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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 review: A Titan X at less than half the price

By Koh Wanzi - 31 May 2016
Launch SRP: S$768

Conclusion

Is this what mainstream performance looks like now?

A Titan X, but at half the price.

For all the beastly performance figures put out by the GeForce GTX 1080, the 1070 might actually be the more impressive card if you discount the raw performance numbers. At US$449 for the Founders Edition, it serves up performance on par with the GeForce GTX Titan X, and even manages to edge it out in certain DirectX 12 games. Remember, the Titan X is a US$999 card, and we’re still beginning to wrap our heads around the fact that NVIDIA has brought previously ultra-enthusiast levels of performance to a GeForce GTX x70 card in just one generation.

Like its predecessors, the GeForce GTX 1070 sits on the line between the mainstream and performance segments, and all of a sudden, one generation’s enthusiast card is the next generation’s mainstream GPU. It seems almost an injustice to characterize the GeForce GTX 1070 as a mainstream card, but there’s really no avoiding the fact that at US$449 (for a Founders Edition card), the card is within the reach of mainstream consumers who want more performance to keep up with the latest games and VR applications.

This may be NVIDIA's most attractive proposition yet.

The GeForce GTX 970 launched at US$349 back in late 2014, so you might also say that there are countervailing forces – in the form increased prices and the Founders Edition premium – that are working against the democratization of bleeding edge performance. As we noted in our review of the GeForce GTX 1080, NVIDIA wants to turn the cards it produces in-house into their own line of profit, and AMD’s lack of a proper response has allowed it to do so with impunity. After all, we don’t live in a perfect world, and we’d be kidding ourselves if we expected businesses to automatically put consumers’ interests first without some stiff competition.

But we don’t want to take anything away from what NVIDIA has achieved with the GeForce GTX 1070. The Founders Edition price premium aside, the fact is still that a whole lot of gamers are now going to be able to enjoy a level of performance that used to be prohibitively expensive. Maybe the card isn’t as cheap as it could have been had AMD been more competitive, but progress is still progress, and enthusiast levels of performance are now far more accessible than before. Let's not forget that NVIDIA also announced that non-reference (Founders Edition) cards will be available from US$379, so there's definitely going to be more affordable options later this year.

There’s also reason to hope that as this sort of performance becomes the norm at these price points, we might see prices drop in succeeding generations. And if you’re currently rocking a GeForce GTX 980 or 970, running out to pick up a GeForce GTX 1070 when it launches on 10 June will net you a very significant performance upgrade. Truly, this is a great time to be a PC gamer.

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9.0
  • Performance 9
  • Features 9
  • Value 9
The Good
Delivers ultra-enthusiast performance at affordable price
Excellent built quality and attractive design
Low power consumption
Decent overclocking headroom
The Bad
No GDDR5X memory
"Reference" design now comes with extra price premium
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