KFA2 GeForce GTX 1070 EX OC 8GB Video Card Review

Videocards/VGA Reviews by stefan @ 2016-09-20

The GeForce GTX 1070 EX OC board from KFA2 impressed us positively regarding the overall build quality, factory overclocking levels, while the dual 100mm fans keep the board cool while keeping minimum noise levels. The manufacturer has also thought of enthusiasts who like to keep their systems hardware visible during operation via case windows, so the fans along with the GeForce GTX logo are LED lighted; the logo can be further customized via the supplied Xtreme Tuner Plus utility. One other important aspect to point out is that the KFA GeForce GTX 1070 EX OC 8GB video card is one of the most affordable cards on the market with custom cooling, with the same GPU.

  • prev
  • next

Packaging, A Closer Look Part I

We are continuing our journey reviewing video cards based on the Pascal architecture by checking out another GTX 1070 video card, but this time one which is coming from KFA2, which also comes pre-overclocked. On the first stage, Nvidia placed at the disposal of the end users “Founders Edition cards”, which did house the OEM cooling, but shortly afterwards we could see custom versions popping from all over the place. As we have noted in the previous review, the GTX 1070 GPU is practically a cut-down version of the GTX 1080; the GTX 1080 is featuring 2560 enabled shaders, while with the GTX 1070 we are seeing a drop to 1920, which also means that the texture units have been cut down from 160 to 120.

There are some similarities though: both GPUs come with the same number of ROPs (64), and they also have the same memory quantity of 8GB, on a 256-bit bus. While the GTX 1080 cards have installed the new GDDR5X memory, GTX 1070 cards are still using the older GDDR5 memory buffer.

 

The new GPUs from Nvidia were manufactured on the TSMC 16nm process, which means less voltage usage in the GPUs, a less transistor gate leakage and, of course, the transistor density is higher.

 

The stock Nvidia clocks for the GTX 1070 are 1506MHz for the GPU, while the GDDR5 memory runs at 2002MHz; the KFA2 model sample we have received does run at 1595MHz on the core, while the memory remains at the same clocks as the stock Nvidia model; these are the exact same specifications we have also seen along with the EVGA GTX 1070 SC, so we are also expecting similar performance levels.

 

The product is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard box, with the signature KFA2 box art:

 

 

 

We will also learn on the top area that the card comes with 8GB of GDDR5 memory, a combo of 6+8-pin power connectors and runs on the PCI-E 3.0 bus. The outputs are also presented here, along with the fact that we are dealing with a pre-overclocked product:

 

 

 

If we do also check the back area, we will get to see a small product description along with some of the features, but also the box contents list:

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with another all-black box:

 

 

 

Let’s see what we do have inside! All contents are separated by a thick layer of foam, so the internal components won’t be damaged during transit:

 

 

 

As documentation we will receive one User Manual, a Quick Installation Guide, but also a disk with drivers and documentation in electronic format:

 

 

 

The installation guides are covering everything which is needed in order to have the system operating in no-time:

 

 

 

 

  • prev
  • next