The Founder Edition is a performance beast and a gamers dream card. In the wild west it may be affordable but in India it is a luxury most can dream about and few can afford.
Nvidia GTX 1070 was launched in June 2016 in India and has been one of the top selling graphics card for PC Gamers. With AMD not competing in the High End GPU market and restricting to RX 480 which competes with the Nvidia GTX 1060. The Nvidia GTX 1070 is the best graphics card if you have a budget of more than 35K.
Though it is couple of month since the Nvidia GTX 1070 was launched I thought of doing a comparison between the recently launched Nvidia GTX 1060 and the Nvidia GTX 1070 to see how much faster is the Nvidia GTX 1070 compared to the Nvidia GTX 1060 as the drivers are more matured now.
At this stage the drivers from Nvidia are more matured and the results we will get in the different gaming titles will be the true reflection of the performance of both the cards are capable of achieving. Couple of weeks back we reviewed the Nvidia Galax GTX 1060 and we will use the same card to compare it with the Nvidia GTX 1070.
We have got a Founders Edition Nvidia GTX 1070 and will see how they both stack against each other.
Also I tested Adobe Photoshop and Adobe premiere pro to see if faster more expensive card makes a difference. Lets Also include our AMD R9 280 to see how much performance differential does both cards have compared to GTX 1070.
Also it will help gamers decide if they should upgrade their older cards like a GTX 950 , GTX 960, AMD R9 270 , 270X , 280 and 280X to the GTX 1060 or the 1070.
Packaging Nvidia GTX 1070 FE
A Closer Look at the Graphics Card and Design
The graphics card comes with a pleasing design more pleasing if you are a hardcore PC gamer like me. The 1070 has a similar overall design as I have seen on many older Nvidia Cards like the 980 Ti and 980.
There is a single fan on the founder edition and very good looking back plate which hides the circuits below it and gives the card a great premium look.
Watch for a pick below I have taken for the GTX 1070 in action inside my PC and the Glowing “Geforce GTX” adds the oomph to our monstrous gaming rig.
Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs GTX 1060 – Founder Edition GTX 1070 Review
Keys Specs Comparison Nvidia GTX 1070 FE and the Galax Nvidia GTX 1060 OC Edition:
| Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs Nvidia GTX 1060 Specs Comparison | ||
| Parameters | GTX 1070 | GTX 1060 |
| NVIDIA CUDA® Cores | 1920 | 1280 |
| Base Clock | 1506 | 1540 |
| Boost Clock | 1683 | 1759 |
| Overclock | 1900 | 2000 |
| Memory Speed | 8 GB PS | 8 GB PS |
| Memory Type | 8 GB GDDR5X | 6 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Width | 256- Bit | 192 – Bit |
| SLI | Yes | Yes |
| Max Resolution | 8K | 5K |
| Max GPU Temp | 94 degree C | 92 degree C |
| GPU Power | 150 Watts | 180 Watts |
| System Power | 500 Watts | 500 Watts |
| Connector | 8-Pin | 6 Pin |
| Nvidia Ansel , G-SYNC | Yes | Yes |
| Nvidia GPU Boost™ 3.0 | Yes | Yes |
| Support for DirectX 12 | Yes | Yes |
The Gaming RIG Setup and Hardware
PC GAMING TEST RIG
- Intel Core i7 Skylake 6th Gen 6700 K Clocked @ 4.2 GHz .
- 16 GB Corsair 3000 MHz RAM.
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 X Processor Cooler .
- Gigabyte Z170 Gaming X Series 7 Motherboard.
- Samsung Evo SSD 128 GB and 1 TB HDD Seagate.
- Haf 912 Cooler Master Cabinet.
- Dell FHD Monitor 1080P
- Cooler master 650 Watts Bronze PSU
- GPU –Nvidia GTX 1070 FE, GTX 1060 Galax Nvidia , AMD R9 280
- Open GL version 6.14 , Latest Radeon Drivers – 15.30
- Latest Nvidia Drivers – 368.81
In above image it is the Galax Nvidia GTX 1060 OC edition.
Let’s Check out the Gaming Benchmark for the Graphics card and Adobe Software Performance :
Gaming Benchmark Performance
We have taken minimum , Average and Maximum FPS recorded by means of FRAPS for the benchmark performance.
GTA 5 Performance 1080P
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs GTX 1060 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 38% faster
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs AMD R9 280 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 147% faster
Far Cry 4 Performance
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs GTX 1060 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 34% faster
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs AMD R9 280 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 143% faster
FallOut 4 Performance
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs GTX 1060 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 33% faster
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs AMD R9 280 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 115% faster
Battlefield 3 Performance
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs GTX 1060 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 0% faster
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs AMD R9 280 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 83% faster
Battlefield 4 Performance
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs GTX 1060 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 1% faster
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs AMD R9 280 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 141% faster
Witcher 3 Performance
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs GTX 1060 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 47% faster
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs AMD R9 280 Considering Avg FPS – GTX 1070 is 127% faster
Adobe Benchmarks
Adobe Premier Pro
Though the graph looks as if there is much of a difference between the 3 cards there is hardly 1-2 seconds difference. Does the 8 GB VRAM on the GTX 1070 out shines the 3 GB VRAM on the AMD R9 280, I don’t think you will find much of a difference in the Premier Pro performance while using the Nvidia GTX 1070 or GTX 1060 or even the AMD R9 280.
Adobe PhotoShop
The Adobe Photoshop threw a surprise and it was significantly quicker result for the Nvidia GTX 1070 for a large file which I rendered. I found the performance upgrade significant as the time for rendering dropped from 3.4 seconds to 2.1 seconds.
Temperature and Noise
The founder edition card runs a bit hot, but not too hot and temperatures were in control while gaming for long sessions. I liked the temperature profile of the GTX 1070 FE. The other two cards have 2 Dual fans which definitely help them to stay a bit cooler compared to the GTX 1070 FE.
Furmark Score
There is a significant performance jump as far as the synthetic Furmark score performance is concerned.
Concluding Thoughts – How Fast the Nvidia GTX 1070 Vs Nvidia GTX 1060
Playing everything on the GTX 1070 feels like a breeze with GTA 5 and Witcher 3 maxing out, you are least worried about FPS or anything else. The Nvidia GTX 1070 FE offers great performance and is a significant upgrade from the GTX 1060 and even more if you have something like a GTX 960 or 760 or an AMD R9 280.
The Nvidia GTX 1070 is 30% to 40% faster when compared to the Nvidia GTX 1060 on the pricing side it will cost you close to Rs 38,000 in India Vs Rs. 25,000 for the Nvidia GTX 1060.
While we tested everything on the 1080P display the GTX 1070 was an overkill for most of the titles, it will definitely be great for 2K display. But if you are planning a 4K Gaming PC build I would suggest to go with the GTX 1080 as it will be able to have good FPS for 4K resolution.
For most of the modern games the Nvidia GTX 1060 is more than sufficient for 1080P display but the 1070 makes you more future proof.
The Nvidia GTX 1070 was 130% faster compared to the AMD R9 280 and was even faster while working on Adobe Photoshop which is great thing if you are into editing images and doing things beyond playing games.
With no latest AMD card available to compete with the Nvidia GTX 1070, it is the best graphics card you can currently purchase to go along with a Core i7 or Core i5 gaming Rig.
If you have any queries or you seek any advice, you can ask in the comments below, I would be glad to answer.
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Video Review Nvidia GTX 1070 – GTX 1070 Vs Nvidia GTX 1060.
