Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini Graphics Card SLI Configuration Review

The clock speeds of the Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini are marginally higher than what Nvidia specifies. The GPU runs at a base frequency of 1518 MHz and an average Boost speed of 1708 MHz. The VRAM speed of 8 GHz on the other hand is identical to that of the "Founders Edition".

When it comes to actual gaming, the picture changes markedly with the SLI system trailing the single GPU by at times significant margins. A good example here is "Far Cry Primal". On the other hand, SLI works very well for some games and the performance difference is substantial. Case in point: when running "Rise oft the Tomb Raider" and "The Division", frame rates increase by about 50 %. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is still the measure of all things and outperforms our SLI combo except when playing "GTA V". Here, the high-performance single GPU is marginally slower.

A check of the recorded frames per second - see the table below - reveals a sea of green. Even at 4K resolutions, games remain perfectly playable even with the preset "high" selected. The one caveat: under 60 FPS, playback can stutter slightly, although the perceived severity is highly individual and varies from person to person. Thanks to the HB Bridge, micro stuttering should technically have been all but eliminated, but subjectively, it still occurs. The two diagrams below clearly show that the SLI system suffers from much higher frame times than the single GPU solution, which in turn leads to a "choppy" gameplay even when the FPS rate seems to be sufficiently high.

To check for adequate cooling, we run our stress test and subject the graphic cards to the benchmark tool Furmark. Both GPUs start to heat up shortly after the start of the test. The upper GPU gets warmer, since it absorbs some of the heat generated by the lower GPU. For this reason, the temperature increases to 81 °C after only five minutes, which doesn't allow for a lot of headroom given the maximum temperature "target" of 83 °C. The upper GPU does hit this ceiling eventually, which in turn leads to a reduction of the clock speeds. Under load, the fans emit a distinct whooshing sound, although we wouldn't describe that sound as annoying. The radial fan Nvida uses for the Titan X is substantially louder. Thanks to "Fan Stop", the two GPUs are silent when performing 2D tasks.

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