Can't decide between ASUS Strix OC and EVGA FTW GTX 1070, Please Help!

[MyNewRig]

Hey guys,

I am torn between the ASUS Strix GTX 1070 OC and the EVGA GTX 1070 FTW,

Both cost exactly the same in my market, the main differences are

ASUS has 3 fans and runs about 5c degrees cooler, looks fantastic, has only 1 8-pin connector and 6+1 phases Super Alloy Power II, it has 2 HDMI connectors and 3 years of warranty

the EVGA FTW main difference is that it has 8+6-pin connectors, 10+2 power phases, standard connectors and warranty can be extended to 5 years for 20 Euros

Main differences here are the higher power delivery for the FTW which in turn causes the card to run a little hotter but EVGA does not state the quality/grade of the power phases that they use like ASUS does so i am not sure if that actually improves overclockability by much!

I have an ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming mobo,i am not sure if using an ASUS card on it will come with improved compatibility.

Which one do you guys think i should go with?

Thanks

 

[Chugalug_]

Hey guys,

I am torn between the ASUS Strix GTX 1070 OC and the EVGA GTX 1070 FTW,

Both cost exactly the same in my market, the main differences are

ASUS has 3 fans and runs about 5c degrees cooler, looks fantastic, has only 1 8-pin connector and 6+1 phases Super Alloy Power II, it has 2 HDMI connectors and 3 years of warranty

the EVGA FTW main difference is that it has 8+6-pin connectors, 10+2 power phases, standard connectors and warranty can be extended to 5 years for 20 Euros

Main differences here are the higher power delivery for the FTW which in turn causes the card to run a little hotter but EVGA does not state the quality/grade of the power phases that they use like ASUS does so i am not sure if that actually improves overclockability by much!

I have an ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming mobo,i am not sure if using an ASUS card on it will come with improved compatibility.

Which one do you guys i should go with?

Thanks

Get the Asus card if you want performance over warranty, or if you aren't overclocking.
Runs cooler, boasts faster clock speeds and an overall better performance out of the box.
EVGA on the other hand have far superior customer service, and will help you fix your card or replace it if there are any issues. The FTW also has more power phases, meaning it overclocks much better.
I would pay extra for the warranty imo, as EVGA have been known to give out free upgrades to users when their old cards die, and they can no longer find stock in their warehouse.
My personal choice is with EVGA all the way on this one, but it's up to you whether you want a faster out of the box card, or want overclocking with better warranty and customer service.

 

[MyNewRig]

I always overclock all the way to extract the last bit of performance possible because i will be using this 1070 in 4K but can not afford a 1080 so i could use as much performance as possible.

But here is the thing:

1- I had the EVGA 780 ACX card for two years which ended up dying, i did not like the build quality of this card, the cooler did not sound right, thermals were not great and it had a lot of coil whine and ended up failing so i am not very comfy with EVGA's quality.

2- I am in Europe, EVGA's service center is in Germany, if i need their warranty i have to ship internationally on my own expense to get a replacement, and based on my previous experience with the 780 they refused to upgrade the card after all the problems i was having with it and said they will send an exact same SKU that is refurbished.

3- I RMA to my retailer or their supplier directly anyways so i will not deal with EVGA nor ASUS directly either way.

4- Overclocking which is the most important point here, most 1070s would reach or near 2000Mhz comfortably with very simple manual overclocking so the 10+2 phases and higher TDP on the FTW could maybe push the card 20-50Mhz above what ASUS could achieve with 6+1 phases and standard TDP, at the cost of warmer operation and probably a little bit more noise, so i am not sure if the value of that extreme power delivery on FTW is actually worth it in practice

Still looking for more feedback i need to place the order NOW before they run out of stock 😀

 

[Chugalug_]

I always overclock all the way to extract the last bit of performance possible because i will be using this 1070 in 4K but can not afford a 1080 so i could use as much performance as possible.

But here is the thing:

1- I had the EVGA 780 ACX card for two years which ended up dying, i did not like the build quality of this card, the cooler did not sound right, thermals were not great and it had a lot of coil whine and ended up failing so i am not very comfy with EVGA's quality.

