TR Forums

Hello,

First, let me start with a little history, if not interested, please skip the next paragraph.

Ever since the 10 series GPUs were introduced, I've been looking for a chance to buy new GPU, to replace my not so good anymore R9 270. At first I thought I will buy something from the 9 series if it gets cheaper, but the price cuts were not deep enough around here  and I decided it's not worthy. Then I thought maybe RX 480 or 1060 will be good, but as I have 3440x1440 monitor, I've been thinking those cards might not be good enough, plus they are not that cheap compared to how weaker they are versus the 1070. On the other hand, 1070 was simply too expensive. So I've been waiting. I thought perhaps there will be some promos around Black Friday, but nope, not even one good deal for GPUs here. Today I've finally seen some price movements.

I've found this GTX 1070 from Gainward that is substantially cheaper (>10%) than all the other 1070s, except a couple mini models (which I'm worried might lack the cooling potential/be less quiet). I'd like to seek the wisdom of TR community before I pull the trigger.

Here's the model I'm talking about:
http://www.gainward.com.tw/main/vgapro. ... 83&lang=en
(yes, it is extremely ugly, but I don't buy GPUs for the looks)

Specifically, I have a few questions:
1) Does it matter in practice that this version comes with the basic clocks (same as founder's edition), not factory overclocked like so many other models? I'm willing to do some manual overclocking myself, on a basic level.

2) I have never owned anything from that brand. Any experience with it? Is it trustworthy (enough)?

3) Any idea if the fans in this model can stop spinning when the card is idle? They don't say anything about it, so I guess not. Actually there is an icon with "zero RPM fan" text on the page, I'm guessing that's it.

Any help is welcome.

1) No.
2) No experience, but I would buy one if it was cheaper, it's a reasonable brand from what I can tell.

I'm not convinced that a GeForce GTX 1070 is card enough for 5 MP / 3440x1440 gaming, see e.g. http://techgage.com/article/nvidia-gefo ... -gaming/2/ but if you have a R9 270 then you already have a problem and this is a step up... can you wait, as AMD's Vega is due really soon and should shake things up?

A friend had card by that brand many years ago. I think it was a 420 ti. It was was one of THE cards in the day.

I think most cards are reference models with a custom cooler. So I think it's safe. If the craptastic founder edition can keep it cool I'm pretty sure that cooler will.

1) No problem. Install msi afterburner or evga precision and tweak away.
2) Gainwards are fine. I had a Palit 4850 (same company) back in the day and it ran like a champ. Gainward is also known for its range of superclocked GPUs and triple slot coolers, so these guys are pretty enthusiast-oriented.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the answers.

I'm not convinced that a GeForce GTX 1070 is card enough for 5 MP / 3440x1440 gaming, see e.g. http://techgage.com/article/nvidia-gefo ... -gaming/2/ but if you have a R9 270 then you already have a problem and this is a step up... can you wait, as AMD's Vega is due really soon and should shake things up?

I'm not sure Vega will really change much about that. It will probably be still quite some time before it's release and made available. Even if AMD shows something better than GTX 1080, how much better could it be? And there will always be new games that are even more demanding. But still, can you share your predictions about Vega? When it will be available and what will it offer? I haven't read much about it.

I don't know much about Vega other than that it's supposed to land in the spring (May?) and that prices on the Radeon Pro Duo and Radeon RX 480 dipped significantly this week, presumably in the run-up, which could make the GTX 1070 cheaper in the near future than it is now.