Conclusion
In this review, we took the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card for a ride on our test bench to see how this mid-market RTX 3070 GPU would compare to MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT GAMING X. It commands a $250 premium over the RTX 3070 Founders Edition card’s MSRP but also brings a more traditional three fan cooler and a reasonable factory overclock to the game. Of course, it’s about as rare as hens’ teeth in the market, but we’ll complain about that elsewhere.
Gaming Performance
1440p
The ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card performed well against the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT GAMING X. It provided a solid 1440p gaming experience with all of the image quality knobs turned up to 11 (except for Ray Tracing). If you’re rocking a 1440p monitor, the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card will do just fine for your gaming needs at this time.
4K
Moving up to 4K gave us a bit more indigestion than 1440p did. Horizon Zero Dawn and Shadow of the Tomb Raider turned in playable results while Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs: Legion, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Metro Exodus circled the drain like a slow-motion slide show.
Ray Tracing and DLSS
From our testing, it is very clear that NVIDIA dominates Ray Tracing performance in games. When Ray Tracing was added to the testing equation, the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card picked up the pace and increased its lead over the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT GAMING X. At 1080p, we can call the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC a decent Ray Tracing option.
Adding DLSS to the mix brought the frame rate up enough for a good gaming experience with Ray Tracing turned on. It’s fair to state in the games tested with Ray Tracing and DLSS that you get a playable experience with the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card GPU.
Power and Temperature
The ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card maintained its cool at 64 degrees Celsius with its default configuration and dropped to 61.7 degrees Celsius when overclocked and its fans set to full blast.
The ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card was also a power sipper, using a total of 182W of chip power while gaming, landing 10W above the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT GAMING X while providing much better performance. Overclocking only increased power draw by 34W.
Overclocking
The ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card entered the match with a factory overclock that gave it a running start compared to the GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition. We were able to take it to the next level and stabilized at an average 1970MHz and 15.6GHz memory. That makes the observed core clock 35MHz and the memory on par with the Founders Edition.
Quite frankly, the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC overclocking performance was not as good as most of the other RTX 3070 based GPUs that have crossed our test bench. We suspect this is related to power limitations imposed by the design as we know that there’s more performance that can be extracted from the GPU.
Final Points
To wrap things up, the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card is a solid contender from ASUS. While the overclock did not turn any heads, its overall performance, noise profile, and temperature performance provided a solid win.
When comparing the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card to the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT GAMING X, it really isn’t a fair fight even though the going prices on the market implies that it should be. The RTX 3070 has a significant advantage in the Ray Tracing department and can leverage DLSS when the going gets tough in select titles. While FXR is coming to AMD’s rescue in the near future, it’s not ubiquitous enough to make a difference at this point.
Yes, we know that most of the comments on this article will snipe at the lack of availability and pricing of any modern GPU. Go ahead, join the forums and add to your post count by airing your grievances. That being said, we’re assuming that if there’s a reasonable stock of all of these cards in the marketplace, the RX 6800 is a much more comparable card from a performance perspective.
With all things considered, if you have a split second to buy a 30 Series GPU, then the ASUS RTX 3070 TUF GAMING OC Video card is absolutely worth making the purchase and enjoying your upgraded gaming experience, but if you want the absolute best RTX 3070 that money can buy, you should buy this and use it as trading collateral for a different card.