2- I am in Europe, EVGA's service center is in Germany, if i need their warranty i have to ship internationally on my own expense to get a replacement, and based on my previous experience with the 780 they refused to upgrade the card after all the problems i was having with it and said they will send an exact same SKU that is refurbished.

3- I RMA to my retailer or their supplier directly anyways so i will not deal with EVGA nor ASUS directly either way.

4- Overclocking which is the most important point here, most 1070s would reach or near 2000Mhz comfortably with very simple manual overclocking so the 10+2 phases and higher TDP on the FTW could maybe push the card 20-50Mhz above what ASUS could achieve with 6+1 phases and standard TDP, at the cost of warmer operation and probably a little bit more noise, so i am not sure if the value of that extreme power delivery on FTW is actually worth it in practice

Still looking for more feedback i need to place the order NOW before they run out of stock 😀

The FTw would be far superior in terms of overclocking compared to Asus theoretically, but with GPU boost 3.0 and the apparent voltage limitations on 1080s causing them all to not be able to achieve stable clocks much above 2GHz, there may not be much point in OCing. It is up to you what you want to do.
I'm sure if you contact EVGA on Reddit you'll get a much better response in terms of warranty, as their reddit users are very helpful in getting your personal issue resolved. I personally have had great experiences with EVGA, so maybe you just got unlucky. 🙁
Using an Asus card will yield the same result as any other, no special optimization.
FTW 100% in my opinion because i'm an overclocker and i've had good experiences with EVGA, but the Strix is still a great choice if you don't feel comfortable with EVGA.
Both will achieve similar performance overclocked, but again, as I said the Strix will have cooler temps most likely.

 

[MyNewRig]

The FTw would be far superior in terms of overclocking compared to Asus theoretically, but with GPU boost 3.0 and the apparent voltage limitations on 1080s causing them all to not be able to achieve stable clocks much above 2GHz, there may not be much point in OCing. It is up to you what you want to do.
I'm sure if you contact EVGA on Reddit you'll get a much better response in terms of warranty, as their reddit users are very helpful in getting your personal issue resolved. I personally have had great experiences with EVGA, so maybe you just got unlucky. 🙁
Using an Asus card will yield the same result as any other, no special optimization.
FTW 100% in my opinion because i'm an overclocker and i've had good experiences with EVGA, but the Strix is still a great choice if you don't feel comfortable with EVGA.
Both will achieve similar performance overclocked, but again, as I said the Strix will have cooler temps most likely.

You make a very good point here that i did not previously notice, the voltage limitation set on these cards is the actual bottleneck for overclocking beyond 2000Mhz so the reference 4+1 phases, the ASUS 6+1 all the way up to the FTW 10+2 would probably achieve the same clock within 1-2% difference which is negligible.

Which brings me to a point which could be the deciding factor here, the FTW has dual BIOS, so it can be flashed with a custom BIOS without much risk, do you know of any custom 1070 BIOS that would lift the voltage limitation so that the FTW could actually use that extreme power delivery and overclock beyond 2100Mhz or so?

Also there is the ports configurations 2 HDMI and 2 DP on the ASUS vs. 1 HDMI and 3 DP on the FTW and with that VIVE DP compatibility fiasco i am not sure if the 2 HDMI on the ASUS would actually be better?

 

[Chugalug_]

The FTw would be far superior in terms of overclocking compared to Asus theoretically, but with GPU boost 3.0 and the apparent voltage limitations on 1080s causing them all to not be able to achieve stable clocks much above 2GHz, there may not be much point in OCing. It is up to you what you want to do.
I'm sure if you contact EVGA on Reddit you'll get a much better response in terms of warranty, as their reddit users are very helpful in getting your personal issue resolved. I personally have had great experiences with EVGA, so maybe you just got unlucky. 🙁
Using an Asus card will yield the same result as any other, no special optimization.
FTW 100% in my opinion because i'm an overclocker and i've had good experiences with EVGA, but the Strix is still a great choice if you don't feel comfortable with EVGA.
Both will achieve similar performance overclocked, but again, as I said the Strix will have cooler temps most likely.

