In this review, we’ll be taking a look at ASUS’ rendition of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1070 Ti. Specifically, the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1070 Ti A8G. Sporting a better cooler and higher clock speeds than the stock GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, how will this card perform on our tests? Let’s find out.
ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti FE | ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 FE | |
| GPU | GP104-300-A1 | GP104-300-A1 | GP104-400-A1 |
| Transistor Count | 7.2 billion | 7.2 billion | 7.2 billioon |
| Manufacturing Process | 16nm | 16nm | 16nm |
| Base Clock | 1607MHz | 1607MHz (Gaming Mode) 1683MHz (OC Mode) | 1607MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1683MHz | 1683MHz (Gaming Mode) 1759MHz (OC Mode) | 1733MHz |
| CUDA Cores | 2,432 | 2,432 | 2560 |
| Raster Operator Units | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5X |
| Memory Bus Width | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| TDP | 180w | 180w | 180w |
| Power Connectors | 1x 8-pin PCIe | 1x 8-pin PCIe | 1x 8-pin PCIe |
| DVI | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| HDMI | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| DisplayPort | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| HDCP Output Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Unboxing
There isn’t much inside the box of the card. Aside from the product itself, you can find a manual, two cable ties, and a CD driver. You might want to download the latest NVIDIA drivers from their website instead of relying on the driver included with the card.
Up close with the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G
The ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G sports the same design as with most of ASUS’ high-end cards. Cooling the 16nm GP104 and its 7.2 billion transistors is the company’s iconic triple-fan design.
The fans are advertised to deliver 105% more air pressure with its patented wing-blade design and is rated IP5X for dust resistance compared to the stock cooler of the GTX 1070 Ti. They sport ASUS 0dB technology, which is a fancy term where the fans don’t spin until the card hits 60° Celsius.
The card is backed by a large heatsink with six heat pipes that encompasses the whole card. The heatsink is so large that the card will take up 2.5 slots in your case. Cooling is further improved with ASUS’ MaxContact technology that features an enhanced copper heat spreader that is in contact with the GPU core directly for twice as more contact compared to traditional heat spreaders.
The ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti, as a high-end card, does sport a back plate which adds to the premium feel of the card. It also helps the card by removing a bit of GPU sag when mounted on a case.
Despite having higher clocks compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition, ASUS was able to stick to the stock 180W TDP of the card. This allows the card to have only a single PCIe power connector for power delivery.
ASUS has thrown in their FanConnect II on the ROG Strix GTX 170 Ti A8G. At the front of the card are two 4-pin fan connectors that can be used with either PWM or DC system fans. You can control the fans’ behavior via ASUS’ GPU Tweak II.
In these times, it isn’t ASUS Republic of Gamers if there aren’t any RGB lighting. Thus, the card comes with ASUS Aura Sync that allows you to customize the card’s lighting in a million different combinations of colors as well as sync the lighting of the card together with other ROG components and peripherals.
Display connections include a single Dual-Link DVI, two HDMI 2.0b ports, and two DisplayPort 1.4 ports. ASUS has decided to be more VR-friendly as most VR headsets in the market require two HDMI ports in order to work properly.
System and Benchmarks
We plugged the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G on our usual test bench to see how it will perform on synthetic benchmarks as well as real-life gaming benchmarks:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 RAM at 2933MHz, 16-18-18-18-38
- GPU: ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G
- Motherboard: ASUS Prime B350-Plus (BIOS 3401)
- PSU: Corsair RM650
- Cooler: Cryorig R1 Universal
- OS: Windows 10 Build 1703
- Driver Version: NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Driver 390.65
Synthetic Benchmarks
Gaming Benchmarks (1080p)
Temperature
All of ASUS’ heat dissipating technologies really comes together in this card. Despite running our benchmarks, the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G was only able to reach 69°C. It also kept quiet as the triple fans on low RPM was able to cool the card without so much as a peep from our test bench.
Conclusion
Due to its top-notch performance and cooling, the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G is a bit expensive. Priced at an SRP of PhP 38,500 or around USD 500, the card is expensive to say the least. It even comes close to the price of a reference GTX 1080, which at the price will be a better deal considering that the GTX 1080 is a much more powerful card and comes with faster GDDR5X memory.
In this GPU-strapped climate, getting the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G at its official SRP is going to be a steal. If this climate still holds true in the coming months, then getting this card would be a smart buy short of getting a GTX 1080 or even a GTX 1080 Ti.
With its performance, cooling capabilities, and price (considering the circumstance at the time of this review), we’re going to give the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti A8G our recommended award. If you see this card out in the wild within reason of its SRP, then by all means get it as fast as you can.
