NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is probably the final graphics card released on the 18-month old "Pascal" architecture. Just like the GTX 1080, it is based on the GP104 silicon, with a negligibly reduced shader count, but paired with slower GDDR5 memory instead of GDDR5X. The memory change makes sense as GDDR5X seems to be available in limited quantities only and NVIDIA surely wants to sell more cards. GTX 1070 performance is beat by AMD's Vega offerings though, which is why they came up with the GTX 1070 Ti.

Our NVIDIA Founders Edition sample is clocked at 1607 MHz base / 1683 MHz Boost - just like all other GTX 1070 Tis out there, NVIDIA doesn't allow board partners to overclock their cards out of the box, probably to protect the GTX 1080. Compared to the GTX 1080, the GTX 1070 Ti is 5% slower, which makes it 13% faster than the GTX 1070. AMD's Vega 56 is 6% behind, and Vega 64 is 4% faster. The mighty GTX 1080 Ti takes the lead with 36% faster performance. These results make the GTX 1070 Ti an excellent choice for maximum-detail 1440p gaming, or 1080p when using a high-refresh-rate monitor.

NVIDIA is using their standard reference thermal solution, which barely manages to handle the heat of the GTX 1070 Ti GPU; temperatures reach 83°C, which is when the throttling kicks in. However, if you look at performance vs. the custom designs which don't throttle at all, the differences are negligible, which suggests that the throttling only has a very minor impact on performance. While idle fan noise is very low, the card does not include the highly popular idle-fan-off feature, which has become standard these days. In gaming, the card is relatively noisy (compared to the custom GTX 1070 Ti versions), reaching almost 38 dBA with a heavy load, which is definitely noticeable. It is still much quieter than AMD's Vega 56 and Vega 64, which are both fairly noisy.

Power efficiency of Pascal is amazing, and GTX 1070 Ti is no exception here. Performance per watt is similar to the GTX 1080 Ti, a bit lower than the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, by roughly 10%. It's still heaps more efficient than AMD Vega.

Early reports claimed that overclocking is locked on GTX 1070 Ti. This is absolutely not true. All our samples overclock very well and reach clocks above 2 GHz after boost, easily beating GTX 1080 performance. As mentioned before, board partners are not allowed to include out of the box overclocks with their cards, which makes things difficult for less experienced people, or people who just don't want to waste time overclocking. Overclocking has become quite easy these days, so don't worry and give it a try.

Price-wise, the GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition clocks in at $450, which also seems to be the lowest price point any GTX 1070 Ti can be bought at - at least for now. AMD magically found Vega supply within the last few days, and their prices are now at the levels we were promised at launch: $400 for Vega 56 and $500 for Vega 64. This makes Vega 56 a relatively interesting value proposition since it beats out the GTX 1070 - if you don't care about power or noise. The GTX 1070 Ti steps in here and offers decent performance gains at a relatively modest price increase, especially when you take overclocking into account. The GTX 1080 is not a lot faster, but has the advantage of offering out-of-the-box overclocked custom designs, which make setup easier. The GTX 1070 Ti ends up matching the GTX 1070 in performance per dollar despite its higher price. Even at $500, Vega 64 seems too expensive compared to NVIDIA's GTX 1070 Ti, and the GTX 1070 Ti is a huge win when you care about power and noise.