Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Eagle Review

Conclusion

Such has been the furore over the price decisions for the RTX 3080 Ti we must admit we had a lot of trepidation when the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Eagle arrived on our desk. We know from earlier models that the Eagle is very much at the lower end of the Gigabyte price range, but we didn’t expect the other cards to gouge the consumer either. Thankfully for you, and indeed our sanity, Gigabyte has priced the Eagle at the same point as the Nvidia Founders Edition card.

Whilst there has been a tiny (4%) increase in hardware, and the GRRD6 has been upgraded to GDDR6X, the performance realities are that the RTX 3070 Ti is basically identical to a good RTX 3070. Sadly, the RTX 3070 Ti is a barely upgraded RTX 3070, which is a shame. 

This card is a chance to buy an Ampere card for 1080p or 1440p gaming without endlessly refreshing websites or getting scalped on your second-hand market of choice. That’s pretty much the entirety of it. The performance isn’t different enough to be worthy of shouting from the rooftops. Indeed we often saw some regular RTX 3070 cards outperforming the RTX 3070 Ti. The move to GDDR6X might increase the memory bandwidth, but as we’ve still only got 8 GB of it, there is no change to the huge drop off in performance if you’re crazy enough to want to run at 4K with maxed out settings in some titles. The extra bandwidth, sadly, isn’t giving us anything…

It might be more expensive than a vanilla RTX 3070 theoretically is, but as anyone desperate to buy an Ampere card will know, the MSRP doesn’t remotely relate to what many websites are attempting to sell for. So although the price is a little more than a standard RTX 3070, you at least have the confidence that by the time this review appears, that retailers will have some stock, and perhaps if you’re fast enough, you might be able to snag one. We know for one that Scan has promised to put their cards up at MSRP, and with the Gigabyte Eagle being as cheap as any 3070 Ti offerings, you could do a lot worse than add one to your collection.

The retail release of Nvidia’s RTX 3070 will be on June 10th, and stock will likely disappear shortly after launch, as is the way of things these days. 

Yes, we’re still cross that Nvidia is making such a cynical cash grab with these cards, and it has taken the gloss off our love of the Ampere range. Still, Gigabyte has resisted the temptation to flex their brand recognition, and they deserve to be applauded for taking the ethical high ground and having an option at MSRP. 

STOCK GOES LIVE 2PM 10TH JUNE

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