Introduction

The EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra is the company's most premium custom-design graphics card based on the GeForce RTX 3070 "Ampere" GPU released to market earlier this week. The EVGA FTW3 Ultra features a gargantuan iCX3 cooling solution that's almost identical to the one taming its RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra, which we also reviewed. It combines with a custom-design PCB that has a VRM solution fit for GPUs from a segment above, and an interesting series of cutouts that let airflow from the fans through. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 itself is arguably the most important of the three RTX 30-series GPUs launched by NVIDIA thus far as it puts 4K-capable premium gaming performance into the hands of a much larger segment of the market.

The GeForce RTX 3070 marks the introduction of the 8 nm "GA104," NVIDIA's second-largest piece of silicon based on the new GeForce "Ampere" architecture that brings NVIDIA's 2nd generation RTX technology to a larger segment of the gaming market. The company extensively markets the RTX 3070 as being "faster" than the RTX 2080 Ti, which means you should be able to max out games at 1440p with RTX-on, as well as play at 4K Ultra HD with fairly high settings since those are the things the RTX 2080 Ti is good at. The performance outlook of the RTX 3070 should also mean that high refresh-rate e-sports gaming at 1440p and 1080p is possible at a much lower price than what it took in the previous generation. For the full details on the RTX 3070 technology and architecture, refer to our RTX 3070 Founders Edition article.



The GeForce RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra from EVGA comes with an impressive 1815 MHz factory overclock (compared to the 1725 MHz reference) tamed by the large iCX3 cooler, which features a trio of thick copper heat pipes that pull heat through a copper base-plate, conveying it through two large aluminium fin-stacks that are ventilated by a trio of fans that have individual speed control. Another perk with the FTW3 Ultra is its gorgeous RGB LED embellishments covering the top of the card. You also get handy features, such as ARGB and PWM fan headers, so you can sync your rig's cooling and lighting to that of the card. The FTW3 Ultra draws power form a pair of standard 8-pin PCIe power inputs, which should give the RTX 3070 plenty of power headroom. The $610 pricing from EVGA for the RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra is a tall ask and easily the highest price among the six RTX 3070 cards we reviewed so far. It remains to be seen if the card is more than the sum of its parts.