Nvidia’s RTX 2070 Card is a favorite among enthusiasts who don’t have a 2080 or 2080 Ti spare gaming card. Those browsing the hundreds of available models would probably ask, “Which RTX 2070 is right to buy?”
There are, however, better solutions than most, and we believe we have what it takes to help you find the right RTX 2070 graphics card for you. (We hope you agree after you read our reviews.) We have built a top-five list, each with different specialty areas that make them worth purchasing from others.
Each analysis of the RTX 2070 below offers a thin list of specs, pros, and cons. We also put on each card our thoughts and a purchasing guide to clarify essential terms at the bottom.
The RTX 2070 was launched at the end of 2018 and introduced to stores as a mid / high-range GPU that was moderately priced and featured performance figures that knocked at the door of today’s market’s best graphics cards. As many will know, the RTX series have been fitted with the latest real-time ray tracing technology, AI-enhanced graphics, and takes advantage of Nvidia’s innovative new Turing architecture. Further, their claim immerses you into unparalleled realism and performance levels.
We’ve seen a plethora of custom cards follow after it’s release, and in this article, we are looking at picking our favorite choices, which ones are better tailored to you and how each of them performs in the heat of combat. For a while now, we have been looking forward to this, so let’s dive straight in.
How We Choose The Best Graphics Cards?
In our design guides, as we pick the right materials, we want to see what they can do first. If we are looking at graphics cards, TVs or CPUs or not, that’s not an easy task.
Only after we’ve done our safety testing are we sure to make a recommendation. We’re doing so so you don’t have to, so research and benchmarking can be a time-consuming process, and we know that plenty of you don’t have time to do it.
Our team of tech experts here at WePC takes care of all that fits for you, giving you easy-to-read, thoroughly detailed recommendations for the things you like.
How Do We Test These Best RTX 2070?
To be as truthful as possible, we seek to recommend only items that we have reviewed personally. It not only helps us to produce the best design guides but also means they are both reliable and up-to-date.
Many of the items we suggest passed a rigorous check process. It is looking at results, noteworthy features, and quality. When reviewing, we ensure that we drive each substance to its max, because we just want to see what it can do before making a decision.
It is what encourages us to be so positive in the goods that we suggest. We hope this enables us to give accurate and authentic reviews that help you make the final decision when choosing your product.
Best RTX 2070 Graphics Cards For The Year 2020
Here is the list of some of the best RTX 2070 Graphics Cards which you buy in 2020:
MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 2070 | Best RTX 2070
One of the few cards retailing below the default RTX 2070 size, is the MSI Ventus RTX 2070. It’s not a whole lot— about a $6 discount at the time of writing to the $500 MSRP— but that means it takes a country mile’s “budget” category, as most cards trend above MSRP.
It boasts a respectable factory OC to 1.62 GHz, like most other RTX 2070s on this list. It is also a 2-slot card, and is one of the shorter cards on this list, making it suitable for those buildings that aren’t too small in Micro ATX cases. Even with its budget moniker on this list, it performs in par with the rest of the RTX 2070s… though you’re not saving that much unless you start buying from other sellers.
The Ventus RTX 2070 is an excellent choice for you if you want a perfectly ordinary RTX 2070, or just like the white cooler style. If you want something specific a little more, then carry on reading.
Zotac GeForce RTX 2070 Mini
Our first specialized pick is the RTX 2070 Mini from Zotac, which is the shortest RTX 2070 standard we have been able to find. (There’s an exception, which we’ll cover in the sidenote below.) If you’re working in a MATX or MITX case and need a shorter GPU, the RTX 2070 Mini is a great starting point. The length of 211 mm is as short as it gets for a typical dual-fan cooler design, and for that, you are not trading off output either. The simple heat and cooling rules mean you may have less overclocking headroom, but that also comes with the territory of a smaller PC design.
For this GPU, however, there is a… odd decision: it does not support USB-C, just like most other cards on this list. Instead, the USB-C connector has been traded for something far more old-fashioned: a DVI port.
