ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 2070 STRIX OC & MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Armor OC
October, 2018Type
Graphics CardPrice
$600 US & $570 USIt's been months since NVIDIA released their Turing based GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards. Taking a complete departure from traditional GPU design and creating a hybrid architecture that includes a range of new technologies to power the next-generation immersive gaming experiences.
The key highlight of the GeForce RTX 20 series was the enablement of real-time raytracing which is the holy grail of graphics and something NVIDIA spent 10 years to perfect. In addition to raytracing, NVIDIA also aims to place bets on AI which will play a key role in powering features such as DLSS or Deep Learning Super Sampling, a unique way of offering the same quality as the more taxing MSAA AA techniques at twice the performance.
I've looked and compared the performance of several GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080 custom variants and consider them to be a good gain over their predecessors, the GTX 1080 Ti and GTX 1080. When it comes to pricing, the GeForce RTX 20 series are some of the most costly cards NVIDIA has offered to consumers. Today, I will be taking a look at the GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card which is the $500 US solution and the less expensive of the initial Turing RTX 20 series family which was announced last year.
Featuring the same Turing GPU architecture, the RTX 2070 can be seen as the high-performance mainstream option which is meant to replace the GTX 1070 Ti for just about the same price point which is illustrated in the table below.
NVIDIA GeForce GPU Segment/Tier Prices
Graphics Segment | 2023-2024 | 2022-2023 | 2021-2022 | 2020-2021 | 2019-2020 | 2018-2019 | 2017-2018 | 2016-2017 | 2014-2016 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Titan Tier | GeForce RTX 4090 | GeForce RTX 4090 | GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GeForce RTX 3090 | GeForce RTX 3090 | Titan RTX (Turing) | Titan V (Volta) | Titan Xp (Pascal) | Titan X (Pascal) | Titan X (Maxwell) |
Price | $1599 US | $1599 US | $1999 US $1499 US | $1499 US | $2499 US | $2999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $999 US |
Ultra Enthusiast Tier | GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER | GeForce RTX 4080 | GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 Ti | GeForce GTX 980 Ti |
Price | $999 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $1199 US | $999 US | $999 US | $699 US | $649 US | $649 US |
Enthusiast Tier | GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER | GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB | GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB | GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER | GeForce RTX 2080 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 980 |
Price | $799 US | $799 US | $799 US | $699 US | $699 US | $699 US | $549 US | $549 US | $549 US |
High-End Tier | GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER GeForce RTX 4070 | GeForce RTX 4070 GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB | GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GeForce RTX 3070 | GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GeForce RTX 3070 | GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER | GeForce RTX 2070 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 1070 | GeForce GTX 970 |
Price | $599 $549 | $599 US $499 US | $599 $499 | $599 $499 | $499 US | $499 US | $379 US | $379 US | $329 US |
Mainstream Tier | GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GeForce RTX 4060 | GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GeForce RTX 4060 | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB | GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER GeForce RTX 2060 GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER GeForce GTX 1660 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 1060 | GeForce GTX 960 |
Price | $449 $299 | $399 US $299 US | $399 US $329 US | $399 US $329 US | $399 US $349 US $279 US $229 US $219 US | $249 US | $249 US | $249 US | $199 US |
Entry Tier | RTX 3050 8 GB RTX 3050 6 GB | RTX 3050 | RTX 3050 | GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 | GTX 1650 SUPER GTX 1650 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 | GTX 1050 Ti GTX 1050 | GTX 950 | GTX 750 Ti GTX 750 |
Price | $229 $179 | $249 US | $249 US | $159 US $149 US | $159 US $149 US | $139 US $109 US | $139 US $109 US | $149 US | $149 US $119 US |
In this review, I will be tested two fully custom GeForce RTX 2070 designs. The reference variants are great with their new cooling design and good looking shrouds but AIBs have some really great custom solutions out there, several of which I have already compared next to each other and with the reference variants.
With just a few bucks of asking price over the reference models, the custom variants offer a range of features such as triple fan coolers, bulky heatsinks, and custom PCBs allowing for better heat dissipation, higher air flow and more overclocking performance and clock stability at their respective boost clocks which will be higher compared to the reference variants. The main barrier with overclocking on Turing GPUs is by far the power limit and those that offer the highest power limits out of the box are generally the ones with the best overclocking potential and performance output.
