EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 SC GAMING ACX 3.0, 8GB GDDR5, LED, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) Graphics Card 08G-P4-6173-KR

The GTX 1070 Founder’s Edition from EVGA EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition Graphic Card 08G-P4-6170-KR
has a lot of hype surrounding it, does it live up to the hype? To jump straight to the answer, it’s yes and no. The card itself is very well built, the design is sleek and modern. Love or hate it, it does use the blower style cooler. I personally have no problem with this cooling method as my case is well insulated and a good distance away from my sitting area since the PC is part of my entertainment center. The noise from the blower is not that noticeable at high load, I am coming from an Asus GTX 970 Strix OC which ran way louder. Coil whine was not present at the time of my benchmarks, or if it was, it was very minimal. The only thing about the presentation that I wasn’t the biggest fan of was the green LED for the "GTX 1070" lettering, I wish there was built in software to change the color of the LED to match with my color scheme.

Performance wise the card is a beast. Straight out of the box I tested some major AAA titles and did a FireStrike benchmark, the results did not disappoint, without overclocking at all the card surpassed expectations and chewed up anything I threw at it. Here are the specs of my build:

Intel i5 6600k 3.5ghz
16gb Corsair Vengence DDR4 2400
Gigabyte z170 Motherboard
EVGA GTX 1070 FE
Corsair Hydro H60
Corsair CX 750M Power Supply
Bit Fenix Mini-ITX BFC Pro-300
Samsung 850 EVO – 250gb SSD

(All clocks were at base for testing, no OC present)

FireStrike capped out at 13,983 out of three runs, this was the best.

I tested it on the following games in 1080p with every setting I could possibly max out:

Doom (2016) – Peak 212 FPS, Average 121
Lords of the Fallen – Peak 130, Average 82
Rise of the Tomb Raider – Peak 124, Average 68
The Witcher III – Peak 132, Average 63

The temperature never exceeded 42c.

The card is wonderful for 1080p gaming, but I have mixed feelings about the 4k options, I do not have a 4k setup and do not want to invest in a monitor for it due to high costs, the performance is just middle of the road and doesn’t to make sense to jump in just yet on a single card.

Final thoughts, the GTX 1070 is a nice jump from the Strix 970, however, the performance jump was not as shocking as a jump from a few generations ago. The price is a little hard to swallow for the FE, but I really do like the design and did not want to wait for the after market cards. Once a good after market that is sub 0 comes out, I will pick that up and move this one into my PC in another office. I think overall the card is a solid 4/5. It would have been a solid 5 if the LEDs could be changed via software and if the FE were not priced higher than the standard 970.

The reviews on Amazon do not accurately reflect the feelings of people who have legitimately purchased these due to resellers marking up the prices. It’s not a fair representation of the actual product, but this is the only way people can vent their frustrations about the reseller problem that plagues Amazon. Amazon definitely needs to make it more clear that the listed price when a reseller is selling it is NOT from Amazon directly and differentiate their listing from third party. The people who buy from these resllers are equally to blame. Stop buying from them and they will go away, end of story. The only reason to ever buy from a reseller is if it’s preowned and it’s cheaper than MSRP.

Sorry for the rant, but enjoy your new card, hope the review helps. I’m pleased with my purchase and can’t wait to see games like Battlefield 1 running on it in the near future.

DO NOT PURCHASE! THIS CARD WILL DROP SIGNIFICANTLY IN PRICE POINT AFTER 10-15 DAYS!

Ladies and Gentlemen of Amazon, these cards are released on June 10, 2016 at a 9 price point for an early release "founders edition"

The "HYPE" is real! It is an amazing card, hence the 5 stars, it’s faster than the Titan X… HOWEVER!!! READ ON!!!

This is the first time NVIDIA will be competing against partners like EVGA to sell the card directly.

This means their cooler design with the "Vapor chamber" that they try to upsell you to the 9 Founders edition for IS NOT WORTH IT EITHER!

PLEASE WAIT UNTIL THIS CARD DROPS TO THE REASONABLE 9 MSRP THAT IT SHOULD BE!

On a side note,

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE IN ANY MATERIAL OR DESIGN USED, BETWEEN THE FOUNDERS EDITION CARDS, AND THE REGULAR CARDS SHIPPED SHORTLY AFTERWARD.

The Founder’s edition is another way of saying Reference Card and another way to charge those who want the card on the very first day, an extra 100 bucks.

Partners like EVGA will come out with Custom Cards with liquid cooling and so forth, for around the same price point.

These cards will come factory overclocked and superclocked, and will have different types like the "Kingpin" edition which uses premium copper for heat dissipation on the 980 Ti

Please wait, be patient for 14 days, and then order a custom card from NVIDIA partners.

That is my best advice to you Amazonians.

Good luck and happy gaming

This is my first build and I am able to play on highest/ultra with 60fps. Temps are amazing. OC to just barely over 2GHz and it’s perfect. I play at 2560×1080 currently. If you are on 1080p, No doubt this card will annihilate your games. If you are on 1440p, maybe wait for the 1080ti because even the 1080 struggles with that and for ‘future proofing’ – if there is such a thing (there isnt!) you would be wise to wait a while longer. As for 4k, probably not going to enjoy this card at all.

Temps are great. Under load in "The Division" and "GTA V" I get 60fps with some fine tuning the temps never get above 65. Idle temps are great too around 27-35 depending on room temperature. I use MSI Afterburner (after using buggy Precision X and only getting problems) for the fans (since the default fan temps are outrageous and do not even kick on until 50 degrees) and to lock the clock speed in during gaming. Also, make sure you go into Nvidia control panel and change the optimal power mode, to maximum performance. It dies throttle a bit from 2.03-2.06. It has been stable like that for extended periods. Some people are benchmarking just for the scores and have to constantly adjust for each one. This is a stable clock for everything. You can use the NCP optimal power under global settings, and choose specific programs to alter settings on. That is the best bet to ensure when you are not gaming, you are not idling the gpu at full clock or using unnecessary amounts of power.

I did a lot of tweaking and have finally found the prefect set up for my use. Gaming, HTPC, Browsing, School, etc etc…. Pretty much everything I will ever need from a GPU. This is my command center and it runs well. I wanted to leave a positive review for what this card is, but I would still advise you to wait longer and just get a 1080 or better. These card manufacturer’s are holding back and playing the marketing game to squeeze every penny (not private sellers, the actual manufacturer’s) and I believe this card has a lot more potential than they are giving it, especially for the price. If you can, save a little more and spring for the 1080 once prices drop or if you already have a 9 series or even something older, just wait for the ti versions or whatever comes next to last you just as long as your old card did. If you have your heart set on a 1070 regardless, wait for the FTW versions. They should overclock a bit nicer, hopefully to at least 2.1GHz.

UPDATEL it appears the FTW cards do not overclock any better according to EVGA’s forums. Since the new driver came out I downloaded it and have not noticed any fluctuation of clock speed during play since. It starts out a bit high then drops to a solid 2063-2068. Even with the slave bios most FTW’s I have seen still only get about 2088 stable. It’s still pretty good considering the stock clock, but there is more potential than they are giving us, especially in the 0 range. At this rate, the prices will only continue to go up.