MSI isn’t messing around with Nvidia’s Pascal GPUs. The company launched four different lines of GTX 1080 cards with a total of six models, and now the company has revealed its initial GTX 1070 offerings, which cover the same four product branches.
For starters, there's the GeForce GTX 1070 Aero 8G, which features a classic radial fan blower-style cooler. The Aero card eschews flashy lights and colored accents for a more subdued basic black design with a single silver accent. The Aero will come in overclocked and reference clock configurations.
If the blower cooler isn’t your cup of tea, MSI is offering the GeForce GTX 1070 Armor 8G OC, which includes MSI’s Armor 2X cooler. The dual fan cooler features the same TORX fan technology found on the company’s Twin Frozer V coolers, and it has a baseplate to help transfer heat from the memory. The Armor 2X cooler also features MSI’s Zero Frozr technology, which shuts the fans down when the GPU isn’t under heavy load. The Armor will be offered in reference and overclocked models.
MSI is also looking out for gamers who want to guarantee that their prized graphics hardware remains as cool as possible. The company has extended the Sea Hawk line to include the lower priced GTX 1070. The previous generation Sea Hawk card was strictly limited to the GeForce GTX 980 Ti. The Sea Hawk cooler is a hybrid design that combines the shroud and radial fan from MSI’s Aero cooler with Corsair’s H55 closed loop liquid cooler.
The GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G is the king of MSI’s current GTX 1070 lineup. The company engineered this card for overclocking. It features a completely custom PCB design with 10-phase voltage regulation modules (VRM), Military Class 4 components and an additional 6-pin power connector.
The Gaming X includes a new Twin Frozr VI cooler that offers better cooling than the previous version, thanks to its double ball bearing TORX Fan 2.0 fans. The new fan blade is designed to increase air pressure by as much as 22 percent. The TORX Fans direct air through the large heatsink, which contains an array of 8mm square copper heat pipes. MSI also included a nickel-plated copper baseplate that helps transfer the heat from the memory chips directly to the heatsink. There's also a full cover backplate.
The Twin Frozr VI cooler also features some lighting effects. The front of the card has several red accent pieces around one of the fans that lights up in red when the card is powered on. The logo found at the top of the card lights up as well, but it gives you RGB options.
MSI has not revealed the detailed specifications of each model, but there will be reference clock and overclocked Aero and Armor models, and the Sea Hawk X and Gaming X 8G models will have higher clock speeds than the overclocked Aero and Armor cards.
| Name | GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G | GTX 1070 SEA HAWK X | GTX 1070 ARMOR 8G OC | GTX 1070 ARMOR 8G | GTX 1070 AERO 8G OC | GTX 1070 AERO 8G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | GP104-400 | GP104-200 | GP104-200 | GP104-200 | GP104-200 | GP104-200 |
| Memory size/type | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 |
| Thermal design | TwinFrozr VI | Corsair H55 Hydro Cooler | Armor 2X | Armor 2X | AERO exhaust | AERO exhaust |
| Backplate | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| LED | Yes (RGB) | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Connectivity | DisplayPort x 3 / HDMI / DL-DVI-D | |||||
| Dimensions | 279 x 140 x 42 mm | Card: 270 x 111 x 40 mm | 279 x 140 x 37 mm | 279 x 140 x 37 mm | 269 x 111 x 35 mm | 269 x 111 x 35 mm |
| Cooler: 151 x 120 x 52 mm |
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