ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review

ZOTAC amps its GTX 1070 Ti game up with their new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition graphics card.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: ZOTAC
8 minutes & 45 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 98%
TweakTown award

The Bottom Line

ZOTAC has the most overclockable and best performing GTX 1070 Ti yet, with the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition blowing us away. 60C under 100% load, 2037MHz max GPU overclock, and an amazingly-styled backplate. It makes me blush.

Introduction

ZOTAC's new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition is the second custom GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card we've tested, after the MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING and the third GTX 1070 Ti in total following our review of NVIDIA's own GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition.

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The AMP! Extreme Edition graphics cards are the best that ZOTAC make, and are always some of the best custom GTX 10 series graphics cards released. It happened with the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, and again with the GTX 1080 Ti, and now that awesome-ness continues with the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition.

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics cards are all good, and we know that ZOTAC puts its all into the AMP! Extreme range, so the TL;DR here is that ZOTAC's new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition is worthy of your money. Now let's walk through some of those things individually, before we get to the best-in-class performance and cooling capabilities.

Detailed Specs

ZOTAC keeps the GPU and VRAM clocks under NVIDIA's lockdown, with the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition having relaxed speeds of 1607/1683MHz for base and boost, respectively.

We all know the card can go much higher, with some huge overclocks pushed on the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition card.

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The 8GB of GDDR5 stays at its 8Gbps frequency but can be pushed up to the 9-9.1Gbps area with some mild OC.

The GPU can be pushed up to 2035-2050MHz depending on the game, higher than the 2025MHz on our MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING.

Cooling Tech: IceStorm

IceStorm Still Reigns Supreme

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ZOTAC continues to use its impressive IceStorm cooler, with the new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition rocking the same IceStorm cooler.

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In order to protect the card, and add to its style, ZOTAC uses something they call Carbon ExoArmor.

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We can't launch a graphics card in 2017 without RGB LEDs, right?! That'd be nuts.

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ZOTAC's dual blade EKO fan is always impressive, something that keeps the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition cool under ALL conditions, even when it's overclocked to over its limits.

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Detailed Look

ZOTAC hasn't changed the look of its AMP! Extreme Edition graphics cards, so the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition looks exactly like the AMP! Extreme Edition versions of the GTX 1070, GTX 1080, and GTX 1080 Ti.

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As you can see, the front rocks that awesome triple-fan cooler and ZOTAC's 'PUSH THE LIMIT' branding at the top.

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I'm seriously digging the backplate on ZOTAC's graphics cards, as it always stands out from the competition.

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Throw in some lights, and it looks outright gorgeous.

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We have 8+8-pin PCIe power connectors required.

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ZOTAC also includes some LEDs for the PCIe power connectors, where the LEDs will be red when the PCIe cables aren't plugged in, and green when they are.

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ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition is a thick card, rolling out in a 2.5-slot design.

Test System

I've recently edited my GPU test bed, which was powered by the Intel Core i7-5960X processor, and shifted into the arms of Kaby Lake and Intel's new Core i7-7700K. GIGABYTE hooked us up with their awesome new AORUS Z270X-Gaming 9 motherboard, which is the heart and soul of my new GPU test platform.

Detailed Tech Specs

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K
  • Cooler: Nocua U12S
  • MB: AORUS Z270X-Gaming 9
  • RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) G.SKILL Trident Z 4000MHz DDR4
  • SSD: 1TB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
  • PSU: Corsair AX1500i
  • Chassis: In Win X-Frame

Detailed Look

A larger article on our 7700K system is available right here.

