NVIDIA ‘released’ more pictures of GTX 1070, so we finally get a closer look at its board.
Reviewers are already finishing their tests, but I’m not sure when NDA really ends. From what I heard GTX 1070 performs almost on pair with GTX 980 Ti, so in terms of performance per dollar this is a very interesting solution for those upgrading from GTX 680 or GTX 970.
However I recommend waiting for custom cards based on GP104-200 silicon, as Founders Edition is currently locked at 112% TDP for no particular reason. That said overclocking is limited to 1980-2050 MHz. If such power limit is applied to all GTX 1070 cards, then I think this is a very dirty and unnecessary move from NVIDIA to limit GTX 1070 performance. Unlike GTX 1080, GTX 1070 still has a lot of headroom in available power coming from single 8pin power connector.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 PCB (PG411):
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 PCB (PG413):
Comparison GTX 1070 PCB vs GTX 1080 PCB
The changes are cosmetic. Nothing that would prevent GTX 1080 water-blocks from being applied to GTX 1070. The GTX 1070 lost one VRM phase and few components were added or moved.