The GeForce GTX 1070 Ti marks Nvidia’s final foray into the Pascal architecture. It is the last bastion of the said architecture, melding the best of GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080’s features. That is, with a mission to go head to head with AMD’s Radeon RX Vega 56. Granted, we do not have any RX cards to compare with the GTX 1070 Ti. But, we have the GTX 1050 up to the GTX 1080 Ti to check out the card’s performance across our charts.
Table of Contents
Technical Specifications
Now, our card’s model is the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Mini. The smallest GTX 1070 Ti in the market as of this review at 8.3 inches. This makes the card compatible with most SFF systems available in the market. Learn more from the official product page and get it at Amazon.
| MODEL | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 1070 TI | ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 TI Mini | GeForce GTX 1080 |
| SHADER UNITS | 1920 | 2432 | 2432 | 1920 |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| GPU | GP104 | GP104 | GP104 | GP104 |
| TRANSISTOR COUNT | 7.2B | 7.2B | 7.2B | 7.2B |
| MEMORY CAPACITY | 8 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| MEMORY TYPE | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5X |
| MEMORY BUS WIDTH | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
| CORE CLOCK | 1506 – 1683 MHz+ | 1607 – 1683 MHz+ | 1607 – 1683 MHz+ | 1506 – 1733 MHz+ |
| MEMORY CLOCK | 2000 MHz | 2000 MHz | 2000 MHz | 2500 MHz |
| TDP | 150W | 180W | 180W | 180W |
Packaging and Accessories
The GTX 1070 Ti Mini comes in the usual ZOTAC packaging. Gray and yellow sure are the company’s flagship color combinations, allowing gamers to take an easy guess that it is a ZOTAC product even from afar.
The graphics card comes with a quick installation guide, a software disc, a case badge and even a 6+6 to 8-pin power adapter. No fancy stuff here, just the essentials with added spice.
Design, Build and Connectivity
The card is down right one of the best GTX 1070 TI when it comes to aesthetics; even so if we’re to add the size into the equation. It’s a cheeky card with an 8.3″ of length, featuring dual 90mm fans and a gun metal shroud. The card had these chevrons that lights up in Blue fashion together with the ZOTAC logo at the side.
Looking at the back, we could see that the part of the card’s length is actually due to its cooler. It extends roughly at about 1.3 inches, making the PCB real-estate at just around 7 inches. The back-plate is a nice addition for looks and protection from the elements.
Despite the size, the ZOTAC GTX 1070 Ti Mini comes with proper cooling. It has 4 heat pipes and the GDDR5 chips gets a proper active cooling as well. Power is provided by an 8-pin connector.
There are 5 display options to choose from, with 3 of those being DisplayPort 1.4 connections. Even with 5 ports present, cooling is definitely far from hindered.
Test Setup
The system performance shall be evaluated by various benchmarking tools and applications. We are testing this system with the high-performance settings enabled at the OS, with the default UEFI configuration. Background processes such as anti-viruses and third-party applications are disabled as well. Outlined below are the applications and benchmark tools for reference:
| TEST SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS | |
| PROCESSOR | Intel Core i5 6600K |
| MOTHERBOARD | ASUS Z170-A |
| COOLER | Cryorig C1 Top Flow |
| MEMORY | Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR4 @ 2666MHz 2x4GB |
| GRAPHICS | ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1060 OC 6GB |
| STORAGE | Crucial BX200 480GB |
| POWER | Corsair RM850 850W |
| DISPLAY | ASUS MG278Q |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro |
TEMPERATURE, POWER AND NOISE:
- Aida64 Extreme Edition – Stability Test
SYNTHETIC PERFORMANCE:
- 3DMARK 2013 – Firestrike Presets.
- Luxmark – OpenCL benchmark.
- Aida64 Extreme Edition – GPGPU Benchmark
GAMING PERFORMANCE:
- Overwatch – Ultra Settings, Render Scale 100%, V-SYNC off
- Battlefield 4 – Ultra Settings, V-SYNC off
- DIRT: Rally – Ultra Settings, V-SYNC off
- Project CARS – Maximum Settings, V-SYNC off
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Ultra Settings, FXAA off, V-SYNC off
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Ultra Settings, HairWorks off, V-SYNC off
Temperature
The graphics card thermal figures are taken during a 15 minute idle, and a 15 minute load via AIDA64 Extreme Edition’s GPU Stress Test. The ambient temperature is checked at 27°C (±1°C), with values extracted via HWiNFO and GPU-Z.
Power
The total system power consumption are taken during a 15 minute idle, and a 15 minute load via AIDA64 Extreme Edition’s GPU Stress Test. The measurements are taken by a watt-meter.
Noise
The graphics card noise levels are taken during a 15 minute idle, and a 15 minute load via AIDA64 Extreme Edition’s GPU Stress Test. The ambient sound level is 34dBA (±1dBA), with measurements taken by a sound level meter situated exactly 12 inches away from the card.
