Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming Graphics Card Review
A Closer Look at the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming GPU
The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming GPU measures in at 11 1/2 inches long by 5 1/2 inches wide. Despite the use of three 100mm cooling fans, the Gigabyte GTX 1070 Xtreme did not gain much length over its reference style counterparts. This is achieved by over lapping the most outer fans over the center fan.
The GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming features an aluminum back plate that covers the PCB except for a few slots cut near the end. Not only does the back plate aid in the PCB protection but it also acts as a heatsink for the voltage regulation modules. There is thermal tape between the PCB and the back plate to aid with thermal transfer.
The card measures in at just over 2.2 inches tall and given today’s newer motherboards with expanded spacing between the PCIe slots, you should not run into clearance issues when using the card in an SLI configuration. The edge of the card that faces out features a RGB lit Xtreme Gaming logo as well as a RGB lit Fan Stop indicator. When the fans stop spinning during low or no activity, the indicator lights up. Recently this has been a trend with GPUs as the fans completely stop spinning when the GPU is not in use.
VR is growing and Gigabyte has included dual HDMI ports on the rear of the card. This can help facilitate easier HDMI cable routing through the front of the case. A nice addition to this kit would have been a dual port HDMI 5.25 bay bracket and lessens the digging around inside the case when it is VR Time. When the two rear HDMI ports are active, one Display port, one HDMI port and the DVI-D port are available for use on the back of the card.
For rear connectivity, the GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming features three Display Ports(DP) a single HDMI port and a Single DVI-D port for connecting display devices.
An 8-pin and a 6-pin power connector are needed to power the GTX 1070 Xtreme Gaming card. The connectors are rotated so that the heatsink shroud doesn’t interfere with the installation or removal of the power cables. On the opposite side of the PCB are two LED indicators that will either flash or stay lit to indicate there is a problem with the power to the card. Steady on means the power cable is disconnected and flashing lights indicate an abnormal power situation.
Three 100mm fans are the prominent feature on the card. The two outer fans overlap the inner fan. Ridges run perpendicular to the fan blade to help increase airflow. The center fan features a split blade design. The center section of the fan that is not overlapped by the outer fans, has a steep angle to the this portion of the blade. The steep angle is designed to grab more air. The outer edge is angle is considerably less angular and helps push the air from the stacked fans through the heatsink.
The part of the shroud of the heatsink that frames the center fans contains the RGB LED lighting. Tubes from from the edge of the shroud to the center of the fan. There are a few lighting effects that can be applied. The modes for the lighting include color cycling, constant on, breathing, flash, dual flash,
Power on the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Xtreme edition graphics card is set up in a 10+2 phase configuration where 10 phases are set up for the GPU and 2 are for the memory. 10 Fairchild semiconductor FDMF 6823C DrMOS modules. The modules combine the driver, low and high side MOSFETs and a Schottky diode in a single package. The DrMOS modules have a current handling of 50 amps. Output filtering uses 10 0.22uH MAGIC SPRN series high-current low-profile chokes and 10 330uF solid capacitors.
There is a new power controller for the Pascal cards a UPI semiconductor uP9511P is on board. The uP9511 can be configured in 8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1-phase operation and is designed to provide high-precision output voltage and is a new design for the next-gen GPUs. (source: http://www.ubiq-semi.com/en-article-upi-362-1486#). In this configuration, Gigabyte is running the Up9511 in a 5-phase configuration and using three UPI semiconductor uP1911R ICs as doublers to get their 10-phases to the GPU.
The memory power uses a pair of Fairchild Semiconductor FDMS3604AS MOSFETS for both the high and low side and 0.22uH MAGIC SPRN chokes and 7 270uF solid capacitors. A Texas Instruments INA3221 above and to the right of the VRM is a 3-channel high-current bus/ voltage monitor involved in power distribution.
The Holtek FT32F52241 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+ controller is used to drive the RGB LED lighting on the cooler for the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Xtreme.
A pair of Texas Instruments HD3SS215 differential switches are used for HDMI and DisplayPort on the rear I/O as well as are responsible for the HDMI on Gigabyte’s Xtreme VR Link.
