Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming 2-Way SLI Review

Have you read our recent review of the GeForce GTX G1 graphics card review? If not, then it’s time to read it on our blog. Well, today, we are doing something different. How about evaluating the performance of two of the GeForce GTX 1070 G1s  with SLI? Well, that’s going to be something interesting than you think

Currently, we have information on how well a single GeForce GTX 1070 G1 graphics card can perform. As per our experience, the card works well with the 1080 and 1440 resolutions. But, it is not useful in handling the 4K resolution. So, we are going to experiment if adding the another GeForce GTX 1070 G1 with SLI will increase the performance and it can handle the 4K resolution or not.

The Multi-card SLI, which is the technology by Nvidia and the Crossfire technology by AMD for using the two or more graphics card at once has some issues. If you are expecting the increase in performance of a particular game, then it is not possible unless the game developer has added the support for SLI and Crossfire. So, even if you try, you’ll not get the significant bump in performance. Also, if it worked, then you may see the frequent game crashes or the BSOD on Windows computers.

The GeForce GTX 1070 G1gaming cards are not just the reference cards. They are redesigned by the Gigabyte. The Gigabyte has redesigned the PCB structure of the gaming card motherboard, changed the 5+1 power design of the reference card and replaced it with the 6+2 power design, which is stronger than the first one.

Not just the PCB level structure has changed, but the Gigabyte has added the RGB LED lighting on the graphics card which makes it look more beautiful. With Gigabyte XTREME Engine Utility, you can manage the LED RGB lighting cycles, change and mix the colors and also control the card and overclock it pretty easily.

The Hot card is cooled by the Windforce 3X cooler that is combined with the superior heat sink pipes. The Windforce 3X cooler fans are quieter than the other fans that are used to cool the Graphics card. The Windforce 3X cooler fans stop spinning when the card is at low temperature, maintaining the silence.

About the Pascal Architecture

The Pascal Architecture that is used in the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 graphics card is newer and successor of the Maxwell architecture. The Pascal architecture from Nvidia uses the 16nm process replacing the 28nm processes that the previous architectures were using to process the information. The GTX 1070 G1 is far better in every aspect than the predecessor GTX 970. In the GTX 1070 G1, the Raster pipeline count is increased from 56 to 64; the texture mapping units rose from 104 to 150, the available VRAM is now 8GB GDDR5 instead of the 4GB GDDR5. Also, the CUDA cores are increased from 1664 to 1920.

Additional Features in GeForce GTX 1070  series

• CUDA Compute Capability 6.0(GP100 only), 6.1(GP104)
• DisplayPort 1.4
• HDMI 2.0b
• Fourth generation Delta Color Compression
• Half precision FP16 operations executed at twice the rate of FP32 (GP100 only), while FP64 operations run at 1/2(GP100 only) or 1/32 the speed respectively[6]
• PureVideo Feature Set G hardware video decoding HEVC Main10(10bit), Main12(12bit) & VP9 hardware decoding(GM200 & GM204 did not support HEVC Main10/Main12 & VP9 hardware decoding)[7]
• HDCP 2.2 support for 4K DRM protected content playback & streaming(Maxwell GM200 & GM204 lack HDCP 2.2 support, GM206 supports HDCP 2.2)[8]
• NVENC HEVC Main10 10 bit hardware encoding
• GPU Boost 3.0
• Simultaneous Multi-Projection</li>
• HB SLI Bridge Technology
• New memory controller with GDDR5X & GDDR5 support

Gigabyte’s Addition to the GTX 1070 Gaming

• New WindForce 3x cooling system

Unique Fan Design for Better Airflow

The airflow inside of the graphics card is split by the triangle fan edge, which increases the overall airflow by up to 23% from the traditional fan design.

Smart Fan System with LED Indicator

The smart fans are the semi-passive cooling fans from the Gigabyte. The fans will remain in OFF state when the graphics card is below the recommended limit of temperature and load. Also, there is an LED indicator to notify users if the fan is ON or OFF.

Composite Heat Pipes

The composite heat pipes, made of the copper are the great conductor of heat and have the maximum contact with the central processing unit of the GPU. These composite Heat Pipes are great to manage the thermal conductivity from one surface to another and maintain the temperature of the GPU.

• External Fancy Stuff

RGB LED Lighting

The RGB LED lighting is what makes this GPU attractive. WIth the 16.8M customizable color combination along with the XTREME Customization software, you can make it look more attractive with LED Lighting.

