NVIDIA's new flagship gaming video card has acquired its final specifications and retail price. The new flagship is priced at $599, and global sales of the GeForce GTX 1080 will begin on May 27. At the same time, Nvidia’s partners will also present their models based on the new chip. Even according to the most conservative estimates presented by NVIDIA, the GTX 1080 provides a significant increase in performance compared to the GTX TITAN X (not to mention the higher energy efficiency of the new product), and with full use of the rendering pipeline optimizations that the Pascal architecture carries, you can count on a twofold difference in benefit of the GTX 1080. Well, be that as it may, in this review we will look at how much the new Nvidia flagship is ahead in performance of the top AMD and Nvidia video cards of the previous generation.
Key Features of the GTX 1070
The characteristics of the Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 are as follows:
- Core frequency: 1506 -1683 MHz.
- Type GDDR5 with a capacity of 8Gb or 6Gb.
- 256-bit bus.
- Memory frequency: 8008 MHz.
- The consumption of the GTX 1070 is stated to be 150 watts, but at peak loads this parameter can be significantly exceeded, which should be taken into account when choosing a power supply.
- How many teraflops does the GTX 1070 have? According to the manufacturer, the computing power of the card is 6.5 teraflops.
Thus, this model has good performance with not the highest power consumption, as well as overclocking potential, which makes it suitable for both assembling gaming machines and for mining cryptocurrencies.
Action steps
First, you should run ATIWinflash as an administrator, after which you need to save the video card BIOS with the .rom extension. Important: ATIWinflash can only process three cards at a time.
We recommend that you make backup copies of the BIOS of all existing video cards. This is necessary in case you install the firmware unsuccessfully. After this, you need to launch the Polaris Bios Editor utility. A program window will appear in front of us, in which we will need to open the BIOS file specifically for the video card that you will be working on at the moment. Depending on the type of video card, the timings will change in a certain way. As an example, let's take a card from MSI. It has an RX 480 video chip with a frequency of 7000 mHz for 4 gigabytes.
Information only for RX480 4GB 7000mHz:
We copy VALUE from 1500 and paste it into 1625, 1750 and 2000. After this, it is worth reducing the core frequency, in the GPU column we bring the value of the core frequency steps to 1150 mHz, and then do the same actions with the voltage. All this can be done in MSI Afterburner, however, in my opinion, it is easier to do such actions in the BIOS. Moreover, in the BIOS you can correct the values responsible for the speed of fan speed in the FAN column.
Have you completed all manipulations of the values in the BIOS file? Save it with a name that will remind you that the BIOS has been modified. For example, msi4804gbmod.rom.
After this, you should go to the ATIWinflash program and find the Load Image key. Having selected the modified BIOS and the correct video card, click on the Program button.
After this, you need to overclock the memory. Go to MSI Afterburner and increase the “Memory Clock” value from 1750 to 2000. The core voltage indicator should be set to a minimum.
If after some time the video driver works, then everything is done correctly, but if it fails, then you will need to abandon the overclock.
Nvidia GTX 1070 review
First of all, players are interested in the question of what kind of power supply is needed for the GTX 1070. Hardware incompatibility for modern computer components is an extremely rare phenomenon; more often, problems arise with insufficient power from the power supply. Considering the power consumption, as well as the processor for the GTX 1070, which will consume a lot, the power supply must provide at least 600 watts of power. The operating temperature of the Nvidia GTX 1070 video card is about 60 C. At the same time, the manufacturer managed to significantly reduce the noise level both under load and at rest.
How many megahashes does the GTX 1070 video card produce? It all depends on the currency itself and on whether the card is overclocked or not. So, for Ethereum the hashrate will be approximately 32 megahash, for Zcash – 475 Sol/s.
Dual Mining
First, let's try the ETH + DCR combination without overclocking settings.
The result cannot be called successful. Decred produces very little power. Compared to the Radeon, the RX 400 series delivered 3 times the speed.
Now let's try the ETH + Sia combination.
The result got better. Let's check what results we get with overclocking. The frequency will be set to +105 for the core, and +600 for the memory. Power Limit is set at 90.
Derced's production did not increase even in this case. Although an increase in the speed of ether was obtained, this is not enough to call such a process profitable. But the second combination was able to please us.
The speed of both currencies has been increased. This means that such dual mining can be called profitable.
Using a video card for mining
Water cooling for the GTX 1070 video card perfectly removes heat from the card, which is important for both demanding games and mining, but such systems have a significant drawback - high cost. Therefore, mining on a Geforce GTX 1070 with water cooling may be a dubious undertaking.
Mining on a 1070 video card largely depends on the direct manufacturer of the card. Thus, it was noticed that the cooling system of Gigabyte is the least reliable. On the NVIDIA Founders Edition GTX 1070, although the mining process has good hashrate indicators, the high noise level can somewhat spoil the impression. On Asus and Zotac GTX 1070, the mining speed, as well as the noise level during the operation of the cooling system, make these two options optimal. The mining consumption of the 1070 depends on the overclocking parameters, but they rarely require more than 170 watts.
