Review: evga geforce rtx 2070 xc ultra gaming and black gaming - graphics

Final Thoughts and Scoring

The EVGA RTX 2070 XC turned out to perform better than I had expected, especially while overclocked. Stock performance was somewhere in between a GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti depending on the application or game. Overall, the card ran cool and quiet even with a heavy overclock applied. Temperatures never exceeded 68C with moderate fan settings.

The graphics card might perform with some of the best, but it’s appearance is not one of it’s strong suites. The RGB lighting appears to me more of an afterthought which only glows along the top edge. This is fine for traditionally horizontal mounted graphics cards, but with vertical mounting becoming more and more popular, this card’s lighting might look a bit strange. The clear plastic shroud is also not something I shy away from. As dust tends to collect pretty much anywhere, in the case of the 2070 XC, it will have nowhere to hide and everywhere to show.

In the end, I would recommend this card to anyone who wants the latest and greatest RTX lineup but doesn’t want to shell out almost $1000 on an RTX 2080. If RTX features mean nothing to you, definitely take a look at grabbing a GTX 1080 Ti for a bit less.

Now for the breakdown:

Appearance: 8.3/10 – Out of the box the card looks fantastic. Overall, it’s very shiny and the rigid back plate really adds a lot of character. What hurt the overall score is the use of a clear plastic shroud. The card would have still looked amazing with black plastic, but I’m afraid that those fantastic looks you’ll see when you first get the card won’t last.
Build Quality & Construction: 9.7/10 – The EVGA RTX 2070 XC is constructed quite well. There is nothing to indicate that the card is cheap or poorly built.
Performance: 9.1/10 – Overall, the graphics card performed quite well during our tests. Modern games such as Battlefield V achieved between 80-100FPS at 1440P using Ultra settings. Benchmark software put the GPU somewhere between at GTX 1080 and a GTX 1080 Ti.
Value: 8.4/10 – While the card performs well, so do many other cards that cost less which includes many of the high end GTX 1080 products. While the new RTX product pricing increase is no fault of EVGA’s but rather NVIDIA’s, based on performance alone, the new RTX 2070 might be worth waiting on. However, RTX features such as real time ray tracing is a requirement for you, than naturally the cost is justified.

Buy on Amazon: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 XC Gaming 8GB

EVGA RTX 2070 XC Review Scoring

«Overall, the card ran cool and quiet even with a heavy overclock applied.»

8.9

Appearance:

8.4

Build Quality & Construction:

9.7

Performance:

9.1

Value:

8.5

Let’s Talk About Stock, Baby

And then there’s the stock situation. By this point, it’s no secret that graphics cards of all shapes, stripes, sizes, and brands are experiencing a stock squeeze at levels not seen since the first cryptocurrency mining boom a few years back, and the problem only looks to be getting worse as the months go on.

This time around it’s a double-header, with COVID-related delays and cryptocurrency price surges hitting Nvidia and AMD from both sides. As people find themselves spending more time indoors, the demand for PC components (especially gaming-focused ones) has risen across the board. Desktop GPUs and CPUs are already selling out minutes after they launch, and when you add cryptocurrency’s second renaissance on top of it—as of this writing, Bitcoin was trading above $45,000, a several-hundred-percent increase from the same time last year—you’ve got the perfect recipe for scalpers, high prices, and buying battles with bots.

As a response, Nvidia announced that the GeForce RTX 3060 will be the first graphics card in the RTX 30 Series to be released with a hash limitation baked into the hardware-level instructions of the GPU. The company claims this limiter will be «uncrackable,» and should, at least in theory, discourage cryptocurrency mining operations from using bots to sweep up the stock before anyone else has a chance to reserve their spot in the checkout line. (Scalpers, on the other hand, may well still try to gouge gamers.)

In case that’s not enough to deter them, though, the company also announced an entirely separate line of crypto-mining-specific cards under the «Nvidia CMP HX(Opens in a new window)» brand. (CMP is for «Cryptocurrency Mining Processor.») These CMP cards will specifically focus their efforts on mining coins like Ethereum more efficiently than standard GPUs, while also (hopefully) freeing up the rest of the supply chain to gamers instead.