Sleek Metal Back Plate

The Metal Black Plate added to this G1 Gaming GPU adds the elegant look to it, gives proper rigidity, sturdiness and also the stylish look.

• Performance of GPU

GPU Gauntlet Sorting

With the high-class GPU, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU helps you to overclock it to the maximum extent and also better-overclocked stability.

One-click overclocking

The Gigabyte provides the XTREME Engine Utility, which is the standalone software and driver set which allows you to manage the GPU with the visual interface. With the XTREME Engine Utility, you can easily overclock the GPU with certain available settings with just one click.

Smart LED Indicator

The GeForce GTX 1070 G1 GPU comes with the smartphone LED Indicator, which blinks when the PCI-E voltage goes unstable, helping you to take necessary majors.

• Durability

6+2 Power Phase

The GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU is made for overclocking. As the founder’s edition of this card has the 4+1 power phase, this one has the 6+2 power phase for better power management and also for quick overclocking without any hassle.

Made with High-grade Parts

The Gigabyte never takes any chance with the parts used in this GPU. All of the chokes, resistors and the capacitors are high-grade and made for durability. All these components increase the system strength, and you can use this GPU for the extended time.

Dedicated Management Software

With the XTREME ENgine Utility, you can Adjust clock speeds, voltages, fan performance, RGB lighting effect, power target, OSD setting and tune them in real-time without any issue. This is the great software that’s going to manage the performance of the GPU as per your needs.

Unboxing the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming GPU

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU comes in the big black box that has the Gigabyte and “G1” branding on the front. On the back side of the box, there is the highlighted features list and the illustrations of the Windforce 3X Cooling system.

Inside the main box, there are two small boxes. In the second small box, you can find the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU resting in the Anti-static foam and the plastic casing, which is there to protect the GPU from static electricity and external shocks.

Technical Specifications of the GPU

• Power by GeForce® GTX 1070
• Integrated with 8GB GDDR5 256bit memory
• WINDFORCE 3X with Blade Fan Design
• Support up to 8K display @60Hz (requires 2*DP1.3 connectors)
• 8M Customizable Color RGB Lighting
• Pascal-powered graphics card give you superior performance and power efficiency
• Outstanding performance for Virtual Reality gaming

Core Clock

• Boost: 1822 MHz/ Base: 1620 MHz in OC Mode
• Boost: 1784 MHz/ Base: 1594 MHz in Gaming Mode</li>

Cooling

• WINDFORCE 3X cooling system

Outlook

• 8M Customizable Color Lighting
• Stylish Metal Back Plate

Performance

• GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting
• One-click super overclocking

Durability

• LED power indicators
• Built for overclocking with 6+2 power phases (founders edition: 4+1 )
• Ultra-durable materials
• Friendly
• Intuitive XTREME Engine
• WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System
• Unique blade fan design
• 3D Active Fan with RGB LED Indicators
• Two composite heat-pipes
• Heat-pipes direct touch GPU

Closer Inspection of the G1 Gaming GPU

On the first glance when taken out of the protective anti-static casing, you can see the graphics card itself. On the front side of the G1 gaming GPU, you can see the three of the cooling fans from the Windforce 3X cooling system. These fans are responsible for the airflow inside of the card, which will keep it cool.

On the sides of the card, you can see the Gigabyte branding logo and also the Fan Stop logo. The Gigabyte Branding logo and the Fan stop logo are illuminated. The Gigabyte logo is lit every time you turn on the PC, but the Fan Stop Logo lights only when the fans are OFF. Also, the G1 gaming card comes with LED lighting all around it, which is customizable with nearly 16.8 M color combinations.

On the connections side, the Gigabyte has added four of the most common Monitor connection ports, meaning you have more options to connect your Monitor with this card. Also, the card debuts with the new and sturdy backplate design with the Gigabyte Branding.

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU comes with the 8 Pin connector, which draws power to satisfy the 150 Watt TDP of this card.

• XTREME ENGINE utility

The Gigabyte is providing the specialized Customization software for the GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming cards. With the XTREME Engine Utility, you can Adjust the RGB LED Lighting, One-click Overclocking, Fan Profile change and monitoring and many more features. With the use of this software, the users can configure the SLI connections, and control both of the cards individually.

The software CD comes bundled with the package. You can find the Driver CD for this card inside the main box.

What is Multi-GPU Technology?

The Nvidia’s SLI and AMD’s crossfire are the technologies that allow users to use two or more graphics cards at once. Using two cards will increase the performance for doing whatever you wanted to do.