Although it supports modern connectors— obviously— I can’t help thinking that pairing a DVI display with a GPU like this is a little outdated. It is an unusual design decision on the part of Zotac, but who knows: maybe it is justified by consumer demand?
If you prefer a Zotac monster RTX 2070 graphics card, there’s the Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 2070 AMP Extreme 8 GB, which comes with three fans to keep this GPU beast cool all the time.
Would you like anything else smaller? Also available is the Gigabyte Mini ITX RTX 2070, but we have heard lots of mixed reports on reliability. If you don’t mind the higher chance of an RMA, go for it!
EVGA XC Ultra GeForce | The Best RTX 2070
Yeah, yeah, it’s a bit of a buzzword to “order” Let us just clarify.
While on the higher end of the 2070 price tag, it does trend, it has just about everything you need. The triple-slot cooler design is completely optimized to allow stellar headroom overclocking; the length stays (thankfully) well below 300 mm, and the RGB implementation is surprisingly tasteful. Plus, there is the advantage of purchasing from EVGA, which is renowned for its customer service and efficiency overall.
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2070
The ASUS ROG Strix GPU line is known for its stellar air cooling, and the reason for this is easy to see. The ROG Strix RTX 2070 is our choice for best RTX 2070 cooling, and a passing look at its vast triple-fan cooling system is likely to give you a tip on why. Although ROG Strix GPUs tend to come up with a substantial price increase over MSRP cards, this tends to manifest in much better headroom cooling and overclocking.
Plus, a bit of RGB lighting! Although not as flashy as, say, the AORUS Xtreme mentioned below, the RGB lighting from the ROG Strix adds to your system the extra little visual flair. If you do use an ASUS motherboard, the Asus Aura Sync can be more conveniently synchronized with other RGB components in your setup, which is always a useful extra to have.
There are, however, downsides to this card.
As one, it’s almost rising. It does not take up a full three slots, but everything you want to load from your GPU in the second slot will still be diffused. Add that to its length of 301 mm and the fact it’s the most expensive card on this list… Yeah. Like a fine Wagyu Tomahawk Ribeye, this card is beefy and costly. Nonetheless, as with any Wagyu split, it should have a truly savory experience.
Gigabyte AORUS Xtreme GeForce RTX 2070
Last but not least is the Xtreme RTX 2070 Gigabyte AORUS. We’ll be honest: this is our favorite. If you can afford it, in terms of factory overclocks and aesthetic appeal, it blows the rest out of the water, comfortably.
The RGB implementation here is the greatest we’ve ever seen in a graphics card, and the powerful triple-fan cooler for an RTX 2070 was also well used by the highest factory out – of-box overclock. If you want the fastest RTX 2070 (at least until overclocking), then this is your package.
Although we feel like the above EVGA and ASUS choices may have a bit more overclocking headroom, we think that for most people, this will be the best RTX 2070 overall. Included is also a GPU brace, which is great to have.
Buying The Best RTX 2070 For You
Choosing the right graphics card for gamers like so many of you can be difficult if you can’t even understand all the specs and jargon that’s tossed around. We are going to use this buying guide to clarify what you need to learn, particularly if you’re new to all of this.
How Does The RTX 2070 Perform?
The RTX 2070 is essentially a stripped-down version of the RTX 2080, which operates on a magnitude point above that of the RTX 2060. Compared to last-gen Nvidia GPUs, its performance sees it beat the GTX 1070 and contend with the 1070 Ti… while also offering significantly better results in real-time ray-tracing and nearly thousands more CUDA cores than previous-gen cards.
Real-time ray-tracing or Turing micro-architecture is a technology that consoles or non-RTX GPUs currently do not support. Diving into here is a little much, but it basically makes lighting and reflections of film-quality in real-time gaming.
Performance-wise, you can expect to enjoy the gaming performance beyond-stellar 1080p and 1440p. You name it, Highest settings, 100 + FPS. Expect at least 1440p at max settings and 1800p with settings changes with ray-tracing enabled.
