Mainstream Focused GTX 1070 May Be The Best Value Ever
The hype around Nvidia’s new Pascal series of cards – which was already biblical – is about to hit a new height. We know the top of the range $599 GTX 1080 is absurdly fast and power efficient, but it seems like the more mainstream $379 GTX 1070 may be the more compelling value. A leaked set of benchmarks from french site Clubic show the GTX 1070 is faster than the previous cream of the crop, the Titan X.
The post (which was likely accidentally posted ahead of an embargo) has now been removed, but the damage has been done so to speak. To make a long story short, the GTX 1070 does more than a year old $1000 graphics card for about a third the price. The gap is basically constant in all applications and games the benchmarks cover at around 10%, while the tests also indicate that there is a great deal of overclocking headroom on the GTX 1070, being shown running at a steady 2 GHz.
Synthetic or theoretical maximums are one thing, but to see this new mainstream card blowing away performance levels that were already remarkable for a tiny fraction of the cost while running unfinished drivers is nothing short of staggering.
The revelation of these benchmarks must be deeply troubling for AMD’s graphics division, who have been struggling mightily to keep up with Nvidia in both capability and efficiency in recent times. To be fair, AMD is expected to formally announce their new Polaris architecture later this year, which may focus on the mainstream market more than the ultimate high end. (Interestingly, the leaked PS4 Neo specs suggest that Polaris may underpin the new Playstation upgrade).
What do you think readers? Does this news further fuel the rumors of console upgrades at E3 this year? Is PC market share going to continue to grow as performance gets cheaper? Only time will tell, but we’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter below or on Twitter!