You make a very good point here that i did not previously notice, the voltage limitation set on these cards is the actual bottleneck for overclocking beyond 2000Mhz so the reference 4+1 phases, the ASUS 6+1 all the way up to the FTW 10+2 would probably achieve the same clock within 1-2% difference which is negligible.

Which brings me to a point which could be the deciding factor here, the FTW has dual BIOS, so it can be flashed with a custom BIOS without much risk, do you know of any custom 1070 BIOS that would lift the voltage limitation so that the FTW could actually use that extreme power delivery and overclock beyond 2100Mhz or so?

Also there is the ports configurations 2 HDMI and 2 DP on the ASUS vs. 1 HDMI and 3 DP on the FTW and with that VIVE DP compatibility fiasco i am not sure if the 2 HDMI on the ASUS would actually be better?

1070s?
I think atm the FTW series and the Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming cards are the only ones out with a dual BIOS configuration.
The 2x HDMI on the Asus is better if you are going to do VR.
But there are no cards out that come with a lifted voltage limitation, so the only way to get around that is to flash the BIOS manually afaik.
No custom BIOS' I know of, most people just do it themselves manually if they want enthusiast overclocks with water loops etc.
Don't even know where you would download such a thing!

 

[MyNewRig]

Yes the thread is about the 1070 from the beginning, did you think i was talking about the 1080?

Yes only the FTW and GB extreme have Dual BIOS this is why i asked you if that secondary BIOS on the FTW could be flashed with a custom one to lift the voltage limit and be able to actually utilize the improved power delivery, because otherwise 10 or 100 phases is actually worthless

 

[Chugalug_]

Ah, right, my bad completely!
You mentioned the 1080 at one point and I just sort of phased it out I guess. xD
Still more or less the same situation though.
The secondary BIOS on the FTW can be flashed with a custom one in order to lift the voltage limit, although you're all on your own in terms of how this affects temps etc.
The voltage limitations were most likely put in place to stop users from getting to the point where voltage scaling for clocks suffered from diminishing returns and high temps.
It is your choice entirely whether you want to flash your BIOS to achieve these higher clocks, but personally I wouldn't do it.
What I would do is get the EVGA 1070, use the dual BIOS for standard overclocking and be happy with it. Too much effort to flash bios, which then voids warranty on top of that, making you responsible for anything that could go horribly wrong. 🙁

If you can't be bothered overclocking though, get the Asus 1070, pretty much the same speed in OC mode out of the box that you would get from any overclocked 1070, or within 1-2%. If not, you can just overclock that as well!

 

[MyNewRig]

here you go, that was my view from the beginning, i would not risk flashing a custom BIOS anyways and have never done it in the past, too much risk for very little benefit and since all 1070s are voltage limited anyways to around the 2000Mhz mark, i expect the Strix and the FTW to perform virtually identically despite the better power delivery on the FTW that would just probably cause it to just run hotter without any real improvement in clocks.

This is why i am leaning towards the ASUS coz it only has one 8-pin which seems to be more than enough and which gives cleaner cabling inside the case, it looks really bad ass with the AURA LEDS on back and front, it has 2 HDMI for better compatibility with VR, and to be honest i feel it is neatly built and uses better quality components and housing than the EVGA, it also runs cooler.

I feel that the ASUS is an all round better solution overall, despite not having extreme phases like the FTW it seems to have more than enough high quality phases to achieve optimal performance without coil whine, electrical noises etc ...

Do you think this is a good conclusion and i should place the order now or do you believe i would regret getting the ASUS?

Warranty would not make much difference, because my retailer is my warranty provider in both cases, also warranty after 3 years is not worth all that much because by that time the card would not be worth anything anyways so if it fails after 3 years i would not care

 

[Chugalug_]

here you go, that was my view from the beginning, i would not risk flashing a custom BIOS anyways and have never done it in the past, too much risk for very little benefit and since all 1070s are voltage limited anyways to around the 2000Mhz mark, i expect the Strix and the FTW to perform virtually identically despite the better power delivery on the FTW that would just probably cause it to just run hotter without any real improvement in clocks.