(Image Credit: Nvidia)

It’s unlikely that the introduction of Nvidia CMP HX cards at an undetermined point somewhere «during Q1 and Q2» will affect the stock of RTX 3060 cards that are launching today, but we applaud the company for making an effort, at the least, to meet both markets’ ravenous demand for cards.

Installation and Lighting

If you’ve installed one GPU, you’ve installed them all. Simply insert the GPU into an available PCIe 16x 3.0 slot and secure it to your case via clamp or thumb screw. Then connect the two PCIe (1x8pin and 1x6pin) power connectors and finally monitor cables and you’re ready to go!

Once installed, be sure to snag the latest Nvidia Drivers (417.01 WHQL at the time of writing this article), and EVGA Precision software. Precision is primarily used for overclocking and monitoring, however, it also has functions for controlling the RGB LEDs located behind the graphic card’s plastic shroud. There are plenty of lighting effects that can used such as breathing, color cycle, or static.

An even closer look… Disassembly

Warning: Disassembling your graphics card will void your warranty with EVGA. We at GND-Tech do not recommend disassembling the unit, however sometimes sacrifices must me made; such as this review.

First, let’s start by removing the backplate. While this is a good starting point, it’s also a requirement. The backplate, the heatspreader and the heatsink are all held in place using reverse-side backplane screws.

The backplane itself helps dissipate heat generated from the reverse side of the PCB. This may shave a degree or two off your VRM or maybe GPU however, it’s mostly for looks.

Flipping the card over, we can now remove the main heatsink. The heatsink is quite robust and with it separated from the PCB, we can get a better view. The aluminum heatspreader which helps keep the RAM and VRM cool covers most of the front-size PCB. At this point it can be easily lifted off to reveal the PCB.

And there you have it! That’s about as far as we can go disassembly-wise without desoldering components. Here’s a few closeups of the GDDR6 memory and VRM. A quick Google search of the RAM chips (K4Z80325BC-HC14) gives us a few more specs such as their rated speed (8Gbps) and density.

Density	8Gb	Org.	256M x 32
Speed	14.0 Gbps	Refresh	16K / 32 ms
Package	180FBGA	Product Status	Sample

Lastly a shot from behind the display I/O area, just in case you were curious:

Lastly, a bit of photographic sadness as we mourn the death of SLI, or NVLink for the **70 series cards. While this is no fault of EVGA’s, the fact that Nvidia killed up multi-GPU support for the 2070 leaves much to be desired for The RTX 2070. However, EVGA does leave a notch in the backplane where the NVLink pins normally would go, just to remind you of what you’re missing:

Почетное упоминание: MAXSUN GeForce RTX 3060 iCraft OC 12G S1

Частота разгона : 1807 МГц | Память : 12 ГБ GDDR6 | Длина : 317 мм | Разъемы питания: 1 8-контактный | Выходы : 3 x DP, 1 x HDMI

Великолепная эстетика
Хорошая производительность 1080p и 1440p
Заводской предварительный разгон
Дешевле, чем другие модели RTX 3060

RGB-подсветку нельзя настроить
Посредственная эффективность охлаждения

И последнее, но не менее важное: видеокарта MAXSUN GeForce RTX 3060 iCraft OC 12G S1. Хотя этот вариант AIB RTX 3060 производится китайским брендом MAXSUN, это 100% легальная видеокарта RTX 3060, которая, честно говоря, не очень дешевая. На то есть несколько причин. Прежде всего, MAXSUN iCraft OC 12G S1 оснащен полноразмерным процессором GA106, а также модулями памяти GDDR6 производства Samsung. Карта также имеет немного увеличенную тактовую частоту Boost и довольно большую систему охлаждения с тремя вентиляторами. MAXSUN GeForce RTX 3060, изначально разработанная для китайского рынка, имеет несколько компромиссов, которые делают ее менее дорогой по сравнению с другими картами RTX 3060 от таких премиальных брендов, как ASUS или EVGA. Например, эта карта оснащена довольно простым, но массивным радиатором с четырьмя алюминиевыми тепловыми трубками, что обеспечивает более низкую эффективность охлаждения по сравнению с радиаторами на основе меди. Также карта имеет потрясающую, но неконтролируемую RGB-подсветку, которая может сильно не понравиться некоторым пользователям. В целом, это подходящая видеокарта RTX 3060, которая способна обеспечить отличный игровой опыт, но страдает некоторыми незначительными недостатками дизайна

