Asus TUF-RTX3070-O8G-GAMING GPU - A Brief Encounter

Managed to get some itsy bitsy hands-on time with this Asus card, the TUF RTX 3070-O8G-GAMING model, from the perpetually OOS Nvidia RTX 3000 series.  And rushing to post this up to coincide with the official Nvidia launch date (and hello to Big Navi too... lol).

 

Foremost, got to clarify that this is just a simple brief sharing of the transient testing. Definitely not an attempt at any review with the given constraints.

 

 

 

 

Official Asus Webpage

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Graphics-Cards/TUF-Gaming/TUF-RTX3070-O8G-GAMING

 

 

 

Asus Sales Spiel

 

"... chart-topping thermal performance"

 

 

 

 

Specifications

•  PCI Express 4.0
• GDDR6 8GB
• HDMI Output : Yes x 2 (Native) (HDMI 2.1)
  Display Port : Yes x 3 (Native) (DisplayPort 1.4a)
  HDCP Support : Yes (2.3) 
• Dimensions - 29.99 x 12.69 x 5.17 cm, 2.7 slot wide 
  
• Recommended PSU 750W
  Power Connectors 2 x 8-pin
  
• 5888 CUDA Cores
  Memory Speed 14 Gbps
  Memory Interface 256-bit
  
• OC Mode - 1755 MHz (Boost Clock) [TBC]
  Gaming Mode - 1725 MHz (Boost Clock) [TBC]

 

 

 

 

Nvidia RTX 3070 Page

https://www.nvidia.com/en-sg/geforce/graphics-cards/30-series/rtx-3070/

 

 

 

 

Unboxing

 

Bundle

Very barebone package consisting of  TUF RTX 3070 GPU, packing foam plus booklet plus TQ note This early media sample came totally without any drivers but the retail release ought to include them.

TUF-RTX3070-O8G-GAMING Card

Note the free pesky white round sticker over the upper left anchoring screw. And a few close-up shots of the backside for the ones still focusing on the different types of caps.

BIOS Switch, Power Connectors

The massive cooler overhangs the card PCB length by a good measure. 2 BIOS chips onboard with a manual switch so you can have your fun tinkering with them. Traditional 2 x 8 pin PCI-e power connectors mean less cable compatibility fuss in this transition period.

LED effects are very restrained on this model, being limited to the TUF logo and a narrow light strip near the power connectors.

 

Back I/O

 

 

 

Test Setup

Asus TUF-RTX3070-O8G-GAMING | ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WIFI | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | Crucial DDR4-3200XMP@3600 16GB Kit | Wraith Prism | Win 10 x64 1909 

Open air rig, end October 2020 ambient weather temps

BIOS switch was left at the default factory setting.

Nvidia drivers are as listed in GPU-Z with its 456.96 version number blurred out as the source does not want to be identified (a moot point now). With the delayed official launch date, these supported drivers release was so impossibly tightly controlled by Nvidia until the card was an actual paperweight for some time before these drivers were kindly passed over for this rushed testing. So many thanks to xZx and Asus but no thanks to Nvidia.

 

 

 

GPU-Z

Confirms PCI-e 4.0 communication on the Asus X570 motherboard.

 

Benchmarks And Monitoring

Since so little test time was being allocated  with this card and with the very late drivers delivery, simply did a straight jump to measuring operational load parameters in the latest 2020/19 games under local heat conditions. 

 

Hopefully, the findings are just as relevant as synthetic 3DMark benchmarking, you can just get the rest of the info from other web reviews and form a more complete picture. After all, this is a purpose built nominal GAMING card.

The following game benchmarks have accessible reporting and were run at 1080p and 1440p for performance comparison at the 2 resolutions. Tested on a plebeian yesteryear non-gaming 1440p monitor, not having access to the latest monitors to do proper 4K or supersampling  runs.

A Total War Saga: TROY

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/a-total-war-saga-troy/home 

Sure hope that you guys had also managed to snag the Epic Games Store free offer for this new 2020 game a few months back cos this game actually has 3 built-in DX11 benchmarks for you to play with. 

 

All benchies were run at the game's installed default settings and results are as follows. Load GPU temps seem very impressive at 65 celsius.

1080p

 

Battle

Campaign

Siege

1440p

Battle

 

Campaign

 

 

Siege

 

 

Crysis Remastered

2020 remastered rehash of the 2007 game, a classic to its  many fans and detractors too.

 https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/09/21/heres-how-to-find-crysis-remastereds-benchmark/

 

Probably not the most ideal DX11 benchmark since it only runs in fixed windowed mode. In its favour though, this game has a built-in benchmark which furnishes a nice small yet detailed text report on completion.

 

Load temps seen here seem similar for this benchmark. Yes again, load max GPU temps are very impressive at 66 celsius after 4 demo runs in the benchmark.

 

 

1080p

 

1440p

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Official Benchmark

Slightly older DX11 benchmark from 2019 - https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/

Ran everything at default except for the full screen setting. 

The max GPU load temps are likewise similar to previous benches.

1080p

1440p

Still getting good scores at this resolution.

Platform Gaming

Also tried out some actual platform gaming with Pumpkin Jack, a newly released DX12/11 Unreal Engine 4 driven game. This game is unlikely to be much of a performance challenge for the card but the big novelty of this game is that it was done by a solo young programmer and it supports both RTX and DLSS.

https://www.pumpkin-jack.com/

 

And Nvidia Geforce happened to release a dedicated promo video on Youtube recently showcasing this game and its RTX/DLSS support. All in all, a most intriguing game, just wonders what it takes for a solo programmer to get this kind of loving attention and support from the Nvidia juggernaut.

 

Well, the Asus TUF-RTX3070-8G card simply sniffed and yawned at the effort with its 59C max temps and 73% max load.

... and this sample card is packed and off it goes to the next cog in the test circuit carousel... bye-ee!

Brief Impressions

This Asus TUF iteration happily lives up to its official sales spiel and is definitely one Nvidia RTX 3070 variant worthy of consideration. 

For those who lean to more stealthy rigs, this LED muted card also seems a very good candidate. In addition, noise haters should take notice as well cos this card ran totally cool and silent when not gaming, thanks to its zero rpm fan feature and was still very silently cool when running benchmarks. Its overbuilt cooling job is both effective and dead quiet.

Local retail pricing and actual availability... is likely a whole new story itself as evident in all recent Nvidia RTX 3000 series releases aka Nvidia F5 Series, no thanks to the repeated F5 button mashing to check stock and orders.