EVGA GTX 1070 Superclocked Review

Conclusion

Any new GPU from nVidia or AMD always comes with a lot of scrutiny, and the performance that has been seen from nVidia in recent generations means that the microscope is focussed even tighter. This level of scrutiny has meant the boffins in the R&D labs have all but eliminated any variance in particular batches of silicon wafers and left us with a product which has a wholly linear reaction to clock speeds. Great for the consumer, not so good for us.

This is highlighted in the results for the EVGA GTX 1070 Superclocked.

With a factory overclock 100MHz higher than the nVidia Founders Edition, but a GPU Boost that barely scraped 80MHz further than that, it was a relentless parade of the EVGA being just ahead of the Founders Edition, but just behind the MSI Gaming X and its slightly higher clock speed. That consistency is perfect if you’re the kind of gamer who has a Steam collection burgeoning with an array of tasty morsels. It doesn’t matter what you throw at the EVGA, it just shrugs and gets on with the job of delivering a buttery smooth gaming experience.

The looks are what really wow us. The card goes all in on its rugged aesthetic, with rivets and screws aplenty. So many cards end up with the shroud being nothing more than a frame on which to hang the fans, but EVGA have used it as a canvas to give the whole thing a military air. Combine that with a massive acreage of full-spectrum RGB lighting and you have a card which is just as at home in a rugged build as it is in a showy one.

It isn’t just the looks that provide some icing on the GTX 1070 cake. The capability of the EVGA PrecisionX software to control both the overclocking and the lighting in an easy-to-use package is great for the end user. Overclocking tools have come a long way from their early days where it was either a Virtual Basic looking Rivatuner or Coolbits registry tweak, and if you’ve ever been frightened of delving into the dark world of free performance it’s a great place to start.

Whilst the performance of the EVGA Superclocked doesn’t quite live up to that lofty moniker, it is by no means disgraced against the competition. It does, however, take a very different approach to the world of graphics card design and that makes it easily worthy of our OC3D Aesthetic Award.

  
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