Want to have a card that’s more powerful/cheaper-to-run than a GTX Titan, but at half the cost, a GTX 1080 just isn’t cheap enough? You need a GTX 1070.
When NVidia announced the GTX 1080, their first graphics card based on the Pascal architecture, people understandably got quite excited. Here’s a graphics card that’s got more grunt than their previous beastly flagship – the GTX Titan – but it uses much less power, and costs about half the price. It seemed like a no brainer, but just in case that wasn’t a good enough deal for you, they immediately followed it up with the GTX 1080’s cheaper little brother: the NVidia GTX 1070.
What’s the difference between a GTX 1080 and a GTX 1070? Here’s the pertinent stats, like a game of graphics card Top Trumps:
GTX 1080 specs:
- CUDA Cores: 2560
- Core Clock: 1607MHz
- Boost Clock: 1733MHz
- VRAM: 8GB GDDR5X
- TFLOP: 9
- Memory Clock: 10Gbps
- Memory Bus Width: 256-bit
- TDP: 180W
- Transistors: 7.2b
- Manufacturing process: TSMC 16nm
- Founders Edition price: £619 | $699 US
GTX 1070 specs:
- CUDA Cores: 1920 (-640)
- Core Clock: 1506MHz (-101)
- Boost Clock: 1683MHz (-50)
- VRAM: 8GB GDDR5 (-)
- TFLOP: 6.5 (-2.5)
- Memory Clock: 8 Gbps (-2)
- Memory Bus Width: 256-bit (=)
- TDP: 150W (-30)
- Transistors: 7.2b (=)
- Manufacturing process: TSMC 16nm (=)
- Founder’s Edition price: £399 | $449 US (-£220 | $250)
In real terms? The GTX 1070 isn’t that much further behind the GTX 1080, with the biggest practical differences being the slightly cheaper – and therefore, slower – GDDR5 memory technology, and the reduction in CUDA Cores and clock speed ultimately leading to a lower total TFLOP output. That being said, the GTX 1070 Founders Edition will draw less power, run cooler, cost a lot less to operate, and is also two-thirds the price of its bigger brother. That’s a hell of a saving and could be the deciding factor for many a discerning purchaser.
Think of it this way: you can compare all the figures and statistics and benchmarks you like, but once you’ve bitten the bullet and bought one, you’ll never think about it again. It’s a bit like the time we spend agonising over a new TV in the electronics store. You can pull apart the relative benefits of one panel over the other when they’re all sat side-by-side, but when you’ve bought one, it’s the only one you’ll have in your living room and there’ll be nothing to compare it to.
When you buy a GTX 1070 it will still – without a shadow of a doubt – be the best graphics card you’ve ever bought, deliver amazing high-end graphics and super-smooth VR experiences, but you’ll also be able to spend that leftover cash on additional upgrades, or just a stack of new games to enjoy on your spanking new card.
