Unlike the RTX 3080 Ti, this release from NVIDIA is far more affordable and offers much better price-per-performance. This SKU has a price tag of only $100 more than the original 3070. The 3080 Ti, on the other hand, receives a $500 price increase over the 3080, which is unacceptable.
In any case, $600 (MSRP) is no small sum of money, which is why it’s so crucial to conduct proper research and ensure you choose the best possible RTX 3070 Ti for your PC.
To help you achieve that, we’ve researched and considered various factors such as thermals, looks, performance, and overclocking to determine precisely which brand offers the finest 3070 Ti.
Table of ContentsShow
Pricing
So, the Founders Edition is priced at $600, but aftermarket cards rarely base their price on Nvidia’s MSRP.
Unfortunately, none of these companies have specified the precise price of their RTX 3070 Ti variants. We estimate these GPUs to vary anywhere between $630 and up to $750.
Larger and flashier GPUs should be priced higher, while the smaller ones will have a fair price.
Alternatively, you can skip the RTX 3070 Ti and go for an RTX 3080 or an RX 6800 XT.
Table of ContentsShow
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC
Specifications:rn• Interface: 2 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x DisplayPort 1.4arn• Boost clock – 1830 MHzrn• Dimensions – L: 320 mm W: 129 mm H: 55 mm
The Pros:
- LightweightrnSolid performance and cooling for the price
The Cons:
- Plastic can feel cheaprnLack of RGB
Gigabyte’s offerings have been pretty consistent over the years, both with NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. That is especially true of their Gaming OC lineup. We know this because it earned spots on several of our “best GPU” articles, including the RX 6900 XT, RTX 3060, and RTX 3070.
However, it isn’t unfeasible for Gigabyte to make a misstep, so we won’t take anything for granted. Let’s see whether the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC lives up to its forerunners.
Design
The design of this card is straightforward and light, weighing only around 1200 grams. Even so, it’s still pretty long and wide.
Most of the shroud surrounding the PCB is made of black and grey plastic.
The front part of the shroud surrounding the fans is mostly black, with silver accents on two of the card’s corners.
Turning to the side, there’s a big opening, revealing the heatsink and a few of the copper pipes. Additionally, there’s Gigabyte branding on the side with colorful lighting.
Moving to the back, we see the only metallic part of this GPU shroud. The backplate is grey with several cutouts, apparently to help with air circulation for improved heat dissipation.
This GPU comes with two 8-pin connectors. In terms of connectivity, you get two DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.1. That’s nice to see, as most brands currently prefer adding three DP and only one HDMI.
Performance And Overclocking Capabilities
The advertised clock speed for this Gaming OC is 1830 MHz. To put that into context, the reference card (Founders Edition) is clocked at 1770 MHz. This is a substantial factory overclock, but it gets even better when you test it with actual gameplay.
While gaming, this RTX 3070 Ti managed to boost up to 1980 MHz but averaged around 1920-1930 MHz. Not bad at all, considering that’s 8% faster than the reference design.
If you desire additional, you can forever overclock. With adequate adjustments, this GPU may be enhanced just above 2GHz, to approximately 2030 MHz. That’s nearly 10% above the factory OC.
Thermals
While idle, temperatures drop down to 45°C. While under 50°C, the fans stop entirely. Of course, this is a feature you can find in almost any GPU today.
Once you’ve launched a game, temperatures can jump up to 80°C, but they stabilize at around 68°C. The thick heatsink and triple-fan setup are more than enough to handle the card’s power consumption of 380W.
These results are with the default BIOS. If you don’t want your fans ramping up to 2000 RPM and producing noise levels of 39 dBA, we suggest switching to the Quiet BIOS, which can increase the GPU’s temps but will reduce noise levels to 33 dBA or less.
Palit GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GameRock OC
Specifications:rn• Interface: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4arn• Boost clock – 1845 MHzrn• Dimensions – L: 304 mm W: 136 mm H: 60 mm
The Pros:
- One of a kind designrnBest custom OC cardrnSolid Cooling
The Cons:
- Can get loud
Palit is a Taiwan-based company that is more prominent in the Asian market than the Western market. If you haven’t heard of Palit before, that’s probably why. Don’t let the company’s lack of popularity in the West keep you away from their great GPUs. Their level of quality is just as high as any other brand on the market.
The Palit GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GameRock OC is the flagship model for all their SKUs.
Design
Regarding looks, we can confidently say that the GameRock OC is unique on the market, as no other GPUs have such a bold design.
Even at a glance, anyone would notice that something is different. The entire front of the card, around the three fans, is a layer of diamond-like “rocks”. It almost looks as though the card is frozen and covered in ice.
What makes this design even more remarkable is that the clear “ice” is supported with RGB lighting. When you fire up the PC, the rocks light up in different colors. Those diamond-like shapes disperse your lighting in a distinctive way.
The rest of the GPU is classic. There’s a bunch of branding on the side that is also RGB. On the side, you will also notice that this card has two 8-pin connectors.
The rear plate is metal, but it lacks thermal pads underneath, so it won’t provide significant aid in the cooling procedure.
In terms of connectivity, you’ll be getting three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1.
