INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Ever since i got my hands on the very first "3D" cards like the Riva 128 by NVIDIA, the Voodoo by 3DFX and the 3D Rage by ATI to get released back in the mid 90's I’ve been fascinated by 3D graphics (who remembers playing the very first Need For Speed and Command & Conquer games back then?). Fast forward almost 25 years later and thanks to the never-ending competition between AMD (bought ATI back in 2006) and NVIDIA not only are graphics cards getting much more powerful but they are also equipped with impressive technologies aimed to make your gaming experience more exciting like FreeSync, G-Sync, real time ray tracing and deep learning super sampling. Now as some of you are well aware i decided to cease graphics card reviews a while back but since many of you have asked i decided to give it another go and so today we start that effort by taking a very close look at the AORUS GeForce RTX 2070 Super card by GIGABYTE.

   GIGABYTE is an engineer, visionary, and leader in the world of tech that uses its hardware expertise, patented innovations, and industry leadership to create, inspire, and advance. Renowned for over 30 years of award-winning excellence, GIGABYTE is a cornerstone in the HPC community, providing businesses with server and data center expertise to accelerate their success. At the forefront of evolving technology, GIGABYTE is devoted to invent smart solutions that enable digitalization from edge to cloud, and allow customers to capture, analyze, and transform digital information into economic data that can benefit humanity and "Upgrade Your Life".

   The latest GeForce RTX 2070 Super card is NVIDIA's answer to the RX 5700 series by AMD which matched and, in some cases, even surpassed the performance of the previous RTX 2070 model. In order to achieve the extra performance NVIDIA this time over used a cut down version of the Turing TU104 GPU (instead of the TU106) which is also found in the more powerful RTX 2080/2080 Super models. Just for the record the GeForce RTX 2070 Super features a total of 2560 shader units, 40 RT cores, 184 texture units, 320 tensor cores and 13.6 Billion transistors whereas the previous GeForce RTX 2070 featured a total of 2304 shader units, 36 RT cores, 144 texture units, 288 tensor cores and a total of 10.8 Billion transistors. Core boost clocks also vary since the new GeForce RTX 2070 Super is set at up to 1770MHz whereas the GeForce RTX 2070 came with a core clock of up to 1620MHz (reference cards always). On the other hand, probably in an effort to cut-down costs NVIDIA didn't touch the memory end of the new cards so both the RTX 2070 Super and the RTX 2070 feature 8GB of 256-bit GDDR6 memory at 14Gbps with a bandwidth of 448GB/s. Even though the GeForce RTX 2070 Super was announced back in July of last year so it already counts 3 months in the market the AORUS model we have here today by GIGABYTE counts a lot less and not only features an improved 3-fan cooling system (3x100mm halo fans) complete with impressive RGB effects and a rear backplate but it also sports a total of 7 outputs (3xHDMI v2.0b/3xDP v1.4a/1xUSB-C), 12+2 power phases for extreme overclocking and comes with a GPU boost factory overclock of 1905MHz.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The card arrived inside a black and green box with a falcon drawing at the front and the main product features.

 

 

At the base of the box we see the main product features are also listed in 13 languages.

 

 

6 product pictures and drawings placed at the rear are used to showcase the same product features listed at the front.

 

 

The entire bundle is placed between two thick black foam spacers (the papers are all placed in a black envelop with the Aorus logo on it).

 

 

Along with the card you're also getting a case badge, software CD, paper with the card's outputs and the quick-start guide.

 

 

THE AORUS GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The AORUS GeForce RTX 2070 Super is a 3-slot card that measures 290mm in length, 134.31mm in width/height and 59.9mm in thickness.

 

 

GIGABYTE has used a 3-fan design and a heatpipe direct touch cooler right beneath them.

 

 

The RGB lighting system of this card includes the Aorus logo at the center of the card, LEDs routed in the blades of the fans and the Aorus logo and fan stop at the top.

 

 

At the rear end of the card we see the two 8-pin power connectors.

 

 

Moving at the front we see the 3 HDMI v2.0b and 3 DisplayPort v1.4a outputs and the single USB-C output.

 

 

The rear is taken by a large aluminum backplate which not only protects it but also acts as a cooler for the PCB.

 

 

AORUS ENGINE SOFTWARE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via the first tab of the AORUS Engine software you can overclock the card and enable/disable the semi-passive fan mode from the lower right corner (disabled for our tests).

 

 

There's also a monitor function which can get handy, especially if you do decide to overclock the card.

 

 

For people who don't like taking chances the software has an OC scan feature which checks to see the highest clocks the card can achieve (takes a while to complete however).

 

 

By clicking on the LED function, the RGB 2.0 software launches and from here you can choose one of the 13 available modes (the same software is used for our mainboard).