This is why i am leaning towards the ASUS coz it only has one 8-pin which seems to be more than enough and which gives cleaner cabling inside the case, it looks really bad ass with the AURA LEDS on back and front, it has 2 HDMI for better compatibility with VR, and to be honest i feel it is neatly built and uses better quality components and housing than the EVGA, it also runs cooler.

I feel that the ASUS is an all round better solution overall, despite not having extreme phases like the FTW it seems to have more than enough high quality phases to achieve optimal performance without coil whine, electrical noises etc ...

Do you think this is a good conclusion and i should place the order now or do you believe i would regret getting the ASUS?

Warranty would not make much difference, because my retailer is my warranty provider in both cases, also warranty after 3 years is not worth all that much because by that time the card would not be worth anything anyways so if it fails after 3 years i would not care

Yup, the Asus is a good conclusion to reach in your case since you are not doing extreme overclocking as I previously mentioned as a big selling point of the FTW.
Pull the trigger now before they sell out! :O
You'll be extremely happy with either purchase, just make sure you get the one you want before its too late!

 

[MyNewRig]

Yup, the Asus is a good conclusion to reach in your case since you are not doing extreme overclocking as I previously mentioned as a big selling point of the FTW.
Pull the trigger now before they sell out! :O
You'll be extremely happy with either purchase, just make sure you get the one you want before its too late!

Thanks a bunch for sharing your thoughts, i have placed the order for the Asus Strix OC luckily before it goes out of stock, pretty satisfied with my decision as i am tired of EVGA and would like to try something new especially when it is as compelling as the Strix

 

[Warmacblu]

I have an ASUS STRIX 1070 paired with an ASUS motherboard and have not had any issues. It runs cool (68 degrees C max in my case) and quiet and it automatically boosts to 2010MHz.

 

[MyNewRig]

I have an ASUS STRIX 1070 paired with an ASUS motherboard and have not had any issues. It runs cool (68 degrees C max in my case) and quiet and it automatically boosts to 2010MHz.

Cool, should have mine soon too

 

[SamF18]

Adding my 2 cents to this thread:
I personally think the Strix is a better card as it tends to oc just as well as the ftw and has a higher clock straight out of the box, while remaining cooler. I was very close to buying one, but eventually decided to get a ftw instead.
1. The ftw is 3/4 inch shorter. Doesn't seem much, but for me, that means I can leave my ssds where they are, while I'd have had to change quite a few things in my case (and possibly having the ssds just hanging in there) to fit the strix.
2. I had to deal with Asus CS for my laptop several times, and when you're unlucky enough to get a bad product, it's a nightmare. It lasts forever (took me two years and five rmas to finally get a replacement), and asus does not replace products (at least $2,000 laptop), they "fix" them. Which is a recipe for disaster as it keeps breaking down. I never had problems with other Asus products and had several asus MoBo, but I never want to deal with their cs again. As for EVGA, it's my third card and I never had to use their CS, but I heard they're great. That was the biggest selling point for me.
3. That's more personal, but I eventually found a merchant on Amazon that was selling it without tax, making it effectively cheaper than the strix oc.

So, if you have the room in your case and don't mind shitty cs (if your card is fine, you'll prolly never have to use it), get the Strix. If you want to play it safe, go with the FTW. Both are great cards, and will give stellar results.

 

[riseer11585]

I have an ASUS STRIX 1070 paired with an ASUS motherboard and have not had any issues. It runs cool (68 degrees C max in my case) and quiet and it automatically boosts to 2010MHz.

Well the FTW is quiet ...to the point you can't hear it at 100% fan speed. Also getting a good OC with it pushing just north of 2100mhz does drop just below 450mhz on memory and at a 60C temp.

 

[MyNewRig]

both cards are now crap since they both started using Micron memory ICs instead of Samsung .... no much overclocking potential anymore and out of the box performance is laggy ...

How come you say that the FTW stays at 60C ? even the much cooler Strix can not stay there and it gets in the 70s during heavy load ... the ASUS fans are inaudible at up to about 55% which the auto fan curve always keeps them below that ... 60% and above they sound like a jet engine ... not so good ...