MAXSUN GeForce RTX 3060, изначально разработанная для китайского рынка, имеет несколько компромиссов, которые делают ее менее дорогой по сравнению с другими картами RTX 3060 от таких премиальных брендов, как ASUS или EVGA. Например, эта карта оснащена довольно простым, но массивным радиатором с четырьмя алюминиевыми тепловыми трубками, что обеспечивает более низкую эффективность охлаждения по сравнению с радиаторами на основе меди. Также карта имеет потрясающую, но неконтролируемую RGB-подсветку, которая может сильно не понравиться некоторым пользователям. В целом, это подходящая видеокарта RTX 3060, которая способна обеспечить отличный игровой опыт, но страдает некоторыми незначительными недостатками дизайна.

The Design: Filling a Founders Edition-Size Hole

Thus far in the GeForce RTX 30 Series, Nvidia has spearheaded each of its GPUs’ debuts with an Nvidia-designed Founders Edition card to represent the pack. Those cards have been complete with a revolutionary new PCB up to 50% smaller than the boards on previous-gen RTX cards and a push-pull cooling system unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Unfortunately the GeForce RTX 3060 is the first GPU in the RTX 30 Series not to get the same treatment. No Founders Edition RTX 3060s will be made available as a part of this launch, which leaves it up to third-party manufacturers to deliver the RTX 3060 goods with more-recognizable designs of their own.

Similar Products

EVGA’s GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming 12G is a dual-slot, two-fan graphics card that measures barely shy of 8 inches long (7.94 inches, to be exact), just over 1.5 inches shorter than Nvidia’s Founders Edition design of the RTX 3060 Ti. For anyone who values a compact installation profile over nearly anything else, this card might be the better choice over the chunkier RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition.

The card uses a single traditional eight-pin power connector on the top of the card. Moving to the backplane of the card, it’s all standard fare for the RTX 30 Series, with three DisplayPort 1.4b ports, plus one HDMI 2.1 output.

The oft-seen VirtualLink from the RTX 20-Series «Turing» cards looks to be long in the dust for Nvidia at this point, so anyone still holding out for one of those would be better served going with a RTX 20 Series card instead. (Not that it’s useful for much more than as a USB-C port.)

Overclocking and Thermals: A Choice for Compact Builders

We ran a 10-minute stress test in 3DMark Port Royal on the EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming 12G, and found that the card was hovering around a max of 68 degrees C, a full 8 degrees hotter than the RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition, which hit a max of just 60 degrees C in the same run.

In testing the overclocking capacity of the RTX 3060, I was able to achieve a stable OC profile of +225MHz on the boost clock speed, while adding 300MHz to the memory clock. This amounted to just over a 12% boost in clock, which translated to roughly 4% more performance across games like Far Cry 5, and some synthetic 3DMark runs. Not huge, but not nothin’.

Verdict: Suffering From Success

In nearly every test we ran, synthetic or otherwise, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming 12G was anywhere between 20% to 50% slower than the RTX 3060 Ti, while only costing roughly 20% less. The card was also slower than the AMD Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT in several runs, and it just barely manages to outpace the GeForce RTX 2060 Super by a few percentage points, in most cases.

The underwhelming launch of the RTX 3060 seems more a result of expectations set by Nvidia’s classic card-marketing names than the fault of the engineers at the company, who until now have issued great RTX 30-Series GPUs at prices that reflect the generational gap between 20 Series and 30 Series.