You will be seeing some challenging customers at 4 K and 1800p. Even the most famously challenging (or unoptimized) games will see you go under 60 FPS at a native 4 K and maximum settings, including the controversial Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. But if you want to get over 60 in those words, then certainly an RTX 2070 Super is a smarter bet.
Bear in mind that consoles like the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro can reach 4 K graphics with lower resolution upscaling, like 1440p and 1800p. It does not usually adjust the framerate or visual parameters, either. (Most console games use the equivalent of medium PC settings, particularly the new AAA games. You get a drastically more accurate image at ultra-settings or with ray-tracing, also at the same resolution.) A reduction to 1800p would typically remedy that, though, albeit at the cost of a barely-perceptible (if at all perceptible) decrease in image quality. Disabling settings such as AA will also be of particular benefit here. Higher-resolution significantly reduces the need for the AA solution.
You get a gaming experience much more for your money than something that a current-gen console would think of, and potentially on par with (if not more than) the next generation. The RTX series support for ray-tracing also adds a bit of future-proofing that other GPUs don’t have to enjoy, so you’re getting the value of your money here.
Length and Width
Length and width count, respectively, the length of the GPU’s most extended leg, and the number of slots it occupies. Duration is measured in millimeters to meet industry practice, and we have rounded up our measurements to the nearest complete millimeter to minimize uncertainty. Width is expressed in PCI Express slots, and the norm is 2-slot.
Any 3-slot cards will either fill up a whole3-slot or come down to, say, 2.5 slots. Wherever they are present, we will expand on those situations.
Clock Speeds: Do they matter?
In the reviews above, we mentioned the boost clock of each of the cards, as a factory overclock typically what differentiates retail graphics cards from each other. Some cards will have plenty of space to overclock further user-end, but others do not. Such cards will usually all work about the same, with higher factory OCs being more a luxury option for those who don’t feel like doing it themselves.
Ports, And What USB-C Is Doing Here
The two most popular, new interface standards are DisplayPort and HDMI. One of the cards on this list also boasts a DVI adapter, which would undoubtedly please the five people out there who want to use a DVI console with an RTX 2070.
Those are standard ports and shouldn’t surprise anyone a lot, but if you are not familiar with the latest PC hardware you might be somewhat confused about what a USB-C port does on a graphics card.
Put, the new VR headsets are for those ports! To make PC VR just a bit less obtuse to set up, USB-C and a “VirtualLink” standard were adopted. There’s also the odd device that supports USB-C access, but this is a pretty unusual case of use and might not be supported by any card.
How Will These Do Cards Perform?
As mentioned above, after the ever-popular 2080 set, the RTX 2070 was put onto the shelves as the third wave of 20 series chips. The card was designed for customers who wanted to enjoy the benefits of the new 2080, but without the huge price tag that came with it, Nvidia said, and instead, we got 2070.
The new range comes with Turing architecture of the next generation that unlocks full access to RTX signature technology, Real-time Ray tracing. RTX is a groundbreaking new tech that, through incredibly detailed and accurate lighting, reflections and shadows, makes lifelike images. It also uses deep learning super-sampling (DLSS) and it’s amazing AI-enhanced graphics, both mixed with the fastest 8 GB GDDR6 ram in the world. Nvidia claims the new board is running faster than the GTX 1080, which we are going to touch on later.
And what does that mean on a realistic basis of gaming? Well, 2070 was designed to accommodate 1080p, 1440p, and 4k at high settings, but we found gaming at 4k after multiple experiments across various gaming platforms would significantly reduce the FPS to between 30-50fps anywhere. In Battlefield V, we also tested the real-time ray tracing at high settings in all three different resolutions, and 4k was almost unplayable. Reverting to a lower resolution, however, compensated for the powerlessness and allowed fairly decent gameplay.
Overall, the 2070’s performance is excellent, and it’s also nice to learn that you’re prepared to handle the transition with the introduction of real-time ray tracing, becoming the future of gaming.
