ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition Review

Introduction

I've been on an ASUS graphics card reviewing train with the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition and TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 OC Edition graphics cards going under the TweakTown review microscope.

Today I have yet another graphics card you can't buy, the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition graphics card, which sits in a good position on the benchmark charts and looks mean as hell like the rest of the RTX 30 series ROG Strix graphics cards from ASUS.

Once you can find the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition graphics card available to buy, it is a formidable 1440p beast for virtually any game out on the market -- including Cyberpunk 2077, if you mix in some of NVIDIA's magic DLSS technology.

ASUS has a higher 280W TDP on the ROG Strix RTX 3070 graphics card, with an OC Mode that drives the GPU clocks up to 1905MHz -- but don't worry, there's room for some overclocking which I've got in the benchmark charts as always.

NVIDIA prices its impossible-to-buy GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition at $499, while the still-impossible-to-buy ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition listed on NewEgg for $720.

• Read more: ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 OC Edition Review
• Read more: ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition Review
• Read more: ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition Review
• Read more: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition Review

Everything You Need to Know About Ampere

There's much more going under the hood of the Ampere GPU architecture powering the GeForce RTX 3070, with some rather big upgrades across the board on the GPU side of things while the VRAM and memory bandwidth is virtually identical.

We have an dramatic increase of CUDA cores from 2304 on the GeForce RTX 2070 to a huge 5888 CUDA cores on the GeForce RTX 3070, but less Tensor Cores, and more RT Cores, Textures Units, and ROPs.

NVIDIA is using the same 8GB of GDDR6 memory on the GeForce RTX 3070 as the GeForce RTX 2070, with 8GB of GDDR6 at 7Gbps on a 256-bit memory bus with 448GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

ASUS marketing

You can read all about the card on the official ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition website.

Detailed Look

We once again have great retail boxes, so if you can find the graphics card in the future one day hopefully -- you will know that this is a great looking box.

ASUS goes with the usual RTX 30 series ROG Strix style, which for this price range (again, if you can buy it) I really love. It's a great-looking card with RGB lighting that doesn't take over the card. I've got some more pictures of the RGB lighting on the card (front and back) down below.

I'm a huge fan of the backplate on the ROG Strix graphics cards, and the RTX 3070 version of the card is no exception. It looks damn good -- if not better around the back, than it does on the front.

ASUS is using a chunky 2.9-slot design on the ROG Strix RTX 3070 graphics card, but it is using it to good effect here. It's a thicc card, but it looks mean AF -- and has the performance numbers and noise levels to prove it.

You'll need dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors for the card, thankfully there's not 3 here.

Some nice ROG branding on the end of the card, too.

You have both Performance Mode and Quite Mode switches on the card, which will change the GPU profile and give you slightly lower clock speeds but a more silent experience... or the higher GPU clocks and the fans spinning up. You can of course customize this all through OC software, but the switches are nice.

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

I've got a new upgrade inside of my GPU test bed before my change to a next-gen test bed, where I will be preparing for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics cards and AMD's next-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards.

Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.

Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

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.

3DMark TimeSpy

Heaven - 1080p

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.

Benchmarks - 1080p

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

ASUS provides some great performance with the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition at 1080p, starting with Assassin's Creed: Valhalla sitting at 79-82FPS with stock/overclocked settings -- this is up from the 77FPS on the RTX 3070 FE.

Shadow of War is near maxing out at 1080p with 155-159FPS average, while Metro Exodus has the card losing to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and Radeon RX 6800 at 1080p -- but beating both of those cards when it's overclocked.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider screams along at 196FPS at stock settings, while when the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3070 OC Edition is overclocked that bumps up to 207FPS average at 1080p.

Benchmarks - 1440p

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I think this is where the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition sits perfectly, at 1440p gaming -- as does any RTX 3070. Starting with Assassin's Creed: Valhalla we have 65-70FPS at stock or overclocked, with the RTX 3070 FE sandwiched in-between.

Sandwiched in-between the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3070 OC Edition at stock and overclocked in Shadow of War is the Radeon RX 6800 -- 126FPS for the stock ROG Strix RTX 3070, 131FPS for the RX 6800, and 132FPS for the overclocked ROG Strix RTX 3070.

Metro Exodus has the card hitting 63FPS at stock, with the RTX 2080 Ti equaling it, the RX 6800 beats it by 2FPS at 65FPS and the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3070 when overclocked hits 67FPS average.

Benchmarks - 4K

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

4K gaming performance on the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition is exactly where it should be, in an excellent position in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla pumping out 44FPS average and 47FPS average when overclocked -- the RX 6800 is ahead here with 51FPS.

Switching over to Shadow of War we have 86FPS average which equals the Radeon RX 6800, but when the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition is overclocked it beats it at 92FPS average.

Overclocking

ASUS has much higher GPU clock speeds out of the box with its ROG Strix RTX 3070 OC Edition, where my sample was ticking along with a boost GPU clock of 2010MHz.

With my manual overclock applied to the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition, I had a maximum boost GPU of around 2115MHz with it also tipping over to 2130MHz.

Power Consumption & Temps

ASUS keeps things nice and cool with the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition, with the fans at stock and out of the box the GPU hits 66C -- while when overclocked to the max and with the fans @ 100% the temps drop to 58C.

Power consumption numbers are totally normal here for an overclocked RTX 3070.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

• ROG Strix style: Always a fan of the ROG Strix style of graphics cards, so if you can buy the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 you know it is a great looking graphics card. The RGB lighting looks great, and it's not over-the-top which I love.
• Faster than RTX 2080 Ti performance: ASUS is beating out NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition graphics card with the custom and overclocked ROG Strix RTX 3070. The RTX 2080 Ti launched for well over $1000 so you're getting some good value -- if you can find it -- with this card.
• 1440p gaming beast: Great performance at 1440p that sees the card trading blows with the Radeon RX 6800 and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

• Great OC headroom: There's some good OC headroom to enjoy from the ROG Strix RTX 3070, with up to 10% or so more performance once you've got those dials tweaked. The card doesn't run too hot when it's under load, either.

What's Not

• Not available to buy: I hate writing this every time, but it's true. It's yet another great, and probably one of the best custom GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards you can't buy.

Final Thoughts

ASUS has crafted a mighty fine custom GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card here, but as always with the last couple of months of reviewing Ampere and RDNA 2 graphics cards is that you can't buy them. It sucks, I know -- and there's nothing I can do about it other than have this review for maybe, when you buy it.

However, if you could buy it -- or for when you buy it, ASUS has chiseled together a kick ass custom RTX 3070 that has some good OC headroom, great thermals, and that slick ROG Strix aesthetic we've all come to know and love. You can't go wrong here, really.

There's the nice addition of another HDMI 2.1 output if you have multiple HDMI-based TVs or monitors that you want to plug into ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition graphics card.

ASUS definitely takes the cake for one of the best-looking custom GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards so far, but there are also really cheap RTX 3080s -- if you can find one -- that would be attractive versus the much higher cost of the custom ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3070 versus the RTX 3070 FE.

The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition will look great in any gaming rig, and be a big upgrade for anyone coming in from a GeForce GTX 10 series graphics card.