It'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.

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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 Segment2023-20242022-20232021-20222020-20212019-20202018-20192017-20182016-20172014-2016
Titan TierGeForce RTX 4090GeForce RTX 4090GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
GeForce RTX 3090
GeForce RTX 3090Titan 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 TierGeForce RTX 4080 SUPERGeForce RTX 4080GeForce RTX 3080 TiGeForce RTX 3080 TiGeForce RTX 2080 TiGeForce RTX 2080 TiGeForce GTX 1080 TiGeForce GTX 980 TiGeForce GTX 980 Ti
Price$999 US$1199 US$1199 US$1199 US$999 US$999 US$699 US$649 US$649 US
Enthusiast TierGeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPERGeForce RTX 4070 TiGeForce RTX 3080 12 GBGeForce RTX 3080 10 GBGeForce RTX 2080 SUPERGeForce RTX 2080GeForce GTX 1080GeForce GTX 1080GeForce GTX 980
Price$799 US$799 US$799 US$699 US$699 US$699 US$549 US$549 US$549 US
High-End TierGeForce 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 SUPERGeForce RTX 2070GeForce GTX 1070GeForce GTX 1070GeForce GTX 970
Price$599
$549
$599 US
$499 US
$599
$499
$599
$499
$499 US$499 US$379 US$379 US$329 US
Mainstream TierGeForce 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 1060GeForce GTX 1060GeForce GTX 1060GeForce 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 TierRTX 3050 8 GB
RTX 3050 6 GB
RTX 3050RTX 3050GTX 1650 SUPER
GTX 1650
GTX 1650 SUPER
GTX 1650
GTX 1050 Ti
GTX 1050
GTX 1050 Ti
GTX 1050
GTX 950GTX 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 NameNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 D6NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPERNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 TiNVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
GPU ArchitectureTuring 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)
Process12nm FNN12nm FNN12nm FNN12nm FNN12nm FNN12nm FNN12nm FNN12nm FNN12nm FNN12nm FNN
Die Size200mm2200mm2284mm2284mm2284mm2284mm2445mm2445mm2545mm2754mm2
Transistors4.7 Billion4.7 Billion6.6 Billion6.6 Billion6.6 Billion6.6 Billion10.6 Billion10.6 Billion13.6 Billion18.6 Billion
CUDA Cores896 Cores896 Cores1280 Cores1408 Cores1408 Cores1536 Cores1920 Cores2304 Cores2944 Cores4352 Cores
TMUs/ROPs56/3256/3280/3288/4888/4896/48120/48144/64192/64288/96
GigaRaysN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A5 Giga Rays/s6 Giga Rays/s8 Giga Rays/s10 Giga Rays/s
Cache1.5 MB L2 Cache1.5 MB L2 Cache1.5 MB L2 Cache1.5 MB L2 Cache1.5 MB L2 Cache1.5 MB L2 Cache4 MB L2 Cache4 MB L2 Cache4 MB L2 Cache6 MB L2 Cache
Base Clock1485 MHz1410 MHz1530 MHz1530 MHz1530 MHz1500 MHz1365 MHz1410 MHz1515 MHz1350 MHz
Boost Clock1665 MHz1590 MHz1725 MHz1785 MHz1785 MHz1770 MHz1680 MHz1620 MHz
1710 MHz OC
1710 MHz
1800 MHz OC
1545 MHz
1635 MHz OC
Compute3.0 TFLOPs3.0 TFLOPs4.4 TFLOPs5.0 TFLOPs5.0 TFLOPs5.5 TFLOPs6.5 TFLOPs7.5 TFLOPs10.1 TFLOPs13.4 TFLOPs
MemoryUp To 4 GB GDDR5Up To 4 GB GDDR6Up To 4 GB GDDR6Up To 6 GB GDDR5Up To 6 GB GDDR6Up To 6 GB GDDR6Up To 6 GB GDDR6Up To 8 GB GDDR6Up To 8 GB GDDR6Up To 11 GB GDDR6
Memory Speed8.00 Gbps12.00 Gbps12.00 Gbps8.00 Gbps14.00 Gbps12.00 Gbps14.00 Gbps14.00 Gbps14.00 Gbps14.00 Gbps
Memory Interface128-bit128-bit128-bit192-bit192-bit192-bit192-bit256-bit256-bit352-bit
Memory Bandwidth128 GB/s192 GB/s192 GB/s192 GB/s336 GB/s288 GB/s336 GB/s448 GB/s448 GB/s616 GB/s
Power ConnectorsN/AN/A6 Pin8 Pin8 Pin8 Pin8 Pin8 Pin8+8 Pin8+8 Pin
TDP75W75W100W120W125W120W160W185W (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
LaunchApril 2019April 2020November 2019March 2019October 2019February 2019January 2019October 2018September 2018September 2018
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