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The PNY GTX 1070 XLR8 OC is a good GTX 1070 solution thanks to a worthwhile out-of-the-box overclock and an effective triple-fan cooling solution.
Out-of-the-box core speeds are up by around 100MHz (114MHz for the boost clock) against a reference-clocked GTX 1070 model. This gives PNY's card a small performance improvement in games that made it consistently faster than the GTX 1070 FE by a slight percentage. The XLR8 OC card didn't use much extra power, either, and system-wide energy usage stayed below 250W while running Unigine Heaven.
Overclocking performance was fine – we added 100MHz to the GPU core clock and took the memory up to 8.6Gbps effective. The actual core clock was only around 50MHz higher due to the way in which GPU Boost 3.0 scales the default frequency. But adding the increased memory bandwidth to the slightly higher core clock gave a performance boost of 6% in Gears of War 4 and 8% in Rise of the Tomb Raider. At those 4K resolutions, every additional ounce of performance is a good thing.
The XLR8 cooler is where PNY's card shows very good performance. Attention was paid to cooling of the MOSFETs and memory chips, which is always good to see. Temperatures were always held below 60°C in our testing and the fans never had to push past the 50% speed mark. This resulted in superb acoustic performance that makes the card highly likely to be quieter than one's chassis fans or AIO cooler.
With that said, the lack of a 0dB fan mode is disappointing from the perspective of moving towards complete elimination of fan noise under low load. Stopping the fans when they aren't required also has benefits such as improving the lifespan of their bearings and also reducing the amount of dust drawn into the heatsink fin array.
Another disappointment comes in the styling. We can't complain about the red and black heatsink as it is implemented well and its appeal is down to individual taste. But the decision to use red LEDs in today's world of RGB-everything is bizarre, especially when PNY is pricing the XLR8 OC as one of the premium GTX 1070 partner boards.
The PNY GTX 1070 XLR8 OC sells for around £455 in the UK. Amazon have the card listed at just over £470. This is towards the highest point for GTX 1070 pricing and PNY is going to have difficulty competing with faster out-of-the-box models from the likes of ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte or even EVGA's liquid-cooled GTX 1070 Hybrid solution. With that said, the strong performance of PNY's XLR8 cooler should not be ignored and the card's styling may appeal to certain buyers.
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Pros:
- XLR8 cooling solution delivers good performance with low load noise output.
- Inherent power efficiency from the GTX 1070 is retained, despite PNY's overclock.
- MOSFETs and memory chips are actively cooled by the large heatsink.
- Can boost over 1900MHz out of the box.
- Reference GTX 1070 PCB and similar dimensions – good for aftermarket cooling and mini-ITX usage.
Cons:
- Red LEDs only – not RGB or able to be switched off.
- No 0dB fan mode to preserve bearing lifespan and minimise dust accumulation in the heatsink.
- Priced against models with higher out-of-the-box core speeds or even liquid cooling solutions.
KitGuru says: A solid factory-overclocked card outfitted with PNY's effective XLR8 cooler. A good GTX 1070 offering but a price drop would aid its competitiveness.
That is one very unattractive card. One might even say “Fugly.”
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Nice card in a sea of cards of this type but at least it handles the temps very well like you said never going above 60c is very nice. If I was in a market for a 1070 those temps would be very compelling for sure. Sure it don’t have all the whistles and bells of the RGB lighting and if that makes it fugly to some then so be it I guess & yes the lack of LED lighting does appeal to more than a few people out there in a market where everything is RGB LED lit it is nice to see a product that just does what it says & in this case lets you play your games without worrying about anything else.
Dumb question – you’re using MSI Afterburner, so is it possible to alter the fan curve of this card such that it’s at 0% speed at a certain range? Or do the fans actually just refuse to drop to 0 RPM?
GTX 980 Ti AIB cards are still A HELL OF A STRONG GPU! If you use MSI Afterburner – and know how to tweak enough to get your GTX 980 Ti to 1400+ MHZ core at all times when under any load, you are WELL AHEAD of anything a GTX 1070 can accomplish!
