Introduction
It’s the end of an era….. or is it? Well, yes it is, the dawn of the new Nvidia RTX GPU bringing ray tracing to the masses, it has to be seen as a milestone in the computing and GPU world. Just like the features we take for granted, such as transform and light technology, the RTX technology signifies the start of a new generation of features and we should be excited.
We should also be cautious and there’s plenty of ancient phrases that should be in the back of our minds when spending our money on new technology like RTX. For example, “do I even need to upgrade?” Here is another, “I need to upgrade my old GPU, what should I get?”
We’ve just updated our test GPU to the GTX 1070 Ti and we want to know if it’s still a good GPU for people to hold on to, or buy if you are looking for an upgrade and don’t want to spend a months salary on a new GPU. We bought this sample off the shelf, so it’s not a sponsored article.
| Palit GTX 1070 Ti JetStream | Nvidia RTX 2070 FE | |
|---|---|---|
| Stream Processors | 2432 | 2304 |
| Core Clock Base | 1607 MHz | 1410 MHz |
| Core Clock Boost | 1683 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| Video RAM | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Frequency | 8 Gbps | 14 Gbps |
| Memory Bus Width | 256-bit | 352-bit |
| Texture Units | 152 | 144 |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 |
| Transistor Count | 7.2 Billion | 10.8 Billion |
| Manufacturing Process | TSMC 16nm | TSMC 12nm |
| GPU | GP104 | TU106 |
| Launch Date | November 2017 | Sept 2018 |
There is no RTX 2070 Ti yet so we have added in the GTX 1080 Ti and the RTX 2080 Ti to the table for comparison. The Pascal architecture was first seen in 2016, so it is getting on a bit, at least for the technology world. We are sure there are many people who have welcomed this though, bank accounts can take a hammering with lovely new tech goodies coming out all of the time.
This has another benefit, the Pascal GPU has been matured nicely, and with driver revisions and new versions coming out, there is enough variety out there to keep the Pascal GPU fresh, new and still up to date. So, for that reason, can you get by with a GTX 1070 Ti, and can you skip the update for the next six months?
We think so, or at least, that’s our hunch. The Pascal is a very strong GPU, and it is the fastest consumer-grade GPU on the market, it’s not going to slow down overnight or when the RTX GPU’s are released.