GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 LHR Review

1. Introduction
2. Everything You Need to Know About Ampere
3. RTX 3070 Tech Specs
4. Detailed Look
5. Test System Specs
6. Benchmarks - Synthetic
7. Benchmarks - 1080p
8. Benchmarks - 1440p
9. Benchmarks - 4K
10. Power Consumption & Temps
11. What's Hot, What's Not
12. Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 99%

The Bottom Line

GAINWARD has a great 1080p and 1440p 120/144/165FPS+ graphics card on its hands with the GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1. If you're playing games with NVIDIA DLSS, then it's an even better proposition.

Buy at Amazon

Introduction

GAINWARD's custom GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 graphics card up on the GPU review bench today is a little strange, as the company didn't send it to me but rather I pulled it out of Allied Gaming's custom Patriot-A gaming PC that I reviewed recently and thought I'd review the GPU on its own.

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The GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 graphics card that I have here is the LHR variant, or the Lite Hash Rate version, which is gimped for crypto mining. This is a graphics card for gamers in two ways: first, you'd find the GPU inside of a pre-built gaming PC or on the shelves (in physical, or e-tailer) form in specific markets.

Just like every other custom GeForce RTX 3070 you're going to get performance that is just a few percentage points different to any other custom RTX 3070, so would you buy the GAINWARD RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 over another custom RTX 3070? Not really. But would you NOT buy the GAINWARD RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 over another custom RTX 3070?

Definitely not, it's a kick-ass RTX 3070 so let's dive right into it.

Everything You Need to Know About Ampere

There's much more going under the hood of the Ampere GPU architecture powering the GeForce RTX 3070, with some rather big upgrades across the board on the GPU side of things while the VRAM and memory bandwidth is virtually identical.

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We have a dramatic increase of CUDA cores from 2304 on the GeForce RTX 2070 to a huge 5888 CUDA cores on the GeForce RTX 3070, but fewer Tensor Cores, and more RT Cores, Textures Units, and ROPs.

NVIDIA is using the same 8GB of GDDR6 memory on the GeForce RTX 3070 as the GeForce RTX 2070, with 8GB of GDDR6 at 7Gbps on a 256-bit memory bus with 448GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

This is the LHR (Lite Hash Rate) version of the RTX 3070, with crypto mining speeds of up to 25MH/s without tweaking.

RTX 3070 Tech Specs

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Detailed Look

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From the front and the back, the GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 looks like a beast. It definitely looks bigger and more bad-ass than the dual-slot variants around, and looks awesome when it's installed into a gaming machine. It'll match anything in your system because it's going to take over and be the center of attention in your PC.

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The card comes in at very close to a 3-slot beast, but the GPU and GDDR6 memory stay nice and cool so that thickness is kinda warranted. I'd prefer a dual-slot card, but beggers can't be choosers in this warped world of GPU shortages we're living through right now.

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Display connectivity hasn't changed: 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.1 connectors that all do 4K 144Hz and 8K 60Hz.

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

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I've got a new upgrade inside of my GPU test bed before my change to a next-gen test bed, where I will be preparing for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics cards and AMD's next-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards.

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Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.

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Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

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3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark TimeSpy

Heaven - 1080p

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Benchmarks - 1080p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

If you're buying the GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 for 1080p then you'd want to have a monitor with a 120/144/165Hz -- that way, you're pulling everything you can from the GPU. At 1080p, we're looking at 79FPS with everything maxed out in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.

153FPS in Shadow of War, the same as NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition -- while you can enjoy a AAA game like Metro Exodus maxed out (without DLSS and ray tracing) at 70FPS average (3FPS shy of the RTX 3070 FE).

Benchmarks - 1440p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

You're still going to enjoy 60FPS+ in AAA games at 1440p on the GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1, as it will be within 5% either side of any other GeForce RTX 3070. If you're playing esports games (Warzone Pacific, League of Legends, CS:GO, Rocket League, Rainbow Six: Siege, and many others) then 1440p 120FPS+ becomes a reality.

Any games with DLSS at 1440p are going to be even better with the RTX 3070.

Benchmarks - 4K

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I don't recommend any GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card for 4K gaming, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some 4K 30FPS in AAA titles and 4K 60FPS if you're playing a game with NVIDIA DLSS support.

Power Consumption & Temps

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What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

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• Phoenix aesthetics looks great: I loved the style of the GAINWARD RTX 3080 Ti Phoenix, and the GAINWARD RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 looks just as good. It has a huge triple-fan cooler that keeps the card nice and chill during benchmark and/or gaming sessions, too.
• RTX 2080 Ti levels of performance: The newer Turing-based GeForce RTX 3070 is pretty damn fast for a x070 class GPU, with the GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 offering a great amount of performance for the card that it is. There is the RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 3080 Ti, and RTX 3090 ahead of this.
• 8GB GDDR6 memory: 8GB of GDDR6 memory is enough for 1080p and 1440p gaming, unless things change rapidly over the next couple of years. Even 4K gaming is fine with 8GB of VRAM unless the specific game you're playing really pounds the VRAM and pushes up and above 8GB... but then you wouldn't be looking at the RTX 3070.
• DLSS support: If you're playing games that support DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) like Call of Duty: Warzone, Vanguard, and many others -- then you can enjoy more quality at the same (and sometimes more FPS) or higher FPS thanks to DLSS
• LHR gimped for crypto mining: There's no crypto mining here, so no crypto miners are going to buy these in bulk... well, except if the LHR side of things is improved (which it is) or completely removed (which could happen eventually).

What's Not

• Not a dual-slot card: It would be nice if it were a dual-slot card, it's just a GeForce RTX 3070 after all.

Final Thoughts

GAINWARD has a beefy custom GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card in its hands with the RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1, which I have in the LHR (Lite Hash Rate) variant, is for gamers... gimped for crypto miners for the most part.

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The GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 offers everything NVIDIA offers with its Turing GPU architecture and GeForce RTX 3070, including the 8GB of GDDR6 memory which is fine for 1080p and 1440p gaming -- and even 4K gaming -- even more so if the game you're playing supports NVIDIA's DLSS technology.

The triple-fan cooler and near triple-slot design means that the GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 has no problems with heavy loads, and keeping that Turing GPU and 8GB of GDDR6 memory nice and cool. And by cool, we're talking 44C cool with gaming, benchmark, and crypto mining loads for testing.

If you find the GAINWARD GeForce RTX 3070 Phoenix "GS" V1 in your market for a price you're willing to pay for it, the graphics card itself is a great product in the custom GeForce RTX 3070 family of cards.