THe SLI or Crossfire is not meant for better performance but the higher processing power. Two cards that are configured to be in the Multi-GPU configuration may not perform well then the single card. It may happen most of the times.

The SLI and Crossfire are not available for all of the graphics cards. And also, there may be the limitation of some similar cards that can be used with the Multi-GPU technology.  For example, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU, that we are reviewing today is limited to the two-card SLI configuration.

Also, only the motherboards that support the SLI can be used with the SLI or crossfire. No other motherboards are supported for the SLI and crossfire.

As we are talking about the Nvidia SLI, let’s speak of the requirements of AMD Crossfire. The requirements of the Crossfire are similar like the SLI. Only, the cards need to be installed on the motherboards with AMD chipset and PCI-E x16 cards.

Once you’ve fulfilled all of the requirements, then you can install two or more graphics cards and then configure them from the BIOS settings or the specific software provided by the manufacturer, in this case, it’s the XTREME Engine Utility.

Testing the G1 Gaming GPU

We are testing the GPU with SLI configuration. We are going to test this GPU with the Synthetic benchmarks and also the actual gameplay benchmarks. We are using the two synthetic benchmarks and five actual gameplay benchmarks, combined with the DirectX 9.0C, DirectX 11 and Mantle API. Also, the resolution for actual gameplay we are trying is going to be 1920×1070, 2560 x 1440, and 3840 x 2160.

The games we chose for the actual gameplay test are fulfilling the specified conditions.

• Each game must be a well-known title.
• Each game must have its built-in benchmark.
• Each game must be on a game engine that is different from the other games.
• Each game must be free of continuous patch updates.

There are no mechanical hard drives used in the test benches to avoid the inconsistent I/O, which may result in bottlenecking the power of Intel Core i7 7700K processor, which is clocked at 4.5GHz. All these bundled with the Windows 10 64 Bit operating system, which is the most popular operating system these days.

Test Results

3DMark – Firestrike

The 3DMark fire strike is one of the most popular synthetic benchmark software for the computers. It is capable of doing all of the tests on any computer, be it the Laptop, Tablet or the Desktop computers. The 3DMark firestrike run the real-time tests to benchmark the GPU’s. It does all of the tests like the graphics test and the stress test.

According to the tests run by 3DMark – Firestrike with the DirectX 11 shows us that the SLI configuration of the GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU with the highest score than competitor cards.

Cinebench R15 Benchmark

The  Cinebench R15 is also one of the most popular cross-platform suite made for testing the CPUs and GPUs. The Cinebench is based on the MAXON’s award-winning software Cinema 4D, which was used in the Iron Man, Oblivion, and Life of Pi.

The Cinebench provides the reliable test benchmark results and compares the product with the competitor CPU and GPU.

Heaven Benchmark

The Heaven benchmark tests the GPU with the High-quality video sequence, which consists of shiny brass, wood gears, fly-by sequences of the stunning islands and all of the world, which is rendered with the EUGINE Engine. THe EUGINE Engine makes use of the Graphics API to gain all the power from the GPU and turns the Graphics card benchmarks into accurate numbers.

SteamVR

The SteamVR tests the Graphics card for the VR capability. The SteamVR benchmark tests the GPU with the 2 minute VR clip of the Valves Aperture Robot Repair video clip. The clip is run at the 90 fps, and the SteamVR collects the data of the GPU performance and then represents it in the numbers and also compare it with the other competitor cards.

BioShock: Infinite

The BioShock: Infinite is one of the most popular games, developed by the Irrational Games and published by the 2K games. The Bioshock: Infinite is the third part of the Bioshock series and has the most stunning graphics, which tests the GPU to its full extent. This game uses the UNREAL Engine for processing the graphics.

The Bioshock: Infinite benchmark with 1920×1080 resolution gave us the highest ratings of 247 and the same benchmark with 2560 x 1440 resolution gave us the highest rating of 185.

DiRT Rally

The DiRT Rally is one of the most popular car racing game with more than 80 million total players. The main attraction of the DiRT Rally is official World Rallycross contest which allows us to enjoy the breathtaking graphics of the fastest off-road cars and also the high-end DiRT Racing tracks. The game uses their EGO Gaming engine to process the graphics.

We did the benchmark tests of this game with 1920 x 1080 resolution, and it gave us the 181 and with the 2560×1440 resolution gave us the highest number of 162. These are the results of in-game benchmarks.