Despite the size, the ZOTAC GTX 1070 Ti Mini featured an excellent cooling performance on our bench. It deserves praise really, considering that it’s consuming power within the GTX 1080’s area. While the dual 90mm fans doesn’t feature 0dB technology, it is relatively quiet. That said, it wins at the temperature and noise departments while power draw is just so-so.
Synthetic
3DMark 2013 is a suite of benchmarks catered for the gamers and enthusiasts. The total system scores from each presets will be used.
LuxMark is an OpenCL cross-platform benchmark tool and has become, over past years, one of the most used OpenCL benchmarks.
The Aida64 Extreme Edition GPGPU Benchmark is designed to measure GPGPU computing performance via different workloads. Every benchmark methods are designed to work on up to 16 GPUs, including AMD, Intel and nVIDIA GPUs, in any combination.
Interesting benchmarks we got here from 3DMark and LUXMark. 3DMark benchmarks suggests that on 1080P, the GTX 1070 Ti is no faster than the GTX 1070 (OC variants), while 1440P and 2160P proved that it is just a tad faster. LUXMark shows that it is just next to the GTX 1080 Ti when it comes to OpenCL performance, with the GTX 1080 showing a lackluster performance compared to both lower-end cards. Finally, we get to see the 1070 Ti’s Single-Precision performance which is just about 4% lower than the GTX 1080. You can also check some of the best GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card in 2019 to evaluate and possibly make a smart decision by getting a 1080 Ti instead – if you can afford to spend a few bucks more.
Gaming
Overwatch is Blizzard Entertainment’s critically acclaimed First Person Shooter, running on a custom game engine utilizing the DirectX 11 API. Settings are set to Ultra with a Render Scale set to 100%.
Battlefield 4 is Electronic Art’s popular First Person Shooter, running on the Frostbite 3 game engine developed by DICE utilizing the DirectX 11 and the Mantle API. Settings are set to Ultra.
DIRT: Rally is CODEMASTER’s take on the rally racing game genre. It utilizes the EGO game engine with support for the DirectX 11 API. Settings are set to Ultra.
Project CARS is Slightly Mad Studios’ latest simulation racing game, running on the Madness game engine utilizing DirectX 11 support. Settings are set to maximum.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda’s critically acclaimed Action Adventure RPG. Skyrim utilizes the Creation Engine with DirectX 10 support. Settings are set to Ultra with V-SYNC turned off.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is CDProjekt RED’s award winning Action Adventure RPG. The Witcher 3 utilizes the REDengine 3 with DirectX 11 support. Settings are set to Ultra.
Gaming performance is where we could see how the GTX 1070 Ti sits between the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080. On most titles tested, the GTX 1070 Ti is just around 8% slower than the GTX 1080, while it is at best, 9% faster than the GTX 1070 (Again, versus OC variants). We are unable to achieve the double digit gains due to the variants of the cards we have but if we’re to consider the pricing of ZOTAC’s 1070 and 1070 Ti cards we got, the 1070 Ti Mini gets a good head start at $449. That’s versus the GTX 1070 Amp! Extreme at $464.
Software
The FireStorm 2.0 is a new and improved graphics card utility from ZOTAC. It houses tons of options to optimize and customize your ZOTAC based graphics card. That said, you could use the app to adjust fan speed settings, allow GPU temperature target limit and so much more.
The ZOTAC FireStorm 2.0 also comes with a monitoring tool. This is specially useful to check for clock stability issues.
Conclusion
With the GTX 1070 Ti tested, it is certain that this card sits between the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080. While it is nothing new based on other reviews, testing the GTX 1070 Ti Mini vs factory overclocked the GTX 1070 models provided us many things. First off, is its viability as an upgrade from the GTX 1060. If you’ve got the card, shelling out for the GTX 1070 Ti is a better choice over the GTX 1070. That is if we’re going to account for the card’s performance vs the top-end GTX 1070s. The card we got is essentially a stock GTX 1070 Ti and holding itself over the best GTX 1070 models is a feat on its own.
Product stacking and viability aside, the arrival of the GTX 1070 Ti matters not much when it comes to the pricing of other Nvidia cards. That said, Nvidia made sure that it is indeed a true option for those looking for a card with a power near the GTX 1080 without shelling in for its price tag. While I’d like to say something about AMD cards on this area, we never had the chance to test Radeon products for quite a while now.
As for the card specifics, ZOTAC made sure that the GTX 1070 Ti Mini lands with features and performance apt for its GPU’s capabilities. Sure it’s made for SFF PCs that could house 8.3″ cards but it is no slouch at the cooling, noise and even the performance department. Warranty’s still at 5 years too which is a testament of ZOTAC’s commitment to their consumers.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Mini
Summary
As for the card specifics, ZOTAC made sure that the GTX 1070 Ti Mini lands with features and performance apt for its GPU’s capabilities. Sure it’s made for SFF PCs that could house 8.3″ cards but it is no slouch at the cooling, noise and even the performance department. Warranty’s still at 5 years too which is a testament of ZOTAC’s commitment to their consumers.
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