 

 

Here you can see the RGB lighting system of the AORUS RTX 2070 Super in all its glory.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Since we'll be using our latest test rig with our graphics cards tests, we also moved to another screen (Philips BDM4037UW) in order to also offer 4k Ultra HD tests. Of course, 2160p (3840x2160p) is not the only resolution we'll be testing cards with, we are also going to be testing them at 1080p Full HD (1920x1080p) and 1440p (2560x1440p). Also because far too many gamers own Ultra-Wide screens at first i wanted to use our AOC AGON AG352UCG monitor in order to also have its resolution of 3440x1440p in our charts but since it's plugged into our other test rig several meters away from this one i really had to choose (and 4k seemed like the better choice). This time over we also updated the list of benchmarks/games to include the Time Spy benchmark by UL, Assassin's Creed Odyssey by Ubisoft, Devil May Cry 5 by Capcom, Dreadnought by Yager, GEARS 5 by The Coalition, Metro Exodus by 4A Games, Star Citizen by Cloud Imperium Games and The Outer Worlds by Obsidian Entertainment. As with the past power saving is disabled in the cards we’re testing (maximum performance) and all tests are repeated a total of 3 times and in a fresh Windows 10 Pro installation with all updates installed until the day of our review (same as all the games used). Room temperature is as usual controlled and steady at 23 degrees Celsius for all tests and to record the temperatures of the cards we used AIDA64 and GPU-Z. Recording noise levels is done with an ExTech HD600 dBA meter from a distance of no more than half a meter away (exterior of case) while power consumption is measured again using GPU-Z.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - 3DMARK TIMESPY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Spy was added in 3DMark back in 2016 with only 1 simple goal, to test the graphics of systems with Windows 10 and DirectX 12. Time Spy was used at default settings.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an action role-playing video game set in the year 431 BC and the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and is based on the AnvilNext engine. For our tests we use the built-in benchmark of the game with FPS limit off, V-Sync off and the graphics set at high quality (because Assassins Creed Odyssey auto-detects your graphics card and sets settings accordingly the same graphics quality needs to be set manually every time).

 

 

TEST RESULTS - BORDERLANDS 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Borderlands 3 is an action role-playing first-person shooter video game released back in late 2019 and is powered by Unreal Engine 4. Borderlands 3 has a very basic built-in benchmark which we set at DirectX 12 with unlimited frame rate and overall quality set to High.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - DEVIL MAY CRY 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devil May Cry 5 is an action-adventure hack and slash video game released in March 2019 and is based on the RE Engine like other titles by Capcom. Devil May Cry 5 doesn't feature his very own built-in benchmark so for that purpose we're using the latest version of Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync Off, variable frame rate and all graphics settings set at High.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - DREADNOUGHT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreadnought is a combat flight simulation game was released for the PC in late 2018 and is the 3rd game in our tests based on the Unreal Engine 4. Dreadnought used to come with its own built-in benchmark but since that was removed, we decided to use Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync off and graphics set to High.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - GEARS 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gears 5 is a third-person shooter video game released back in mid-2019 and is powered by Unreal Engine 4 just like Borderlands 3. Gears 5 features a very convenient (not to mention fast) built-in benchmark which we use with V-Sync off, unlimited frame rate (none for minimum) and Ultra graphics quality.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - METRO EXODUS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game released in 2019 and is based on the 4A Engine. The latest game in the Metro series also features its very own benchmark utility which we set at DirectX 12 and Ultra graphics quality (we're also running RTX tests with NVIDIA graphics cards with that setting set at Ultra).

 

 

TEST RESULTS - STAR CITIZEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Citizen is an upcoming multiplayer space trading and combat game the main development of which started back in 2012 and is currently based on the Lumberyard game engine. Not only does Star Citizen come without any built-in benchmark (or utility) but it’s still in Alpha status meaning that this is not the most stable game title to use for our benchmarks (numerous graphics optimisations are expected between now and launch day). Still we wanted to have it in our charts for anyone interested and so we did by using Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync turned off and the graphics set at High.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - THE OUTER WORLDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outer Worlds is an action role-playing game released back in late 2019 and is also based on the Unreal Engine 4. The Outer Worlds is yet another title we had to use Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync off, unlimited frame rate and graphics set at Very High.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCKING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With limited effort we managed to push the Aorus RTX 2070 Super 75MHz on the core and 249MHz on the memories with somewhat satisfying results as you can see from the following charts (all the other cards in the charts are also overclocked).

 

 

TEST RESULTS - POWER CONSUMPTION / TEMPERATURES / NOISE LEVELS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   I have to admit that I haven’t seen many of the latest GeForce RTX 2070 Super cards up close but from those that I have seen (and the ones I’ll be testing next) the AORUS model by GIGABYTE is certainly the best looking one. Looks is not all however since you’re also getting a very good factory overclock which offers very good performance levels (strange that GIGABYTE didn't touch the memories however) and a total of 7 outputs. Overclock headroom is also good (not great however) and the same goes for noise levels and overall temperatures. That being said even thought one would expect graphics cards to get smaller as time goes by the AORUS RTX 2070 Super is still a large 3-slot model (although not the larger RTX 2070 Super around) that measures no less than 290mm in length so do keep that in mind too.

   With a current price tag set at around USD590 inside the USA and at around 640Euros inside the EU the GIGABYTE AORUS GeForce RTX 2070 Super (GV-N207SAORUS-8GC) is not exactly ideal for the masses (not to mention it was out of stock almost everywhere I looked). That being said however high-end graphics cards have always carried a hefty price tag with them so that was expected especially since the RTX line also features technologies like real time ray tracing and deep learning super sampling. Overall, I was very satisfied with the AORUS GeForce RTX 2070 Super not only in terms of performance but also looks and for that I believe it deserves our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Backplate / 12+2 Phases)
- Very Good Performance
- Looks (RGB Halo Fans)
- Low Noise Levels & Temperatures
- Good Factory Overclock
- Fan Stop Mode
- Good Overclocking Headroom
- Supported Technologies (Real Time Ray Tracing & Deep Learning Super Sampling)
- 4 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Size (3 Slot Card)
- Current Availability