Conclusion
There we have it, ASUS’s top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 5070 offering, the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 12GB GDDR7 OC Edition for $739.99 from ASUS. ASUS has two distinct models this generation in the GeForce RTX 5070 lineup with the TUF Gaming and the PRIME series. In those two series are non-OC Edition and OC Edition video cards with a factory overclock. The model we reviewed today, TUF-RTX5070-O12G-GAMING, is the one with the high factory overclock out-of-the-box and the most robust custom design from ASUS. If you are looking more towards MSRP pricing, the PRIME series will be what you are after.
In this evaluation today we put the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition through its paces. Designed in the TUF theme, this video card comes overclocked out of the box and is fitted with a very robust cooling system. The ASUS GeForce RTX 5070 TUF Gaming OC Edition is fitted with 12GB of GDDR7 and fitted with ASUS’s military-grade components and axial fan design with a myriad of extreme ASUS manufacturing technologies. It’s also a very large video card, at a 3.125-slot design and 14″ long, and 4″ thick, it’s a beast of a card. We compared the performance of this card to the latest competition from AMD with a factory overclocked Radeon RX 9070-GPU based video card.
Overclocking and Performance
For our performance testing shown, it is important to note that we compared it with a factory overclocked Radeon RX 9070 in our comparisons, as the RX 9070 is a partner-release card with no reference AMD cards. We chose these based on the price and position at the time of release, but note that the AMD RX 9070 used is showing a price online that is above MSRP as well, and out-of-stock at $100 less than the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition, but what the actual price will be with these cards when in stock, will fluctuate on both ends.
Overclocking the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition was a very straightforward process with GPU Tweak III. As we stated, this is a very good overclocker allowing a final Boost Clock of 2871MHz and 30Gbps on the memory side. Real time Boost averaged 3090MHz. This was 8% better than the out-of-box performance and translated to between 6% and 8% increases in gaming. The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition has a large power target increase, able to reach +20%, taking it from 250W up to 300W, giving more headroom for tweaking.
The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition is a card worth overclocking, to be sure. The benefit from overclocking is also aided by the superior cooling design. Temperatures remained low while the fans were never heard from. One area the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 has an improvement is with the memory temperatures, actually. Our ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070’s memory ran at a cool 58c, while in our RTX 5070 FE review, it reached 78c on the memory, which is a very big difference. ASUS has improved cooling in all aspects.
As we demonstrated in our trials, you can push the clock frequencies higher than we finalized. In ASUS GPU Tweak III, be sure to enable the enhancement options in the menu to extend the range of frequency options, as well as the voltage tuning so that you can tweak undervolting as well if you want to do more advanced tuning yourself. Gaming performance was nicely improved by overclocking as well.
Turning to performance, well, it was a bit underwhelming in comparison to the competition, but mind you, the 1440p gameplay experience was still an enjoyable and playable experience on the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition. In plain raster performance, the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition came out on top in one game without the aid of an overclock and then three of seven. The overclocked Radeon RX 9070 showed how very competitive it is in plain raster performance. The margin was 10% overall outperformed, but the range was, in some cases, quite a bit larger.
Switching to ray tracing, none of the cards we used could run any of the games without upscaling. Two games had to be lowered to 1080p. Overall, the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition held the top spot by an average of only 6%. In Star Wars Outlaws, the tide was turned in favor of the Radeon RX 9070 by 10%. When overclocked, the ASUS GeForce RTX 5070 TUF Gaming OC Edition managed to pull even in Star Wars Outlaws.
Final Points
The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 12GB GDDR7 OC Edition is a well-designed video card. It has all the qualities we have come to expect from a well-built, recognized branding. The video card overclocks well and gives you 8% more performance while at the same time remaining cool and quiet. It has an MSRP of $739.99 officially on ASUS’s website, but pricing can change over the course of time, so keep an eye on that.
The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition offers the highest tier of performance from ASUS in the GeForce RTX 5070 line-up with a very high factory overclock. We are in fact impressed with how high the overclock is, at 2610MHz out-of-the-box (and a software OC mode to 2640MHz), it actually clocked around 2840MHz while gaming, which is a real advantage. That advantage is multiplied by the incredible cooling, silent operation, just rock-solid build of the card, and overclocking potential.
The real stickler for this generation is going to be the pricing and availability of video cards. At the moment, availability is an issue, but it won’t always be the case. We also expect pricing to potentially change and fluctuate over time. At the time of writing, the $739.99 price-point seems steep when you put the competition into the mix at this price-point, but those video cards are having availability and pricing issues also, and the pricing we see on them now may not be where they end up on both ends. We suggest keeping an eye on pricing and checking our price widget to see updates on the pricing and availability.
Overall, if you are in the market for a workhorse of a card based on the GeForce RTX 5070, with a factory overclock and some enthusiast tweaking options from ASUS, the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 12GB GDDR7 OC Edition is well-suited for a great GeForce RTX 5070 experience. If you want to stick with ASUS and stay closer to MSRP, turn your eyeballs toward ASUS’s PRIME line-up as well.