The NVIDIA GTX 1070 Ti Performance Review

[SKYMTL]

4K: Deus Ex – Mankind Divided / The Division

Deus Ex – Mankind Divided

Deus Ex titles have historically combined excellent storytelling elements with action-forward gameplay and Mankind Divided is no difference. This run-through uses the streets and a few sewers of the main hub city Prague along with a short action sequence involving gunplay and grenades.

The Division

The Division has some of the best visuals of any game available right now even though its graphics were supposedly downgraded right before launch. Unfortunately, actually benchmarking it is a challenge in and of itself. Due to the game’s dynamic day / night and weather cycle it is almost impossible to achieve a repeatable run within the game itself. With that taken into account we decided to use the in-game benchmark tool.

 

[SKYMTL]

4K: Doom / Fallout 4

Doom (Vulkan)

Not many people saw a new Doom as a possible Game of the Year contender but that’s exactly what it has become. Not only is it one of the most intense games currently around but it looks great and is highly optimized. In this run-through we use Mission 6: Into the Fire since it features relatively predictable enemy spawn points and a combination of open air and interior gameplay.

Fallout 4

The latest iteration of the Fallout franchise is a great looking game with all of its detailed turned to their highest levels but it also requires a huge amount of graphics horsepower to properly run. For this benchmark we complete a run-through from within a town, shoot up a vehicle to test performance when in combat and finally end atop a hill overlooking the town. Note that VSync has been forced off within the game's .ini file.

 

[SKYMTL]

4K: Gears of War 4 / Grand Theft Auto V

Gears of War 4

Like many of the other exclusive DX12 games we have seen, Gears of War 4 looks absolutely stunning and seems to be highly optimized to run well on a variety of hardware. In this benchmark we use Act III, Chapter III The Doorstep, a level that uses wide open views along with several high fidelity environmental effects. While Gears does indeed include a built-in benchmark we didn’t find it to be indicative of real-world performance.

Grand Theft Auto V

In GTA V we take a simple approach to benchmarking: the in-game benchmark tool is used. However, due to the randomness within the game itself, only the last sequence is actually used since it best represents gameplay mechanics.

 

[SKYMTL]

4K: Hitman / Overwatch

Hitman (2016)

The Hitman franchise has been around in one way or another for the better part of a decade and this latest version is arguably the best looking. Adjustable to both DX11 and DX12 APIs, it has a ton of graphics options, some of which are only available under DX12.

For our benchmark we avoid using the in-game benchmark since it doesn’t represent actual in-game situations. Instead the second mission in Paris is used. Here we walk into the mansion, mingle with the crowds and eventually end up within the fashion show area.

Overwatch

Overwatch happens to be one of the most popular games around right now and while it isn’t particularly stressful upon a system’s resources, its Epic setting can provide a decent workout for all but the highest end GPUs. In order to eliminate as much variability as possible, for this benchmark we use a simple “offline” Bot Match so performance isn’t affected by outside factors like ping times and network latency.

 

[SKYMTL]

4K: Far Cry Primal / Ghost Recon Wildlands

Far Cry Primal

It seems like every generation of our GPU testing has a Far Cry title in it and this one is no different. Far Cry Primal is yet another great looking open-ended world game from Ubisoft which takes you back to prehistoric times. This 60 second runthrough is taken from deep into the game taken within a forest in the far south of the main game map. It combines fire, substantial amounts of vegetation, animals and water into one benchmark. We have also noted that the in-game benchmark is highly inaccurate and does not give results that are properly aligned with actual gameplay performance.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands

While the latest Ghost Recon game isn’t compatible with DX12, it happens to be one of the best looking games released in quite some time. It also has an extensive set of in-game graphics options. This 90-second benchmark is based in the tropical jungle of Espiritu Santo as well as a vehicle drive into a slightly more arid zone. As with some other games, the in-game benchmark on this one is out to lunch and doesn’t give a good representation of what you can expect within gameplay.

 

[SKYMTL]

4K: Warhammer: Total War / Witcher 3

Warhammer: Total War

Unlike some of the latest Total War games, the hotly anticipated Warhammer title has been relatively bug free, performs well on all systems and still incorporates the level detail and graphics fidelity this series is known for. In this sequence, we use the in-game benchmarking tool to play back one of our own 40 second gameplay sessions which includes two maxed-out armies and includes all of the elements normally seen in standard gameplay. That means zooms and pans are used to pivot the camera and get a better view of the battlefield.

Witcher 3

Other than being one of 2015’s most highly regarded games, The Witcher 3 also happens to be one of the most visually stunning as well. This benchmark sequence has us riding through a town and running through the woods; two elements that will likely take up the vast majority of in-game time.

 

[SKYMTL]

Acoustics & Power Consumption

Acoustical Testing

What you see below are the baseline idle dB(A) results attained for a relatively quiet open-case system (specs are in the Methodology section) sans GPU along with the attained results for each individual card in idle and load scenarios. The meter we use has been calibrated and is placed at seated ear-level exactly 18” away from the GPU’s fan. For the load scenarios, Tomb Raider is used in order to generate a constant load on the GPU(s) over the course of 15 minutes.

