Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview

It is finally here! Nvidia’s GTX 1070 Ti has finally arrived at OC3D, ready to test for Nvidia’s review embargo on November 2nd, the same day that these new cards will be available from retailers worldwide.    

Today we will be having a look at Nvidia’s GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition, a Nvidia-made GPU variant that has now moved from being the GTX “Launch Edition” to a “Nvidia StoreExclusivee Edition”, at least here in the UK anyway. Right now all of the other variants that we can see at local retailers are custom AIB designs, with many using Nvidia reference PCBs but none of which use Nvidia’s iconic Founders Edition cooler. 

Here it is, the GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition, in all of its angular, polygonal glory! 

  

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview

 

Technical Specifications

The GTX 1070 Ti is designed to make use of Nvidia’s existing GP104 pascal chip, which is the same chip that is used to create Nvidia’s GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 series GPUs, with the GTX 1070 Ti offering a new GPU model that sits somewhere in-between these two popular GPU designs.    

With a total of 2432 CUDA cores and higher base clock speeds than the company’s GTX 1070, it is clear that the GTX 1070 Ti will be much closer to its bigger brother than the GTX 1070 Ti, at least in terms of raw computational power. Memory-wise Nvidia has decided to use GDDR5 memory with their GTX 1070 Ti, offering the same memory configuration as the GTX 1070, leaving the GTX 1080 with a huge performance lead when it comes to memory performance. 

It will be interesting to see how well Nvidia’s GTX 1070 Ti copes when placed against Nvidia’s older GPU models, given its memory parity with the GTX 1070 and computational performance that is relatively close to the GTX 1080. 

 

  GTX 1080  GTX 1070 Ti GTX 1070 GTX 1060
GPU Architecture Pascal Pascal Pascal Pascal
Process node 16nm 16nm 16nm 16nm
SM Units 40 38 30 20
Cores per SM 64 64 64 64
CUDA Core Count 2560 2432 1920  1280
VRAM Type GDDR5X  GDDR5 GDDR5  GDDR5
VRAM Cappacity 8GB  8GB 8GB  6GB
Memory Bus Size 256-bit  256-bit 256-bit  192-bit
Memory Speed 10Gbps (11Gbps) 8Gbps 8Gbps 8Gbps (9Gbps)
Memory Bandwidth 320 GB/s 
(352 GB/s)
256 GB/s 256 GB/s  192 GB/s
(216GB/s)
Base clock speed 1607MHz  1607MHz 1506Mhz  1506MHz
Boost clock speed 1733MHz  1683Mhz 1683MHz  1708MHz
TDP 180W  180W 150W  120W
Power Connection 1x 8-pin  1×8-pin 1×8-pin  6-pin
PCI Express  PCIe 3.0  PCIe 3.0 PCIe 3.0  PCIe 3.0

 

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview

Up Close & Video 

One of the neat little draws of Nvidia’s GTX Founders Edition cards is the premium unboxing experience, offering users some sturdy packaging that is pretty much purpose built for Nvidia’s GTX Founders Edition cooler designs.

It is a basic packaging design, but it makes for some easy opening, repackaging and makes for a nice little shelf ornament if you are a fan of hardware boxes. 

Inside is the GPU itself, which arrives covered in anti-static packaging, alongside a nice Nvidia case badge as well as a manual and a driver CD. Our advice is to use Nvidia’s most recent drivers, which are available to download on their website, though it is nice to see that they are still shipping them, even if a pen drive would be much easier to use. 

 

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview

 

Founders Editions owners will also get a neat little Nvidia “Special-Edition Premium” case badge, which will undoubtedly increase your FPS by 10% is used (it won’t). Nvidia was also kind enough to tell us not to stick it in our sibling’s hair, which I am sure they conducted a lot of stress testing to figure out was a bad thing. 

  
Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview  

Aesthetically Nvidia’s GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition GPU looks almost identical to the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 that it is attempting to nestle in-between performance-wise. 

When compared to the GTX 1070 it is obvious that Nvidia has added a little to their Founders Edition cooler design, that thing being the new Ti logos that adorn the GTX 1070 Ti’s backplate and top-end. Otherwise, the GPUs are pretty much identical, aside from the higher clock speeds and increase CUDA core count on the GTX 1070 Ti. 

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview

 

Looking at the rear I/O of this GPU it is nice to see that Nvidia has decided to continue using a DVI-D connection on the rear of their GPUs, which was a feature that was conspicuously absent on their GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition cards. This will be great news for those that still use DVI displays, though those are starting to become increasingly rare in the modern era of HDMI and Displayport. 

  
Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview  

Nvidia has decided to power this GPU using a single 8-pin PCIe connection, which like the remainder of this GPU’s cooler design is identical to Nvidia’s GTX 1070 and 1080 Founders Edition models. Nvidia has included the same LED-backlit GEFORCE GTX logo as always, though I imagine that some Nvidia fans would like to see this replaced with RGBs on future hardware. 

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview  

On the rear of the GPU, we can see Nvidia’s usual screw mounts, which are designed to be used with specialised GPU support hardware, which is often found in high-end gaming prebuilds, offering the GPU support during shipping. This add-on isn;t really needed on a consumer GPU, though it is nice to see that it is there just incase. 

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview  

On the rear of this GPU, we see Nvidia’s second GTX 1070 Ti logo, which sits on the removable part of Nvidia’s GTX 1070 Ti backplate. This section can be removed if users are using two of these GPUs in an SLI configuration, allowing some additional airflow to get to the top card if there are no PCIe lane gaps between both GPUs.  

Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti Preview  

Nvidia’s GTX 1070 Ti will release on November 2nd and we will be posting a full review for this GPU on the same day at 2pm GMT. Until then you can join the discussion on Nvidia’s GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition on the OC3D Forums.Â