The GTX 10 series of GPUs are the latest and greatest from NVIDIA. The GTX 1070 is considered to be an absolute beast for 1080p and 1440p gaming, so we thought we'd test ZOTAC's GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme GPU and see how it fared. Taking a number of PC titles for a spin, we wanted to see how the graphics card performed under intense loads at both resolutions.
Our test bench consists of the following:
- CPU - Intel Core i5-6400 (2.7GHz).
- RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX (2,133MHz).
- Motherboard - MSI H110M PRO-D.
- SSD - Kingston SSD Now UV400 120GB.
Grand Theft Auto 5
Grand Theft Auto 5 is an intensive title when there's a lot of carnage currently ongoing on screen. The GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme managed to maintain solid frame-per-second (FPS) levels, only dipping below 60FPS a few times at 1440p, and that's with all settings configured for best quality.
Total War: Attila
This game by Creative Assembly will give even the most powerful enthusiast machines a run for their money. Cranking all settings to their limit, we ran the benchmark suite and saw some interesting results. These numbers aren't too bad (averages of 39FPS and 32FPS aren't ideal but are playable), especially when one considers turning down AA and some other options that offer negligible differences at higher resolutions.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Lara Croft played smoothly at both resolutions, only falling below the 60FPS baseline a handful of times. The drop was more considerable and noticeable at 1440p, however.
The Witcher 3
The Witcher 3 certainly made it difficult for the GTX 1070 at both resolutions on maximum settings, even with NVIDIA Hairworks disabled. That said, we only found the game to stutter slightly below 60FPS in odd situations that were definitely noticeable but only lasted for a few seconds.
DOOM
DOOM is so well optimized (shocker for Bethesda) that it will practically run on your smart fridge or automobile infotainment system. Being matched with Zotac's GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme meant we were able to enjoy some great FPS levels, depending on the game level and the number of enemies on screen. Even at 1440p with all settings configured to the max, we never dipped below 77FPS.
Conclusion
The GTX 1070 is ideal for 1440p gaming and 4K in some titles with toned down settings. Some games like Total War: Attila require a more realistic graphics configuration, even at 1080p where the GPU struggled to hit 50FPS. If you're planning to buy a 1440p monitor in the near future, the GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme GPU by Zotac is a great investment. Those planning to stick to 1080p should go for a GTX 1060, and 4K display owners should really consider purchasing the GTX 1080, even though it's expensive. For more options, have a look at our best graphics card picks.
