So the GTX 1070ti has arrived and it looks like a great card, but who is the target market? Based on the few reviews that I have seen, most AIB's are using Micron GDDR5 memory and while GDDR5 is great for many algos, the speed and quality is likely to be similar to anything found on a 1070.
However, the choice not to go with GDDR5X is puzzling if in fact this is a gamer focused card. So is it really a gamer card? I'm genuinely unsure, let's look at the facts:
This card is meant to take out AMD's Vega 56 in the gaming market.
Vega will still be attractive to miners regardless of price point but not to gamers, especially gamers on a budget. So unless the stock of Vega 56 drastically improves soon, the 1070ti will likely dominate it (but let's wait for benchmarks on that one).
According to Nvidia the 1070ti is an "overclocking monster" and has a stock core clock frequency of 101Mhz over that of the 1070.
But wait...then why did Nvidia decide to disallow AIB's to OC the cards out of the box?!
I'm not entirely sure but this certainly makes the card seem more like a mining targeted card as every card will have the same clock and memory frequencies out of the box. Some AIB's are still using their proprietary software to do point and click OC's like MSI has done for years with their poorly written software. Others such as Zotac appear to be advertising factory tested OC's on cards. With this move AIB's are forces to change not only marketing but also the custom BIOS which they may load onto the card to give the user an out of the box OC experience.
Overall, it seems these cards have "experienced users" in mind, as all OCing will need to be done manually.
Does the 1070ti kill the 1080?
Basically, yeah. There is very little incentive to buy a 1080 at the moment, you either spend $700+ and go for the 1080ti or spend $450+ and go for the 1070ti. This is the first time in recent memory that a *80 card from Nvidia has been so unattractive. The extra $50ish for the 1080 vs the 1070ti is not very inciting.
So who is this card even for? I'm not entirely sure, it fits into a weird market between gamers so I am predicting HIGH demand on both sides of the market and hopefully enough supply to satisfy the demand cough cough AMD.
Let me know what you all think about the 1070ti, is it a gaming card or a mining card?