So let’s summarise
So, we come to the end of our best 2020 RTX 2070, and they all worked amazingly well under stress checks and FPS benchmarks, to our delight. When looking for 2070, it all boils down to which one you feel has the best design and how efficient the heat sink and refrigeration system is. Of course, if you’re overclocking, then the heat sink is a critical piece of your GPU makeup, and ideally, we’ve illustrated in the above which ones are most successful in that regard
In real-life scenarios, the output gap between the cards is pretty slim, so we tried to match each card into its unique category to help customers make the right decision. It is the last rundown on what we were thinking:
- Performance-Performance is a massive part of what consumers are looking for when they purchase a GPU, our top performer went to the MSI Gaming Z and would be a welcome addition to building anyone.
- All-round option -Quality is not just on the list for others; some are searching for the best comprehensive device, and for us, the award went to the ASUS ROG STRIX. High performance, excellent cooling, and outstanding aesthetics are we get this tag
- Budget-Looking for new technologies to be introduced by the RTX series while still delivering great value for money? Look no further than the Gaming Version PNY Geforce RTX XLR8.
- Balanced–The balanced choice is as it says on the box, a combination of strength, size, and aesthetics. We found this the right match due to Zotac’s excellent RTX 280 AMP EXTREME cooling system and clock speeds.
- Low Profile-Lastly, we come to our low profile choice, which comes in the form of the Gigabyte RTX 2070 Mini ITX. It’s great if you’re looking for sound output in a small box.
Sadly, 2070, which was designed to offer the same punching strength as 2080, albeit with a more affordable price tag, hasn’t filled those statements fully. In terms of price, it’s a little behind, but we can forgive it as it’s a decent cheaper 200-300 dollars.
Overall, if you’re trying to enjoy the benefits of the latest ray-tracing GPUs from Nvidia but haven’t got the money to fork out on their top-range model, 2070 will cross those boxes at a much more accessible price point. Not only does it encourage you to play potential games that embrace the software, but it will also mean you won’t need to update for years to come for a decent one.
How Does It Compare To The RTX 2070? Can I get that instead?
Similar to the RTX 2070, Nvidia reports an efficiency gain of up to 24 percent, although this is a little misleading. However, in real-world gameplay settings in the highest-end titles, these increases are more marginal–usually in the region of about 10 FPS.
Unlike the 2060 Mega, which blasts with the initial 2070 dealing, this card does not jump a rate and makes only minor changes in most situations. But that’s not a bad thing, especially since it’s cheaper than it was at the launch of the original 2070.
If you are tempted to buy an RTX 2070 only, we’ve got bad news: the possibility is fast vanishing.
When the existing supplies of the RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 are gone, both cards are entirely replaced by their Supermodels, each of which offers minor performance boosts. If you are shopping for an RTX 2070, make sure it costs considerably less than the $499 MSRP for the Super if you want to get a decent bang for your buck.
How Will These do Cards Perform In Games?
The RTX 2070 Super is optimized for playing 1440p games at high-to-max settings and 100 + FPS, but certain games may need decreases in settings to hold 60 down.
For native 4 K games, the high-to-max levels can be reached anywhere from 40-50 FPS, although in the most severe cases, this can also be limited to 30. With this GPU and in general, we consider using resolution scaling and lowering of extraneous settings for gaming at 4K.
These are both scenarios where the RTX 2070 Super has more than enough power to succeed as far as 1080p gaming and VR goes. However, in 1080p, you have reached the point where you are much more likely to be CPU-bound than GPU-bound, so make sure that if your goal is high refresh (144 Hz+) gaming, you have a powerful enough CPU.
A note on clock speeds
Any of these cards ships at various clock speeds, depending on the manufacturer’s factory overclock
Although it is possible that, practically speaking, overclocking will improve efficiency, these are just the same GPU device. Don’t expect huge output differences between various RTX 2070 Supermodels based on their factory clocks–the only benefit of a high factory OC is to save you the hassle of overclocking the card yourself.
If you want the best minimally tuning experience, opt for higher factory OCs. However, if you are at peace with an OC system, don’t base your buying decision on this measure.
Here is the complete shopping guide to buying the best RTX 2070 for you. We hope you found this piece helpful.
