming mode enabled out of the box.
[section label=”Product Gallery”]Product Gallery – MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X
PERFORMANCE
Test Setup
Processor: Intel Core i7 4790K
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus VII GENE
Memory: Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3-2133 32GB
Storage: Plextor M6e Black Edition 256GB
PSU: BitFenix FURY 650G
Cooling: Corsair H100
Monitor: LG 42UB820T UltraHD TV
VGA: MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G
For a full-hardware workout, visit http://www.futuremark.com for our benchmarks of choice.
All test results are taken with maximum in-game preset profiles. AA has been disabled for 4K UHD testing.
We’re currently revising our GPU review database. This chart and tables are temporary and will be updated with our latest testing methodology and results when available. The data presented follow our previous result but have limited the chart to the most recent and relevant products. All results have been taken from repeatable in-game scenes and an average of multiple runs to capture the data presented.
TEMPERATURE & POWER CONSUMPTION
To measure both power consumption and heat, we stress the video card and record the peak values for heat and wattage. We use default values on the cards and stress test them using a Kombustor 3’s Lake of Titans X64 test at 1080p fullscreen.
At a glance: Referencing the FE’s cooling performance, its easy to see how the MSI Gaming X cooler handles the Pascal GPU. Our sample is curiously warmer in idle than our other samples but do note that the fans of the MSI GAMING X do stop and they tend to hover at around 44-46*C even on a 25*C ambient temp. room. This could just be our sample so yours might have better temps. Under load though, we can see just how powerful the new Twin Frozr VI is keeping our card under a comfortable 68*C peak. Note that this test was conducted under OC mode. Consumption is within expectation as the card is indeed using up a bit more power.
[section label=”Conclusion”]CONCLUSION
Let’s break down the verdict:
Performance. Overall performance should be decent throughout 1080p and 1440p should also be quite playable. The MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X sustains a decent boost level and its out of box overclock
Build Quality. MSI has improved on their new Twin Frozr VI cooler without sacrificing their signature look. The components and detail touch on the card is superb and is expected from their mainstream range.
Functionality. NVIDIA has improved on many of its current feature set but what it does really well is improve performance in 4K and VR allowing the GTX 1070 to let players enjoy games at an unprecedented quality. This together with the new improvements like Ansel and SMP make the GTX 1070 a feature-rich card made for the modern gaming scenario.
Bundle. No game bundle as of this moment but its an eventuality in the future.
Value. At around Php25,000 street price, the MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X is one the most affordable custom-cooled GTX 1070 from the big 3 brands and butts head directly with the ZOTAC GTX 1070 AMP Extreme. For the MSI card, its pedigree and unique style is certainly its best assets and we’ll go through this more in the conclusion.
The MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X is a 2-slot design card which makes it idle for builds that require optimal usage of the case. This is its main advantage over the ZOTAC GTX 1070 AMP Extreme which is its main competitor but the performance difference goes in favor of the ZOTAC. Still, the MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X isn’t a slouch and has plenty of cushion for overclocking thanks to its wider and dense cooling solution not to mention MSI does bin their cards unlike ZOTAC.
MSI still holds the quality advantage and this alone should be enough for those looking for a GTX 1070 that’s within the Php25k budget range or lower. The MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X sits in a position where it balances performance, scalability, style and price in a nice package and delivers well in all fronts.
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Price / Where to Buy
Approx. SRP: US$449.95 – [easyazon_link identifier=”B01GXOX3SW” locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G OC[/easyazon_link]
PH – Approx. Php25,000
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MSI backs the GTWe give the MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G our B2G Recommended Seal!
[section label=”Award”]