If, like me, you are a hardcore tweaker, and have a TOP TIER GTX 980 Ti, such as my Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980 Ti – and you manage 1503 Core, with 8 GHZ Effective VRAM as I have, you are ABOVE Stock FE 1080s! Seriously, in every benchmark I have done comparisons with (ESPECIALLY VR) My G1 980 Ti is TIED OR AHEAD of SOME GTX 1080 results! In the Steam VR Benchmark, I was actually ahead of over HALF of the submitted GTX 1080 results!
In VR – it seems that for all intents and purposes, the GTX 980 Ti when OCed like I have done, is TIED with or AHEAD of most GTX 1080s!
And that REALLY matters to me, as I own the AMAZING HTC Vive!
Also: God I remember how GIGABYTE USED to be the BEST OF THE BEST when it came to the GTX 900/Maxwell series GPUs! The G1 Gaming was STILL TOP TIER- and Gigabyte only built the Gaming Xtreme to blow the Zotac AMP! Extreme out of the water, which it did. But as for build quality and function, for Maxwell ALL Gigabyte G1 Gaming GPUs were THE BEST! My G1 980 Ti is as solid as a Brick front and back, and I feel like I could use the thing to bash a hole in my wall without causing ANY damage to the card!
Move up the the Pascal and Polaris days: G1 Gaming has become mid tier, plasticy and built with mid level components. Gigabyte introduced the new “Aorus” as the top tier, and IT is CHINSY! The Shroud is made of SUCH THIN METAL that in shipping, for Jayz2cents the FIRST one he got was bent so badly that the middle fan could not even spin! Just a few days ago he got another one from Gigabyte, and showed that you can LITERALLY snap pieces off of the shroud without using ANY force! The whole damned card is FLOPPY!
Also everyone who OWN the GTX 1080/1080 Ti Aorus says it has TERRIBLE sag, and again is chinsy as hell!
To me that is SAD! Gigabyte REALLY went ALL OUT on the G1 Gaming Series – and FFS they built a 2 slot cooler that dissipates 600 watts of heat! A cooler that has 5x 8mm and 1x 6mm heatpipes all of which go DIRECTLY over the GPU and the majority of the VRAM chips – and not only is it GORGEOUS – but it is DEADLY EFFECTIVE! Even with my 1503 Core and 8 GHZ VRAM – my card NEVER gets hotter than 67 C in gaming – at which point the fans are at 90% and are just BARELY audible when my AC or room fan is not running!
I actually bought my G1 Gaming GTX 980 Ti early August, 2016 AFTER all the benchmarks had been done! I KNEW people would be dumping their 980 Ti’s (and Fury./Fury X so I thought… But they still sold for $400+ at the time) – so I went onto eBay, and found them selling between $320 and $400 at MOST! For a GPU that I KNEW was more potent than a GTX 1070 – and with proper OCing could reach near GTX 1080 performance – back when an FE 1070 WOULD have cost me $470! And I bid on the AiB models that I knew could OC well, eventually I won my G1 GTX 980 Ti for $355 shipped to my door in BRAND NEW condition! The guy even cleaned it and applied IC diamond which he told me after I won – and I checked to see if it was true. And I was THRILLED when I found I could hit 1500+ Stable after some tweaking to voltage, frequency, fan curves – etc!
Whereas my reference GTX 770 before it – at about 65% my 770 was as loud as my 980 Ti is at 100%
From what I understand, theoretically it SHOULD be possible to drop fans to 0% – unless there is firmware that prevents it in the case of Reference or “Founders Edition” blower style cards. But I would NOT think PNY has the same firmware as a stock FE 1070, besides the overclock, the fans never ramp above 50% or so, whereas an FE card would got up to 65%.
So while I cannot guarantee that it would work, it SHOULD work, though even if it does not work, as long as the firmware allows for 30% fans speed or below, you really are not in danger of wearing the fans out, and at such a speed, you should not be able to hear them at all.