Review: Asus RTX 3070 Noctua OC

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Asus RTX 3070 Noctua OC:

The architecture :

This Asus RTX 3070 Nocuta OC is a new graphics card from Asus and benefits from NVIDIA’s new architecture, Ampere. It is intended to replace the GeForce RTX 2070 launched a little over two years ago. This RTX 3070 is equipped with a GA104 core built on the 8nm manufacturing process by Samsung. The chip size is 392mm² and hosts 5888 cuda cores.

Our Asus RTX 3070 Noctua OC has 8 GB of 256-bit GDDR6, which translates into a bandwidth of 448 GB/s. The TDP is 220 watts, which is higher than the RTX 2070 it is intended to replace, which had a TDP of 185 watts. As we said in the introduction, this Asus RTX 3070 Noctua OC is provided with the new LHR (Lite Hash-Rate) stepping.

The cooling system :

Needless to say, the cooling solution used on this Noctua OC RTX 3070 is unprecedented for us. It’s a custom design made to accommodate the two Noctua fans. As you can see, the dimensions of the card are also out of the ordinary with 310 x 145 mm, a weight of 1578 g and a width of four slots in your case.

Now this width is not a penalty as RTX 3070s are not SLI compatible, so only smaller cases might have issues with this model. Let’s go back to the two Noctua fans which are NF-A12 PWM in 120 x 25 mm. These fans have not been modified in any way at the power connector and could therefore be replaced without any difficulty. The fans will also switch off if the temperature drops below 50°C.

It is a very strong choice on the part of Asus to have kept the brown colour of the fans. Since the launch of the card, there are now NF-A12 chromax.black versions available on the market. It would be very easy for you to change them to black versions if you wanted to.

The card also has two BIOSes. By default, the “performance” BIOS is selected, but you can also opt for the “silent” one. The only difference is the noise level. Finally, our RTX 3070 Noctua OC has a metal backplate, which serves to stiffen the PCB and protect it from damage.

The Heatsink :

Considering the thickness of the board, it is logical to expect a rather large heatsink. And it is! There is an imposing finned block on which the two fans are placed (glued). This is actually quite surprising when disassembling it, as you have to force it a little in order to separate the heatsink from the casing. As mentioned, both fans use a traditional 4-pin connector.

The heatsink has 5 heat pipes running through it. There are many thermal pads whose role is to ensure the heat transfer between the component and the heatsink. Asus has provided a specific heatsink for part of the power supply stage.

Connections :

To power the card, there are two 8-pin connectors. In terms of output, this Asus RTX 3070 Noctua OC has three DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.1 ports.

Let’s move on to the technical specifications of our model of the day.