There really isn’t anything new here for NVIDIA. The Founders Edition heatsink design has always been highly efficient in terms of both acoustics and temperature results. This thing isn’t whisper quiet but it is silent as the dead compared to AMD’s RX Vega series. Expect custom coolers to lower this value even more and I’ll be taking a look at a few of those in the coming weeks.

System Power Consumption

For this test we hooked up our power supply to a UPM power meter that will log the power consumption of the whole system twice every second. In order to stress the GPU as much as possible we used 15 minutes of Unigine Valley running on a loop while letting the card sit at a stable Windows desktop for 15 minutes to determine the peak idle power consumption.

Efficiency is the name of the game with Pascal and the GTX 1070 Ti hits performance per watt levels that the Vega 56 can only dream of. It also evenly splits the difference between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 quite neatly.

 

[SKYMTL]

Overclocking Results – Yes, There Are Some

Overclocking Results – Yes, There Are Some

Rumors about the overclocking capabilities of NVIDIA’s GTX 1070 Ti have undergone several permutations from it lacking overclocking completely (not true) to board partners being forced to utilize reference specs for their wares (sort of true). The reality is a bit more nuanced.

While end user overclocking is indeed supported, as usual it will be limited by each card’s TDP value. That TDP value can be modified upwards by the board partners so their products can reach higher clock speeds when both overclocked and running at reference clocks. In addition, custom cards are able to use software solutions like MSI’s Gaming App to institute preset overclock settings with the click of a button.

My overclocking experience with this Founders Edition card followed very much the same path as every other NVIDIA GPU launched in recent memory. Basically, over-voltage is limited to 100mV which in effect cuts down the amount of clock speed headroom there is. The final speeds this time around were just over 2GHz on the core while the memory hit pretty respectable clocks as well at 8.9Gbps.

The overall performance surpasses the GTX 1080 in some cases.

 

[SKYMTL]

Conclusion - A Great But Late Entry

Conclusion - A Great But Late Entry

The GTX 1070 Ti may not be the most interesting graphics card launched in the last two years but it has a very clear purpose, one that’s been achieved quite well. While many will wonder why NVIDIA launched this thing and ponder aloud about the limitations imposed on board partners (more on that later), there’s an obvious method behind their madness. Some of that reasoning I agree with though other bits remain head-scratchers.

In the introduction I mentioned why the GTX 1070 Ti likely exists –that being robust demand for GPUs, competition from the Vega 56 and a looming Christmas shopping season- and its general goals. On the flip side of that equation, its current performance positioning risks upsetting NVIDIA’s own lineup more than it threatens AMD. Let’s talk about that latter point for a moment and then get onto how threat mitigation factored into the GTX 1070 Ti’s launch.

Against the Vega 56, the GTX 1070 Ti mostly comes out ahead; sometimes it’s by the width of a nose hair while others by leaps and bounds. There are some situations like Call of Duty and Deus Ex where AMD’s card ekes out narrow wins though and I don’t expect this situation to change all that much with this season’s latest releases either. Where AMD naturally falls flat with its high power consumption and the fact there aren’t any custom versions available yet so its acoustical profile hasn’t received any help.

Aligning between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 is exactly where the GTX 1070 Ti was meant to stand and that’s exactly what it does. There is a trend that leans slightly towards GTX 1080-class performance but the lower core frequency and memory bandwidth insure a good amount of separation remains in place, especially at 4K. But speaking of 4K, I wouldn’t recommend anything under a GTX 1080 Ti for serious UHD resolution gaming anyways so that becomes a non-issue.

The GTX 1070 Ti will likely prove to be infinitely more vexing for NVIDIA’s board partners than for AMD. For starters it makes those pre-overclocked and custom cooled GTX 1070’s a very hard sell at anything more than a $20 premium. There’s also the limitation NVIDIA imposed on out-of-box clock speeds, a limit which enshrines the GTX 1080’s position without any fear the plucky 1070 Ti will impose itself into hallowed territory. It may be a controversial move but I also feel it is understandable to insure some product separation in what is a very busy lineup. Think of it this way: the $450 GTX 1070 Ti is simply taking the place of “premium” custom GTX 1070’s and you can still overclock it using the usual software tools.

The largest questions swirling around this launch will revolve around pricing and availability. Almost every graphics card has seen their retail prices go through more contortions than a Cirque de Soleil performer as of late and the GTX 1070 Ti likely won’t be any different. Right now its $450 price aligns extremely well with the RX Vega 56 from a price / performance standpoint and even if the Vega 56 was going for $400 (which it isn’t) I’d likely still lean towards the NVIDIA offering for the reasons mentioned above.

So there you have it. The GTX 1070 Ti is an excellent graphics card that’s a perfectly fit for the space between NVIDIA’s GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. There will be a few crises of identity for pre-overclocked GTX 1070’s which suddenly feel completely overpriced and NVIDIA’s lineup risks becoming a bit muddled but I don’t think there are any losers here. In my eyes, this is the best all-round graphics card you can buy right now, provided it remains around the $450 mark.