GTA: V

The GTA: V is one of the most popular and also the newest game that we used to benchmark the game. The game has the high-class graphics and the customizable graphics settings to play. As this is the latest game in the market, it has the highest system requirements to run properly.

We did the benchmark tests of this game with 1920 x 1080 resolution, and it gave us the 171 and with the 2560×1440 resolution gave us the highest number of 150. Also, we did the tests with 3840 x 2160 resolution gave us the greatest number of 117. These are the results of in-game benchmarks.

Hitman

The Hitman is the third-person shooter game, which features the Agent 47, which is the professional assassin, who travels to the different location to assassin the potential threats and the sick people.

The IO Interactive develops the game, and we did the benchmark tests by using the DirectX 12. Here are the images of Benchmark results.

Metro: Last light

The Metro: Last Light game is based in the year 2034 and set in the Moscow. The game starts in the Tunnels of the Moscow, where the last remains of the humans are fighting with the extra-terrestrial creatures. 4A games develop the game and published by Deepsilver, Metro: Last Light uses the 4A game engine. In my opinion, the game when running on the highest settings make best graphics card to sit on their knees.

We did run the tests with internal benchmarks and got this results with different resolution settings.

Thief

The game is based on the main character, Garrett. Garrette is the master thief, who has the highest belief on his stealing skills. This is also one of the well-known game with the game enthusiasts.

Eidos-Montréal developed the Thief and published by SQUARE ENIX, Eidos Interactive. Thief requires the highest system requirements and also the AMD’s Mantle API, and Microsoft’s DirectX  11.

Tomb Raider

The Tomb Raider is another game in the Tomb Raider game series. In this game, you play as the Lara Croft, who is the young woman stranded on the island and tries to escape the island with the help of her natural instincts.

Crystal Dynamics developed the Tomb Raider and published by SQUARE ENIX, Eidos Interactive. The game runs on the updated version of the Crystal Game Engine, which was the first engine which integrated AMD’s TressFX 2.0, which processes the physics of the grass and fur.

Noise and Temperature Tests

The two of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU’s did pretty well with our benchmarks. While we are doing the benchmarks, we did record the temperature and noise details of these both GPUs. Thanks to the Windforce 3X coolers and the Composite heat pipes, the cards ran at maximum 64 Degree Celsius at full load and 41 at idle.

Interestingly, the card which was at the top was warmer than the card which was at the bottom. Maybe the space constraints were the reason behind this issue.

The noise coming from the GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU is pretty subtle. There are two types of noise; one is irritating, and another one is subtle. The noise coming from the GPU is subtle and not irritating at all. The best thing about the Windforce coolers is that they turn OFF when the card is below the recommended limits, which maintains the noise coming from the GPU pretty easily.

Overclocking in the G1 Gaming GPU

To overclock the SLI configured cards, we decided to use the XTREME Engine utility provided by the Nvidia and the Gigabyte. Thanks to the easy-to-use software, we quickly configured the GPU with +85 1870/2050 Mhz on the core and +1250MHz (9244 MHz) on the memory side. Most of the times, we don’t get better performance by overclocking the GPU in SLI configuration. Same happened with us, and we got slightly lower performance comparing to the single GPU.

Final Words | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU

The GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPUs in the SLI configuration was fantastic thing. We were able to achieve some success with this SLI setup. Sometimes, we saw the framerate counter of the games go up to 100 or more FPS even at the 4K settings.

The dual card arrangement for SLI was not the issue. But, at the 1080P resolution, we were experiencing some bottlenecking. Some newer games like the GTA: V faced some issues with 1080P resolution, and the reason was the CPU. We were bottlenecked by the Intel Core i7 6700K CPU. Once we raised the resolution, we were able to see some real performance of the card.

As we know the SLI configuration will not work correctly in every situation, we faced the issue with the Hitman game. When we tried to run it with the DirectX 12 and the SLI Configuration GPUs, it won’t run. Upon doing some research, no one was able to run the Hitman with DirectX 12 and the SLI configuration. The DirectX11 was working fine with the GPUs though.

If your CPU is not fast enough, then there is no need to configure Dual-GPUs for SLI. If you are using the CPU that may bottleneck the performance, then you should use the single GPU for gaming and other stuff. If you have a high-end CPU like AMD Ryzen or Intel Core i7 or i9, then you may feel the need of Dual GPU SLI configuration with 1070 G1 GPU for 4K gaming.

If you are willing to buy the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 gaming GPU, then you can buy it from the Newegg with the Price tag of $429 per piece, that means you’ll need to spend $858 for two of these puppies.