The last months of 2020 were marked by a number of major announcements from NVIDIA. The company managed to completely update the lineup of older video cards. We have already introduced you to the new video cards made by ASUS and MSI, now it’s time to take a look at Gigabyte’s products. Consider the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming OC 8G video card, evaluate its design features and the potential of the cooling system. Let’s check the overclocking capabilities and compare the performance with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and Radeon RX 6800 in the updated list of gaming applications.

Gigabyte GV-N3070GAMING OC-8GD

The video card comes in a box with a bright design. The device itself is securely fixed inside in the form of polyethylene foam. Additional accessories are not provided, only instructions are included in the kit.

This model is made in a recognizable design inherent in the Gigabyte Gaming series. A massive cooling system with three fans is used. The cooler is covered with a plastic case made in black and silver colors. Full length is 28.6 cm.

The reverse side is covered with a metal plate. There are slots on the side under the cooler to reduce the resistance to the overall airflow inside the case.

Thickness Gigabyte 2.5 slots.

In the corner there are two power connectors — six and eight pins.

On the side there is a BIOS switch that allows you to select one of two firmware — OC / Silent with different fan control algorithms.

Provided RGB backlight Gigabyte inscription on the side.

The video card has four ports for image output — two HDMI and two DisplayPort.

Uses WindForce 3X cooling system. The radiator uses five heat pipes and consists of three sections of plates.

Implemented direct contact with the surface of the graphics chip. Five tubes just cover the entire surface of the crystal. The heatsink also has contact pads for heat removal from memory chips and power circuit elements.

We can say that this is a standard design for older Gigabyte Gaming models.

A casing with three fans with a diameter of 85 mm is screwed onto the radiator.

The fans stand out with their unique design, which has been used in Gigabyte products for a long time. The impeller has a large number of blades with a «visor» and grooves on the surface. This shape enhances the airflow. The fans also rotate in different directions to better blow through the areas between them.

The power connectors are made in the form of a remote block connected via cables.

The short board resembles a modified version of the reference PCB with a large number of elements. The GPU power system has eight phases.

The heart of the video card is the GA104-300-A1 processor with 5888 stream processors. Eight gigabytes of memory are typed in Samsung K4780325BC-HC14 chips.

The Gigabyte GV-N3070GAMING OC-8GD operates at an increased Boost Clock of 1815 MHz (default 1725 MHz). The effective memory frequency is 14000 MHz.

Testing was conducted inside an open Antec NX800 case at a room temperature of 21°C. In most games, real Boost frequencies are close to the level of 1935-1965 MHz (bottom left parameters monitoring during Horizon Zero Dawn testing). In Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, the GPU frequency dropped down to 1905 MHz (lower right screenshot). We observed similar frequency performance with the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio.

In gaming mode, the fans spin up to 1700-1860 rpm, keeping the temperature within 66 ° C. Given the variable speed of rotation, the overall noise level is low. But in harsher operating conditions inside a case with poor ventilation, the noise will be more pronounced. In idle, the fans stop, ensuring complete silence.

If silence is your priority, enable BIOS Silent. In this mode, the fan speed in The Division 2 decreased by about 100 rpm, and the temperature rose by several degrees.

Overclocking results are comparable to MSI Gaming. The processor is accelerated by 130 MHz, the memory has overcome the bar of 16 GHz.

In many games, Boost was kept at the level of 2070-20825 MHz, in The Division 2 there were drops to 1995 MHz. The final memory frequency is 16150 MHz. To maintain stability, we manually fixed the fan speed at 1900 rpm. Depending on how your case is configured, you can leave the graphics card in automatic mode or adjust the rotation speed for more intense cooling.

The GeForce RTX 3070 has full support for NVIDIA’s RTX technologies. In games, you can use ray-traced effects and DLSS mode for faster performance. Recent high-profile releases include Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. In the coming days, the horror The Medium will be released with support for reflections and realistic shading based on tracing. Similar effects will also appear in Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach and FIST: Forged in Shadow Torch.

NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is a special AI-powered anti-aliasing and image scaling technique. Allows you to get a high-resolution frame based on less input data, increasing performance and simultaneously providing high-quality anti-aliasing of the edges of polygons. We considered the features of this mode in the DLSS review using the Death Stranding game as an example.

DLSS is supported by all ray-traced games. It is also included in some non-trace projects to improve overall performance. The latter include Call of Duty: Warzone and Outriders.

NVIDIA’s recent addition to the roster of innovations is NVIDIA Reflex technology, which optimizes the graphics pipeline to reduce system latency. The technology is designed to increase responsiveness to the player’s actions in dynamic competitive games. Valorant, Apex Legends, Overwatch and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege have received NVIDIA Reflex support.

GeForce RTX graphics cards can also be used to accelerate content creation applications within the NVIDIA Studio platform. This is an acceleration of certain operations in video and graphics programs, including products from Autodesk, Adobe, Blackmagic Design, and others. A complete list of compatible applications is available on the NVIDIA website.