PNY GTX 1070 XLR8 OC Gaming 8GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The PNY GeForce GTX 1070 XLR8 OC Gaming Edition Graphics Card is a pricey £420, which could be better as you can pick up a 1070 from around £370, but it’s still priced on par with the ASUS STRIX GTX 1070, and Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1, which offer comparable performance.

Overview

There’s a lot to love about this graphics card, as it comes out swinging with its no-nonsense approach to high-performance gaming. It’s clocked faster than the stock card, and it manages to maintain that power and speed thanks to its improved power delivery and massively upgraded cooler vs the stock Nvidia design. Like almost anything though, it’s not perfect. The cooler does a fantastic job of keeping the hardware cool, but unlike its rivals, it doesn’t offer a zero fan mode for silent performance in low load scenarios, which is a shame as I’m certain the heat sink is big enough to do so. With that in mind, I don’t think the card is particularly noisy, but zero fan modes can reduce dust build up and improve the lifespan of the fans.

In terms of all-out performance, the XLR8 doesn’t muck about and is one of the fastest cards we’ve ever tested. Sure, the GTX 1080 and the 1080 Ti pull ahead by a hefty margin, but this is the only card on the market that can get even close, and the next fastest card we’ve tested, the Fury X, still lags a fair bit behind the GTX 1070 in most of our tests. If you want most of the high-end performance thrills of the more expensive Nvidia graphics cards, at almost half the price, this is certainly the way to go.

While the top Nvidia cards are king in the world of 4K gaming, the GTX 1070 is perfectly positioned for those wanting to game at high frame rates, and resolutions like 1440p, as well as ultrawide 3440 x  1440p, as it has more than enough VRAM to deal with the increased resolution and plenty of rendering power to deliver reliable frame rates at a competitive price range.

Build quality is as good as we’ve come to expect from PNY, with a durable and unique looking cooler shroud, a few hints of colour on the metal brackets giving it that well-established black and red gamer vibe, as well as a durable full-cover backplate design that completes the package.

Pros

• Blazing fast gaming performance
• Ideal for 1440p and Ultrawide resolutions
• Can delivery > 60fps frame rates at ultra settings
• Powerful cooler design
• Durable build quality
• Backplate
• Red LED lighting
• Good factory overclock

Cons

• No RGB lighting option
• No ZERO RPM fan mode

“The PNY GTX 1070 XLR8 is one of the best graphics cards on the market. A decent factory overclock, a powerful cooler, and a durable and stylish design make it great value for those wanting to take their gaming performance to the next level.”