Prior to the GeForce RTX 3060, Nvidia was three for three on Editors’ Choice awards from PCMag on its Founders Edition cards in the RTX 30 Series. And while there’s nothing wrong with EVGA’s design here, the GPU engine powering the works underneath the shroud is ultimately the cause for concern.

For the first time since last September, a new GPU entering into the RTX 30 Series line won’t be receiving an Editors’ Choice award from us. If you can find one, the GeForce RTX 2060 Super will do the job nearly as well as the EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming 12G, and perhaps for a lower cost depending on the source. Meanwhile, AMD-faithful shoppers can rest easy that both the RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 still provide viable alternatives to the RTX 3060, though their position in the marketplace is shaky with the stellar RTX 3060 Ti hanging around in the rafters.

We know the video-card stock situation is brutal out there, and that you’ll be lucky to find any of the alternatives to this card anywhere close to their launch prices at the moment. But skip the eBay gougers on this one and, if you simply have to pay too much money for a video card, let it be an RTX 3060 Ti instead.

EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Black Gaming 12G

3.5

(Opens in a new window)

See It

$441.50 at Amazon

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MSRP $329.99

Pros

Fast frame rates in multiplayer titles
Compact card design
Reasonable overclocking performance

Cons

Nontrivial performance drop versus the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Minor gains over previous (RTX 2060) generation
Pricey for its performance class

The Bottom Line

Suited to 1080p and 1440p gaming, EVGA’s XC Black Gaming 12G version of the GeForce RTX 3060 is an able performer, though Nvidia’s own RTX 3060 Ti outshines it on value.

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Unboxing

The EVGA RTX 2070 XC Gaming arrived at the top secret GND-Tech testing facility undamaged and in perfect health. My first impression was how massive the box was. That could only indicate extremely well internal packaging right?

The box itself is designed to stand vertical and features cool black and green NVIDIA-inspired graphics of the card. The back gives a few more high-level details about the cards as well as references EVGA Precision X1 which is EVGA’s RTX overclocking utility which we’ll definitely be using later.

The box opens by cutting the tape on either side and sliding the top half of the box up to reveal the graphics card in all its foam cushioned glory. Packaging was spot on. The foam is thick and snugly secures the card in place. It would take an absolute royal F-up by your mail carrier for them to be able to damage this card during shipping. Bonus points to EVGA for the pretty cool presentation as well.

Included with the graphics card is…. well nothing. No cables, no adapters or anything. Just a simple installation guide stuffed in the little cut-out area behind the GPU.

The graphics card is stuffed inside an anti-static bag. With the unit free from its housing, we get a better sense of what we’re working with. The fan shroud is covered in a protective film which wraps around each side so be sure to remove this prior to installation.

Как будут работать эти видеокарты

Один из вопросов, который вы, вероятно, задаете себе на этом этапе, – насколько хорошо эти карты работают как на игровом, так и на рабочем уровне. Во-первых, имейте в виду, что эти видеокарты смогут расправиться с любой рабочей задаче, которую вы им дадите. Когда вы ищете что для рабочего компьютера, вам лучше сконцентрироваться на процессоре и оперативной памяти.

Однако, когда вы обращаетесь к играм, графический процессор оказывает огромное влияние на общую производительность. Новинка Nvidia, на самом деле, хвастается потенциалом 6-кратного роста производительности относительно предыдущих поколений, к чему мы пока относимся со скепсисом, но если претензии верны, это огромный шаг вперед в технологическом прогрессе.

Самое замечательное в этих видеокартах – это доступность. Я понимаю, что 25000-30000 рублей – это большие деньги для одного аппаратного компоненте, но мы говорили о высококлассных игровых платформах высшего уровня. Просто сравните это с чем-то вроде RTX 2080Ti, который стоит почти около 100 000 рублей.

RTX 2060 позволит вам запускать большинство игр с разрешением 1440p и высокими настройками, достигая 60 FPS или больше. Большинство нижеприведенных карт работают аналогично, но есть тонкие различия, которые мы обсудим незадолго до вынесения окончательного решения.