On Asus‘ official site, the company has put up the product pages for their upcoming ROG Strix RTX 3070 and TUF RTX 3070 Gaming graphics cards. Both the Strix RTX 3070 and TUF RTX 3070 shares the same (cooler) design and aesthetics with their big brothers RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 Strix and TUF graphics cards. And yes, both the Strix RTX 3070 and TUF RTX 3070 are big and chunky too. If you’re hoping for a smaller RTX 3070 variant, Asus will be releasing a DUAL RTX 3070 as well. Check out more details and features below.
Asus ROG Strix RTX 3070 Gaming Graphics Card
The Asus ROG Strix RTX 3070 Gaming graphics card is the company’s flagship variant for their RTX 3070 GPU. Like its bigger brother Strix RTX 3080 and Strix RTX 3090, this one also features a big chunky tri-Axial tech fan and 2.9-slot design.
No doubt that the other components inside this graphics card are premium components as well; top-shelf capacitors, chokes, and MOSFETs as Asus puts it. The design and aesthetics are similar to the higher-end Strix RTX graphics cards. And it looks like the real difference is what’s under the hood or cooler shroud.
Under the hood is an 8nm GA104 Ampere GPU with 5888 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6 memory; with a clock speed of 14Gbps running on a 256-bit memory interface. Asus has not yet disclosed the GPU clock speed of this graphics card, but expect it to have a higher than 1.73 boost clock speed.
Unlike the STRIX RTX 3090 and STRIX RTX 3080, the ROG Strix 3070 will only require two 8-pin PCIe power connectors and a 750W power supply. I’m sure this one is going to be another very popular and in-demand graphics card.
Asus TUF RTX 3070 Gaming Graphics Card
The Asus TUF RTX 3070 Gaming graphics card is also a “buffed-up design with a chart-topping thermal performance”. Just like the TUF RTX 3080 and TUF RTX 3090, the TUF RTX 3070 features a rugged look and design. And looking at the backplate, it seems this graphics card was run over by a car or truck as well (joke).
It also features three Axial-tech fans with the one in the middle rotating in the opposite direction. According to Asus, they are also using “military-grade capacitors” inside the TUF RTX 3070. I just hope the whole capacitor fiasco will not happen on the RTX 3070 series.
The Asus TUF RTX 3070 is not as chunky as the ROG Strix RTX 3070. It (only) features a 2.7-slot design; although that still basically occupies three PCI slots. It also requires two 8-pin PCIe power connectors and a recommended 750W PSU.
There will be two variants of the TUF RTX 3070: one is an OC variant and the other is a non-OC variant. Asus has not yet disclosed the final GPU clock speed of the OC variant. But the non-OC variant will have a boost clock speed of 1725MHz; perhaps this is the reference clock speed of an RTX 3070.
Asus DUAL RTX 3070 Graphics Card
Finally, if you don’t want a beefy graphics card like the Strix and TUF variant; Asus will release a DUAL RTX 3070 graphics card. This graphics card features two Axial-tech fans and it’s slightly thicker than a 2-slot graphics card.
The Asus DUAL RTX 3070 measures 10.51″ x 5.31″ x 2.05″ making it a good fit for small form factor builds. It also requires two 8-pin PCIe power connectors and at 750W PSU. And the non-OC variant has the same clock speed as the non-OC TUF RTX 3070.
Pricing and Availability
NVIDIA decided to move the release date of the GeForce RTX 3070 to October 29. Expect that these graphics cards will be available by then, onwards. However, I am expecting that they will be sold out instantly, just like the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090.
The RTX 3070 starts at $499 USD; and for only $499 you get a “faster than” RTX 2080 Ti level of performance (a $1,200 GPU). Asus has not yet announced the prices for their RTX 3070 graphics cards. But I suspect that the DUAL RTX 3070 will be priced similar or closer to MSRP, and the TUF RTX 3070 and STRIX RTX 3070 will be priced higher than $500 USD.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Specifications
| RTX 3090 | RTX 3080 | RTX 3070 | RTX 2080 Ti | RTX 2080 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fab Process | 8nm Samsung | 8nm Samsung | 8nm Samsung | 12nm TSMC | 12nm TSMC |
| Architecture | Ampere | Ampere | Ampere | Turing | Turing |
| CUDA Cores | 10496 | 8704 | 5888 | 4352 | 2944 |
| Base Clock | 1400 MHz | 1440 MHz | 1500 MHz | 1350 MHz | 1515 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1700 MHz | 1710 MHz | 1730 MHz | 1545 MHZ 1635 MHz (FE) | 1710 MHz 1800 MHz (FE) |
| Memory Size | 24GB | 10GB | 8GB | 11GB | 8GB |
| Memory Type | GDDR6X | GDDR6X | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| Memory Clock | 19.5 Gbps | 19 Gbps | 16 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Memory Bandwidth | 936.2 GB/s | 760.3 GB/s | 448.0 GB/s | 616 GB/s | 448 GB/s |
| Memory Interface | 384-bit | 320-bit | 256-bit | 352-bit | 256-bit |
| Max. GPU Temp. | 93° | 93° | 93° | 89° | 88° |
| Power Connectors | 2x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin | 8-pin | 8+8 pin | 6+8 pin |
| Graphics Card Power | 350W | 320W | 220W | 260W (FE) | 225W (FE) |
| Recommended PSU | 750W | 750W | 650W | 650W | 650W |
| Price | $1,499 | $699 | $499 | $999 (reference) $1,199 (FE) | $799 (reference) $699 (FE) |
GeForce RTX 3080 Graphics Cards available on the following retailers:
Newegg.com here
Amazon.com here
B&H Photo here
