Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 AMP Holo review: Unique looks and cool performance

A new look for a new GPU generation

The Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 AMP Holo is one of the more unique custom card designs to hit the market. Right off the bat, the first thing you notice is what Zotac refers to as its HoloBlack design. The cooling shroud boasts an electroplated finish with a distinctive iridescent holographic look. It's a one-of-a-kind design and an interesting departure from cramming the shroud with RGB LEDs, although the card still supports Spectra 2.0 lighting with illuminated lighting strips that run along the sides. 

The cooler is a hefty 2.5-slot design, topped with two large 100mm fans. This means that the card is fairly wide, which may pose an issue if you're thinking of installing it in a smaller, narrower case. These are new 11-blade fans that come fitted with the upgraded IceStorm 2.0 cooler, and they're supposed to increase airflow by up to 10%. 

Both fans also support Active Fan Control, which lets you control each fan independently when using the Zotac Gaming FireStorm software. This means you can adjust the fan speed of each fan and increase airflow only to where it's needed. In addition, Zotac's semi-passive FREEZE fan stop tech means that the fans will stop spinning entirely when the card is idle, reducing noise and overall wear-and-tear on the fans. 

The aluminum fin stack is paired with six copper heat pipes to extract heat and distribute it more efficiently. Zotac says it has also implemented a new heat pipe layout to increase the surface area that comes in direct contact with the GPU in a more densely packed space.

To cap things off, Zotac has gone with a metal wraparound backplate that has been outfitted with its own RGB lighting. There are cut-outs in the far edge, presumably to help hot air vent from the top of the card. The company has included a metal support bracket as well, which should help provide additional structural reinforcement against the card sagging in your case.

Finally, the card is powered by two 8-pin power connectors, which may seem a tad bit excessive for the GeForce RTX 3070 that is rated for power consumption up to 240W. Round the back, you'll find three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors and one HDMI 2.1 port. 

Test setup

Here are the specifications of our test rig:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU
• MSI MEG X570 Godlike
• Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD
• Windows 10 Home 64-bit
• ASUS ROG Swift PG43UQ 4K Gaming Monitor

We'll be comparing the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 AMP Holo against the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition and MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio. 

The following synthetic benchmarks and games were run, with the games chosen from a wide range of genres to give a better indication of performance across different segments:

• 3DMark
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War: Three Kingdoms (Battle)
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Metro: Exodus
• Watch Dogs: Legion
• Control

3DMark

3DMark is a synthetic benchmark that tests graphics and computational performance at different resolutions, starting at 1080p and going all the way up to 4K. A series of two graphics test, one physics test, and then a combined test stresses your hardware in turn to assess its performance.

The Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 AMP Holo is mostly even with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition – the two have the same 1,500MHz base clock, but the Zotac card has a slightly higher 1,785MHz boost clock, compared to the 1,725MHz on the Founders Edition model. 

1440p Benchmarks (Max Settings)

However, despite the close performance in 3DMark, the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 AMP Holo fell behind its Founders Edition counterpart in real-world gaming benchmarks. This was slightly disappointing, and the performance differential was as large as 27% in Metro: Exodus. 

4K Benchmarks (Max Settings)

This was the case as well at 4K settings, with the Zotac card trailing the Founders Edition card by roughly 14% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Fortunately, the numbers were more even in the other games tested, with fewer gaps in performance between the two. 

Ray Tracing Benchmarks (4K, Max Settings)

With ray tracing turned on, performance is cut by more than half. Performance here is rather a mixed bag as well however, and both the Zotac and NVIDIA cards traded blows with each other. That said, given these numbers, it's unlikely you'll want to run the Zotac card at 4K with ray tracing turned on. 

Temperature and power

The Zotac card performs quite well in the cooling department, posting a respectable 67°C in 3DMark's Time Spy Extreme Stress test. It pulls slightly more power than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition, likely owing to its slightly higher GPU boost clock speeds. 

Conclusion

The Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 AMP Holo sports a really unique, interesting design. The iridescent finish is something that no other card offers, and the RGB lighting will ensure that it really stands out in your case. Unfortunately, performance was a bit of a mixed bag, with the card lagging behind the Founders Edition model at times. Thermal performance was solid however, and Zotac's cooling upgrades are really showing here.

It's a solid card for 1440p gaming, assuming you can even find one given the current situation with GPU availability, or lack thereof. The card is a tough sell given the current inflated prices though, and prices will need to normalise before it shows its true value. 

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