Overclocking the GTX 1070 for mining is possible in the popular MSI Afterburner program, which is also used to increase performance in games. On the GTX 1070, the mining performance indicator should be increased gradually, testing the stability of the card and cooling system after increasing it.
What's new?
According to NVIDIA, the new architecture is revolutionary, but is it really so? The most striking innovation in the case of PASCAL is the transition to a new 16 nm process technology. This made it possible to achieve a significant increase in the operating frequency of the GPU, which led to a noticeable increase in performance. Another important feature was the use of FinFET (Field Effect Transistor with Fin) - transistors, which resulted in a reduction in power consumption and an increase in efficiency. Despite this, the PASCAL architecture is more an evolution of Maxwell than something fundamentally new.
Interesting innovations also affected SLI. Now the company will pay more attention to the tandem of two accelerators, i.e. will try to optimize performance scaling as much as possible for just such a scenario. However, this does not mean that the use of three or even four video cards will now become impossible, far from it, the emphasis will simply be shifted towards the most popular option. It's no secret that only a few can afford a system of three or four video cards.
For fans of multi-monitor configurations and virtual reality helmets, NVIDIA has prepared a technology for simultaneous multi-projection ( Simultaneous Multi-Projection ). In essence, this optimization is designed to simultaneously calculate geometric data for several pre-prepared projections. What is it for? Firstly, to eliminate various distortions when using curved monitors or multi-display configurations. Second, it improves performance for similar use cases on your system. Few of us had the opportunity to try NVIDIA 3D Vision at one time, but those who had the chance noted a noticeable lack of performance, since the video card was subject to double the load when drawing images for each eye. With the introduction of SMP, this problem is eliminated.
Also, one cannot fail to mention two more interesting innovations, which are entitled Ansel and Fast Sync .
Ansel is an invaluable tool for creating related gaming content, which will be useful for streamers and authors of various gaming blogs. During the game, you can press pause and adjust the camera to any desired angle to take a screenshot. In addition, you will have access to a number of effects to enhance the image, as well as the ability to take a photo with stunning clarity. In addition, it is possible to create 3D images, panoramic screenshots and 360° images. However, it should be noted that this will only be available in those games where appropriate support for this option will be introduced.
Fast Sync is a kind of addition to a function such as VSYNC. In general terms, activating this innovation will allow you to get rid of the delays that occur when you enable VSYNC. In addition, artifacts in the form of picture tearing are eliminated, which can be noticeable when vertical synchronization is turned off. This scenario is only valid if the FPS value exceeds the screen refresh rate threshold.
Game test results
Tests of the gtx 1070 in popular games show the following FPS results:
- The Witcher 3 at 1.920 x 1.080 – 64.
- Far Cry Primal at 920 x 1.080 – 96.
- Fallout 4 at 1.920 x080 – 92.
- Doom at 1.920 x 1.080 – 100.
At higher resolutions, the performance drops, although it does not fall below critical values for comfortable gaming. The video adapter allows you to play all the latest games in the gaming industry, while getting a fairly nice picture and a good FPS.
Comparison of video cards from different manufacturers
| Manufacturer | Characteristics | Cost, RUB/UAH. |
| Gigabyte | Core clock1594 -1784 MHz, type GDDR5, bus width 256 bits, Memory Clock8008 MHz | 42962 rub./19333 UAH. |
| Asus | Core clock1582 -1771 MHz, type GDDR5, bus width 256 bits, Memory Clock8008 MHz | 42442 RUR/19099 UAH. |
| Palit | Core clock1506 -1683 MHz, type GDDR5, bus width 256 bits, Memory Clock 8008 MHz | 42900 rub./19299 UAH. |
| Zotac | Core clock1607 -1747 MHz, type GDDR5, bus width 256 bits, Memory Clock8008 MHz | 39108 RUR/17599 UAH. |
| Msi | Core clock1506 -1683 MHz, type GDDR5, bus width 256 bits, Memory Clock8008 MHz | 40660 rub./18299 UAH. |
| Inno3D | Core clock1620 -1822 MHz, type GDDR5, bus width 256 bits, Memory Clock 8200 MHz | 41550 rub./18699 UAH. |
The main difference between adapters from different companies is the features of the cooling system. They also differ in size, which should be taken into account when choosing a specific system unit. Performance may vary, but don't expect significant differences in performance.
Printed circuit board
Here is a black printed circuit board with a classic arrangement of elements. In the central part there is a graphics processor around which memory chips are soldered. The power subsystem is located a little to the right.
Note the lack of a protective frame around the GPU. This means that you must be extremely careful when removing or installing the cooling system so as not to accidentally damage the chip.
The total memory capacity is comprised of eight chips labeled K4G80325FB manufactured by Samsung. The power subsystem has 5 phases, four of which are reserved for the GPU and one for memory. The uP9511P PWM controller manufactured by uPI Semiconductor is used for power management. The transistors used are NTMFD4C85N manufactured by ON Semiconductor.