Performance And Overclocking Capabilities
The official website rates this GPU to clock at 1845 MHz. That is marginally higher than the Gaming OC.
Running a game pushes the clock speeds to more than 100 MHz higher, which is always pleasant to see. The average is close to 1950 MHz. This is faster than Gigabyte’s offering, but considering the hefty price, we’re not sure it’s worth it.
Maybe its overclocking potential will redeem it.
Looking at several overclocking results, it appears that Palit’s RTX 3070 Ti GameRock OC is the best overclocking GPU of any brand on the market. Users and reviewers have managed to push it to more than 2110 MHz.
That’s almost 15% higher frequency than the official specifications. This increase in frequency could provide a performance uplift of 5% to 7% in-game.
Thermals
Unfortunately, the “ice” on top of the card won’t keep the GPU cool. What will keep it cool is the incredibly beefy 60mm heatsink and its three fans.
While gaming with the default BIOS, the card does get a bit noisy at 2000 RPM and sound levels of almost 40 dBA. The temperatures stay at a cool 68°C. Not bad.
If you are the kind of person who prefers less noise and higher temperatures, you can use the BIOS switch to use the Silent Mode. Temperatures will rise up to 73°C, and fans will slow down to around 1700 RPM. You could also experiment with the fan curve to make the card even quieter.
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X
Specifications:rn• Interface: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 3 x DisplayPort 1.4arn• Boost clock – 1875 MHz (Extreme Mode), 1860 MHz (Gaming Mode)rn• Dimensions – L: 335 mm W: 140 mm H: 61 mm
The Pros:
- Built from high-quality materialsrnIncredibly quiet and cool with Silent BIOSrnWell-executed RGB lighting
The Cons:
- No apparent disadvantages
MSI’s Gaming X Trio has proven itself to be quite the GPU model as it ran cool and quiet on both AMD and NVIDIA cards. Whether you used a 200W or a 350W card, it could handle it. This is what casts the MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X in a good light, even before reviewing it.
The Suprim X is MSI’s flagship, so, in theory, it should be superior to the Gaming X Trio, but at a steeper price. It did turn out to be a great choice for our “Best RTX 3080 Ti Graphics Card” article.
Design
If you want a graphics card made using the finest quality materials, MSI’s Suprim X is the right choice. The entire shroud surrounding the PCB is made of high-quality aluminum, which is always pleasant to see. Metal dissipates heat while plastic traps it.
Even at a glance, the Suprim X looks substantial and premium. This impression turns out to be accurate.
At the front, you’ll see a couple of slits between the fans that are dedicated to RGB lighting. The metal shroud surrounding the fans is a pristine and metallic grey color.
Moving to the side, you will notice an extended strip also dedicated to RGB. There is also Suprim and Geforce RTX branding which is RGB as well. There’s also a BIOS switch on the side of the GPU and the two 8-pin connectors.
The backplate is made of metal which will help with heat dissipation, especially as it has a couple of thermal pads for the memory chips on the back of the PCB. There’s also a bit of RGB on the backplate.
Performance And Overclocking Capabilities
MSI’s RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X has the highest factory overclock of every variant on the market. Getting 1875 MHz out of the box is certainly very impressive. Keep in mind that you’ll need to enable Extreme Mode via the MSI Center app.
As anticipated, in-game performance differs from the official specifications. In-game, this card has an average clock frequency of 1930 MHZ. Although Palit’s card holds an average of around 1950 MHz, this is still the more economical card.
Fortunately, more is possible from this GPU as its OC capabilities are quite good. With power limits pushed to the max, the GPU clock can go up to 2100 MHz, which increases the power draw to 330 W compared to the 310 W with stock settings.
Thermals
This is where the Suprim X dominates its competition. Considering it surpasses the Gaming OC in terms of performance and holds on its own against Palit’s model, having better thermals than both cards is pretty impressive.
While using the Gaming BIOS, the average temperature stays at just 66°C. With temperatures that low, you might assume that the fan curve would be rather severe and result in very high noise levels. That isn’t the case here. Fans do jump up to 2000 RPM, but noise levels never exceed 37 dBA.
If you aren’t satisfied with these results, you can always switch to the Silent BIOS, where the noise levels drop just below 30 dBA while maintaining an average of 76°C. Sure, this is a bit warmer, but this noise level is comparable to liquid-cooled GPUs.
Which RTX 3070 Ti Should You Get?
The list of RTX 3070 Tis currently on the market is immense. There are probably a dozen variants available, and most of them come with a sensible price tag while offering solid performance.
From a dozen GPUs, we picked the three that we believe offer the best performance. You will still need to make a choice from those three. We hope the conclusion of this article will help you make that decision.
The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC is our choice for the Best Value card. Sure, it isn’t quicker nor cooler than the Palit or MSI cards, but you’ll get comparable performance at a much better price.
Palit’s GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GameRock OC deserves the Premium Pick mainly because of its extremely unique design. However, it also deserves praise as the best overclocker and for running quite cool.
Naturally, MSI’s GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X is just as good, especially as it is made using premium-quality aluminum and runs remarkably cool.
In other words, whichever of these three cards you pick, you won’t be making a mistake.
