Conclusion
In this review, we took the EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING for a ride on our test bench to see how this mid-market RTX 3070 Ti GPU would compare to the AMD Radeon RX 6800. It commands a $120 premium over the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition card but also brings a more traditional three fan cooler and a 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 EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING performed well against the AMD Radeon RX 6800, trading blows as we progressed through our game suite. 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 EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING 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, Far Cry 6, Dirt 5, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider turned in playable results while Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus circled the drain rather slowly. The EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING traded blows with the AMD Radeon RX 6800, however, none of the cards provided an all-around good 4k gaming experience.
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 EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING picked up the pace and jumped ahead of the Radeon RX 6800. However, that difference is quite moot as the overall Ray Tracing experience at 1440p was very hit or miss.
Adding DLSS to the mix brought the frame rate up enough for a good gaming experience with Ray Tracing turned on. It especially helped in Cyberpunk 2077 where the game was performing as it was a slow-motion picture show without it. It’s fair to state in the games tested with Ray Tracing and DLSS that you get a playable experience with the EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING GPU.
Power and Temperature
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING marinated at 75.1 degrees Celsius with its default configuration and dropped to 68 degrees Celsius when overclocked and its fans set to full blast.
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING munched on 293W of total system power while gaming, landing 41W above the AMD Radeon RX 6800. Overclocking only increased power draw by 4W.
Overclocking
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING 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 2025MHz and 21.4GHz memory. That makes the observed core clock 250MHz and the memory 2400MHz faster than the maximum overclock on the Founders Edition.
Overall, this is a serviceable overclock but is not quite as good as what we saw with its FTW3 stablemate. Also, the real-world performance improvement from overclocking fluctuates significantly from title to title. This tells us that the GPU boost was pushing down the performance as we bumped on the power limits of the card.
Final Points
To wrap things up, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING is a solid contender from EVGA. It works as advertised and stays closer in size to a typical GPU than some of the larger ones we’ve reviewed as of late. The low-profile black three fan design makes it a classy-looking addition to your rig while adding just a little bit of EVGA RGB flair.
When comparing the EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING to the AMD Radeon RX 6800, they trade blows across the board and are on fairly equal footing, providing a similar gaming experience across the suite that we tested. If you’re focused only on rasterization performance or have concerns about the amount of VRAM, then the RX 6800 might be the better option for you at this price point. The EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING has a large advantage when using Ray Tracing in conjunction with DLSS.
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 and the factory overclocked AIB RTX 3070 Tis will land at a comparable price point, whatever it happens to be.
With all things considered, if you have a split-second decision to buy a 30 Series GPU, then the EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING is absolutely worth making the purchase and enjoying your upgraded gaming experience.