The models I will be testing today are the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 ARMOR OC and the ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2070 OC Edition. The MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Armor retails for $570 US while ASUS's ROG GeForce RTX 2070 STRIX retails for $600 US. I will be comparing both cards next to each other to find out which offers a better value proposition based on performance, overclock capabilities and cooling performance.
In case you want to read our full NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture deep dive, head over to this link.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX/GTX "Turing" Family:
Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 D6 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GPU Architecture | Turing GPU (TU117) | Turing GPU (TU117) | Turing GPU (TU116) | Turing GPU (TU116) | Turing GPU (TU116) | Turing GPU (TU116) | Turing GPU (TU106) | Turing GPU (TU106) | Turing GPU (TU104) | Turing GPU (TU102) |
Process | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN | 12nm FNN |
Die Size | 200mm2 | 200mm2 | 284mm2 | 284mm2 | 284mm2 | 284mm2 | 445mm2 | 445mm2 | 545mm2 | 754mm2 |
Transistors | 4.7 Billion | 4.7 Billion | 6.6 Billion | 6.6 Billion | 6.6 Billion | 6.6 Billion | 10.6 Billion | 10.6 Billion | 13.6 Billion | 18.6 Billion |
CUDA Cores | 896 Cores | 896 Cores | 1280 Cores | 1408 Cores | 1408 Cores | 1536 Cores | 1920 Cores | 2304 Cores | 2944 Cores | 4352 Cores |
TMUs/ROPs | 56/32 | 56/32 | 80/32 | 88/48 | 88/48 | 96/48 | 120/48 | 144/64 | 192/64 | 288/96 |
GigaRays | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 5 Giga Rays/s | 6 Giga Rays/s | 8 Giga Rays/s | 10 Giga Rays/s |
Cache | 1.5 MB L2 Cache | 1.5 MB L2 Cache | 1.5 MB L2 Cache | 1.5 MB L2 Cache | 1.5 MB L2 Cache | 1.5 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 4 MB L2 Cache | 6 MB L2 Cache |
Base Clock | 1485 MHz | 1410 MHz | 1530 MHz | 1530 MHz | 1530 MHz | 1500 MHz | 1365 MHz | 1410 MHz | 1515 MHz | 1350 MHz |
Boost Clock | 1665 MHz | 1590 MHz | 1725 MHz | 1785 MHz | 1785 MHz | 1770 MHz | 1680 MHz | 1620 MHz 1710 MHz OC | 1710 MHz 1800 MHz OC | 1545 MHz 1635 MHz OC |
Compute | 3.0 TFLOPs | 3.0 TFLOPs | 4.4 TFLOPs | 5.0 TFLOPs | 5.0 TFLOPs | 5.5 TFLOPs | 6.5 TFLOPs | 7.5 TFLOPs | 10.1 TFLOPs | 13.4 TFLOPs |
Memory | Up To 4 GB GDDR5 | Up To 4 GB GDDR6 | Up To 4 GB GDDR6 | Up To 6 GB GDDR5 | Up To 6 GB GDDR6 | Up To 6 GB GDDR6 | Up To 6 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 8 GB GDDR6 | Up To 11 GB GDDR6 |
Memory Speed | 8.00 Gbps | 12.00 Gbps | 12.00 Gbps | 8.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 12.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps | 14.00 Gbps |
Memory Interface | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 352-bit |
Memory Bandwidth | 128 GB/s | 192 GB/s | 192 GB/s | 192 GB/s | 336 GB/s | 288 GB/s | 336 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 616 GB/s |
Power Connectors | N/A | N/A | 6 Pin | 8 Pin | 8 Pin | 8 Pin | 8 Pin | 8 Pin | 8+8 Pin | 8+8 Pin |
TDP | 75W | 75W | 100W | 120W | 125W | 120W | 160W | 185W (Founders) 175W (Reference) | 225W (Founders) 215W (Reference) | 260W (Founders) 250W (Reference) |
Starting Price | $149 US | $149 US | $159 US | $219 US | $229 US | $279 US | $349 US | $499 US | $699 US | $999 US |
Price (Founders Edition) | $149 US | $149 US | $159 US | $219 US | $229 US | $279 US | $349 US | $599 US | $799 US | $1,199 US |
Launch | April 2019 | April 2020 | November 2019 | March 2019 | October 2019 | February 2019 | January 2019 | October 2018 | September 2018 | September 2018 |