Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme Edition GPU Review

Disclosure: This product is sourced from Zotac

Introduction

Zotac AMP! Extreme editions are big cards. Big on cooling with factory overclocked preset and possibly some more space for one to manually overclock. If you do overclock, the cooling performance will be the least of your worries. The Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme shouldn’t be an exception. I’ve reviewed the GTX 1070 Founders Edition whose manual overclocking impressions was lacking. The GTX 1080 Founders Edition graphs were rebuilt because of significant difference between the .25 and .39 drivers, probably due to erratic fan speeds. It was difficult to say whether it was because of its cooling performance or because of the GP-104 card.

This is why a lot of people simply wait for non-reference editions whether it’s AMD or Nvidia. No exceptions! With new generation PC gamers less committed towards manual overclocking, out-of-the-box factory overclocked cards are preferred as long as it can deliver a real-world performance boost. That should also be accompanied with excellent cooling design, good looks, good components and a reputation of making great graphic cards.

Zotac has three variants in its GTX 1070 series- The founders edition with default base/boost clock of 1506/ 1683 MHz. AMP edition with a custom cooling and PCB design with 1607/ 1797 MHz base/boost clock and the big bad Zotac GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme edition with 1632/1835 MHz.

Packaging

Zotac has all of the required information at the back of the box, including its features, system requirements and specification. The front labels all of its feature including the new Spectra LED lighting. The inner packaging materials provided by Zotac is good enough to protect this large graphic card. As always Zotac provides an extended warranty at the time of registration.

Zotac provides two pieces of dual 6 pin to 8 pin PCIe adapter, a driver disk with a case badge and a user’s manual. The PCIe adapters have its cables individually sleeved. However, most power supplies ranging between 500w to 600w has all the cable you’ll need for single GPU setup.

Zotac informs that its fans will not spin in low load. I the past, PWM controlled fans in GPUs and PSUs where it returned due to ‘fan failure’. This way users will know that it’s working by not working. It helps in its own way to keep the lifespan of the fan’s bearings and motors.

Amp! Extreme editions are very large cards due to a long and deep array of heatfins and networks of heatpipes helping to dissipate heat from its GPU core, memory and VRAM. This card occupies a space equivalent of a 2.5 slot. The card is broader and longer than a typical GTX 1070 Founders Edition.

Specifications

What you will notice is that it takes 2.5 PCIe slot space. You will also note this card is (length x width) 12.79 inches x 5.82 inches. A reference edition for both GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 is just 10.5 inches x 4.37 inches with a two PCIe slot form factor. But in exchange, it provides three temperature controlled fans and a large array of heat copper heat pipes and a large aluminum fin stack.

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