Here are some shots I've taken of the new system in action:

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Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike - 1080p

3DMark Fire Strike benchmark

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark Fire Strike - 1440p

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark Fire Strike - 4K

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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Heaven - 1080p

Unigine Heaven benchmark

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Heaven - 1440p

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Heaven - 4K

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Heaven - 3440x1440

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Benchmarks - 1080p

1080p Benchmarks

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

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Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p Benchmarks

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review 104

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review 53
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review 105

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

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Benchmarks - 4K

4K Benchmarks

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review 104

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review 105

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

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Benchmarks - 3440x1440

3440x1440 Benchmarks

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Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games on the market, a truly gorgeous game - and a wonder to benchmark. The team at Crystal Dynamics made a very scalable PC game that plays really well testing graphics cards. We've got DX11 and DX12 results in one here, showing the slight strengths of running DX12 mode.

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ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review 104

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review 75
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Graphics Card Review 105

Metro: Last Light Redux comes from developer 4A Games, making the Redux version of Metro: Last Light the 'definitive' version of the game. Redux had a fresh coat of paint on the already impressive 4A Engine, and it really pushes our GPUs to their limits.

You can buy Metro: Last Light Redux at Amazon.

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Power & Temps

NVIDIA's own GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition saw our GPU test system using a total of 290W, while ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme uses around 310W under load.

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Even when it was overclocked to 2037MHz boost on the GPU, ZOTAC's GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition ran at just 62C, with our entire GPU test bed using anywhere between 315W and 340W depending on the benchmark or game.

Overclocking = Best GTX 1070 Ti Overclock So Far

Overclocking

Out of the five different GTX 1070 Ti cards I now have here in my lab, ZOTAC has the highest GPU clocks with the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition. I was able to drive my sample up to 2037MHz GPU boost, with power at 140% and the fans still on automatic.

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Even at this huge overclock, the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition ran nice and cool at 62C under 100% load when gaming and mining. I also overclocked the 8GB of GDDR5 right up to 4513MHz resulting in 9Gbps of bandwidth, up from the 8Gbps on stock speeds. This provides a huge improvement in cryptocurrency mining, especially memory intensive mining like Ethereum.

Performance Analysis

The Best Yet

NVIDIA has locked down the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti in terms of overclocking, which has really evened out the playing field with all AIB partners.

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ZOTAC gets around this in a few ways by offering their one-click overclocking of the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition in their own FireStorm OC software, and secondly by providing us with the most OC frequency out of the handful of cards I've tested so far.

I have in my labs right now:

  • ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition
  • MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING
  • MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti TITANIUM
  • GALAX GeForce GTX 1070 Ti EXOC White
  • EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti FTW2

I'm still going through the last two cards in the GALAX and EVGA cards, as they only arrived as I was putting the finishing touches on this review. I plan on putting them all to the test, testing their maximum overclocks, power consumption, and cooling technology/performance. Exciting times.

Final Thoughts

ZOTAC has yet another winner on its hands, offering the best performance from any of our custom GeForce GTX 1070 Ti cards yet. I've still got to test the EVGA and GALAX cards, but from preliminary testing, they don't touch the 2037MHz GPU ceiling the ZOTAC does. I will be putting much more time into those cards in the next week or so, and will be doing a GTX 1070 Ti round up - so be sure to check back for that.

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ZOTAC's new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition does have a downside, as it's a 2.5-slot card.

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This is a very personal thing, but it's not something that takes away from the experience. Most people don't SLI their graphics cards anymore, as most AAA games simply don't take advantage of the additional GPU horsepower. So the 2.5-slot design is fine.

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The backplate that ZOTAC has used is out-of-this-world good. I absolutely love looking into the PC and seeing the Corsair RGB LEDs beaming all sorts of colors and creating different mixes of colors against the yellow backplate on the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme. It really does look slick.

All-in-all, if you want one of the very best custom GeForce GTX 1070 Ti cards on the market, you can't go wrong with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition.

TweakTown award
Performance (overclocking, power) 100%
Quality (build, design, cooling) 100%
General Features (display outputs, etc) 95%
Bundle, Packaging & Software 95%
Overall 98%

The Bottom Line: ZOTAC has the most overclockable and best performing GTX 1070 Ti yet, with the GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition blowing us away. 60C under 100% load, 2037MHz max GPU overclock, and an amazingly-styled backplate. It makes me blush.

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Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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