Introduction

GeForce GTX 1070 Market Segment Analysis GeForce

GTX 970 Radeon

R9 290X Radeon

R9 390X GeForce

GTX 780 Ti GeForce

GTX 980 Radeon R9

Fury Radeon R9

Fury X GeForce

GTX 980 Ti GeForce

GTX Titan X GeForce

GTX 1070 MSI GTX

1070 Gaming X GeForce

GTX 1080 Shader Units 1664 2816 2816 2880 2048 3584 4096 2816 3072 1920 1920 2560 ROPs 56 64 64 48 64 64 64 96 96 64 64 64 Graphics Processor GM204 Hawaii Hawaii GK110 GM204 Fiji Fiji GM200 GM200 GP104 GP104 GP104 Transistors 5200M 6200M 6200M 7100M 5200M 8900M 8900M 8000M 8000M 7200M 7200M 7200M Memory Size 4 GB 4 GB 8 GB 3 GB 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB 6 GB 12 GB 8 GB 8 GB 8 GB Memory Bus Width 256 bit 512 bit 512 bit 384 bit 256 bit 4096 bit 4096 bit 384 bit 384 bit 256 bit 256 bit 256 bit Core Clock 1051 MHz+ 1000 MHz 1050 MHz 876 MHz+ 1126 MHz+ 1000 MHz 1050 MHz 1000 MHz+ 1000 MHz+ 1506 MHz+ 1582 MHz+ 1607 MHz+ Memory Clock 1750 MHz 1250 MHz 1500 MHz 1750 MHz 1750 MHz 500 MHz 500 MHz 1750 MHz 1750 MHz 2002 MHz 2002 MHz 1251 MHz Price $265 $270 $310 $390 $360 $530 $600 $440 $1150 $379 / $449 $459 $599 / $699

NVIDIA released their GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 not long ago, featuring the company's new Pascal architecture, a brand-new 16 nanometer production process, and GDDR5X memory. In our launch-day review, we were truly impressed by how well NVIDIA claimed the performance throne with the 1080, but also the GTX 1070 managed to impress with its high-end performance at an attractive sub-$400 price-point. The reference-design card, however, is sold at a $70 premium over the GTX 1070 Founders Edition sitting at $449.The GeForce GTX 1070 uses the same Pascal GP104 graphics processor as the GTX 1080, with just 1920 enabled shaders instead of 2560, which also affects the number of texture units that are down to 120 from 160. With 64, the number of ROPs is the same, and so is the memory capacity at 8 GB. However, today's review subject, like all GTX 1070 variants, uses GDDR5 memory, unlike the GTX 1080 that comes with GDDR5X. GDDR5X offers twice the bandwidth at the same operating frequency, so NVIDIA is running the GeForce GTX 1070's memory at a frequency of 2 GHz in order to make up for that.In this review, we are taking a close look at the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X, which uses the company's new TwinFrozr VI cooling solution, which is mated with a custom-designed PCB by the company. The two enable a significant factory overclock for more performance and, hopefully, less noise than the GTX 1070 Founders Edition. We also hope that the thermal throttling of the Founders Edition is a thing of the past, which would yield additional performance.With a retail price of $459, the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X in this review is more expensive than the Founders Edition.